Making the Grade--Part 4 of 5

Each morning my classmates and I lock our bikes to the railings beside the canals. We pay fifty cents for a cup of coffee from a vending machine inside the library (the other vending machine sells water.) We file up to class, unwind scarves, hang winter coats on hooks. For half the course we usually discuss readings we have been working on, do collaborative problem-solving and have group discussions.

In my Masters program there are four blocks which function like semesters. In each block we take two courses, each meet between once and twice a week. Class takes place in the old center city of Utrecht (a twenty minute bike ride for me--or rather, bus ride now, since I'm pretty sure my bike was stolen last night, unless I forgot where I tied it....)

One of my classes has five students. The other, fifteen. Class is usually provocative and interesting. Courses are between two and four hours long. If the class is on the longer side, we take a ten-minute break. At this point all students hurry to the restroom or dash outside, where they congregate by the door, smoking. There is no campus in the center city, so students hang around the doors of buildings, sometimes hours after class has ended, shooting the breeze and stamping feet to keep warm.

Dutch universities grade on a scale of 1-10. Ten is like an A plus, plus, plus. 9.5 is an A++, 9 is like an A+, 8.5 is an A, 8 is like an American an A-, 7.5 is a B+, 7 is a B, 6.5 a C and then quickly downhill from there. If you make below a 5.5 on a paper the professor might give you the opportunity to do a re-write. There is a Dutch saying about grading, it goes: Ten is for god, nine is for the teacher, and you might be able to make an 8…

Everyone studies differently. I’m a visual learner and like to spread out reams of paper in front of me on which I diagram. There are usually arrows, images and scribbles involved. Sometimes I pull all-nighters. Sometimes I awaken early to study. It is mostly eagerness that sustains me. If you want to do well, you have got to put in the work. Books do not read to themselves at night, papers do not have paper-fairies that write them. We (myself included) could all work a bit harder at times.