7th February 2006 - Day 113

Today was the last lecture for one of the modules.

The professor told us the format of the coming exams. Four questions in 2 hours. If you manage to finish 2 questions correctly, that's a 1,0 (or the equivalent of an "A", if we follow grade by grade up to 4,0 for a "D").

Sounds unbelievable. Does that mean doing half of each of the four questions will also get you the same grade?

Anyway, I'm not taking the written paper. I'm taking the oral one since I'm in Chemieingenieurwesen instead of Maschinenbau oder Elektrotechnik.

When I asked the professor about the format of the oral exam and what do I need to prepare, he told me the exam will probably last 30 minutes. And to eat and sleep well the night before.

Not exactly what I wanted to hear. But he told me something else. Up to date, everyone has passed this oral exam. I intend to keep it that way.

Having worked a few years in the chemical field, he probably knows more about distillation columns than me. I was quite surprised the first time he told me about drawing McCabe Thiele diagrams and introducing the feed at which plate.

Oh well, the professor is from the Business faculty. You can only believe so much fluff.

It's not easy to study in Germany. Without the steady persistance to finish studies, one might get distracted (and perhaps do some Hauptstudium in Merry Making instead) and graduate a few semesters later. Though that's not a big issue here.

So, getting back to preparations.