Wrapping up the Semester

December 2011

Just like any other academic institution, UNC has exams at the end of the semester (yeah, I know – what’s that all about?!). It has been very interesting observing the differences between how UNC does its exams compared to other places such as Manchester or my secondary school (high school for you Americans!). The first major difference (and this is major) is that at UNC the exams are done before the Christmas break rather than afterwards, which is what I am used to after years and years of exams after Christmas. This does have its advantages (I have a proper Christmas for the first time since I was like 15 – luuuurvely!), but also its drawbacks in that everyone at home is studying for their various finals, and you have less time to revise. Not that I’m really complaining due the fact I will actually get a Christmas!

I had a total of three exams over the 10 days of the exam period, and I was quite lucky that they were pretty spaced out. I did hear some horror stories of people having 4 exams in one day which they had to rearrange. I was totally bewildered by the exam process at UNC – to say it was completely different to Manchester is probably an understatement! Firstly, as I have said before, there is no such concept as anonymous marking. Our names are written on all the exam papers, which in turn are marked by the professor of that class. So if you managed to piss that professor off in the semester, the chances are your mark will be affected as they would know who you are. Awkward right… Second biggest difference with Manchester is the fact that in exams one can get up and seemingly leave the room during the exam and then come back. During all my exams people were getting up to go to the toilet and fill up their water bottles etc. I was just astounded at this. The potential for cheating is phenomenal – anyone could hide notes in the toilets! Furthermore, the potential for copying off others is huge too. Exams are generally conducted in the classrooms the classes are taken, and so everyone sits next to each other. Added to this is the fact that in many of my professors fell asleep or left the room during these exams, so im so surprised more people arnt caught cheating to be honest. But then again, if the professor has fest the room I suppose they cant see anyone to catch!

Streaking at UNC in the Undergrad Library

Another interesting aspect of the exam period was the (sort of) party atmosphere of finals too. It seemed that Americans don’t really party throughout the whole semester (generally speaking here), and then suddenly went mental! The evening before every study day (that’s a day without any exams in case you didn’t realise…) there was some sort of event going on on campus. The two main ‘traditional’ events were streaking by students from the library around campus, and a ‘rave’. I missed the streaking as I forgot about it, but apparently it was a sight to behold! I did attend the rave with Lexi however, which was interesting, with a couple of hundred students filling the “Pit” in the middle of campus. With a DJ and proper lights was quite fun, although a bit mental with everyone packing into a smaller space jumping around like absolute muppets (ok, yeah I did join in…). the whole 15mins of the rave was ended with some good old collegiate pride in a rousing chorus of the UNC fight song (don’t worry, if you’re not at UNC you probably won’t have heard of it). Originally this rave was held in the Davis library, but due to ‘elf and safety (see what I did there?!) it had to be relocated to outside. Nice to see us Brits aren’t the only ones dogged by crappy bureaucracy…

The Rave

The end of exams was a drunken affair (obviously!) with me, Fiona and Harriet, joined by Lexie, going for a drink after our last exam (at like 11am…) and were promptly judged to hell and back by the waitress for drinking before 12 and not having any food. Sod it, we needed a bit of British culture! The next two nights won’t be dwelt on too much. Probably because I don’t remember them that much. I will say however that Lexi tried to match me drink for drink, and failed. Miserably… 

It was sad to have to say some goodbyes however, with Jess and Lexie from the Pritchard household studying abroad next semester in Seville and Edinburgh respectively. If you two are reading this – it’s been a blast getting to know you and hopefully we will bump into each other again in the not too distant future! Thank you so much for taking me in and helping me settle in at UNC and coming out and partying with me! I have to say I think my best memory of you two is crammed into the back of Lexis car singing (well, I'm not sure if singing is the word but we’ll go with it!) at the top of your voices to this song.  It will always remind me of you two crazy lasses! Furthermore, many of the Aussies and Kiwis I’ve gotten to know over the semester had to leave too, as their time abroad was only for a semester. Again, it’s been a blast guys with the nights out we’ve had together, stay in touch and give us a shout whenever you’re next in London/Manchester (if I’m there that is!!) – Because you know I will be to you when I’m Down Under!

Gonna miss these two mad Pritch-ers

Saying goodbye (to those who are staying)

With the Down Under-ers in Topo

It’s weird to have realised that I have spent 4 months in the States now. But I am definitely am looking forward to getting home for a few weeks and see my mates and my family. And eat some fish and chips and have a proper pint in a proper pub!

These pictures from the last week in Pritch were just waaay too funny to not put in (sorry John!)

Academic Rant to Manchester

November 2011

As part of my Study Abroad Programme, I have to write a few things for Manchester, whilst at UNC. Below is the first assignment, written in a (slightly more formal!) diary style about the academic process at UNC. Seeing as I have no photos to do with academics, I have put a couple of photos in of the UNC campus in the Fall (not all are mine, some of the ones I wanted to put up didn't come out well unfortunately - thanks to Pip for some of them!)

