Educational differences

Coming to a new land, I was ready to embrace new weather, new people, new friends, a new house, a new lifestyle, and new culture. I knew the teaching methodologies are way different from my home country. However, there were a couple of facts for which I was not comfortable initially. But, you know, you get adapted with time.
Let’s me tell you 5 amazing facts:

1. Academic Quarter:
   Swedes are very punctual, but please don’t be surprised if you find them 15 min late to the class. This is a Swedish tradition to start the class 15 min late. Long back, when everyone didn’t have the pocket watch, the church bells were the best mode of timekeeping. After hearing the church bell, students were aware of the class to start in the next 15 min. Now, even when everyone has a smartphone, Sweden is happy to carry its tradition of “Academic Quarter”.
   Please note: This rule doesn’t apply on exam days. Yes, you read it correctly. You will not be allowed to write the exam if you are late even by a min.
2. The Number of lectures:
   Back in my bachelor’s, I remember attending class from 8 AM to 6 PM with just 2 breaks in between. I was surprised to see soo few lectures here. I usually have either 1 or 2 lectures a day. Each lecture is 2 hours long, with a 15 min academic quarter and 15 min break in between. There are even days when there are no lectures. And, of course, no classes on Saturday or Sunday.
3. Assignments:
   Students are expected to study 8 hrs daily or 40 hrs a week. How is that possible with so few classes? Assignments. Yes, the academic system here is designed in a way that students do self-study more than attending just the lectures. There are either regular submissions to the assignments or submission of all the assignments at the end of the period. Oh, what is a period?
4. Period = Semester/2:
   The biggest difference that I found, was the concept of Periods. One semester is divided into 2 periods. Each period has 2-3 courses and labs related to these courses, which in total sums to exactly 15 credits. Now, I find this concept of periods so fascinating because I am focused on just few courses for 2 months, rather than studying too many courses for an entire semester.
   Side-effects: You have the exam every 2 months
5. Digitalization:
   Everything here is so well arranged digitally. Registering for courses/exams, timetable, exam results, exam statistics, any update, course-related documents, assignment submission or even selecting your group member for a particular course, everything can be done digitally. During this pandemic, along with classes even lab sessions were handled digitally with remote access to university computers.
6. BONUS: Exam results are not announced in public. Students can see only their result after logging in to their account.

P.S.: These insights are related to my program. It can also be different in other programs. For instance, some programs have only home exams.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Put your views in the comment box below.

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