Going into this semester, I knew that Ireland\u2019s school structure would be a bit different, but I didn\u2019t realize how noticeable these changes would be to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First off – registration. Class registration doesn\u2019t happen not only until you show up on campus, but (for international students) a week into classes! Over the summer you can get approval for classes, but you don\u2019t actually register until a week in. This was pretty stressful for me because I wasn\u2019t sure what to do for the first week of classes – do you go to all the classes you got approval for? What if there are time conflicts and you can\u2019t go to all of them? And then during those introductory classes I was informed of lab and tutorial times – additional class times that are not included on the class schedule. AKA I thought I had Fridays off, but that\u2019s just because my lab was a surprise granted to me on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, now that I\u2019ve gotten registered and settled into my routine, this stress has passed and I\u2019ve been really enjoying my classes, though class structures are still different than what I\u2019m used to. Before this semester the largest class I\u2019d ever been in was in the 28-33 students range. Now I\u2019m in classes with upwards of 60, 70 people. The biggest change that comes with these larger classes is the decrease in and often complete lack of class participation. On the one hand, as a person who loathes mandatory participation, I\u2019m thrilled. However, I do find myself missing additional input and questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where tutorials come in. For my classes, only one has a tutorial, but they are apparently fairly common, especially for first year classes. Basically, tutorials are smaller groups of students (about 15) who meet with a tutor weekly. The tutor leads discussion based classes that focus on student input and questions. These are pretty nice because they help you meet people – which is a bit difficult in large classes – and allow for a place to ask all your questions about both the class and assignments. However, and I believe this is just my small classes background speaking, but so far I\u2019m still unclear what tutorials provide that the lectures don\u2019t. Because while people rarely ask questions, they\u2019re not forbidden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, classes aren\u2019t scheduled in a Monday\/Wednesday\/Friday or Tuesday\/Thursday fashion. Most of my classes take place solely once a week in two hour chunks, but one of my classes takes place at 10am and at 4pm on Monday, which has been an adjustment. My classes that are held over multiple days are at different times and in different buildings each day. One is Monday at 11, Tuesday at 10, and Wednesday at 2, with Monday\u2019s class being held in a different building than the other two. While this setup has allowed me to go to more buildings across campus, I often forget which place and time my class is supposed to be at on a given day. This is thankfully becoming less of a problem the more familiar I become with my schedule though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another fun fact, in Ireland fall exams are typically held in early January after Christmas break. Since I\u2019m only here for the semester though, my classes are changing the weight of my assignments for my final grade. For example in two weeks I\u2019m turning in an essay that for some of my classmates counts for 20% of their grades, but is 40% of mine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I\u2019m exactly halfway through the semester, I\u2019ve gotten fairly used to my class schedule and teachers, but I still haven\u2019t taken many tests\/quizzes or turned in many assignments so I\u2019m hesitant to discuss the difficulty of my classes. While none of them seem impossibly difficult, I\u2019ve only gotten one grade back, so I don\u2019t know if I actually have a handle on these classes or not. And since they\u2019re fairly large classes with little participation, it\u2019s hard to ask my teachers about how I\u2019m doing too. And while I\u2019m very worried about grades and gpa, I\u2019m enjoying my classes and still looking forward to the second half of the semester!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Going into this semester, I knew that Ireland\u2019s school structure would be a bit different, but I didn\u2019t realize how noticeable these changes would be to me. First off – registration. Class registration doesn\u2019t happen not only until you show up on campus, but (for international students) a week into classes! Over the summer you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":580,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[369],"class_list":["post-18897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maynooth","tag-rollinsabroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/580"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18900,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18897\/revisions\/18900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}