Please excuse my lack of blogging lately. The semester ended last week so students are now busily preparing for exams.
Exams here are somewhat more daunting than they are back home. This is because there are minimal to no assignments given throughout the semester. That means these three-hour, three-essay-questions exams determine your entire grade. It seems a bit odd to me that your response to only a few questions could possibly dictate how much you learned over 14 weeks. But I guess that is the challenge.
I have 5 classes and the time table spreads the exams over three weeks. This is also very different from back home, where cramming meant cramming (only one night to study everything). Here cramming takes place because the lack of assignments during the term provides the opportunity to slack off on reading. Still, it's not really cramming when there at least 4 days in-between exams.
On the bright side, an 80% and up here is considered an A while back home, it was 93%. But then again, they grade harder here. I suppose it all balances out. We'll see. :)
