Second year

This page contains information specific to the second year of study for all undergraduates studying Computing at Imperial College London - that is both Computing and JMC students.

Second Year Overview

Welcome back! I hope everyone had an enjoyable summer break and feels ready for a new year. There are a number of important differences between the first year and the second year:

• In the second year you are given a little more freedom to specialise your learning. There are still a significant number of modules that you must take, but this year you are given the ability to choose between a small number of elective modules. You can find more information about this on the Second Year Regulations page.
• You do not need to finalise your module choices until early February. However, you should take care not to attempt an excessive number of modules as you will find that the workload is too high to manage. We recommend that you try to attend the first lecture of each elective module to help you decide which modules to take for credit.
• The second year coursework and lab-work exercises are fewer in number, but much larger in size than those in the first year. You should not expect to be able to complete these exercises at the last minute, so be sure to make a prompt start as soon as such exercises are released.

The coursework and lab-work schedules for the year can be found on Scientia. You should always ensure that your work has been submitted correctly by checking the uploaded copy soon after submission. If you have any queries, these should be raised with either the Senior Tutor or the Second Year Coordinator.

Note that the Pinto OS Lab in the Autumn term requires strong C implementation skills, so be sure to review your first year notes from the Summer term.

Attendance

You are required to be around at all times during the college term, especially including weeks 1 and 11 of the Autumn and Spring terms. You should also be aware that after your Summer term exams you will be as busy as the rest of the year with the 2nd Year Computing Group Project (DRP) and its related lecture series.

Note that if you are an overseas student (studying on a Tier 4 visa) and you are considering undertaking a summer internship, then you must make sure that you do not commence any full-time employment before the college's official end of the summer term - Friday 28th June 2024. This is regardless of whether your formal work has finished for the year before this date. If you undertake any full-time work within term time (more than 20 hours per week), then you will be jeopardising your visa status in the UK. Our term dates are publicised with the UKBA (UK Border Agency), so you cannot afford to run the risk with this.

Registering Module Options

You will need to register the modules you will take for credit in early February. This is done online via the department's internal module registration website. The modules you will take for credit need to be selected at Level 3. You are free to have additional modules registered to accept CATe submissions (Level 2), but you are encouraged to concentrate on your actual credit modules.

Note that on this page you can subscribe to a module's e-mail list and EdStem forum by selecting that module at Level 1 or higher.

Exams in DoC

• Final exams for all taught modules will take place in weeks 1-3 of the Sumer term.
• The exams for all taught modules will be of 90 minutes duration. You will need to answer all (two) questions in the exam papers for these examinations.

Progression

• All taught modules are assessed by a combination of exams and coursework (counting for 80% and 20% of the mark for the module, respectively). The pass mark for each module is 40% (from combined exam/coursework) and you must pass each module to pass the year.
• All lab-work exercise marks contribute towards your year's lab total. The pass mark for the lab is 40% and you must pass the lab to pass the year.
• In order to progress to the third year of the MEng program, you must achieve an overall (second year) aggregate mark of at least 60%. If fail to achieve this, you will normally be required to transfer to the third year of the BEng program.
• At the discretion of the Board of Examiners, in-year reassessment (typically over the Summer) may be offered if you marginally fail to achieve the above requirements.
• Additionally, extensive exam failures (passing less than 30 ECTS worth of modules) may mean that you are required to retake the year or withdraw from the degree.

Problems

You are expected to meet all coursework and lab-work deadlines, but if there are difficulties with this then please contact the Second Year Coordinator or Senior Tutor as soon as possible. Extensions to submission dates can be agreed in extenuating circumstances, but in general late submissions recieved within 24 hours of the deadline will be capped at the pass mark (40%) and anything received later than this will receive no marks (in line with the college late submission policy).

Note that it is always best to submit what you have done by the deadline.

Whilst it can be useful to contact individual lecturers for advice on their coursework, please note that they are not able to grant extensions or approve late submissions.

In general, if you have any problems during the year you should contact:

• your Year Reps
  
• the Second Year Coordinator
  (JMC students can also contact the JMC Coordinator)
• the Senior Tutor
• your Personal Tutor

And finally...

I wish you a happy and productive year of studies. With four taught modules in each of the autumn and spring terms as well as the larger lab-work exercises, you will have a busy schedule. The key to success is to keep up with lecture material so as not to leave too much to do at revision time.

For more detailed information on specific elements of the second year, please follow the links on the right.