BSc Neuroscience and Psychology at King's – Welcome to our new students for 2022

What should I do now?

Enrolment – becoming a King’s College student

You will receive an email from King’s College London inviting you to set up your IT account and complete your profile online (you may have received this email already). Make a note of the ‘K’ number that you are given because this is what you will use as your login for accessing KCL’s online systems. This online enrolment process should be completed before you start your degree. Upon doing so, you will gain access to the University’s systems and facilities. Therefore, once you have your email invitation, please follow the instructions for online enrolment – the sooner, the better – and before Monday 12 September. We also recommend that you use the Welcome to King’s App to plan, book, and manage your activities during the induction period

• Set up an IT account and complete online enrolment
• Find out about your Student ID Card
• Further information

Introductory work for the Term 1 modules

During open-offer events, many of you asked how you can prepare for your degree - now is a great time to start! We have identified some reading and other activities that will introduce you to some of your Term 1 modules. There are details of this material below. This will take less than a day (e.g., done over a few evenings); please complete this work by Monday, 26 September.

The BSc Psychology Book Club 

This is an optional activity – but, if you have the time to participate in the Book Club organised by the BSc Psychology Programme (BSc Neuroscience and Psychology students are welcome to participate), this is a great way to prepare yourself for studying psychology at university and meet some of your fellow students and staff in BSc Psychology. We have identified a fascinating book for this year’s first Book Club, and we will offer opportunities to discuss it with others who have also read the book. See below for details.

Check your KCL email account regularly

Email is one of the main ways that we will contact you with important information about your studies. Once you are a member of King’s College London, the University will no longer use the email account that you used in your communication with King’s during the application and pre-admission process. Therefore, it is very important that you get into a regular habit of checking your KCL email account – ideally, every working day – because otherwise you may miss out on important information. There may only be a few emails in the weeks leading up to the start of term, but once term has started, there will be a great deal of information coming to you via your KCL email account.

Improve your Digital Skills 

Your KCL IT Account will give you access to an enormous range of online resources and will open up many opportunities for learning. To help you make the most of these resources and opportunities, King’s have designed a Key Digital Skills programme. You can self-register for this online course as soon as you have the K-number and password for your KCL IT Account. Therefore, we recommend that you make a start on this course as soon as you can.

When do I start?

King’s will be running induction events from Monday 12 September. The induction activities that are specific to your BSc Neuroscience and Psychology degree programme will begin on Tuesday 20 September, and continue through the two weeks leading up to the start of teaching on Monday 26 September.

Over the week, there will be a number of activities that are designed to give you the skills and information that you need to get started on your Neuroscience and Psychology degree. Some activities will be at a specific time, and others you can choose when you do them. The induction will start with an introductory information session to give you an overview of your first term on the Neuroscience and Psychology degree. This information session will be on Tuesday 20 September (from 11:30 to about 12:30). Directly afterwards, there will be a short induction on materials that will familiarise you with the resources and online systems (about 12:40 – 13:10). Later that afternoon, we will have an exciting social event planned with a quiz, catering and a guest lecture about learning. The social event and the guest lecture can be attended by students of BSc Neuroscience and Psychology of any year and so will be an opportunity for first years to meet other students. During the week of 12-16 September, you will receive an invitation to meet with your Personal Tutor in a group session held at the Denmark Hill campus, sometime between the 19^th and the 23^rd of September. Therefore, please keep some space clear in your diary on those days for your degree induction activities

Here is a summary of what happens Tuesday 20 September (all on-campus events):

11:30-12:30 - BSc Neuroscience and Psychology Programme Induction (Degree Induction). You will meet some of the staff from your degree programme, including the coordinators for some of your Term 1 modules, and we will answer students’ questions about Year 1 of BSc Neuroscience and Psychology. 

12:40 -13:10 – BSc Neuroscience and Psychology Digital Learning and Support induction. Here you will find out how to use KEATS, our digital learning platform and where to find resources and to support your studies.

14:15 -14:25 – BSc Neuroscience and Psychology awards for students from Years 2 and 3. All students and staff are welcome.

14:30 -15:10 – A Guest lecture on learning how to learn by Dr Samuel Cooke. All students and staff are welcome.

From 1pm onwards, you can mingle with peers and staff at the WEC gym, where catering and music is provided. From 15:20 to 15:40, we will host a Quiz. All students and staff are welcome.

Monday 19 and Friday 24 – Meet your Personal Tutor and learn how you will work together to enhance your university experience. Your personal tutor will contact you with the time and date for this session. 

For the remainder of King’s Welcome Fortnight, there are no compulsory induction events for the BSc Neuroscience and Psychology course. However, there will be many events at King’s that you can get involved in. For example, the Informational Fair between Monday 19 and Thursday 22 or the Cultural Fair on 21 September at the the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (the part of King’s that you are now a member of). There will also be events online. So do keep an eye out for anything that interests you.

What will I study in Term 1?

You take four compulsory modules in Term 1, each one ending with an examination in the new calendar year (Examination Week is Monday 10 January to Friday 14 January 2022).

