Studera utomlands

Now that I’m halfway through my studies in Leiden, I thought I’d share a little about the academic life here. So if you’re considering an exchange in the Netherlands, this might give you a taste of what to expect! (At least for the Immunology and Infectious Agents and Disease courses.)

How are the courses structured? 

The courses consist of mostly lectures and workgroups. Lectures are recorded and uploaded onto Brightspace (basically their version of Canvas) along with the presentation slides. Workgroups are kind of like seminars. You’re assigned a group with 9-11 others and for each workgroup you have a number of questions to prepare, and sometimes some articles to read. You’re expected to be well-prepared and ready to discuss the answers with your classmates and workgroup teacher. The content covered is usually an extension of the lectures, so both lecture and workgroup content will be on the exam.

Workload: readings, self-studies, labs, projects

The Immunology course relies heavily on the textbook, and in order to keep up with the lectures and especially the workgroups, it’s necessary to have completed the assigned readings. Immunology also consists of a two-day lab which you have to write a short lab report for.

Infectious Agent and Immunity (IAI) has no textbook, which I think made the workload lighter. IAI also has fewer workgroups but it does have an Elective and Mini-project. For both the Elective and Mini-project you have a couple of topics you can choose from. For the Elective, the final submission is a Pecha Kucha presentation recording with your group. The Mini-project is a 3-day lab project which ends with a presentation.

For both courses, a lot of self-studying is required, especially Immunology because of the frequent workgroups and amount of reading (you basically have to get through the entire textbook). Fortunately, you do get a (much-needed) free day ~once a week to complete the reading and prepare for the upcoming workgroups (or catch up on lecture notes). 

How do exams look like?

So far, both the Immunology and IAI exams have been digital and held in the University Sports Center (USC). I believe there are two time slots for the exams, either a morning 9:00-12:00 or an afternoon 13:00-16:00 and so far both have been in the afternoon. Personally, I felt more of a time pressure for the Immunology exam, but for IAI there was more than enough time. This is probably because the IAI also had MCQs whereas Immunology only had open-ended questions. 

Unlike KI, there’s little to no access to past papers here. For Immunology, we got a couple of questions picked out from 2-3 past papers and for IAI there were 10 sample questions. Also, when results come out, you only get your score and do not get to see the exam.

That’s it for this entry, hope it was helpful and if you have any questions, drop a comment or email me!

See you in my next entry!

Rebekah