No one told me I would actually have to study whilst I was abroad

This is a slightly less exciting post about what I have been doing for the last two weeks: Uni.

The ‘studying’ part of Studying Abroad that no one ever talks about because they are far too focused on the excitement of the ‘abroad’ bit.

It has been just over two weeks since term officially started at McGill has definitely been enough time for me to realise that studying here is going to be very different to being at Glasgow.

For instance, even the language people use here is very different to back home. Uni is called school, we go to class instead of lectures and we are taught by profs rather than lecturers. Smaller classes are conferences, not seminars, people ask what I’m Majoring in and I still don’t really understand what it means to be in U0 or U1.

In general the system does seem to be a lot more like going back to school than my experience of University in Glasgow. There is a big emphasis on getting to know your professor, they set homework-like assignments and most take attendance. One of my classes even has seating plan!

I have been told that not all subjects are like this, but because I’m taking quite specific and reasonably advanced subjects I have very small classes. My biggest class is around 50 students and two have less than 20 which makes them like constant tutorials. However, I know some of the lower level courses have 500+ students and take place in huge lecture halls so my experience is not representative of McGill students.

Most of the time the smaller groups are great and classes are very discussion based which is more interesting than being talked at by a lecturer for an hour and a half. It does mean though that there is nowhere to hide if you haven’t done the reading though, which brings me on to the biggest aspect of Uni life at McGill: THE READING.

Again, my experience is not representative of all McGill students because the way the Major system works means that students have to take several different subjects, not just their major, and they can take them at varying levels right through to their final year. However, the way Glasgow have translated their system into McGill’s has resulting in me taking all History courses, all at a fairly high level. Which basically means reading, lots and lots of reading. As in, a whole forest has had to be cut down to produce the paper for all my readings. My eyes have stopped working properly and I’m incapable of forming sentences that don’t contain words like thus.

Also, the type of assessment is very different to what I’m used to. In Glasgow my course grades were almost entirely based on one essay and one exam. Whereas here assessments are broken up into small parts and spread throughout the semester, meaning I have assignments due every couple of weeks. On top of this participation in classes counts for a very high percentage of my final grade. In a way this is good because it takes the pressure off final exams but also means that it is so essential to keep on top of the workload at all times throughout the year.

Finally, this is a promise that despite the overwhelming presence of ‘realizes’ and ‘colors’ and ‘centers’, I will keep my s’s and my ou’s and my re’s.