Second Year University Round-Up
Eight exams. Five practicals. One year.
In simple statistics, that sums up my second year in university. But it felt like a lifetime, and certainly the most gruelling year I've had in university so far. For those who are new to my blog or aren't subscribed to my Youtube channel, I'm striving for a Bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry at the University of Greifswald in Greifswald, Germany.
In total, I had four practicals in a span of 6 months; two within the lecture time (Vorlesungszeit), and two more in the lecture-free time (Vorlesungsfreiezeit). Learn about the difference in my blog post about the common terms used in german universities and what they mean). This amounts to spent 10 hours a week (1,5 days) in the lab for 15 weeks during the Vorlesungszeit and 3 whole weeks in the Vorlesungsfreiezeit.
I had the organic chemistry and the physical chemistry practicals in the Vorlesungszeit. The organic chemistry practicals was done up to Christmas, and the physical chemistry was done after New Year's up to the end of the Vorlesungszeit.
In the Vorlesungsfreiezeit I had the genetics as well as biochemistry practicals. This time around, they are done in a so-called Blockpraktikum, which meant I had to be in the lab five days a week and for the whole day (8 am - 4 pm). The genetics practicals lasted a week, while the biochemistry lasted for two.
It wasn't so much the lab hours that made my third semester exhausting. In fact, I love doing lab work. But to be able to do the experiments properly I had to read about the experiment beforehand and actually understands what I'll be doing. And after the actual experiment, I had to sit down with my lab partner to do our report and eventually, the corrections to the report.
The writing of the report was certainly the most time consuming part of practicals, with each experiment getting detailed explanation that more times than not I had a lot of trouble understanding myself. Thankfully I had my friends to help me out, and we usually sit down together in a big group to do the reports.
I wrote five exams in my third semester; the most I've done so far in one semester. It might not sound a lot to those who doesn't study in a german university, but in Germany, the exams (Klausuren) is a big deal. More often than not it determines the grade of the modules themselves, so there is a big pressure to pass.
Each exam is different, depending on the module and of course, the style of the professor's. Read more about the exam season in Germany.
In my third semester, I sat down for the following exams : Genetics, Microbiology, Introduction to Animal and Human Physiology, Organic Chemistry, and Physical Chemistry.
The biology exams (Genetics, Microbiology, Animal and Human Physiology) are mostly multiple-choice exams, but it does not make them any easier. In the case of Animal and Human Physiology, it made it even worse, as there were no partial points given.
I met my downfall in Animal and Human Physiology. For the first time in my university career, I failed an exam. It was a scary experience, because even though I know what would happen (taking the re-test either in the beginning of my fourth semester or at the end of my fifth semester), it made me afraid of failing for the second time. Telling my parents about it was another big pressure, because I hated having to disappoint them.
I ended up sitting (and passing) for the re-test at the beginning of my fourth semester, and in the end, the experience made me realise that while it was unpleasant, it was certainly educational. I learned to bounce back from a failure and had gotten a lot of support from my friends.
The chemistry exams are a bit trickier, as we had to wrote down a complete thought process in complete sentences for each question (like essay-typed questions). This is where my study group came into play.
The biggest part of my third semester was definitely studying with my friends. We practically sat down every day before or after (or even in between) classes to study for our exams, and to write down our practicals reports as well. I can safely say that without them, I wouldn't have passed my chemistry exams.
For each subject we had one of us who are deemed the best at the subject as the 'tutor' who would explain theories and or problems that we would have on the subject, as well as walking us through sample questions. This worked out great, as in the end almost all of us passed our exams with very decent grades.
I had loved studying together with my friends not just because I get to understand my classes better, but also because it really bonded us together. Sitting for hours on end in the cafeteria, sipping on coffee, talking, and playing cards in between our studies were something I would remember forever. It was also not unusual to find us laughing loudly about a joke or sometimes about our own predicament of being exhausted all the time.
PS : My third semester was actually pretty well documented through my 2017 Vlogtober and Vlogmas on my Youtube channel.
Despite being somewhat less demanding than my third semester, I found myself drained and unable to focus for anything during my fourth semester. To be completely honest, I was even unwilling to care in the slightest about my classes, during the bare minimum to skate by, and even worse putting in very little effort to study for my exams; even though I knew I had to, I was simply unable to bring myself to do it.
