Preparing for the holidays

Greetings to my readers from the second half of my first year as a student here at University of Brighton! Time passes on so quickly here that it feels as if it were only yesterday that the entire city glimmered with all kinds of lights and Christmas decorations. Of course that is no longer the case.

Christmas was two months ago and there are just a few weeks left until the Easter holidays for my schoolmates and me. In this case, though, the word “holidays” does not have its original meaning. While there will be no lectures or seminars, we will have no leisure time either, since the exam period starts in May. So it seems today that our teachers are preparing us for the actual exams as well as for the holidays that we will spend – most of us anyway – working hard on preparation, brushing up, studying, and brushing up again.

My schoolmates and I in the Economics and Finance curriculum could perhaps be more worried about the exam period at the end of the year, because it is the only exam period in the year – and as such, it is the very first one for us. We took just one exam at the end of the first semester in a subject titled “Quantitative Approaches in Finance.” It focuses on all mathematical calculations involved in other subjects, and I am pleased to say that I passed the exam with flying colors.

When our teachers are not busy lecturing, checking tests and essays, or even living their own lives, they prepare various presentations, discussions, and sessions for us concerning internships and future careers in the field. I can attest that this is usually very inspiring, especially when former students come to talk about their current jobs. This shows us how you can build a career. Potential employers also organize presentations. They instruct us as to what we are expected to do with job applications and what we can expect as well.

Academic Skills, a subject that I mentioned last time, also helps us to understand the process of looking for a job. For this semester, we have the assignment to create our own Job Search Portfolio, which includes a job offer, a report on the company offering the job, a CV, and a motivation letter.

During the last month it was also time to start looking for – or better, to find – accommodations for next year, since the University’s capacity is not sufficient to provide dorms for second and higher year students. So a few friends and I agreed to live together, did some searching, and a few weeks later we made our deposit on a cozy house with four bedrooms.

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