With the economy and national borders slowly opening up all over the world, I was finally able to get my student VISA after a year-long wait. My university also announced that the upcoming winter semester would mostly consist of in-person classes or a hybrid of face-to-face and online. Bottom line is, I would finally be coming to Canada after almost 2 years of distance learning. To commemorate this, I wanted to walk down memory lane and talk about all the screw-ups that I’ve gone through during this period.
- Almost missing an exam due to daylight savings
-
I’m currently living in Southeast Asia while studying at a Canadian university, so the time zone issue has always been a pain in my butt. I’d like to say that I’ve now grown accustomed to it, but that was not always the case.
This particular incident happened when I was able to reschedule a test with one of my lecturers due to the time difference. During this time, Canada was using daylight time. However, I didn’t know that it would switch back to standard time on the exact day my test was on. So, clueless, I went to take a shower before the test and ended up being half an hour late. From that day onwards, I’ve been paranoid of daylight savings and now I religiously check the clock just in case.
Also, I’d just like to complain about the concept of time difference in general? Why does the clock move backwards or forward? Who decides this? Why are you confusing people? It is such blasphemy.
- Having to take an exam at 6am (the first time…)
-
I’ve been studying in UWindsor while living in my home country in Southeast Asia, so I’ve had to deal with night classes and exams this entire time. Most lecturers have been really accommodating, but I’ve had my fair share of difficulties.
During my first semester in college, I had a lecturer who wouldn’t allow me to take the finals at a different time. The finals would be held from 6am to 9am from where I’m living, so that sucked. Not to mention, I had another final a few hours before that, so I couldn’t take a power nap since I wanted to study a bit more. This experience was probably the worst overall, especially because the grade I received for this class was the lowest I’ve gotten in college.
What frustrated me most was that I understood why the professor couldn’t help me – both our hands were tied in this situation and that just made it suck even more. This wouldn’t be the last time I had to take a test early in the morning (I once had to take one at 4am!), but it was the first time that it gave me a giant panic.
- Not getting my textbook until a week before finals
-
It’s a pretty famous college tip to not buy your classes’ required textbooks until after you’ve attended the class a few times. I followed this tip for one of my classes, but it majorly backfired.
I had a professor who was heavily reliant on the textbook. Because of the tip mentioned above, I ordered the textbook a little over a week after the semester began. I had to order it online, which would take around a month or so to arrive. However, the stupid book managed to get lost during shipping so I had to reorder from Amazon. By then, more than a month had passed when I reordered the book. Since Amazon is not that big here in my country, the textbook took almost 2 months to arrive. It finally arrived during the reading week before finals. I ended up not using the textbook since I couldn’t read everything in time and just half-assed everything, while praying heavily. I guess my prayers worked because I passed the class.
While online distance learning saved me a lot of money because I didn’t have to stay in a dorm and buy a meal plan, it gave me so many headaches. It’s pretty funny looking back at this now, but I was having heart palpitations during those times. My online learning experience isn’t officially over yet, but I think I’m more prepared for any situation now because of everything that happened. On another note, I also think this aged me by 20 years.