A lot of that was probably caused by having very little free time in between my third and fourth semester. With three weeks taken up by the practicals in the Vorlesungsfreiezeit, I had only two weeks off, and most of them were used to write up reports for the practicals. The rest were used to study for the re-test of my Animal and Human Physiology exam and my Microbiology exam, which I opted to take in April instead of February to lessen my study burden a little.
At the beginning of my fourth semester, I simply felt burnt out. When I think back on it, it really was shameful, the way I just 'gave up' on my studies, but at the time, I was even unable to care. I felt exhausted and trapped; I haven't left the city for months and had very little time to have fun. My only respite were my friends and writing for this blog, even Youtube were starting to cause even more panic and pressure, as I was neglecting it to study for my third semester exams.
I had only one practical in my fourth semester, for Animal Physiology. Even this one practical required me and my lab group to sit down at least for a day together and finishing the rest of our report at home, usually taking up the better half of my weekend. For 3 hours a week we had to scramble and do an average of 5 experiments in a day, and most of the time, we were the test subjects. From testing our blood, heart, skin, hearing, and sight, we (quite literally) did it all.
In my fourth semester I sat down for three exams : Microbial Physiology and Molecular Biology, Molecular Structure and Chemical Bonding, and Biochemistry.
By some miracle (that most likely includes my friends), I passed all of my exams, despite getting lower grades than I would've liked.
In our fourth semester, my friends and I still meet up at least once a week for studying, and every other week for barbecue and spending time at the beach.
I also got to travel out of the city twice, once to Hanover for a conference I was a committee of, and to Berlin for a tourist day, and overall improvement to my third semester. I'm also very grateful to have done my internship last year instead of this year, as I'm sure I would've been even more burnt out if I didn't.
In the end I'm glad that my second year is now behind me. I went through it with a few scrapes and bruises, but after my summer of travelling and relaxing, I'm now more than ready and excited to start my final year of my bachelor's studies.
xo,
Maria
In simple statistics, that sums up my second year in university. But it felt like a lifetime, and certainly the most gruelling year I've had in university so far. For those who are new to my blog or aren't subscribed to my Youtube channel, I'm striving for a Bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry at the University of Greifswald in Greifswald, Germany.
Third Semester (Winter term : October 2017 - March 2018)
My third semester was set to be the most rigorous semester in my bachelor course even before it started. The list of classes I'll be taking was not impossible, but the amount of work that I'll be doing for them certainly seems so.Practicals
In total, I had four practicals in a span of 6 months; two within the lecture time (Vorlesungszeit), and two more in the lecture-free time (Vorlesungsfreiezeit). Learn about the difference in my blog post about the common terms used in german universities and what they mean). This amounts to spent 10 hours a week (1,5 days) in the lab for 15 weeks during the Vorlesungszeit and 3 whole weeks in the Vorlesungsfreiezeit.
I had the organic chemistry and the physical chemistry practicals in the Vorlesungszeit. The organic chemistry practicals was done up to Christmas, and the physical chemistry was done after New Year's up to the end of the Vorlesungszeit.
In the Vorlesungsfreiezeit I had the genetics as well as biochemistry practicals. This time around, they are done in a so-called Blockpraktikum, which meant I had to be in the lab five days a week and for the whole day (8 am - 4 pm). The genetics practicals lasted a week, while the biochemistry lasted for two.
It wasn't so much the lab hours that made my third semester exhausting. In fact, I love doing lab work. But to be able to do the experiments properly I had to read about the experiment beforehand and actually understands what I'll be doing. And after the actual experiment, I had to sit down with my lab partner to do our report and eventually, the corrections to the report.
The writing of the report was certainly the most time consuming part of practicals, with each experiment getting detailed explanation that more times than not I had a lot of trouble understanding myself. Thankfully I had my friends to help me out, and we usually sit down together in a big group to do the reports.
 |
| Sometimes I also escaped to the library to concentrate (and borrow books) |
Exams
I wrote five exams in my third semester; the most I've done so far in one semester. It might not sound a lot to those who doesn't study in a german university, but in Germany, the exams (Klausuren) is a big deal. More often than not it determines the grade of the modules themselves, so there is a big pressure to pass.
Each exam is different, depending on the module and of course, the style of the professor's. Read more about the exam season in Germany.
