Finals in New Zealand

After an amazing trip to Cairns, I had the pleasure of returning to Wellington to endure not only cold, windy, and rainy weather, but also to endure the pain and agony of studying for finals.  Okay, I’m exaggerating, but seriously, finals in New Zealand were anything but pleasant.  I took four courses in New Zealand.  To refresh anyone’s memory who has been reading my blogs and following along on this epic journey of my life, those courses were: 1) Global History; 2) Gandhi, India and the World; 3) Visual Perception; and 4) Business Environment Tourism.

I took 80 steps to campus each morning

 Courses are either internally or externally assessed in New Zealand.  If I had understood this when I selected my classes last December, I would have put forth more effort to pick internally assessed courses.  From my understanding (I could be wrong), internally assessed courses have a final the last week of classes and the final is not worth as much.  For example, my “Gandhi, India and the World” class was internally assessed.  My final for that course was only worth 25 percent of my final grade.  This is typically what I am used to from going to college in the Wisconsin for the majority of college career—with New Zealand being the only exception.  On the other hand, externally assessed courses have finals during a 3.5 week finals period.  That’s right, you read it right: 3.5 weeks of finals!  Unfortunately for me, three of my classes were externally assessed and carried a much larger percentage of my final grade—50, 50 and 60 percent to be exact.  Needless to say, I could not take finals lightly and the last 2.5 weeks I spent in New Zealand were not full of fun and adventure like I was hoping for.

The library on campus

 When I start a semester of classes at UWL, I instantly know what my entire semester will look like as well as what day my final will be held.  This was not the case in New Zealand.  In fact, I did not know my finals schedule until nearly May.  I found this to be rather frustrating because it was hard for me to plan trips.  Plus, I had my heart set on going somewhere in Australia, so that limited any amount of traveling that could occur during the finals period, or “finals month” as my friends and I all called it.  I was hoping I would get lucky, and that all of my finals would be at the beginning of the finals period.  This way I would be able to spend more of those 3.5 remaining weeks relaxing and taking day trips or extended trips around New Zealand.  Finals ended on July 4^th.  I was unlucky and had finals on June 22^nd, July 2^nd, and July 3^rd.  Translation: I could not have had a worse schedule.  That’s why I took my trip to Cairns early, and I remained in Wellington those last 2.5 weeks.  Aside from the large amount of studying I had to do, those last 2.5 weeks are what hold some of my fondest memories of my time in New Zealand with the amazing friends I made (a future post to come on this).

I had my tourism class in this building

I am not going to elaborate on how incredibly frustrating finals were for me.  However, I will tell you a little bit more about how they are ran.  When final times were posted towards the beginning of May, I knew when, where, and what time they were being held.  All of my finals were in different rooms compared to where I attended lecture.  Luckily for me, they were still on the campus that I had the class at, but some of my other friends had to go to a completely different campus for finals—a huge inconvenience.  All of my finals were at 2:30 pm because the university I studied at only had two final times per day (a little unnecessary if you ask me).  Two of my finals were three hours long, while the other was two.  With the exception of one of my finals, I had to two essay finals.  To sum things up, I will be coming home with some higher quality study habits because studying for essay finals is way more intense than any other final I’ve ever experienced.

I had Visual Perception in Hunter Building

If a student is smart, you arrive at the room where your final is held at least 15 minutes prior to it starting.  This allowed ample time to be checked in (I had to bring my student ID with me), ditch my bags (inclusive of my iPod and cell phone) at the front of the room to avoid academic penalties, and find a spot to take the exam.  Exam booklets were laid out around the giant lecture halls, and I had to sit where they were placed.  I could only have pens, pencils, a clear water bottle, and a clear pencil case with me.  Oh, and I had to leave my ID face up the entire time for the people who ran the exams to randomly check to make sure it was still me (because somehow someone else could randomly appear to take my final).  Once I completed the exam, I had to be checked out and show them my ID one last time.  Basically, my rampage that I am on is that the finals in New Zealand are more intense than the ACT’s I took my junior year of high school. 

 The good news is that I survived all my finals.  I would like to thank anyone who took the time to read this rather boring blog, but it was part of my experience here in New Zealand so I felt it was important to talk about.  Also, I just wanted to complain about how much I did not like the school system in New Zealand, and I will forever be thankful for the education I received and will receive in Wisconsin.  I like the system much better!