I know that this is going to sound terribly cliche, but time truly has flown by and I cannot believe that it is already my last week of classes at Swinburne University. The semester only lasts for twelve weeks, but it feels like it has only been about a month since I started studying here. As I reflect on my last week of classes, there is a lot going through my mind. Lucky for me, most of my large assignments were due a couple of weeks ago so now I only have two tests and one presentation left to do. With a not-so-busy schedule, I have been able to take time and think about how grateful I am for the experience I have had at Swinburne University. I have absolutely loved my time studying here and cannot picture having gone anywhere else. Although I do not love all of my classes, I have had the chance to learn a lot in the classroom and in this experience as a whole.
My favorite class, this semester, has been one about Indigenous Australians Experience. When I arrived in Melbourne, I felt completely lost in that class, but that was sort of a feeling that I was seeking. I knew that I was completely ignorant about Australian history, and thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to learn more about the topic. I learned so much in this unit and feel like this new historical knowledge has been and will be invaluable for me. This class was incredibly dynamic, including lectures, discussions, as well as field trips throughout Melbourne and the state of Victoria. If you have the opportunity to take a history class about the place that you are going to study abroad in, I highly recommend doing so because it will give you great context and insight into the contemporary reality of the place where you are living.
Regarding the actual final exam period, it is pretty different here compared to Northeastern University. Firstly, the university takes much longer to release the exam dates. We were only told when exams would be held during week ten, which does not allow for a lot of time to plan something between the end of classes and your exams. Secondly, the exam period runs for much longer than at Northeastern, as it runs for a bit longer than two weeks. Other universities around here, such as the University of Melbourne, have an even longer time period for exams. Additionally, instead of having only one day as reading day, there is a full week here between the end of classes and the first possible exam date.
I was lucky enough to have an exam, the only one that is actually during the exam period, towards the beginning of the month. That way, I can be done sooner than most students and do not have to spend weeks worrying about just one exam. I have yet to take an official final at Swinburne, but my friends that were here last semester have told me that it is a really weird experience because the tests are held at the Marvel Stadium. The Marvel Stadium, also referred to as the Docklands Stadium, is actually a sports and entertainment venue, sort of like the TD Garden. My friends explained to me that on the day of your exam you actually take your test with hundreds of people at the same time, all of whom may or may not be taking the same exam as you. They compared the experience to that of taking the SATs or an AP exam. This seemed really odd to me at first because my university here is not that large so I do not understand why this process needs to be held elsewhere and why the time period needs to be so long.
Regardless, there are also some components of this process that are similar to how the exam period is run at Northeastern. For example, the allotted time for the exams is two hours, and the test will be comprised mostly of multiple choice questions with a few short answers. This is fairly similar to what my exams were like at NU, but I really do not know what to expect from taking them at such a different location, which I was told felt pretty stressful.
As my last classes wrap up this week, I need to spend some time studying for my exam as well as starting to say goodbye to Melbourne, something I am truly not ready to do yet.
