To Academia & Beyond
Schedule for the day
Master’s/PhD Students and Research Staff Q&A Session 1-2pm in W128
This session is for undergradate and postgraduate students who are interested in further education in psychology and receive insightful advice from experienced individuals. A group of Master’s/PhD students and research staff will be answering your questions.
Career Advice Drop-In Session 1-2pm in W130A
This drop-in session is for students who want to get quick tips and advice on their career plans from Siobhan, the Psychology Dept’s aligned Careers Consultant. A booking is not required.
2nd Year Q&A Session 2-3pm in W130A
This session is for first-year psychology students who have inquiries or wish to receive guidance and assistance regarding the second-year modules. A group of students from the second year who have first-hand experience will be answering your questions.
3nd Year Q&A Session 2-3pm in W128
This session is for first- and second-year psychology students who have inquiries or wish to receive guidance and assistance regarding the third-year modules. Your inquiries will be answered by a group of third-year students with relevant experience.
Short-Answer Essay Writing Workshop 3-3:30pm in W130A
In this session, Dr Isabella Vainieri will discuss short-answer questions (SAQs) and cover tips and suggestions on how to answer these types of questions effectively to achieve higher marks in your exams. There will also be time to practice answering SAQs together.
Long -Answer Essay Writing Workshop 3:30-4pm in W130A
In this session, Dr Sahana Shankar will focus on the different parts of long answer essays and how to put these parts together to make a good essay. She’ll also consider how to write good critical evaluation.
Exam Stress Management Workshop 3-4pm in W130
A workshop focused on giving practical guidance on how to manage your mental health during the exam season. Dr Vanita Chamdal will unpack how exam stress differs to everyday stress, how to manage it and strategies to adopt. You will walk away with a personalised approach to how you can mange your mental health!
Statisitics Revision Session 3-4pm in W128
This session is for students who want to practice their statistical knowledge through engaging and enjoyable games, including statistics board game and regression crossword. There will be multiple games to play and earn points. Amazon vouchers will be awarded to the students with the highest scores.
Poster Presentation 4-5pm in W128
A poster presentation provides students with an excellent opportunity to showcase their work to fellow students, and staff. Poster sessions also give students the chance to practice and refine their presentation skills while sharing their research and projects. Poster presenters will receive a certificate of participation. There will also be a prize for the best posters. The posters will be judged by Dr Beatrice Hayes and Dr Sam Fairlamb. Please send you poster to adnan.levent@rhul.ac.uk by 17th March 2023, see the guidelines for poster presentation at the end of this document.
A Mixed-Media Art Competition 4-5pm W130A
To honour the International Day of Happiness and World Storytelling Day, we invite you to create a piece of art that reflects your personal journey toward happiness, using any art medium (fine art, graphic art, poetry, photography, or short movie). The topic of this competition stems from the movie ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’ (2006), which discusses challenges in life with a career and explores issues of survival, determination, and never giving up on your dreams. References to the film can be made, but we strongly encourage using a creative and personal approach. If you wish to participate in the competition, please send an email to ashna.salman.2021@live.rhul.ac.uk by 15th March, with a brief summary of your artwork. Prizes will be awarded for the best artworks.
Students + Staff Quiz and Pizza 5-6pm in W128
Students will team up with staff members to compete in multiple rounds of questions covering a range of fun topics. The winning team will receive a special prize. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to bond with your peers and staff members while having a great time! There will also pizza and drinks.
Guidelines for making poster presentations
Poster content
A typical research poster may include the following sections:
Title and authors: Title should be in large fonts and attract potential viewers. If possible, institute logos or affiliations should be minimised in size and put in next to the title. Please note that third-year students must not include supervisor’s name on the poster.
Introduction: Get your viewer interested about the issue while using the minimum of background information and definitions. Put the objectives of your study at the end of your introduction.
Methods: Be short, but precise. State what study design you used and define your study population.
Results: Briefly provide descriptive results (e.g., age and sex distribution). Present data that more specifically addresses the hypothesis and refer to supporting charts or images. Tables and graphs should stand on their own. Graphic materials should be readable at a distance of 1.5-2.0 metres.
