Friday, May 17, 2013

Finals Week

“Final exams start tomorrow at W&J - how did or how will your final exams compare to those you’ve had at W&J? Will they be cumulative, multiple choice, or will a paper replace an exam? What classes were most enjoyable or useful and why?” 

My final exams at UPO were much less challenging than my final exams at W&J. My Intercultural Communications exam was last week, and it was a combination of short answer and multiple choice questions on material that we’ve covered since the midterm. This was probably the hardest test compared to my other finals, because there were a lot of tricky questions. I love my Communications major, but I was so happy to be finished with this class. I thought that the structure, or lack there of one, made the class very confusing. I’m the type of person who likes to be organized and have an exact schedule, which made this class my least favorite of all because it was the complete opposite.

My oral exam on Tuesday for my Spanish conversation class went very well! I studied by looking over the topics that I would be discussing with my professor the following day. Fortunately, I only had to prepare for the material that we covered after the midterm for this class as well. The worst part of that morning was the fact that the metro stopped working on my way to school, so I was stuck in a standstill for 15 minutes which made me almost miss my time slot. As soon as I arrived at school, I sprinted to the classroom, turning what is normally a 12-15 minute walk into 6-8 minute run. When I finally arrived, I was three minutes late and sweating profusely, but luckily the oral exams were running behind schedule anyway. I really enjoyed this class throughout the semester; my teacher was really sweet, and I could tell that my Spanish really improved.

I had my Historical Ties between the U.S. and Spain exam on Wednesday, and it could not have gone any better. To prepare, I spent a few hours writing out a detailed study guide of what I would write in my essay. For the exam, I had the choice of writing a four page paper about everything that I learned in the first half of the semester from Spain’s colonial rule in North America up until the U.S. gained independence in the 19th century or a detailed summary of the Spanish American War in 1898, throughout Franco’s dictatorship, up until the present day. I chose the first option and nailed it. I only missed three small bullet points from my entire study guide. It definitely helped that this class was taught in English (my only one), because I learned so much more about the history of Spain from this class than any other class I’ve ever taken in the past. 

My last exam at UPO was on Thursday for my Pragmatics class. This exam was also cumulative so I prepared by making a study guide and looking over my notes from the entire semester. This exam was composed of 20 short answer questions, and it wasn’t too bad either. My professor for this class is the same one that I had for my history class as well; I couldn’t have gotten more lucky! He was a great teacher and really made sure that we were understanding the information, by reviewing often. I’ll definitely miss him upon my return to W&J.

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