Hi everyone, it is Pavla. One of your LSE student content creators
and in this video I will be sharing how assessments are done at LSE.
As I am filming this vlog, the holiday break is coming to a close
and I am just about to start my second term at LSE.
Over the break, one of the most important things I had to do
was to submit my assessments for the first term.
So coming right out of that experience,
I thought it would be really helpful and interesting to share with you
how assessments work at LSE,
my own experience working on my assessments,
including things I have learned and realised as I completed them.
And also I will be sharing some tips and hints that I think will be really useful to keep in mind.
Now let's begin with, "How do assessments work at LSE?".
With assessments, there are two keywords that you need to learn:
formatives and summatives.
A formative assignment is something that you would do in the middle of the term
and a summative assignment is something that you would need to complete at the end of the term.
It is really interesting to note that formatives
actually do not count towards your overall degree classification
and that is just a more formal term of saying your final marks.
However, it is important to see the formative assignment
as preparation towards your summatives.
The formative assignments can be essays, presentations, mock exams,
or any other type of submitted work.
And, although they do not count towards your final marks,
they will prepare you for your summative assignments.
And based off of how I have described the formative assignments,
I am sure you can guess that the summatives do count towards your degree.
Usually they are either exams or essays.
Sometimes they can be a combination of things.
For example, you might have to do a presentation that counts towards
say 20 percent of your final grade
and the 80 percent would come out of a final essay that you need to submit.
And again this happens at the end of the term upon completion of your course.
When you are selecting your courses to take at LSE,
information on what the formative and summative assignment would be
is listed on the course information.
So you will be aware of that before you even start taking the course.
So now I will be sharing with you my experience working on my own assessments.
For my first term. I did three courses,
so I had to work on three formative assignments midterm.
I just submitted two of my summative assignments
and I have one more to work on in the middle of the second term.
I know I said summative assignments are typically done
at the end of the first term before going into the second,
but for this course specifically, it does run until the middle of the second term.
So that is a little bit of a difference for this class in particular.
But speaking to the assignments that I have already completed,
for the formatives, I had to work on two 1500 word essays
and for the third course, which is a little bit different,
I worked on a take-home assessment where I had to write an essay within a 24-hour period.
And for the summative assignments that I have already submitted
I had to work on extending the 1500 word formative essays that I have already done
into 3000 word essays.
Being my very first term at LSE
and never having done a graduate studies programme before,
I felt very nervous and unsure while I was working on my essays.
I was definitely questioning myself if the work I was producing
was at a master's level per LSE standards.
It can definitely be really stressful and nerve-wracking at first,
but after completing my assignments and going through the whole experience,
I learned and realised that it is not as scary and stressful
as I initially made it out to be.
I will be completely honest and say that it is definitely a challenge,
but it is also very possible to equip yourself so you will be ready and prepared.
So now I will be sharing with you my tips and advice
for working on assessments at LSE.
My first tip is to do the work throughout the course
and before the assessment period.
Since the summative is the only assessment
that is marked and counts towards your final grade,
it will be tempting to slack off and not do some of the work throughout the course.
A big difference when I am comparing my master's studies to my undergraduate programme
is that there are not really any graded checks in place
before you get to your final assignment.
and I know that if something is not marked or graded,
students might not feel as motivated to perform at their best.
So just as I mentioned earlier,
it is really important to think of the formative assignment
and any other coursework you are doing in between
as preparation towards your summative.
So I have learned that it's really important to do your readings,
attend your lectures, participate in your seminars and discussions,
to schedule office hours to meet with your professors,
and even to talk with your peers.
There are also additional resources that you can make use of at LSE
such as the library and LSE LIFE training.
For example, I have been attending a weekly academic writing class
to help me improve my essay writing skills.
Do not be afraid to ask for help throughout your studies
and most importantly be proactive with your learning.
My second tip is in relation to this
and that is to actually do and submit your formatives.
Because the formative assignments do not count towards your overall degree,
not submitting them actually does not affect your marks.
So again once you have hit the middle of the term,
and it does get quite busy and overwhelming,
it is tempting to decide not to do your formative assignments.
But you have to be aware that this would be your only chance
to get formal feedback before you get to your summative assignments.
Although the formative marks do not count towards your overall degree,
they will be marked just as your summatives will be
and that is through your programme or department specific rubric.
You will also be receiving really helpful comments
from either your professors or teaching assistants.
And they will help you see if you are on the right track
or if there is any improvements that you need to make.
Think of your formative assignments as practice towards your summatives
and this was especially true in my case.
For example, for my gender research module, I had to come up with a 1500 word research proposal
for my formative assignment and for the summative,
I basically had to work on the same proposal except longer - 3000 words.
and obviously I had to improve on what I have submitted on the formative
and add on more components to my research proposal.
This may not be true for every course that the summative assignment
is essentially a longer version of the formative you have just submitted,
but still think of the formatives as essential practice
and the only way that you are going to get feedback
before you get to your summatives.
Also, really great advice that I received
on choosing what to work on for your formatives and summatives
is to pick a topic that you are really interested about.
This definitely will motivate you when you are working on your assignments.
My next tip would be to give yourself enough time to complete your assessments.
Speaking in the context of the first term,
my formative assignments were due during the reading break.
I did talk a little bit about this on my reading week vlog about my solo travel to Bath
which you can check out on the LSE YouTube channel.
Basically, for my formative assignments,
I had to make sure that I would have enough time to work on them
because I also wanted to do a little bit of traveling during the reading week.
It is pretty much the same situation for the summative assignments that I have just completed.
The only difference is that the holiday breaks are a lot longer.
It is a little over a month and the holiday season
does get hectic and busy for a lot of us.
So when thinking about when to do your assignments,
it is definitely important to find enough time to complete them
and to schedule them out during your breaks.
And my final piece of advice,
before you hit on that submit button,
is to make sure that you have followed all the guidelines for your assessment.
This includes understanding what the assessment is and what it requires.
You also need to be very aware of your submission guidelines.
Like for formatting, did you get the spacing and the font right?
Do you have your page numbers in?
Did you label it with the right file name?
And, of course, did you cite all your sources correctly?
Two very important parts of the submission guidelines
would be the word count and the deadline,
because points will definitely be deducted if you do not follow these correctly.
Of course, for your assessments, do not plagiarise.
And give yourself enough time to make sure
that you followed all these guidelines.
I know that was quite a bit of information
and assessments are just one of those things
that students definitely struggle with or are challenged by.
But as I said, it doesn't have to be as stressful or scary
or as difficult as you think it is.
I hope this video was able to highlight a lot of the important things
to think about when you are doing assessments.
And the final thing I wanted to say in this video
is that you came to LSE to study something that you are interested about.
So use your assessments as a chance to show why you are at LSE
and to show how you have applied your learning to what you are passionate about.
Thank you so much for watching, everyone!
'Til the next video.