#UniversityDiary: how is the college student's routine? #3

Different from what we are influenced to believe, the university life's isn't easier than high school life's. Ok that we can arrive and left at the time we want (in Brazil, at least we can), and we have many parties, but things aren't so good.


1) We have to study and read a lot
Seriously, when I say that is many stuffs, believe in me, it is many stuffs. Before I get in university I didn't know what is the "many stuffs" they said, but only when I get in I understood: texts and books (of difficult and boring reading) of all subjects to read every week. The number of pages range from 30 to 400 pages. Yes, we have 1 week to read a 400-page book (it's almost impossible be able to read everything known the amount of things we have to do).

2) Many works to do
Every week the students are presented by teachers with works. I swear that I don't know where teachers get so much creativity to create work theme, because, seriously, EVERY week I have at least 1 work of any subject. That are on average 2 jobs per day, 10 per week. And when I don't have work in a week, in the next week I have double work to "compensate" (I have a crazy teacher that give 2 different works in one day).

3) Party? No, I'll stay at home sleeping!!!
College activities are so tiring that when the weekend comes the only thing we want is to stay home doing nothing, resting, because you are so exhausted. Going out at the weekend or going to parties isn't something you think about.

In short: a college student's routine is to wake up early to go to college, attend classes, study at home, do work and seminars, and study harder. This, of course, if you want to be a good professional and want to stand out in your area, because if you do not want to, forget everything I said, your routine will be hang out every day after class and spend the entire college without read a text or book; but I assure you, your opportunities will not even come close to the opportunities of that person who studied and devoted himself to the entire college.

But and the tests? In my course, at least, the tests are not those traditional tests where the teacher asks questions and the student answer. In my college, students are evaluated by the photos they take (photojournalism), texts they write (stories, reviews, critical texts), seminars they present, millions of works we do and participation in debates held in the classroom. Some of these jobs are much more difficult than the traditional test, so in some cases we prefer the traditional test.

Despite having a crazy routine, college is a very good time that must be lived intensely #EnjoyWithResponsability

As I said in my biography, I'm not a native English speaker and I created this blog to practice my English, so if I made any mistake, let me know, write on the comments! I want to improve my English, so don't be afraid to correct me, on the contrary, I want to know! Thank you :)

#UniversityDiary: how does university works in Brazil? #1

UFMT - Federal University of Mato Grosso

#UniversityDiary will be the highlighter that I'll use to write about my experience in college, but first of all, I have to explain the difference between university in U.S. and university in Brazil.

In Brazil, we have public and private universities and we also have college, as in U.S. - in Portuguese college call "curso tecnólogo" or "curso profissionalizante".

The difference between university and college is the same as in U.S., university is more expensive and lasts longer than college, and college "has lower value" because it lasts less.

And speaking about universities, public and private university has A LOT of differences. The first one is that public is free and private is paid. The second one is about the quality. This topic is controversial, I'm already saying.

In Brazil, in recent years there has been a reversal in education. Education isn't a priority of ours politicians, unfortunately, so the public education isn't a reference (in other words, isn't good), BUT as public education has a story in our country (in the past, private universities were discriminated), many people still prefer study in a public university and don't agree that private university is better (despite being). So, as I said, it's a controversial topic because everybody has an opinion and not everybody agrees.

So, to study in a university in Brazil we have to do an exam called "ENEM" or "vestibular" that is like SAT that you have in U.S. (they are two different things. The difference is that ENEM is for public universities and vestibular is for private universities).

So, when we finish senior year we did ENEM and/or vestibular and we choose an course that we want to do. Any course has a minimum points, called "nota de corte" (passing score), who changes from university to university.

ENEM exam

If we achieve the passing score, we will "fight" for a vacancy (because there aren't vacancy for everybody, there are about 40 vacancy for thousand students), and who had the higher score will be in. Who can not, will have to wait one year to try again (in this year he/she will do an preparative course for the exam to try be in. If he can't again, he will still studying and trying till he can). One year, because the exam happens once a year.

Of course this is the worst time of the students life, because it's a time of much stress, pressure, dedication, existential crisis and a lot of questioning of the system - just to you know, students who wants to do medicine school hardly enter in their first attempt, because it's the most competitive course. They study from 3 to 6 years, before they graduate on high school, just to be in the university (this time is a national average of how long students take to get approved in medicine school). They spend 3 to 6 years of their lives just to be in, they didn't even start college yet! After this, they will study more 6 years to graduate. This system is cruel!

So, after you pass all this stress and getting into university, you finally will know what is being in university. But I have to say that the most common thing in Brazil is people don't do the course they want because of the degree of difficulty of the exams. It's sad.

As I said in my biography, I'm not a native English speaker and I created this blog to practice my English, so if I made any mistake, let me know, write on the comments! I want to improve my English, so don't be afraid to correct me, on the contrary, I want to know! Thank you :)