Differences in Australian Academics (UNSW)
Being more than half way through the new trimester system at UNSW I feel quite accustomed to the new style of teaching, learning, and working at UNSW. The main differences in academics relative to UMD is the number of classes. Recently they have changed to a trimester system, which means they have 3 terms of 10 weeks per academic year, and require 3 classes to be full time. On top of this, students generally meet for lecture once a week for 2 hours and then have another 1-2 hour discussion/lab class accordingly which are required attendance. This means you spend much less time in a class throughout your week, however when it comes to studying, there is much more self-learning involved and expected. The breakdown of grades depend on the class, however the weighting is usually around high percentage final exams of about 50%-60% rather than a spread of assignments that we are used to at UMD. This means you have much less work throughout the semester, but again need to spend more time studying in exam week.
As a means of managing traveling and coursework, it is not too difficult as the amount of work per week relative to UMD is generally much less due to the amount of classes, and breakdown of assessments. I personally have been traveling almost every weekend, however it is probably best to schedule travels on weekends when there aren’t examinations the following week, as again, more time to study is required.
In terms of clubs and activities, there are not too many I’ve become involved in personally, but there are a load of options to choose from. I involved myself in exchange specific clubs, and an organization known as ARC, which is revolved around creating events every week for student life, as a means of exploring and meeting new people. Similar to UMD, UNSW holds stands for clubs all throughout their orientation week for students to explore and sign up for what interests them.
Trip to a local museum which highlights the interactive nature of certain classes at UNSW.