Midterms in NZ

My past few weeks here on campus have been hectic and crazy, but unfortunately not in the way I wanted it to be. My friends and I have been planning a trip to Queenstown for the last couple weeks, a chance for me to actually experience the touristy side of Queenstown rather than the McDonalds at 3 am side that I’ve already had the pleasure of learning about.

One of the things on my New Zealand bucket list was to bungee jump in Queenstown, but at the last second I made the choice to pull out of the trip and instead focus on school. This was a difficut choice for me to make, but ultimately the correct one since I had 2 group projects, 2 essays, and a test all scheduled to be due the upcoming week.

Midterms in New Zealand in my experience have been nothing like midterms in the States. For one, New Zealand doesn’t really have a specified term for midterms, to them it’s just that time in the middle of the semester when everything gets crazy and everything is due. Another difference I’ve noticed is that midterms here are not as test-based as it is back home. Rather than having 4 tests to study for, I had group projects and essay reflections instead. I’ve realized that learning here is a lot more hands on, so it makes sense that that carries over to their midterms too. If I’m being honest, while I love the hands-on learning style day to day, I prefer having tests for midterms because it’s a lot easier to rely on myself to study rather than rely on 5 other group members to meet up and get crap done. And it’s even harder when everyone has several group projects that they are trying to schedule around too. It was however a good taste of the ‘real world’ since I know that the further along I get in my life, the more group collaboration is going to be required.

I’m relieved that it’s over, and I have some room to breathe again, and hopefully I’ll be able to find a way to Queenstown myself so I can cross bungee jumping off my list. Until then, it’s more lectures, more essays, and more trip planning for me. I only have 7 weeks and about 1000 bucks left to make the most of my time here, and I can’t wait to see what these last few weeks have in store.