PENN-sieve

If you have read any of my BLOG since I moved to State College in July, you probably figured out that I love all things Penn State. But there are a few things that happen here that are absolutely bizarre. The most frustrating so far is the academic calendar. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the school ran on a Friday schedule. I tried to explain that no other school does such a weird thing but people here think it is normal to pretend that a Tuesday is a Friday!

At normal schools, professors give exams during their class time. If you have a MWF class, it usually goes for 50 minutes each session. If the professor wants to give an exam, he has to write a test that can be completed in the alloted class time. Sometimes this means you have a lot of little exams. Here at Penn State, professors do not like to give exams that would take up their lecture time and they don't like to tailor their exams to the 50 minute time limit. So students have to take the exam in the evening hours. Sometimes they take their exams on Friday evenings. It's so weird.

Finally, all the local high schools were closed on the first day of the hunting season (the Monday after Thanksgiving) so everyone could go out and shoot a deer!