Studying Abroad

The final stretch

By Kazuya Muto

I'm writing this in the last week of my second semester. One week to go until my finals!

At least there's one ray of hope: my communication class. The exam is only worth 35 percent of the final communication grade, which is mostly made up of marks from various assignments we did during the semester. I've already got my assignment results back, and a quick calculation showed that I'm coasting above the 50 percent mark, which is the minimum you have to get to pass the subject. So that's a huge relief!

Unfortunately, though, there are still the other three exams, and what's worse is the accounting exam, which I am already hating, is particularly harsh. Like the other subjects, our assignment results are a substantial component of our final accounting grade, but still, if you get below 50 percent in your final exam, no matter how well you did in your assignments, even if they were all High Distinctions, you fail the whole subject.

So I needed a study plan, and I needed one desperately. I don't know about you, but I'm awful with study plans, but this time I've made an effort to come up with a carefully worked out strategy so that I would pass my finals, even if I had to spit blood to do so.

The first step was to move into the university library. I'm living there now. It's become more of a home to me than my room. I get there around eight in the morning and I leave around 10 at night. I have to do this because there are too many distractions back in my room. I'm not great at resisting the temptations of the Internet, CDs, books, magazines, etc.

So now I'm studying as hard as I can in the library for most of the day. I do think the most important thing is endurance. Endurance, endurance, endurance! I sleep only three hours a night and I hate whoever it was who decided there were only 24 hours in a day. It's not enough!

My diet has changed too. I don't have time to cook for myself, so I'm always eating rice with raw egg. Breakfast is rice with raw egg, dinner is rice with raw egg, my midnight snack is rice with raw egg. I'm always eating it. There's no escaping it. I once tried not eating it, but it didn't work. Before I knew it, I was eating rice with raw egg.

And then there's my room, which has become a complete pig sty.

Despite all the planning, the studying isn't going as well as I'd like. I've noticed that reading English is one thing, but understanding a concept in English, as opposed to just its meaning, is something completely different. It's so much more difficult. The more I study, the more I'm aware of what I haven't understood and it leaves me frustrated and irritated.

Fortunately though, I have some friends who've studied accounting before. Jack, who I have talked about before, has been particularly helpful. He's very good at accounting and every day, around nine, I meet him in the library to pester him with questions until I understand a certain concept. He's kind enough to answer all my questions. He also said I would pass the exam on the strength of my persistence.

Shukan ST: Dec. 15, 2006

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