The second module of classes started today. I had class this morning at 9am, I woke up at a quarter to 8 and did my hair and my make-up, got dressed, ate breakfast and was out the door by 8:45ish....I get to my dept. and I go and check the announcements board, usually if a Prof. decides to cancel a class or the entire course (it's happened) they put up an announcement on the board to let students know.... so I'm looking at all the orange announcements, and trying to see if my course is up there... I don't see it so I go to find the classroom... I know it is room 105 so I know it is going to be on the first floor (out in Europe the floor when you first walk in is the Ground Floor, the first floor up is the First floor and so on). I climb the stairs and see room 108, 112, 115, and so on, but not room 105, so I finally had to ask someone, and they go oh are you doing that course with Gubert, I say yes, and he goes... class has been cancelled for today, there's an announcement.... so I woke up early for nothing today... I go back to the announcement board, and sure enough on the corner on WHITE paper (all the announcement are on ORANGE paper) there is announcement saying class has been cancelled for today... it doesn't say anything about tomorrow... so hopefully I won't wake up for nothing tomorrow too.
I get so frustrated with the school system out here. When I studied abroad the system was different for us Americans because the regular Uni. rules didn't apply to us. So it is really hard to have to figure it out on my own. Compared to the school system out here the American University system holds our hands through the whole process...
*Out here each department is like their own mini-university... the rules for the engineering dept. are not the same for the soc dept. and so on... it's like these mini-universities put together make the whole University... but they all have their own rules and regulations to follow, so just because your friend in the letters and philosophy dept. can do something doesn't mean I can, since I am in a different dept. (facolta').
*Most Professors don't hand out a syllabus, you have to find it online... that's something I noticed you have to search for everything here, hunt it down, nothing is spelled out clearly for you like it is in the states. The "syllabus", and I use the term loosely, you do find doesn't have any contact info for the prof. and they don't offer it up during class. I had to actually stop my professor after class and ask when his office hours were, and the response was... all my information is online... So, I went online and looked and his information was NOT online, at least not where I could find it, so I had to stop him and ask again after the next class and finally he told me... thursday from 11-1....how hard was that? You couldn't just tel me that last time I asked.
*There are no class study sessions for exams, there are no handouts to help you out with focussing on what you should be studying for the exam, there are no midterms, and mostly oral exams... so the whole outcome of the course depends on your 20-30 minute oral exam... and for someone who has never really had to do oral exams that is not only frustrating, but also terrifying.
*I freak out about the idea of not passing an exam, while most Italians take the attitude of "well, you'll pass it next time". That's because here in Italy you can take an exam as many times as you want. They have different exam periods and if you didn't pass the exam in exam period 1, then you can try and take the exam again during exam period 2, and so on. When I tell Italians that in the U.S. you generally only take a course once, and if you fail you have to take the whole course over again, not just the final exam they are completely shocked, the idea blows them away, it's unfathomable out here.
*This is more specifically aimed at the Soc dept and more spefically at my specialty... I am a first year in my specialty, and they won't let me take any second year exams which wouldn't be a problem except that they have really shitty planning. I only had 1 course last module, and only 1 this module (technically there is another course, but it is offered during the time that I work, so I am going to take the exam 'Non frequentante', which means I'm taking the exam w/o attending the course)... so 1 course every module sounds great... but then next semester.... the 1st module of the 2nd semester I have like 7 or 8 courses and ditto for the 2nd module.... I mean come on people spread it out... this is really shitty planning. I wanted to try to get that course for the second year out of the way, but they won't even give me the opportunity to register for the exam, it's not like there is a pre-req course from the 1st year coursework for this course, there are no pre-req's and it has nothing to do with the other courses, so why can't I take it if it is going to help me out in the long run? It's so frustrating, I am going to go to the class today anyway and try to talk to the professor and see if he will cut me some slack and let me take the exam and then freeze my grade and not register it until next year... I doubt he'll do it, but it's worth a shot!
I'm just annoyed and frustrated because I don't fully understand the school system out here!
Oh and one last thing, I really want to get these exams out of the way, because I am going to have make-up credits to do since I didn't get my B.A. out here, which is ridiculous, but those are the rules... I don't know how many make-up credits I am going to have to take... but I'm sure I won't be able to graduate in 2 years, probably more like 3 or 3.5 years.... They're supposed to send me a letter sometime this month letting me know how many credits I have to make-up. Stupd Italian school system! Grad School is hard enough without this extra stress!
No comments:
Post a Comment