Trying to bluff my way through things has never been my forté. For example, once I lied in a tutorial about doing a reading and found myself unwillingly giving a presentation to my whole class about about 17th century Irish history. A presentation, according to my tutor that was factually flawed.
What I learnt this week was that I can't bluff my way through exams at Penn State and that I might actually need to do some work to retain my grades. I realise the last couple of posts have been about travelling and not about well, being a college student so I thought it was time I gave you a better idea of the realities of day-to-day life.
As I mentioned before I've had exams. No, not the full blown end of semester exams we have in New Zealand. but more like mid-semester tests. Americans have exams, rather than tests during the semester and finals rather than exams at the end. Everybody takes these exams very seriously. Everyone but me apparently. I didn't even realise that to pass an exam at Penn State you need a 70, which is the equivalent to a B at home. It was weird being told " everything will be okay" when I got a 75 because inside I was thinking I PASSED ! I FOOLED THEM ALL ABOUT STATE POLITICS !
My bluffing in class also imploded spectacularly when I received a 1/10 for a research proposal ! Given that I've definetely spent more time in the bars than in the library so far this semester I guess this shouldn't have been to much of a shock. Frantically I sent my professor a panicked and unintelligible email asking what on earth I had done wrong. Before he could reply though we had class. I spent the entire 70 minutes either talking myself up to go speak to him at the end or convinced that he was giving me funny sideways glances. I could just imagine him laughing with his colleagues at the politics department talking about the stupid New Zealand girl, yes that one, the one who claimed not realise the discipline of state politics even existed and then spectaculary failed her first assignment.
A few hours later the professor replied, saying there had been a mix up and I had actually received 10/10 ! I am now convinced bar hopping is positively correlated to my grades.
Something else that has changed is the weather. That disgusting, sticky, hair-poof inducing heat is gone. Now it just rains and rains and rains. Pennsylvania winter is coming and I do not own anywhere near enough winter clothes !
This weekend I'm heading off to Philadephia for the first time with my friend Ellen to see James Blake. Rest assured I'll write about this adventure too !
What I learnt this week was that I can't bluff my way through exams at Penn State and that I might actually need to do some work to retain my grades. I realise the last couple of posts have been about travelling and not about well, being a college student so I thought it was time I gave you a better idea of the realities of day-to-day life.
As I mentioned before I've had exams. No, not the full blown end of semester exams we have in New Zealand. but more like mid-semester tests. Americans have exams, rather than tests during the semester and finals rather than exams at the end. Everybody takes these exams very seriously. Everyone but me apparently. I didn't even realise that to pass an exam at Penn State you need a 70, which is the equivalent to a B at home. It was weird being told " everything will be okay" when I got a 75 because inside I was thinking I PASSED ! I FOOLED THEM ALL ABOUT STATE POLITICS !
My bluffing in class also imploded spectacularly when I received a 1/10 for a research proposal ! Given that I've definetely spent more time in the bars than in the library so far this semester I guess this shouldn't have been to much of a shock. Frantically I sent my professor a panicked and unintelligible email asking what on earth I had done wrong. Before he could reply though we had class. I spent the entire 70 minutes either talking myself up to go speak to him at the end or convinced that he was giving me funny sideways glances. I could just imagine him laughing with his colleagues at the politics department talking about the stupid New Zealand girl, yes that one, the one who claimed not realise the discipline of state politics even existed and then spectaculary failed her first assignment.
A few hours later the professor replied, saying there had been a mix up and I had actually received 10/10 ! I am now convinced bar hopping is positively correlated to my grades.
Something else that has changed is the weather. That disgusting, sticky, hair-poof inducing heat is gone. Now it just rains and rains and rains. Pennsylvania winter is coming and I do not own anywhere near enough winter clothes !
This weekend I'm heading off to Philadephia for the first time with my friend Ellen to see James Blake. Rest assured I'll write about this adventure too !
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