November 26
This week is the first week of exams! I do not think I have
ever been more tired from studying. When I say this past week I have been
studying from sun up to sun down there is no exaggeration. (But, on the other
hand, the sun starts going down at 6:30pm.) The exam period is three weeks long
and for some reason ¾ of my exams were scheduled for the first Monday, Tuesday,
and Wednesday of the exam period. It is nice to get them over with but that
much exam stress is not good. After having taken a couple of exams, I have to
say the exam system is much stricter than at CMU. First, exams are not
administered in the lecture hall, they are administered in the several
gymnasiums around campus and individual desks are places in perfect rows to
seat about 300 students at a time. Instead of your professor and the teaching
assistants administering the test, there is a team of “invigilators” that come
in to administer the test. Another thing I was surprised by was that none of
the invigilators spoke during the exam, there was a prerecorded voice over a
loudspeaker reminding us that cheating was wrong, alerting us to when we could
start the test, telling us when to stop writing, once again warning us about
the repercussions of cheating, and randomly telling us to remain quiet until we
are dismissed from the hall. I must say, the whole examination system was quite
intimidating and if I had not prepared so much, the process may have made me
too nervous to do well. All in all, I think I have been doing well on exams and
it makes me excited to get the last ones out of the way. Once finals are over we
will reward ourselves with a final trip before heading home to our respective
countries!
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| Is this work in Chinese? Literally. |
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| Two words: Finals Week |
