"A waste of time!" This would be the one sentence I would use if somebody would ask me about it. After almost finishing my first year of masters in Spain, I think it's time to write something..
I was gonna write the heading as "Education System in Spain" but then I realized that there is no system at all here. The registration, grading, courses.. everything is just a mess..
First of all, I want to tell about the courses I took. I had more or less 12 courses and from half of these I didnt learn any single thing!! yes literally nothing. I dont remember anything, I didnt pay attention to the lectures as either the prof was so boring because of his inability of teaching or his poor english or because of the content of topic was not interesting at all.. For the other half of the courses, maybe the efficiency of them were like 25% for me. That is, I spent the whole year but I gathered information which could fit to only 2-3 months, if the courses would not be full of empty talk..
Anyways, this was just an introduction about the education here..The main issues are much more deeper. Because anything can happen in Spain (at least in my Uni). Coming up with a logical reason for what has been happening is quite impossible.
Here I will give some examples:
- They may say to you that they'll take care of everything about the registration, they'd choose the courses and register for you and everything. Then you start taking your courses.. After 2 months, some of your friend realizes that the system does not show one of the courses you currently take. and guess what, it turns out that you are not actually enrolled to that course.. You were not even supposed to be!! Then you just stop going to that course and throw the assignments u already made to rubbish!
- You might be in a group of 6 people through out all the course. and the grading might be based on weekly papers u deliver and a final presentation (of course, you have no idea what's the weight of each delivery). Final week, you all together make your presentation and your prof says he liked your presentation and he would give a B,B+ for you.. Then the grades are announced and you got a 7 and most of your team members slightly more.. although it is possible, u have no reasoning why.. Then you find out that the prof said the same things to other groups also, but they also got 7.. One of the other groups goes and objects to the prof as he said the grade would be something like B,B+,A (yes very close interval), and this might be the answer you get: "Ohh.. I didnt know 7 was a C.. I will change your grade to 9." Even until now it's pretty awesome to hear something like this from a prof! Anyways no comment.. He didnt know the new grading system or whatever.. Afterwards, one of your team members requests the prof to change his grades also as the prof didnt know 7 was a C and now he knows it isnt so he is supposed to change all grades.. But what happens next? My group mate's grade goes from 7.2 to 8.2 where the other groups grades go from 7.2 to 9!! What kind of grading is this? I have no idea..
But this is not the end.. Because my grade is still 7!!!!!! and so is one of my group mate.. So we go to the office of the Prof and ask whats happening.. He says "let me look on papers" and brings the paper that he sent to the board which has a list of students that the grades should be changed. He checks our names.. and perfect!! Only the names of two people on the list were CROSSED OUT! He says I dont know why I did this, I dont remember.. I will change your grades to 7.8!! Oh My God!! What kind of mentality is this??!!?!
Why other group members go from 7.2 to 8.2 but our 7 goes to 7.8 only?? (Not to mention the ones that rise from 7.2 to 9)
In the end he accepts it to make 8 and thats the end of story.. In any of the steps above there's no single logical thing that I can understand.
- