Midterms

Just in case I was getting bored of stressing out over co-op, I have had the stress of midterms to switch to for the past week. Last week was my French midterm (which was announced the day before), yesterday I had International Business Law, and today to finish them off I had International Management and Art History. Going into this semester, I have to admit that I assumed it would be a joke. The concept of not getting straight-A's hadn't really crossed my mind. However, between the tests the past two days, and a conversation with a friend today, I am beginning to get nervous....

My French test was easy so I'm not too worried about that. Yesterday leading up to my BLAW test I was kind of freaking out. The rumors were that his tests were impossible. Even though I have decided to take that class pass/fail (due to lets say 'personal differences' with the professor) I was honestly nervous that I wasn't going to be able to get a C...which is the passing grade at CEFAM. Turns out it was somewhat of a joke. It was four essay questions that he had clearly just thought of on the metro five minutes earlier...no comment. Anyways, I started off this morning with International Management. The test itself was actually very easy. It was a case study that we had been almost overly prepared for, and I really had a great understanding of the subject matter. The time crunch is what got me in trouble. It was a rather long case study and I am a relatively slow reader when it comes to 'textbook' style writing. I took a long time really trying to get my points across in the first question when my professor announced that there were only 10 minutes left. At which point I realized that I hadn't even begun to answer questions 2 or 3. Needless to say I was freaking out, and quickly tried to write down as many sensible points as I could. Leaving that room I felt awful. I'm pretty sure I bombed that one. But I wasn't done for the day, this afternoon I also had my Art History test. I thought that was pretty easy so again, not too worried.

So at that point I was feeling alright, I figured 3/4 wasn't too bad, and I could make up for the Management one the rest of this semester. That is until I had a conversation with one of my French friends. She explained to me that the French grade everything on a scale of 20. To them, the grade of 18/20 was considered a solid A and really good. She said that rarely do they give anything higher, and usually that was the best that you could get. Now that's all fine and good if you're staying in France, but my grades transfer exactly as they are back to my Northeastern transcript. An 18/20 in American terms is the equivalent of a 90...an A-. Now I hate to sound anal, but I have a very good GPA and it is something that I pride myself on. I've only had 3 B's in my entire stretch at college thus far. So if an A- is the absolute best I can do (if I'm completely perfect)...pardon my French but that's bullshit!

Ugh...France is getting more and more annoying every day.

Heading to London this weekend to see my oldest friend will be nice, and I am incredibly excited to hear everyone speaking English!!