It’s now week 4 of classes, and things are starting to get busier!
The first few weeks were by no means void of work, with things like weekly quizzes and readings, but now we’ve actually learned some content, the first wave of assignments is starting to arrive.
A quick look at my classes
So this semester I’m taking a standard load of four classes. Accounting 101, Business 101, French 269 and Academic English 104 (Australian high school English qualifications aren’t recognised here, unfortunately). I know of a few people taking five classes this semester, but for the most part that was because they didn’t realise four was the recommended amount – so make sure you check your programme requirements before enrolling!
Coursebooks – these are your best friend! All the activities and slides you’ll need during class – in one handy book.
I have to say I kinda expected all my classes just to have a lecture and then a tutorial once a week, but there’s actually quite a variety of formats! For instance, Business 101 is just a single two-hour ‘workshop’ per week, which is usually split into ⅓ lecture and ⅔ group-work based tutorial. But then there’s Accounting 101, with four one-hour sessions a week, the last of which is used as a workshop to recap the week’s content and go through some problems and exercises – there are still about 300 others in the room though! My English and French courses follow a ‘one lecture & one tutorial’ model, so I’m getting a taste of everything. Not sure I could decide on a favourite yet though.
Business 101 sure wins in terms of the least contact hours – but that is easily made up by all the preparation that’s expected. We’ve consistently had two to four essential readings a week and then other activities like worksheets to do as well. And the readings aren’t always short, last week it was a whole textbook chapter.
Away from the lecture theatre
In my last blog I spoke about O-week and the vast array of activities on offer, but since then things have calmed down a bit on the social side.
Some of the lanterns were incredibly impressive.
It was actually kind of shocking how quiet the hall got during the first weekend after classes started – a good chunk of the Aucklanders vanished into thin air (presumably visiting their families) which made things eerily calm for the rest of us. Fortunately, most of them came back on Sunday, and a couple of us from my floor ventured down the road to the Domain to check out the Lantern Festival! A *free* event, and super cool to spend some time admiring the very impressive lights. Also, if I didn’t get my dinners catered for, it would’ve been very tempting to try some of the many food stalls offering all sorts of dishes.
Another festival that’s been on is the French Film Festival – Ben and I went and watched ‘Number One’ last week since he also studies French, and it was really interesting to watch a movie in French (with English subtitles thank goodness) at a cinema. And a good way to roll entertainment and ‘study’ into one.
Did some more exploring and came across Auckland’s iconic ‘Lightpath’ cycleway
Just tonight I went to the Learning Hub Conference, which is a Business School initiative offering various mini-talks on topics such as coping with your readings, how to write an academic essay, the correct referencing techniques and more. Some of them were more useful than others, but it’s well worth a look if there’s a particular area of your study you’re a bit confused about.
And on that note, I suppose I better get back to working on one of those assessment items I mentioned… Until next time! 👋