Surviving Mid-Terms

Exams have never been one of my strong suits; the pressure to perform well under a limited period of time reinforced by an overbearing ticking clock just isn’t my cup of tea. So when I found out that America seem to enjoy testing their students even more than British institutions I was a little horrified. More exams? Not what I signed up for.  

Social life? Forget it.

Food? Only if cookie dough counts as one of your ‘five a day’.

Sleep? Well that’s just a good ten hours of your time wasted.

College life is all about maintaining that important balance between the 3 ‘S’ words: studying, sleeping and socialising. But it appears the stress of tests, essays and projects all due at the same time is too much for some students to handle.

Earlier this week I decided it was probably a good idea to get a couple hours of cramming in before one of my mid-term exams. I set up my laptop in the quiet group study area of the library, notes and highlighter at the ready, surrounded by piles of novels, and I began to get my geek on. I knew that my fellow classmates took these exams pretty seriously, but I didn’t quite realise the extent to how far people pushed themselves for just a small exam in the middle of the semester. A guy came and sat opposite me at the table and instead of unloading brick-like books from his rucksack, he proceeded to rest his head in his arms and fall asleep. ‘Wow’ I thought, this guy really was taking studying to the extreme. When he came to a little later, I decided to ask him if he was unable to find somewhere a little more comfortable than a wooden chair and table in the middle of the library for a snooze. Either he had trouble understanding my accent, which is apparently quite easy to misinterpret, or he thought I was mad. Clearly the library was a perfect place to nap, it’s warm and quiet. But it got me thinking, this guy was evidently exhausted from sleep deprivation - just one out of hundreds of students that continually choose studying (or partying) over sleep. But how healthy really is this lifestyle? Constant stress and lack of sleep makes me irritable and short tempered, but the guy I met in the library seemed totally transformed into a sleep walking zombie. He nearly tripped over my laptop lead as I advised him that a strong black coffee would probably help. I vote that the week of mid-term exams should be renamed to 'zombie week' instead. Students aimlessly walk around with their eyes stuck to their iphones anyway, so the connection to zombies doesn't seem that far fetched. Life, or at least life outside of the classroom, appears to be draining all energy from them, there's only one thing on their mind - must pass exam. If you survive without bags under your eyes or an emotional breakdown, congratulations and welcome to the post-apocalyptic world.

Classroom Etiquette

Although the classes here are not taught in Spanish or French they are very different to what I’ve been used to throughout my school and University years. You don’t have to wait outside a classroom for the teacher to magically appear; you just stroll right in and take a pick at whichever seat you fancy. The classrooms even look different, at the University of Kent the seminar rooms are set out to encourage intelligent discussion between students, usually the rooms are laid out in a horseshoe shape so that you can see everyone else in your class. But here, they’re more like exam rooms. Individual chairs dotted around the room with individual desks attached to them. Anyone who knows me well would have understood my fear when walking into a room that screams ‘exam’!

Talking of exams, they like to test you here, a lot! I guess it’s a way of checking that you’re keeping up with the reading but on my second day of class I was shocked to be handed a piece of paper with numerous questions about the novel we were reading, only to hear the Professor shout ‘You have five minutes to complete this paper, starting NOW!’ It definitely served as a strong reminder that I’m not just here to have fun but also study, hard!

I’m taking four different classes this term; three English and one Theatre. As a joint honours humanities student I’ve always been given a lot of reading, but heck, I basically have a novel to read every week for each English class. When do people have time to have fun or go to the gym here when their heads are constantly stuck in a book? That said, all my classes are very interesting and the Professors are all great – super friendly and have a genuine interest in getting to know you. Not sure I could say the same for every teacher that has taught me at home!

The Theatre class I’m taking this term is ‘Film and Television Acting’ and whilst I’ve taken numerous Acting classes before and the mention of Stanislavski makes my head hurt, I’ve never had the opportunity to learn the trade with a massive camera stuck in your face. So far I’ve learnt it’s very different to being on the Stage, out with the massive persona, projected voice and over the top actions and in with the subtle glances and truthful responses, instead of that of some imagined character. I keep on hearing Alick’s voice, the director from the production RENT, saying ‘act bigger’ in the back of my head. But now it’s time to flick the switch and try my luck learning a different skill.

Although the classes here do remind me a little bit of high school, receiving ‘homework’ every lesson and less independent study, so far every class I’ve had has made me smile and taught me something new, and in my eyes, it doesn’t get much better than that!