Data Science and Business Analytics Students Score the Highest on University of London Exams

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Four students of the HSE University and University of London Double Degree Programme in Data Science and Business Analytics received the highest scores on London exams at the end of 2019/2020 academic year. Yunying Pei, Vasily Kireenko, Vladimir Zobov, and Ilya Zisman performed brilliantly in the statistics, business, and management tests.

Due to the pandemic last year, exams were held online. This format was new for both teachers and students and caused many concerns. In addition, these were the first London exams for second-year students. But their hard work paid off, and 99% of the programme's students successfully passed the exams with high scores. Pei Yuning and Vasily Kireenko, who received the top scores (the highest score among students from all over the world in the discipline in a certain year), told HSE News Service about the preparation and their impressions of the exams.

Vasily Kireenko, top score in Statistics 2

I tried to keep notes in class, but with time I realized that this way I can’t learn new material well. In the textbooks, most of the tasks were analyzed in detail, so each student could start preparing for the exams at any time. The main preparation for the exams started in April. At the seminars, we solved the tests of the previous years, so there was no anxiety before the exam.

Part of the exam was simple, so I solved it quickly enough because all the topics were discussed in detail during lectures. If we were passing the exam offline, I probably would not have had time to write such a detailed solution to problems that require a detailed answer. But, thanks to the 24-hour format, I managed to double-check everything and outline everything in as much detail as possible!

Waiting for the results was much more anxious, as I was afraid that I had written a bad essay in another exam. Due to the fact that the administration of the University of London postponed the official publication of the grades several times, I no longer felt worried that my results could be poor. Most of the students learnt their grades a little prior to the official publication time, and many of them started checking the information manually, and some of my classmates had to wait longer. I had no problems, and I immediately saw all my grades. First of all, I was glad that I passed all the exams. Then I looked at the Statistics score, and I was surprised that I got such an incredible result!

Yunying Pei, top score in Statistics 1

The decision to take the London exams online turned out to be unexpected, because UoL has never in its history conducted exams in this format. The very process of passing the exams was tedious and stressful. On the one hand, it was more difficult to focus on sitting the exams at home, but there was also a big plus: we had 24 hours for each subject, so we could think carefully about everything and answer thoughtfully. The London exams cover all major topics studied during the year, and during the 24-hour exam, almost the entire year flashed in my head. When I finished writing the exam, it was already late night in June, and holding a stack of papers in my hands, I felt content and calm.

The University of London will award students with the Highest Mark certificates, while the Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science congratulated them in person.