Abroad Perspective
Brits live according to stressful countdowns

By Adam Broin

Mirror Staff Writer
February 29, 2008

One of the biggest problems of being a student is that in order to stay a student, you need to go to class sometimes.

This is an age-old problem that some solve by sleeping in, some by becoming studious and some by just never going. Being a physics major myself, I err on the studious side when possible. However, I’ve discovered that here at Lancaster, England, many of my peers don’t choose to take that route.

In fact, the problem has gotten so bad that the department handed out electronic attendance markers - lovingly referred to as “dibbers” by my classmates - and started requiring 70 percent attendance to pass.

But what would cause such a fatal lack of attendance?  Are English students just lazier? Are lecturers just that boring here? Or is the education system in England failing miserably at producing motivated young adults? No, no and no. The courses are laid out in such a long-term and short-term manner that attendance is not necessary for getting a good mark.

It took me a while to figure this out, but the English school year consists of three 10-week terms:  Michaelmas, Lent and summer.  These are spaced four weeks apart, creating a Christmas break and an Easter break.

Here’s the rub, though: courses don’t necessarily run for just one term. Coursework is given in a few long-term assignments, which are frequently due long after the final exam. Even though I took the final exam for my five-week organic chemistry course, I still have a project on SN1 and SN2 reactions due in week eight.

In fact, when I arrived here in January, I found local students up late at night finishing papers in the computer labs - papers that were assigned back in October for courses that ended in November. Surprisingly, not even final exams are exempt from this “breathing room” given by professors.

Most of my courses are done at the end of Lent term; I only have two half credit courses in summer term. The rest of the term time is for studying purposes because most of the final exams aren’t taken until late May or early June.

Which brings me back to my fellow students: there is no imperative need for any semblance of mastery of coursework during the course. One only needs to understand course material by some arbitrary date two months after the course has ended. So if one has plenty of time to memorize a couple textbooks on the subject and a penchant for procrastination and last minute studying (myself being one such student), going to class begins to seem highly optional.

However, procrastination and this education system are potentially a very dangerous mixture. With all your marks dependent on three worksheets, a 2,500-word paper and a test, one cannot afford to bomb much of anything. And with only 11 hours of lecture per week, one can hardly afford to miss often.

 I constantly find myself forging past my procrastination tendencies because of my increased awareness of the hurdles awaiting me in May and June.

Even the school schedule, which is numbered by week, feels like an armageddon countdown. Today marks the start of week three; I can just feel week 20 creeping closer and closer, and I can feel the tension growing on campus as that looming number approaches. Week 20.

I would go so far as to say that this armageddon countdown has the potential to help the most chronic procrastinators break their bad habits, as one can feel the tension climb in a formerly relaxed campus with each passing week.

But don’t get stressed out yet! Spring semester is young here as week three out of 14 draws to a close. However, keep that number in the back of your mind, because the closer week 14 gets, the stronger a motivation that number becomes.