If there is one piece of advice that I will give to every new student at LSE is to make use of the amazing gift that is LSE LIFE. I was quite late to exploring LSE LIFE last year as a master’s student, and I definitely regret it. If you need help with writing your essays, understanding how to correctly cite texts, learning how to cope with stress or just want to equip yourselves with important tools and skills to sail through your time at LSE, plan a visit to the LSE LIFE centre. The centre is located on the ground floor of the LSE Library and is where most of the in-person workshops take place.

I’ve made good use of the LSE LIFE sessions, especially for my dissertation and to deal with the stress of exams. As for most master’s students, the months of May and June were quite stressful for me – I had at least one submission or exam due every four days and the stress was really difficult to deal with. I signed myself up for sessions on how to manage your workload and deal with exam stress and found both to be extremely helpful. The session leaders give you useful tools to deal with issues on your own and help you become better organised.

But I’ve found the centre most useful when I began working on my dissertation. As someone who had never undertaken a research project of this scale before, I was quite anxious to understand how to navigate through the long list of to-dos I had to complete to ensure my dissertation was submitted on time. I signed up for multiple workshops, everything from how to conduct a literature review to tackling the research question, there are sessions for everything that goes into writing a dissertation. These sessions have been incredibly useful for me to make considerable progress on the dissertation and I’m extremely grateful for the resources and tools shared during each one of these sessions.

If you’re returning to academics after a break or aren’t used to the style and format of teaching and learning at LSE, make a visit to LSE LIFE. It’s a completely judgement-free zone that is designed to support you at LSE, don’t hesitate to make use of the space and the resources available to you.