Did you have to write reports or assignments?

We had to write some, but not much.

Was the mark for these assignments an important part of the total mark?

No. Most of the marks will depend on the exam; so this is just not very important.

So what were the exams like?

Not very difficult. Because most of them were based on the textbook. It's not like in Monash, they will ask you to write essay format of the question, they just write, for example, "what is management?", then you give definition, and things like this.

Right. So, if you've memorised the textbook, then you're right.

Yes.

Did you memorise the textbook?

Yes!

— Jade

You said before you had difficulties in writing assignments. Was it because you weren't clear about the structure, how to organise it, or was it the content - not understanding the topic, or ...?

I think content. Because at the beginning you have no ideas. Because in this course, after each lecture and tutorial, largely because I didn't prepare well, I didn't have much idea about it. But the assignment can help you: once you've finished an assignment, you think, Oh, the assignment actually helps you to understand these things; so in fact writing an assignment is actually part of the learning process. I think, when you're doing an assignment, because you do so much research, and read so many things, in fact you get a whole lot of ideas, and you realise you've actually internalised them through your own effort.

— Nova

What was the difficulty for you in writing assignments?

Studying was one thing, writing assignments was another. You'd study one set of information, then the teacher made you write about something different.... The assignments didn't correspond to what the teachers had taught us, you had to study something else. Maybe the other students knew about these things from other courses they had done. But I had no idea that after studying one thing with the lecturer I'd have to write an assignment about something different - something I knew nothing about: I'd have to go and read books to find out what it all meant. So many books to read, so much research to do...

— Mary

Why do you think these students have so much difficulty here?

I think the most important thing is that they are not used to how to study in Australia...; because the way they studied before, in China, they still use that way.

For example, Business Law: around the middle of the semester, I realised that the teacher didn't expect me to know which is right or which is wrong; he expected me to know how to demonstrate my idea logically. This is very different from just remembering the content of the textbook. So from that point I changed my way of study, and in the end I did well.

But a lot of students, they still keep learning – in that way: they still try to read the books every day, and try to remember what they say; but when they face the exam they don't know how to answer them, because the questions are not from the textbook.

Maybe the teachers, they assume that all the international students already know how to study in Australia; but they didn't know that some of the students can't change – they don't know how to change; they don't know where they can change. So those students they have trouble, and in the end they fail one assignment. But even though they failed one, they didn't figure out why they failed; they just say, "Oh, I was very unlucky; I studied so hard, but the teacher still failed me." And then these people they get to lose their confidence, and in the second one they still learn it in the same way and they still fail one, so it make them more and more negative.

— Keith

Examinations are not a big problem for Chinese people; they depend largely on memory, though different people have different approaches to exams. I've heard that in some courses the teachers give the students the topics beforehand, so they prepare the answers, memorise them, and just write them down in the exam. In an exam where they have to choose three out of six topics, they just prepare three and memorise them. But my approach is different: I prefer to prepare more than six topics, and look for the connections between them. I prefer to revise the whole subject, and compose my answers in the exam, rather than memorising them beforehand.

— Daniel

How was your first exam?

It's different. It's very interesting. It was the first time for me to see so many people in an exam. And the style was different, also. I think the way you use is good. The teacher gave us 10 questions, the first one is compulsory, and we only choose four from the others. At first I didn't understand why the teacher gave us a choice, but when I was during my preparation, I saw there were 10 topics in the textbook, so I understood that maybe the teacher was giving one question to each topic, so it would save a lot of time, and I only prepared four topics, I didn't have to read them all.

— Nana

Was it different from a Chinese exam?

A Chinese exam focusses on what is taught in class, what's in the textbook. The exam here focusses more on applying what you know.

How did you cope with that?

Not bad.

How did you feel about the time allowed for the exam?

Very short. You were supposed to do four questions in two hours, but I could only do three.

— Jade

The exams here - the lecturer told us before the exam that the answers had to be in essay format. I've never done an exam like that. Our teacher in China didn't say we had to answer the exam in essay format; with each question you just went straight into the answer. Here they say you should begin with an introduction that starts off from a broad idea, and explains what you are going to say. I'm not as logical as that. I'm used to putting down each point as I think of it; this business of writing an introduction and a conclusion - I find it really difficult.

So how did you deal with this in the actual exam?

In some cases I wrote an introduction, in others I didn't.

— Pearl

The exams were fine; not much different from Chinese exams, I think. I think my main problem was the reading lists and all the things we were required to read.... Because in the exams you were expected to write in essay format; whereas in China sometimes you could just write in dot-point form. But here you had to give examples; if you had lots of examples, the teacher would give you a better mark.

Was this difficult for you? – the essay format?

For me it was OK. If you could follow the classes all right, and could prepare well, it was OK.

And you were able to complete the exam within the allotted time?

It was OK.

And how well do you think you did?

I think I was able to write down everything I wanted to write - everything I could write.

— Nova

In China the teacher will tell you, for example, this chapter will definitely be in the exam; he'll give you fairly specific information about the questions and how to answer them. But they don't do that here. They'll say, the exam is on everything I've taught you; or they'll say, this whole book is the main point. I couldn't work out which points I needed to revise. In the assignments I did alright; my marks were not bad – like 26 out of 30. But when it came to the exams, I couldn't work out which were the most important topics to prepare. I can't memorise a whole book: I'm not like some students who can memorise a book and visualise it as though projected on a screen.

— Pearl