Motivational thoughts in build up to exams

March 6, 2015

LSHTM logoI hate to say it but we are moving closer to exam time, the most important part of the year for all distance learning students. No matter how big or small sacrifices have felt over the past year, the sacrifices have been made and they deserve a reward at the end. For some this is the last chance saloon where failure is not an option. So here are some thoughts to inspire you through to the end. I could have written study tips but there are enough already online.

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Chinese New Year

March 4, 2015

Chinese cookiesWell, Chinese New Year finally arrived. The Chinese New Year definitely slowed down my studying pace as I celebrated with my family and friends.

Chinese New Year is a time for family and friends. It’s also time to eat. Therefore, most people actually fall sick after Chinese New Year due to eating too much unhealthy Chinese New Year cookies and drinking fizzy drinks.

Since I don’t have the luxury to fall sick, I watched my eating carefully. I didn’t eat many Chinese New Year cookies or drink many fizzy drinks.

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Epidemiology at 50: Thinking about what matters

December 16, 2014

LSHTM logoIt has been eight months since my last post, which I wrote when I was about to dive into the intense exam prep period of my second year in the MSc epidemiology distance learning program. Exams for my three classes (EPM303, epidemiology of non-communicable diseases, EPM202, Statistical Methods in Epidemiology, and EPM304, Advanced Statistical Methods in Epidemiology) went well, helped by the fact that I’d gone through LSHTM exams once already and knew what to expect. The basics—create a realistic exam prep schedule and stick to it, do a dry run to the exam center so you know where it is and how long it takes to get there, and sleep well the night before—were no different. The only thing that had changed was that I parenthetically turned 50 the day before the first exam.

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Reactions to my return to study

December 5, 2014

New blogger Mustafa

New blogger Mustafa

Hello, Welcome to my new blog. I hope to provide you with a weekly distraction from your studies which will lift your spirits, make you laugh and think ‘he is a idiot, I won’t read his blog again’ all in a few seconds. However, you will read my blog again to see what rubbish I have written so you can complain to your friends (and of course your secretly enjoying what I say you just can’t admit it to yourself).

I currently work for a pharmaceutical company in London and it is a different experience to any I have had in the past. The key difference is that in my past jobs almost everyone I met had been an undergraduate or postgraduate student. Whereas now I work with people from a variety of backgrounds who are mainly doing the job because they need the job. As well as being a distance learning student on the MSc Epidemiology, I have fellowships and memberships to a number of institutes which I am active with. Read the rest of this entry »


An 18-year-old with 24 years experience…

August 19, 2014

Entry to the University of London LLB programme @ 41 was a watershed event for me last year, and the six following months… a roller coaster ride. From sleepy beginnings (The snakes and ladders of study) through wake-up moments (A Journey to the Centre of the Mind) it has been pulsating, right up to the finishing line.

The last time I ran this race was two decades back during my Chartered Accountancy Finals. Those were different days though. In early 20s, youthful potential energy was in abundance. Devoid of any serious responsibility, life was relatively uncomplicated. In short, those were days when the heart thumped more in anticipation of love and life rather than apprehension of failure and fear..!

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To the future!

August 15, 2014

This happens to be the final page of my travel(b)logue, which is what I referred to my blogs as in my first post… On completion of my study, I set off for some adventure-packed fun. Launching myself off the platform and flying down the zipline was somewhat like my study experience over the past four years – a journey, from bracing myself to embracing the world!

Hema Thakur ziplining

So here’s to the ‘long and short’ of my trip with the programmes (spellcheck hasn’t got used to this word yet). I’ve expanded the word ‘trip’ itself, to incorporate some of the most important lessons I’ve learnt from it.

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Staying productive over summer with ‘Understanding Research Methods’, a UoL MOOC on Coursera

July 4, 2014

Keep calm its summer timeIn an attempt to make the summer vacations productive, I got a chance to enroll for the Understanding Research Methods course offered by University of London via Coursera. In case you have not heard of it, Coursera is a very famous website that offers massive open online courses or MOOCs for short, from universities around the world. The world’s best courses are offered free all year round which include topics and subjects ranging from computing and information technology, health and medicine, to social sciences, development, and even music and film.

Being a global leader in distance learning and flexible study, the University of London also offers courses designed and taught by professors of its lead colleges and institutes through Coursera. Some of them include Creative Programming for Digital Media & Mobile Apps, English Common Law: Structure and Principles, The Camera Never Lies, What future for education?, Enhance Your Career and Employability Skills, and more.

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