Blog: Day in the life of a Life Sciences student

Author Samantha Kelsall is a 2nd year Biomedical Sciences student at the University of Liverpool.

Hello everybody! Today, I am going to be documenting my whole day from start to finish, so you can have a little insight as to what it’s really like to be a Life Sciences student.

First things first, here’s what today’s schedule looks like:

9-10am: ‘E-biology’ module

10-11am: ‘Immune system in health and disease’ module

11-11.30am: Academic Adviser meeting

1-2.30pm: ‘Essential skills for Life Sciences’ module

4-6pm: ‘E-biology informatics’ modules

6-7pm: First Aid Society

8am – Wake up time!

Mondays are one of our busiest days of the week! Luckily, I only live about 5-10 mins away from campus, so I don’t have to get up too early, but can still make my lectures on time!

9am- ‘E-biology’ in the Life Sciences Building

The clue is in the name, the Life Sciences Building (LSB) is home of all Life Sciences subjects (aka Biomedicine, Anatomy, Genetics, Biochemistry, and Tropical Medicine, to name a few).

The LSB holds three lecture theatres, seminar rooms, laboratories and a lil’ café for all those coffee needs!

In E-biology, we learn about different databases and how we can apply them to our research. This is one of our mandatory modules as it teaches us skills that we will need in the future such as: lab reports, research or our dissertation.

10am- ‘Immune system in health and disease’ in the Chadwick Building

I head to the Chadwick Building for my ‘immune’ lecture. Since all our lectures are in the same area it only takes about five minutes to walk there. I find this one of our more interesting lectures as we get to learn about how the body fights against infections.

11am- Academic Adviser meeting

Our academic group is made up of 3-5 students from across all the Life Sciences courses. We meet up every two weeks to discuss our latest assignments and receive feedback on our previous work. We can also talk amongst ourselves and with our Academic Adviser regarding any problems we may have or any difficulties we are finding.

11.30am- Lunch time!

The best part of the day in my opinion! Depending on how many deadlines I have, I will either go to the Harold Cohen Library or the Guild for lunch.

The Harold Cohen is where all the STEM students are assigned to and where we can find all our course related textbooks. There are many different rooms such as: quiet, silent and group study depending on your preference. As well as the option to hire out a laptop for the day!

The Guild is the University’s Student Union and there are lots of options for food and areas to relax. There is a Starbucks, the ‘campus famous’ burritos, and the Sphinx. The Sphinx is the campus bar where you can get food or drinks at super affordable prices!

1pm- ‘Essential skills for Life Sciences’ in the Harrison Hughes Building

This module runs throughout the entire three years of our course. Each year we learn different skills that will help us in the future, from essay writing and job interviews to R studio and SPSS. We are currently learning about R, which is a coding tool that many employers are seeking as a skill!

4pm- ‘E-biology informatics’ in the Harrison Hughes Building

This session follows on from my 9am. Since this module is computer based, we learn the content in a lecture theatre in the morning and then put it to practice in the afternoon at the computer labs.

6pm- First Aid Society

This is one of the societies I am a part of. Each week we learn a different aspect of first aid such as: CPR, dressing a wound, labour etc… I enjoy this attending this society, as it is a great skill to know, as you never know what situation you may be in.

7pm – Home time

I hope you enjoyed reading about my day as a Life Sciences student! If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch or visit our social media pages and website.