Hey, everyone! This is Rose again.
I am in a study break for exams now – I have four exams, I feel quite stressed! I will never choose four courses again because it is very stressful. Hopefully, I will do fine.
As promised before, I will write about my study life in this entry. By the way, thanks for the comments from my friends for the first entry. I love you guys, haha!
In addition, just wanted to clarify that everything I write here is just my own experience and my own opinion; feel free to disagree and share your own experiences with me, I love to hear different opinions because everybody is different. Also, do check again if you wanna do the programmes I talked about because sometimes they change the courses they offer. That’s the aspect I do not like about the uni here – it is always changing!
I did all my primary education in a government school in China, but my parents were pretty wise to send me to an international high school. They knew that I could not bear the pressure from the university entrance exam in China!
The Foundation Programme
Anyway, that’s the reason I am in New Zealand now, because my high school has a connection with Victoria University in Wellington. Because I went to an international school, my English level is better than other Chinese students. (Shoutout all my teachers in the international school. You were awesome and gave me lots of confidence!)
When I first got here I enrolled in a Foundation programme because it would help me prepare for university. I chose six courses I think, can’t really remember the number now. That’s another aspect of me – I can not remember lots of stuff, but I can remember the important ones though.
I think there was one called Academic Writing that I chose. It was quite boring, but quite helpful at the same time because it teaches you how to write uni essays. I had learnt a little bit of that in high school as well. I hate referencing, I know it is quite important, but I found it takes me so much time! There is a software called EndNote that can help me to do it – I installed, but never used it though, haha!
There is another highly recommended course in that programme that teaches you how to do library research. I took that one as well, was quite helpful.
What I did not take was economics because I was never interested! I remember I wanted to take physics and chemistry, but because there are not so many people choosing them, they cancelled those classes, which was a shame. The other ones I did take were maths, information systems, New Zealand history, New Zealand literature and computer technology.
Teachers and fellow students
I enjoyed that programme because the teachers there were so awesome and helpful and supportive. I met lots of new friends from different countries there that are like a family to me now.
It is a shame because we do not keep in touch often nowadays though because we are doing different majors and some of them are in different countries, but I will always miss them. That’s another aspect of why I like it here because you can meet lots of people from different backgrounds. I love the diverse culture here.
I guess I will stop there for now and I am going to continue writing about my study life here in my next entry.
Once again, if you have any comments and questions, feel free to ask or comment! I love to hear from you guys! All the best to you all!
