HPU's Students Abroad Blog: Good Luck with Finals Everyone!

Monday, June 9, 2014

Good Luck with Finals Everyone!

Well it is that time for most of us I believe, when hours of studying and little daylight dominates our lives haha! I have just over 2 weeks left here in Australia and finals have started today. Luckily for me though, my finals aren't until next week which has allowed me to have 2 weeks of study time rather than the mandatory one week designated by the school. Preparing for finals here isn't really that different for me. I do have to admit though, the grading out here is really tough and the exam requirements are strict. Unlike back at HPU, we MUST have all forms of ID to be allowed into the testing room! If you forget, you can kiss your chances and passing the class good-bye because here at JCU, you must have at least a 50% in the class WITH over 40% on the final exam...if you have only one of these requirements, you fail the class! The good thing about this though is that it is really hard to fail a course out here. While skyping some of my friends back home, we joked around and were kind of irritated by the fact that the European grading system seems more "relaxed" than back in the US. For example:

Australia (also the UK)

100-70=A (HD)
69-60=B (D)
59-50=C (C)
49-40=D (P)
<40=F (N)

I'm pretty confident that I can pass all of my courses out here though, so there is not much to worry about :) But what I always like to do before I buckle down and start studying relentlessly is go out for a nice walk or hike. It truly winter here and boy is it cold! It has been raining for two days now, but luckily I was able to go on a hike when the sun was still shining. There aren't many hikes out here you can do, being that Australia is geologically and continuously flat with scattered highlands. So my brother and I occasionally go out to Castle Hill which a really nice and energetic hike to do.