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Linköpings universitet

In Linköping University, I studied in the Institute of Technology. There are a great number of courses offered to exchange students at the Institute of Technology. However, there was still a great deal of adapting to cope with since the system is quite different from what we have in Singapore. The academic year was divided into two semesters, Autumn semester and Spring semester and there is one week of vacation at Christmas. Each semester is divided into two study periods: Ht1 and Ht2 for the Autumn semester and Vt1 and Vt2 for the Spring semester. Each period lasts for 8 weeks. Courses are scheduled in timetable modules, called “blocks”. There are four timetable modules and to get a clash-free timetable, the student should take only one course in each timetable module.

As for examination, it took me some time to get used to it because most of the examinations lasted for 4-5 hours and it was no surprise to see students bringing in their own food into the examination hall. There was even one occasion which I had to take an oral examination which lasted for 2 hours. Throughout the campus, there are many microwave rooms for student to cook their food. Food in the school café was especially expensive by our standard and I do not have the luxury of cheap hawker centre food there. As a result, I cooked my own food at home almost everyday.

To fully understand the Swedish culture, I decided to sign up for the Intensive Beginner’s Course in Swedish for Exchange Students. Indeed knowing some Swedish had made my stay in Sweden more worthwhile. The beginner’s course in Swedish is 7.5 ECTS credits and it lasted for five weeks. The course is primarily intended for exchange students with no previous knowledge of Swedish. The aim of the course is to give students a basic knowledge of Swedish with an emphasis on oral skills. The course includes pronunciation exercises, oral training, basic Swedish grammar and short writing exercises. Through this course, I also managed to make a few more friends.

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