Exams and the aftermath

Hello again,

Well it's been a big week, and I can't think of anyone who's particularly enjoyed it.

We had our examination on Tuesday last week. It consisted of a 26 station OSCE (objective structured clinical examination), which in Australia would mean history taking and clinical examination stations, but here seemed to mean a hodge podge of written, computer based and oral examination stations.

The OSCE was run for semester 9 (the semester I've done here) for the first time last semester. As it was a completely different examination type, they ran a practice OSCE, had a lower pass mark (only 50% compared to 65%) and had a very easy exam, judging by the stations that last semester's exchange students told us about. The university this semester refused to release even one example of the exam format, would not run a practice OSCE (even though it was a completely new style for all but about 13 of the students), set a pass mark of 65% and a requirement that students pass the 4 subjects (anatomy/histology, pathology, paediatrics and obs/gynae), set a much harder exam and gave us a 7 minute time limit for each of the 26 stations (something I'm used to in Melbourne, but very difficult for those sitting the exam in their 2nd or 3rd language). The result? 1/3 of the class of 90 students failed.

We found out our results on Friday (I passed), which was a day of confusion as all the students and indeed the University seemed shocked: it's a new record. As well as the flood of students seeking advice about what happens next, the students who passed all had to get forms signed for their home universities and the Norwegians had to get their temporary licenses to start work the next week. No one seems to know what happens next, not even those who set the exam. Many of the exchange students have left or are leaving without any idea of when and how they can resit the subject or subjects they failed. Some got very good marks on the exam overall but failed one of only 2 pathology stations (despite having previously passed a pathology test) and hence the exam. A few did well in the 2 questions they later removed from the exam as too many people did badly on them, leaving those few below the 65% cut off for that subject.

To add to the sombre atmosphere, many of my friends have left in the last few days (including Zoe and Lenka on Sunday and Lena on Monday), and there has been an incredible string of bad luck for everyone including freak accidents to mobile phones, bad phone interviews for jobs back home, sick relatives, the list goes on...

Luckily we have enjoyed some highlights including a fantastic post-exams BBQ in a sculpture park, at which we rode a bicycle-for-two around the park, played a Norwegian game which involves throwing bits of wood to hit other bits of wood and grilled our delicious burgers (an art we've perfected in Norway). As it started to get dark at 11:30 we strolled to a nearby bar to continue the party.

Wednesday saw us at a Norwegian friend, Siri's, house where we learnt to make a Norwegian porridge which is made from sour cream and served with cinnamon sugar. It was very heavy but quite nice! We also tried Norwegian aquavit, a herbal alcoholic drink. It was..interesting, probably not something I would drink at my next party though!

We had great plans on Thursday to go to an island or up to the lake, but the pouring rain soon changed our plans and we spent the day using up our remaining ingredients by baking cakes. Thursday night was spent partying the night away for most of my friends at a Kitchen party at Lena's, but unfortunately I was sober as I had interviews at 7am the next morning!

Friday was a fantastic night, despite the results being released, at a free concert in Oslo. Zoe and I stood in the pouring rain about 20 people deep from the stage singing and screaming along to Alexander Rybak (eurovision winner) and Aqua, a Danish band from the 90s, with hits such as Barbie Girl. Despite being absolutely soaked we had a really fun night and returned home for pancakes at midnight to warm up!

Lenka and I hit town early on Saturday to enjoy her last day in Norway. The sun was out and we strolled around, taking in the Iran election protest, dropping in to say good bye to the Scream in the National Gallery and hitting the shops for her last time. We spent Saturday evening with the four of us (Zoe, Lenka, Lena and I) drinking their remaining duty free vodka, listening to our favourite songs from the last six months and enjoying our last meal all together before we split off (Zoe and I back to Aus, Lena to Germany and Lenka to Slovakia), and spent Sundar taking first Lenka and then Zoe to their respective buses for their journies onward (Zoe to Iceland for a few weeks, Lenka to Prague, where her University is).

Lena and I ate one of Lenka's recipes in the evening and carefully documented every moment of her last night in Norway. Eating Lenka's recipe, her song came on the radio and that set us off. Luckily we recovered and spent the rest of the evening swapping photos, songs, music and so on. Today Lena and I strolled around the University preparing for the inevitable tears as for the third time in 2 days I made my way to the bus stop carrying bags and waited the awful minutes as we kept our eyes peeled for the approaching bus.

E comes tomorrow so I'm spending my evening cleaning up ready for her arrival. Maybe we can attempt a dual blog update in the next few days!

Following Elissa's visit I will have the weekend to pack up my stuff before making the same journey to the bus stop next Tuesday. I'm getting the bus to Berlin, spending a few days there before heading to Lena's in Aschaffenburg near Frankfurt. After an enjoyable ten days there I jump on the plane at Frankfurt and fly to Singapore, then Adelaide, then back to Melbourne ready to start Uni again.

Anneke