“Study”ing Abroad

As I sit here and scroll through my past blog entries, I realized that I think my life in Oz is very misconceived through my blog. I’ve been updating in much detail about all of my exciting weekend adventures and travels, but have seemed to have left out what I do the other 4 days of the week. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying my time in Australia very much; however, it is not all the fun and glamor that the blog makes it appear. There is that whole “study” part of Study Abroad, remember that?

The education system in Australia is much different from the US. Students typically take 4 classes, which is about the same as home; however, they’re set up much differently. Instead of having the same class for about 1- 1.5 hours a day for 2 or 3 days a week, you have a 2 hour lecture one day a week and a 1 hour tutorial one day a week. The lecture is typically about 200 students (depending on the class) and there is a lot of info thrown at you in the 2 hours. Luckily, all the professors put the PowerPoint slides on Blackboard so you don’t have to furiously jot down notes. Another major difference is that instead of having numerous assignments throughout the semester to turn in, you typically have one small paper and one large research paper which make up almost your entire grade for the semester. You still have A LOT of readings and homework to do for class each week, however nothing is collected or graded. Your corresponding tutorial is for one hour, once a week and is typically the same day as that class’s lecture. Most tutorials have a max of 22 people and either a different professor or a student teacher runs them. In your tutorial you can ask questions and it is much more discussion based. For most classes about 10-15% of your grade is based on tutorial attendance and participation. I much prefer the tutorials because its more like what I’m use to at Elmhurst! Finally, one more difference in the education system is the grading scale. If you receive a 50% on a paper, then you just got the US equivalent of a C. And if you received an 85% then you got the US equivalent of an A+. I’ve heard that the professors here grade much more difficult than in the US, but I guess I’ll have to update you on that once I get my first paper back….

Like I mentioned, typically most students take 4 classes a semester here. However, I chose to do a program that AustraLearn offered called the “Study/Internship Combo.” This means that I only take 2 classes instead of 4, and I spend 120 hours of my semester working at an internship which transfers back as credit equivalent to 2 classes. I’ll explain that more in a little bit. The first class that I’m taking is an English course called “Australian Popular Culture.” This is my favorite of the two classes. In general, we study how Australia is portrayed in various forms of popular culture such as TV shows, movies, commercials, books, literature, etc. This class is actually an exception to the format I described above because this is what they call a “session class.” That means that this class caps off at 50 students and there is no tutorial because discussions and questions can be asked during the class. The second class that I’m taking is a history class, “Australia in the 20th Century.” I never enjoyed studying history in the states, and that hasn’t changed much over here either. I’ve actually been having some trouble with this class because most of the information is common knowledge to the Australian students because they have been learning it since 3rd grade, whereas I’m hearing everything for the first time. In addition, the professor who runs the lecture has an extremely thick accent that I find difficult to follow for 2 hours. Luckily, the tutorial has been helping me understand the information a little bit better.

For my internship, I work in The University of Newcastle’s International Education Office. I intern for about 8 hours a week, so I just decided to do one full day on Thursdays. The first few weeks I worked in the office in downtown Newcastle, which was kinda inconvenient because I had to take the train into town (and pay for the train!). When I was there I was learning about how Newcastle markets themselves to international students like me who want to study at Newcastle (whether that be for a semester, year, full degree, or grad school). I worked on updating information about Newcastle which was sent to websites such as AustraLearn. However, the past few weeks I’ve been working at the office on campus, which I’ve been enjoying much more. This office designed for outgoing exchange or Australian students who want to study abroad. It’s actually very interesting that Newcastle receives approximately 5,000 international students each year but only about 200 Newcastle students study abroad each year. So in this office I’ve been working on redesigning brochures and websites to better promote study abroad as an option to Australians.

So there ya have it. Monday through Thursdays in Australia typically consist of lectures, tutorials, reading, researching, paper writing, interning, laundry, grocery shopping, and all those other boring things students must do. In addition, a lot of people don’t realize how much research and planning has to happen BEFORE my weekend travels, especially on a budget. Between different bus companies, trains, and airports, sometimes simply researching the cheapest way to GET somewhere can take a few hours out of my night. And we all know that after my Sydney hostel experience, I will happily take the time to read almost every hostel in the city’s reviews before choosing the best option.

While Monday is the first day of class for most colleges back home, it is the beginning of Week 6 of class for me. That means that the first week of November is the last week of class for the semester. Unlike the states where there is a week of finals, in Australia finals are spread out over the entire month of November. Our mid-semester holiday (spring break) is in exactly one month, so I’ll be busy until then writing 2 large research papers before I scurry up the east coast for 2 weeks.

I just uploaded heaps of pictures onto my Photobucket. Check it out! More updates soon to come :)