After having spent twenty weeks away, studying three new subjects, visiting seven new countries and making great friends, I am now back in England and the first semester of my year abroad is over.
I finished my exams on the 19th November and have spent the last month travelling in Australia, Cambodia and Thailand. All three of my exams were six hour take home exams. I had to answer a mix of essay and problem questions similar to the exams I’ve taken in Southampton. The main difference with the exams at NUS was the length of them and the fact that I was able to use my own notes during the exam. As an exchange student I thought that a take home exam was perfect as I would not need to spend weeks and weeks trying to memorise case names and quotes from judgments. Although I did spend a lot of time preparing for these exams and felt that they went fairly well, a little more preparation wouldn’t have gone amiss. Having known that I could use my notes during the exam I didn’t learn the material as well as usual as I thought I could just search for what I needed during the exam. However I found out that the problem with this is that searching for the particular case or quote during the exam takes up valuable time, and although six hours sounds ages, it goes extremely quickly. At least I’ll know for next semester!
I have really enjoyed my first semester studying abroad at the National University of Singapore. Obviously studying is a big part of ‘study abroad’, but it is not the only part.
During my time in Singapore I have made great friends who have made this semester absolutely amazing. It is hard to believe that I have only known these people for a few months, and unfortunately many of these were only in Singapore for one semester so will not be joining me there next year. I would like to give a special thanks to Ben, Fred, Laure, Miguel, Michael, Manon, Sebastian and Chatis for such an incredible four months, it’s been a pleasure. I will definitely see you whether it is in England, Belgium, Mexico, Australia or Canada in the not too distant future!
Now I am enjoying spending Christmas at home with my family before going back to Singapore on 10th January. Next semester I’m looking forward to meeting new people and visiting new countries. I also want to make more of an effort to try all of the food Singapore is so famous for, but for now I’ll enjoy the lack of rice.
