Italy vs. England: Exams
21:02
Some people believe that a year abroad is merely an excuse for students to travel to lots of foreign cities, make new, multi-national friends and enjoy a warmer climate than that of the UK for 8 months at the expense of the European Union. Up until about two months ago, I was one of those people. Imagine my dismay when I remembered that I was actually going to be examined on the content of the lectures that had been filling the time not spent at the beach or eating pizza. None of my posts on this blog have really focused on the academia of my Erasmus experience. This is because I haven't. Don't worry; University of Bristol hasn't either. While they do require that we attend all our classes, the focus of the year abroad is very much absorbing the culture and the language of our host countries. How well I've managed to decipher the works of German idealist philosophers during my time on Erasmus is not something my tutors prioritise, which is why the results of my exams have no impact on my Bachelor's degree.
Maybe we're spoilt in the UK but I've got used to my university doing pretty much everything for me. My modules are assigned for me, my timetable is drawn up for me and my exams are decided for me. I was given free rein of my module choices and timetable in Pavia so it wasn't a particularly big surprise when I found out that the job of registering for my exams also fell to me. The university didn't tell me how you actually do that, of course, but fortunately some of my Erasmus friends had exams before Christmas and they taught me how the process works. It transpired that we just had to log onto the online space we're all given when we register with the university and there we would be able to sign up for our exams. "Sounds easy enough," I thought, displaying a naivety and lack of good sense that one would have thought I would be well rid of after living in Italy for 4 months.
You don't spend a semester in Italy without learning how to deal with things going wrong, so when I logged on to my personalised area to find that I was not registered on any of my courses I displayed a serenity that, 6 months earlier, I wouldn't have believed I was capable of. When push comes to shove, someone in an office somewhere will be able to fix most of your problems, even if it takes a bit of time and a lot of flitting from building to building to find out where that office is. Sure enough a nice man in an office did something on a computer that took about half an hour but rendered me able to enrol in my exams so I went home and had a look at the website. To my surprise there were three different days, all at least a week apart, on which I could sit each of my exams. There were even opportunities to sit the exam at the end of the following semester. To someone who's used to everyone sitting exams at the same time and those who can't having to spend the entire day in supervised isolation, this seems like the ideal system to foster a culture of cheating but either I'm wrong or the Italians don't care. Tempting as it was to pick the latest dates to ensure more revision time, I was limited to one week due to my clash of dates with Aix and so had to sit all my exams over 3 consecutive days. Hopefully everything would run smoothly, or as close to that as Italy gets.
The most major difference between Italian and British exams is their format. Almost all Italian university exams are conducted orally, for Arts subjects at least, whereas in the UK non-written exams are practically unheard of (I have been informed by students from other European countries that oral exams are generally more common on the continent). Luckily, language students are among the few who have to sit speaking exams in the UK so I felt I had an advantage. Granted, the purpose of these exams was to prove that I was able to speak a foreign language, not that I understand the collective works of Pascoli, but it did mean that sitting down in front of a teacher and formulating my thoughts verbally instead of on paper was slightly less daunting than it might be for, say, a student of History. My A Level language speaking exams took the form of an organised debate in which I had to present coherent and well-rounded arguments on several topics for 20 minutes, so I (rather arrogantly) figured that doing this wouldn't be too difficult for me.
I became rather less confident about my ability to sit a spoken exam when it was revealed that I would be doing so in front of the rest of the class. This was particularly daunting when it came to my Philosophy exam. I signed up to a Philosophy course in Pavia because I thought it would be interesting and it was one of the only options that fitted in around my other classes. Unfortunately the information on the website wasn't particularly clear and it became apparent that it was actually a course for Master's students. I only discovered at a point at which it was too late to drop the course and, as Bristol had stated that it wasn't necessary for me to actually pass my exams, I decided to just take it anyway and see what happened. I managed to maintain this carefree, confident attitude up until the day of the exam came when it was revealed that I would be sitting the exam in a room full of other students - students who actually had Philosophy degrees and, therefore, an understanding of the source material - in a room with the kind of acoustics where even people at the very back would be able to hear me trembling with fear. I chose my seat and started frantically re-reading my book, desperately hoping I could absorb as much of its contents as I was capable of after a 7:00am wake-up to try and lessen the humiliation I was preparing myself for.
The humiliation never came. Either due to me registering for the exam at the last minute or the teacher (who knew I was both the only foreigner and the only undergraduate on the course) taking pity on me, I was second last out of the 50 people who turned up to take the exam that day. The downside of this was that I was waiting in that room for 5 and a half hours and I hadn't brought any food. And I got off lightly; I have friends who waited for 8 hours only to be told to come back the next day because there wasn't any more time to examine them.
Seeing as the Waiting Game seems to be an intrinsic part of Italian life, I wasn't particularly surprised when my Italian Literature lecturer was late to take my exam. As 2 of my exams would have fallen on the same day had I enrolled in the regular online sessions, I arranged an individual date to sit this one, meaning that I got to sit it all on my own without having awkwardly try to vocalise my thoughts on Renaissance lyric poetry while the native speakers listened to my every poorly-pronounced word. I arrived a little early and was taken to the office that the lecturer shared with several other professors, where I sat and indulged in the popular loner past-time of pretending to text. After half an hour she still hadn't arrived but I wasn't too concerned - maybe she had to take another exam that day or was had to complete some interminable administrative process in order to examine me. After nearly an hour, one of the other lecturers caught me posting a photo of the office (which looked pleasingly like a set from one of the Harry Potter films) to Instagram and asked me what exactly was the purpose of me being there. I explained that I had an appointment nearly an hour ago to sit an exam and he offered to call the teacher for me to see why she hadn't turned up. When he returned from the phone call, he told me to come back in about 3 hours as she wouldn't be back until then. It appears that the lecturers in Italy are just as relaxed about exams as the Erasmus students are as, when we finally managed to sit the exam, she breezily apologised for not turning up as she had forgotten about it. I would be annoyed but, as I said, I've grown used to these things. Plus she passed me, despite the fact that I spent at least the first 3 minutes speaking French without realising it.
