On top of the Arc de Triomphe
Author: Ryan Rau | Majors: Computer Science and German
With finals season in full swing here in Germany, life has been busy. In the past month I’ve taken four finals and still have two more. When compared to finals back home, they are more different than I was expecting them to be. First rather than all finals being within a week, they’re all scheduled based on whatever works best for the professor. That means your final can be a week after the last lecture or potentially over a month after. This part of the German system is actually nice and relieves some of the stress of have back-to-back finals.
As for the finals themselves, I believe them to be more difficult when compared to back home. That said, I don’t necessarily believe them to be more difficult content wise but more so difficult in the sense of knowing what to expect on the final. With most of my classes not having any other assignments and midterms not being a thing in Germany, there can be a lot of mystery surrounding the content and format of the final exam. Adding to this, most of the classes I took this semester where new offerings and therefore didn’t have a back catalog of exams turned to study guides by the professors. Going into each exam, I prepared the best I could, using any ungraded assignments and lecture slides as a basis of what to expect. That worked with various levels of success as two of the finals I took were completely the opposite of what I was expecting. One asked way more questions requiring detailed definitions when I was expecting questions asking how to apply those concepts and the other text was the opposite of that. The easiest way to be prepared would be to have all your bases covered and a mastery of the content but regardless it’s always good to know what you’re walking in to.
In hindsight, I wish I would have taken courses that weren’t new to the catalog as I feel to truly know what to expect when it comes to exams you need to know the professor to a degree from past classes, a luxury I didn’t have. So, to future students, I would suggest keeping that in mind when choosing classes and be sure to talk to native students to get an idea of what they’re expecting on the exams as they will probably know best.
As busy as this past month has been, I still managed to do some traveling and spent a weekend in Paris. Prior to getting there, I honestly expected the city to be an overprices tourist trap and I was pleasantly surprised when that wasn’t the case. Paris was beautiful, with uniformed architecture throughout the city and French street cafes at just about every corner. Furthermore, the number of museums and monuments to see kept us busy all weekend. Sights like the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Sainte Chapelle, and the louvre were all breathtaking and I would recommend as must sees to anyone visiting. One of the best things about Paris was the perks that my EU residency status provided, with many of the museums and monuments being free to enter being under 25 with EU residency status.
With only a month remaining abroad, I’m both sad to leave and excited to go back home. But in the meantime, I’m going to make the most of my remaining time here with a few more planned trips!