It’s been a very interesting couple of weeks for everyone. Welcome to our fellow bloggers who are now on exchange! It’s that time of year again where everyone’s been flying off and panic has risen over what to pack, and how to pack it within the luggage limit, and somehow forgetting everything and then remembering it again at the last minute. So, those are the lucky ones, but also the ones who haven’t stopped talking about [insert destination of choice] since it was known they’d be off. And now a silence descends on the ears of those left behind. But perhaps this silence is much needed, for we’ve been busy down here too with…mid-semester exams.
I’ve had 7 exams and/or assessments in the course of three weeks, which doesn’t sound too bad until you realise that a) there’s actually a lot of stuff to be studied for, b) they’re all squished together within particular weeks and c) you don’t get a mid-semester break to prepare, unlike semester 1. But before I moan any further about my mid-semester exam schedule, perhaps an explanation of the assessment system at uni would be in order.
There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of subjects that can be studied at uni, so obviously not everything can be the same. For Arts and Commerce-type subjects, where a lot of essays are involved, that’s usually what happens—a bunch of essays that coincide with the halfway point of semester. Exams are also possible, especially for “hardcore” Commerce subjects like accounting. For Science subjects, there can be exams or reports to hand in. In either case, if there’s an exam involved, it can range from being an in-class test to a formal examination setting with allocated seating and sometimes even an exam timetable drawn up for it! There are also practical exams for science subjects.
Hand-in assessment can either be individual or group work—Arts subjects are usually individual, while Commerce and Science subjects can be either, especially if there’s a case study or lab report involved. Word counts are usually imposed regardless of subject (and in some cases, a page count but with strict formatting requirements such as margins, font size, etc). Late submissions are also looked harshly upon. Some subjects accept late submissions, but impose penalties instead, so you might lose 10% for every day after the deadline. Others, such as the ones I’m taking (pharmacy), will not accept late submissions full stop, so if you miss out, that’s an automatic zero.
Content covered in midsems can either be assessable in the finals, or not. I’ve been lucky this year in that two subjects have self-contained midsems, so that I only need to revise between then and the end of semester for the finals, i.e. the later half of semester. When you’re covering the equivalent of an HSC year’s work in one semester, that can make all the difference.
And of course, there are subjects which don’t have midsem exams/assessment—those that are quite spread out (typically found with humanities subjects and architecture as well since it’s per design brief), and those that have one major hand-in or exam at the end. I thought my 90% end of semester exam for second year biochemistry was bad…no, a friend had a 95% final for an anatomy subject! I’ve also been at the other end of the spectrum, with a 20%-ish exam in first year, but one that you needed to pass in order to pass the course.
Which of course brings me to exams/assessment that are mandatory in some way or form—there are those that you don’t have to attempt/hand in to pass the course (but of course highly NOT recommended!), those that you must attempt, but don’t need to have passed, to pass the course. Some are purely formative, or only count if you get above a certain mark (such as the first dispensing lab I had this semester), and others you need to pass to pass the course.
So as you can see, every subject is different, but the bottom line is—the work still needs to be done. Proper preparations prevents poor performance, as they like to throw at us every so often. It’s perhaps very fitting then that, from all of us here, we wish all of our Year 12 readers the best of luck for their finals. Study hard, don’t procrastinate too much, and take good care of yourselves during this very busy time. Toodles for now!
Disclaimer: I love exchange kids, you’re awesome! Rock on and enjoy your travels!