Mark schemes are also quite different in Italy than in the UK. This may be a bold statement but, honestly, I think they're better or, at least, more logical. 60% will get you a good degree at most UK universities where in Italy it is the pass mark. In one of my first year classes my teacher said, "I'll only give you 70% if your presentation is perfect," to which my irritable response, had I been braver, would have been, "If it's perfect you should give me 100%." This is the case in Italy and I know plenty of people who received 30/30 after performing perfectly in an exam (including myself). The issue I have with the restrictive UK marking system is that, in an Arts subject, it's so unusual to get a mark above 72% that most people have to get a 1st in almost every module in order to average one overall. This means that talented students of subjects like Maths or Engineering, where performing fantastically in an exam can get you 95%, are more likely to average a 1st than talented students of subjects like English or History, where performing fantastically in an exam will get you 75%. Call me a bitter British Arts student - I am one - but I've converted to the Italian system of grading. And I'm not just saying that because I somehow managed to get a good mark in the MA Philosophy exam.
Having said that, it does appear that other European universities consider the Italian university system easy. As my exams don't count I haven't looked into how much 85% in Pavia would be in Bristol but I'm certain it would be lower. Friends from Belgium and France have lamented that their Italian grades will be marked down by their home universities as they consider them to be easier than the exams they would sit at home. The jury is out as to whether Italian exams are easier or if other universities are just snobby - I suspect a combination of both. What is certain, however, is that Italian academics really want to pass you. Poor time-keeping is really the only criticism I can fairly aim at my teachers in Pavia. They have all been eager to help me when I've come to them for advice (which, especially in the case of my philosophy teacher, was often). They take into account the fact that the language barrier is a factor for Erasmus students without being patronising and I was consistently given the impression that they genuinely wanted to pass me, despite all of them knowing that it wouldn't have any impact on my academic record. Their friendliness does have a downside - spending half an hour being asked questions about London when the purpose of your visit was to discuss the structure of your exam isn't the most helpful thing in the world - but it is a very minor one.
My time in Italy has finished now and, while exams certainly weren't the most enjoyable aspect of the semester in Pavia, they weren't as stressful as I had expected and managing to pass them all meant that I got to end the term there on a positive note. It's strange to think that all I have to show for my studies in Pavia on my official record is a piece of paper with some grades and a stamp on it but, considering Italy's justified reputation for endless bureaucracy, it actually feels pleasantly fitting.
Mark schemes are also quite different in Italy than in the UK. This may be a bold statement but, honestly, I think they're better or, at least, more logical. 60% will get you a good degree at most UK universities where in Italy it is the pass mark. In one of my first year classes my teacher said, "I'll only give you 70% if your presentation is perfect," to which my irritable response, had I been braver, would have been, "If it's perfect you should give me 100%." This is the case in Italy and I know plenty of people who received 30/30 after performing perfectly in an exam (including myself). The issue I have with the restrictive UK marking system is that, in an Arts subject, it's so unusual to get a mark above 72% that most people have to get a 1st in almost every module in order to average one overall. This means that talented students of subjects like Maths or Engineering, where performing fantastically in an exam can get you 95%, are more likely to average a 1st than talented students of subjects like English or History, where performing fantastically in an exam will get you 75%. Call me a bitter British Arts student - I am one - but I've converted to the Italian system of grading. And I'm not just saying that because I somehow managed to get a good mark in the MA Philosophy exam.
Having said that, it does appear that other European universities consider the Italian university system easy. As my exams don't count I haven't looked into how much 85% in Pavia would be in Bristol but I'm certain it would be lower. Friends from Belgium and France have lamented that their Italian grades will be marked down by their home universities as they consider them to be easier than the exams they would sit at home. The jury is out as to whether Italian exams are easier or if other universities are just snobby - I suspect a combination of both. What is certain, however, is that Italian academics really want to pass you. Poor time-keeping is really the only criticism I can fairly aim at my teachers in Pavia. They have all been eager to help me when I've come to them for advice (which, especially in the case of my philosophy teacher, was often). They take into account the fact that the language barrier is a factor for Erasmus students without being patronising and I was consistently given the impression that they genuinely wanted to pass me, despite all of them knowing that it wouldn't have any impact on my academic record. Their friendliness does have a downside - spending half an hour being asked questions about London when the purpose of your visit was to discuss the structure of your exam isn't the most helpful thing in the world - but it is a very minor one.
My time in Italy has finished now and, while exams certainly weren't the most enjoyable aspect of the semester in Pavia, they weren't as stressful as I had expected and managing to pass them all meant that I got to end the term there on a positive note. It's strange to think that all I have to show for my studies in Pavia on my official record is a piece of paper with some grades and a stamp on it but, considering Italy's justified reputation for endless bureaucracy, it actually feels pleasantly fitting.
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