You take four compulsory modules in Term 1, each one ending with an examination in the new calendar year (Examination Week is Monday 9 January to Friday 13 January 2023).

Compulsory BSc Neuroscience and Psychology Term 1 Modules:

• The Making of a Brain

• Psychology and the Brain

• Psychology and Society

• Research Methods and Statistics with R 1

Making the transition to university

Living in London

Getting ready to come to King's, find out more about living in London

University Life at King’s

Learn more about University Life at King's College London

Studying Psychology at King’s

What's it like studying Psychology at King's?

Preparing to come to King’s

Tips on Preparing to start Psychology at King's

Some BSc Neuroscience and Psychology students have shared their experiences of studying psychology at KCL in the videos below. Take a look to see what you can expect on the degree, and to get some tips for your first year at KCL:

Living in London

Univeristy life

Studying Psychology

Preparing to come to Kings

We also recommend that you take a look at this guide that has been put together for students who are about to start university. It is called Know Before You Go and will help prepare you for many of the practical and personal challenges associated with entering higher education.

What do I need to do about textbooks?

The answer is: "Nothing yet!"

We will give you copies of the module texts for your Year 1 and Year 2 core modules – they are yours to keep. We buy these directly from the publishers, and then pass them on to you. These books will be provided as e-books. Here are the details of the books that you will have in your personal neuroscience and psychology library:

• Bear, M.F., Connors., B.W., & Paradiso, M.A. Neuroscience.Exploring the Brain. Wolters Kluwer.

• Kolb, B., Wishaw, I., & Campbell Teskey, G. An Introduction to Brain and Behaviour . Published by Palgrave/MacMillan

• Schacter, D., Gilbert, D., & Wegner, D. with Hood, B. M. Psychology. (European Edition). Published by Worth Publishers / Palgrave

• Carlson, N. R. Foundations of Behavioral Neuroscience. Published by Pearson.

• Reisberg, D. Cognition: Exploring the science of the mind. Published by W. W. Norton & Co.

• Sutton, R., & Douglas, K. Social psychology. Published by Palgrave Macmillan.

• Leman, P., Bremner, A., Parke, R. D., & Gauvin, M. Developmental psychology. Published by McGraw-Hill.

• Maltby, J. Day, L. & Macaskill, A. Personality, individual differences and intelligence. Published by Pearson.

• Haselgrove, M. Learning: A very short introduction. Published by Oxford University Press

• Stanovich, K. E. How to think straight about psychology. Published by Pearson.

• Gravetter, F. J., & Forzano, L. B. Research methods for the behavioral sciences. Published by Wadsworth (Cengage Learning).

• Field, A., Miles, J., & Field., Z. Discovering Statistics Using R. Published by Sage.

• Maurits, N. & Curxix-Blake, B. Math for Scientists. Refreshing the essentials. Published by Springer.

Introductory work for the Term 1 modules

Here are details of some activities to do before the start of the main lecture programme – we’ve identified activities for some of your Term 1 modules. You can start on some of these now, and can also work on them alongside your induction activities (13-24 September).

1. In your Psychology and Society module, you will be learning about the interaction between the individual and the social world: how the social environment shapes individuals, and how individuals shape the social environment. This module acts as an introduction to the discipline of social psychology.

Your first activity for this module is to write an answer the following questions:

‘Who am I?’ and ‘What makes me a good person?’ Each should be answered in a single sentence. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, so don’t overthink your responses. 

2. Your second activity is to read a research paper (Cohen et al, 2017). You do not need to learn or memorise the content of this article, but you should complete a series of questions about it, using this handout. These will be discussed in your first seminar (in the week beginning 26 September).

3. Before you arrive at King’s College London to study on the BSc Neuroscience and Psychology degree, you will find it beneficial to work through some material related to biological psychology and neuroscience, because this is the focus of your Psychology and the Brain module. A good place to start is a publication by the British Neuroscience Association (BNA), which is free to download from the BNA. The sections most relevant to your study in the first few weeks are those at the beginning of the publication. Therefore, your activity is to read through Sections 1-3, but you may also want to look over the material on the developing nervous system and brain imaging. You could also look at this neuroscience and psychology blog which links to some interesting articles.

What will my study-load look like?

You take eight modules in the first year of the BSc Neuroscience and Psychology degree: four are taught in Term 1 (and have exams in January), four are taught in Term 2 (and have exams in May).

 You take eight modules in the first year of the BSc Neuroscience and Psychology degree: four are taught in Term 1 (and have exams in January), four are taught in Term 2 (and have exams in May).

Each module requires 150 hours of work – making a total of 1200 hours across the year for the 8 modules. That’s a lot of work to fit into 36 weeks (28 weeks of term time plus two 4-week periods between the University terms) – but the effort is well worth it! Most of this time will be spent in some form of independent study. Therefore, for much of the year it will be up to you to organise your time in the way that helps you to get the most from the course. To give you an idea of what this means, you might choose to work 40 hours per week every week during term and do the same for two of the eight weeks that fall outside of term time. Alternatively, it might suit you better to do 35 hours every week during term and outside of term time, taking a week off at Christmas / New Year and half a week off in the period between Terms 2 and 3.