Zain Abbas, MEng Year 4

"...the course helps you develop as an independent learner"

I heard that Imperial was really good for mechanical engineering, and I thought that the course sounded really comprehensive and interesting. So, although I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to do afterwards, I thought it would be a great way to learn more and get a qualification from a highly rated university.

It’s different from school, because you’re not just told everything and given every resource and the formulae for how to succeed. Instead, you are given the content in a very concentrated way, and you are told you have to learn it.

You have to answer questions and solve problems all on your own, so the course helps you develop as an independent learner, and it really helps your thinking skills and your analytical skills. 

The first and second years I found more difficult. There’s a huge range of content, a really busy timetable - very little choice about what you study. You had to do everything, which is really good, but then also it does make it harder. It’s like an initiation period.

The third and fourth year were great because after gaining a really firm foundation you can choose all the modules you want to study and get involved in projects that you choose. As you are focusing your energies on the things that you enjoy this naturally makes life a lot easier.

In class the key thing I’ve learnt is how to think critically about a problem, often problems that aren’t immediately obvious. Learning how to go about it, how to consider a problem that I’ve never seen before - generally the way I think has changed. And out of class I’ve learnt the value of having good relations with people, of having people who can help you or point you in the right direction.

My advice to any prospective students would be to be prepared for the fact that nothing is given to you, in that whether it’s wanting to do something extracurricular or whether it’s wanting to master a certain subject in your course, you have to extremely proactive about it. You have to be able to go outside of your comfort zone, ask people, and just be creative really. 

I’ve joined the teach first programme, so now I’ve completed my studies for at least two years I’ll be teaching secondary school Maths in an underprivileged school in London.

They have links into grad schemes for banking and consulting and civil service, so I’ll maybe explore some of that afterwards. I did a banking internship last summer and that was quite interesting, so we’ll see.