In my third semester, I sat down for the following exams : Genetics, Microbiology, Introduction to Animal and Human Physiology, Organic Chemistry, and Physical Chemistry.
The biology exams (Genetics, Microbiology, Animal and Human Physiology) are mostly multiple-choice exams, but it does not make them any easier. In the case of Animal and Human Physiology, it made it even worse, as there were no partial points given.
I met my downfall in Animal and Human Physiology. For the first time in my university career, I failed an exam. It was a scary experience, because even though I know what would happen (taking the re-test either in the beginning of my fourth semester or at the end of my fifth semester), it made me afraid of failing for the second time. Telling my parents about it was another big pressure, because I hated having to disappoint them.
I ended up sitting (and passing) for the re-test at the beginning of my fourth semester, and in the end, the experience made me realise that while it was unpleasant, it was certainly educational. I learned to bounce back from a failure and had gotten a lot of support from my friends.
The chemistry exams are a bit trickier, as we had to wrote down a complete thought process in complete sentences for each question (like essay-typed questions). This is where my study group came into play.
 |
| My third semester overview of exam dates and deadlines |
Study Group
The biggest part of my third semester was definitely studying with my friends. We practically sat down every day before or after (or even in between) classes to study for our exams, and to write down our practicals reports as well. I can safely say that without them, I wouldn't have passed my chemistry exams.
For each subject we had one of us who are deemed the best at the subject as the 'tutor' who would explain theories and or problems that we would have on the subject, as well as walking us through sample questions. This worked out great, as in the end almost all of us passed our exams with very decent grades.
I had loved studying together with my friends not just because I get to understand my classes better, but also because it really bonded us together. Sitting for hours on end in the cafeteria, sipping on coffee, talking, and playing cards in between our studies were something I would remember forever. It was also not unusual to find us laughing loudly about a joke or sometimes about our own predicament of being exhausted all the time.
PS : My third semester was actually pretty well documented through my 2017 Vlogtober and Vlogmas on my Youtube channel.
Fourth Semester (Summer term : April - September 2018)
Despite being somewhat less demanding than my third semester, I found myself drained and unable to focus for anything during my fourth semester. To be completely honest, I was even unwilling to care in the slightest about my classes, during the bare minimum to skate by, and even worse putting in very little effort to study for my exams; even though I knew I had to, I was simply unable to bring myself to do it.
A lot of that was probably caused by having very little free time in between my third and fourth semester. With three weeks taken up by the practicals in the Vorlesungsfreiezeit, I had only two weeks off, and most of them were used to write up reports for the practicals. The rest were used to study for the re-test of my Animal and Human Physiology exam and my Microbiology exam, which I opted to take in April instead of February to lessen my study burden a little.
At the beginning of my fourth semester, I simply felt burnt out. When I think back on it, it really was shameful, the way I just 'gave up' on my studies, but at the time, I was even unable to care. I felt exhausted and trapped; I haven't left the city for months and had very little time to have fun. My only respite were my friends and writing for this blog, even Youtube were starting to cause even more panic and pressure, as I was neglecting it to study for my third semester exams.
 |
| My study schedule for the last few weeks before exams |
I had only one practical in my fourth semester, for Animal Physiology. Even this one practical required me and my lab group to sit down at least for a day together and finishing the rest of our report at home, usually taking up the better half of my weekend. For 3 hours a week we had to scramble and do an average of 5 experiments in a day, and most of the time, we were the test subjects. From testing our blood, heart, skin, hearing, and sight, we (quite literally) did it all.
In my fourth semester I sat down for three exams : Microbial Physiology and Molecular Biology, Molecular Structure and Chemical Bonding, and Biochemistry.
By some miracle (that most likely includes my friends), I passed all of my exams, despite getting lower grades than I would've liked.
In our fourth semester, my friends and I still meet up at least once a week for studying, and every other week for barbecue and spending time at the beach.
I also got to travel out of the city twice, once to Hanover for a conference I was a committee of, and to Berlin for a tourist day, and overall improvement to my third semester. I'm also very grateful to have done my internship last year instead of this year, as I'm sure I would've been even more burnt out if I didn't.
In the end I'm glad that my second year is now behind me. I went through it with a few scrapes and bruises, but after my summer of travelling and relaxing, I'm now more than ready and excited to start my final year of my bachelor's studies.
xo,
Maria
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