Conclusion and recommendations: Comment on main results and discuss why they are conclusive and interesting. Also make some recommendations.
References: List all the sources of information that are used in the poster
Poster Formatting
A poster should be sized at 59.4 x 84.1 cm (portrait) or 84.1 cm x 59.4 (landscape). In Microsoft PowerPoint, use File > Page Setup or Design > Page Setup to define a poster’s dimensions.
Panels
A poster should have a clear directional flow that leads anyone reading from section to section either left to right or top-down.
Font
Keep the fonts simple and limit them to no more than two font types. Arial, Calibri, Verdana and Tahoma fonts work well on posters. Body text size should be 24+, and headings should be 48+. Please avoid excessive text.
Colour
Ideally use 2-3 colours when designing your poster. It seems chaotic and unprofessional when there are too many colours present, but it is dull and plain when having no colour
Backgrounds
Use a solid tone or a very simple gradient for backgrounds. Try to stay away from anything that is too busy
Please send you poster to adnan.levent@rhul.ac.uk by 17th March 2024
Previous Events
To Academia and Beyond, 2023
The THESIS team is excited to announce a brand-new event series “To Academia and Beyond” that was held in two parts over two terms. The event was led by Dr Adnan Levent with the help of the THESIS team and a group of dedicated student volunteers, namely Arooj Yousaf, Faryal Haye, Hildie Leyser, Aaron Kim, and Tobi Adeladan.
The first part of the event which consisted of the 2nd/3rd year Q&A and revision sessions took place on 8th March with around 40 attendees. During the Q&A session, first and second-year psychology students had the opportunity to ask questions regarding the following year’s modules and got hints and tips from second and third-year students who had first-hand experience, namely Isabella Neergaard, Karl Klakegg, Gauresh Kuradia, Alaz Bicaco, Elizabeth Evans, Abel Nagy, and Aaron Kim. Some questions that were asked during the session are listed below;
- What is the timetable like in year 3?
- What is needed to get into İAPT?
- What do lab reports in the second year involve that is different from the first-year lab reports?
- For 3rd year, do you recommend taking more modules in term 1 or term 2 (considering the workload for the research project)?
- Thoughts on the 3rd year Equality Diversity module?
- Are the advanced developmental topics similar to the topics in 1st and 2nd year?
In the revision session, students practised useful revision strategies (i.e., creating mind maps) and participated in various statistics games, such as a statistics board game and a regression crossword. Students received points for completing each game and won prizes.
The second part of the event took place on 10th May. The event featured a range of sessions. The postgraduates/research staff Q&A session was one of the main highlights of the event, allowing students to ask questions about further education in psychology and receive insightful advice from experienced individual (Ritika Bajaj, Hildie Leyser, Swarnamanjari Mundhra, Timothy Meiers, Francesco Scaramozzino, Isabelle Verhulst, and Maber Muhinyi). The session was highly enlightening and provided students with a great deal of invaluable information.
The poster competition was another key feature of the event, with students showcasing their research projects in a visually engaging format to win the best poster prizes. The posters were evaluated by Dr Sam Fairlamb and Dr Beatrice Hayes. There were two winners of the competition, with first place going to Megan Stockford for her outstanding work on neurodiversity in the criminal justice system, and second place going to Sarah for her innovative research proposal on the association between trauma exposure and mental health in Indian Muslims.
The career advice drop-in session was also popular with attendees. It provided an opportunity for students to discuss their career aspirations with Siobhan, the Psychology Dept’s aligned Careers Consultant. Many attendees expressed their gratitude for the guidance received during this session.
The event ended with the staff and student fun quiz which added a playful element to the event and proved to be a great success, thanks to our quizmaster, Dr Aysha Bellamy. The quiz consisted of several rounds of questions covering a range of academic topics, as well as general knowledge. The matching staff’s baby pictures and strange facts were the most popular rounds. The atmosphere was cheerful, and the quiz was enjoyed by all participants.
Overall, the event was a great success. The feedback from attendees for both parts of the event was overwhelmingly positive. Most attendees found the event extremely helpful and indicated they would highly recommend it to other students.