"It’s been an interesting experience coming to a different university, in a different country and comparing aspects of the place to Manchester. In the USA, and in particular at the University of North Carolina, the academic system of both teaching and assesmnet is different than at Manchester, requiring a need to adapt to a new academic system, similar to the progression from secondary school to university in the UK. Whilst I naively thought I would cope with this change, thinking that surely academic assessment could not be THAT different between different academic institutions, I was proven to be rather wrong!

Wilson Library

Davis Library - clearly spend a lot of time in here...

South Building

The most shocking difference (to me at least) is the fact that a portion of the overall grade awarded is based on attendance and class participation. This really took be by surprise as coming from Manchester where the attitude is more of a “don’t turn up don’t do well; your choice”, and I have struggled with the concept of being graded on my participation within the class. Especially when everyone else wants to get a good participation grade, therefore leading to an almost Hermione Granger-esque situation where everyone is clamouring for attention from the Professor. In some classes this participation and attendance grade can count up to 15% of the overall grade, which means it’s quite important to attend every class, even if at times it seems a waste of time because the professor has left a TA do to the teaching for that day. 

The marking scheme in general is a lot different than Manchester’s one too. Where as in Manchester there may be two or three assignments which are generally longer and carry a higher grade weighting, at UNC there is a much greater amount of assignments set, but each carries a much smaller grade weighting. Whilst on the surface I thought this seemed a good idea, the smaller grade worth per assignment means less chance of skewing the overall grade if it doesn’t quite go to plan, it conversely has led to assignments being unequally weighted, with some of the ones I have received being having the same percentage of overall grade, yet one may take 4 hours to do and another only 30minutes. I have to admit that the greater number of smaller assignments does mean students are forced to keep on top of their work, and one cannot do what is typically done in Manchester with essays left to the last week and blitzed in a massive work session. Similarly, monthly quizzes (known as Mid-terms) also force students to make sure they are keeping on top of the subject, and these midterms can count to as much as 15% of the overall grade too, and so are treated in the same way as finals.

However, I have found that by having these regular assignments, the work tends to be a lot more prescriptive and doesn’t allow for as much free thought and development of ideas, simply because there isn’t the time to do outside reading and think about what one is writing to the same extent as in Manchester. In fact many of the assessments and quizzes I have been set have simply required regurgitation of facts and figures, rather than the development of an argument. Furthermore, I have heard horror stories of it being finals week and students having essays set to be in the same week, or mid-terms the day before the final, which to me seems paradoxical to the learning environment in that they aren’t given enough time to actually do the work to the best of their ability. Now whilst some would say that time management is key in these situations, there’s only so much time management one can have when you have a Mid-term on the Monday, a final on the Friday and an essay set the week before due the Thursday all for the same class!

Sorority Houses

In terms of the actual assessment of assignments and quizzes, the mark scheme is completely different to Manchester. UNC uses an interesting marking scheme that I’m not 100% sure how it works. I think it is a negative marking scheme, so marks are deducted from the actual score for every wrong answer, yet it is not uncommon for someone to gain more marks than allocated (for example 33/30) simply for going above what was required of the question. It is even stated within class syllabi that extra credits can be gained from completing x, y and z, making it possible to get a mark of above 100% in some classes. To me that is crazy!

To me my biggest gripe with the UNC system is its lack of feedback. I have come to realise that at Manchester we are very lucky with a formal laid out feedback system which guarantees fairly detailed feedback within a certain time frame. At UNC this is not the case, with me waiting upwards to 2 months for feedback on some assignments, which would have benefited me enormously in the subsequent assessments. Furthermore, a lot of feedback received is simply a mark, with no comments on what could be improved or how. Obviously, I don’t know if this is simply the professors I have had this semester, but comments from other international students has led me to believe this may not be the case.

Around Campus

It is interesting to hear the terminology used to describe these assignments too – referred to as ‘homework’ rather than “coursework” or “essays”, more commonly used in Manchester, which sounds like one is still in secondary school again. To me, being a UNC does at times feel like I am back in secondary school, which is hard to adjust to after two years of pretty much being left to what you want at Manchester. I feel that the difference in academic assessment, as well as other parts of the academic culture at UNC, has led me to become slightly infuriated with the system as a whole. Although I have to recognise that I am writing this at the end of a very long semester (16 weeks compared to Manchester’s 12), and as such may not be looking at the UNC system in the most favourable light, I still find that I have (intellectually) enjoyed myself more at Manchester, and I don’t think I could cope with studying at UNC for 4 years. Having said that also, I do enjoy the courses I am taking here, and it is great experience seeing a different way of teaching and assessment in another country, yet I feel that it isn’t the best method for my own style of learning."

The Chapel on the Hill