Crunch time at Mainz

I hope all of you are enjoying the easy time at the beginning of a new semester, the time where your class finds its legs before your professors start assigning work. Because it’s crunch time here at the University of Mainz.

The semester ends the first week of February, and that means it’s time to take exams and to write term papers. This semester, I have one exam (American popular culture) and four ten-page term papers due a month after the last day of class (first week of March).

The end of the semester in Mainz looks similar to Georgia State: sleepy students studying in the library, spikes in sales of coffee and that general sense of stress that works its way into on-campus conversation.

There is one key aspect of the end of the semester in Germany: The exam or term paper are the only grades given in each class, so they determine the final grade for that class. Many professors say they also factor in class participation to the final grade, but many other students say that this is rare in reality, if it happens at all.

It’s stressful, to say the least, and of course Caleb from October didn’t realize that he would soon be Caleb in the middle of January with zero pages written out of the forty he needs to write.

Other students prepare a little more than I do, fortunately for them. Student Katrine Blichert says it depends on the class.

“For translation I’m not preparing at all,” Blichert said. “But for cultural studies I’ll probably take a couple of days and nights out of the calendar to read up and prepare.”

Student Marie Henrich, who plans to study abroad in the United States next year, said she doesn’t think the German system is as effective for education.

“We have this word for it; it is called ‘bulimic studying,’ because you try to study a lot of things but nothing actually stays in your system,” Henrich said. “[with the American system] people would actually have to participate and show up in order to pass the class. And not just stupidly remember facts at the end of the semester.”

So my advice is this: If you find yourself studying at a German university (and I recommend you do; it’s worth the stress), get started on the end-of-semester stuff during the two-week Christmas vacation, even if that means spending less time drinking mulled wine. Or you could be like me and pull your hair out for a whole month trying to play catch up. Your choice.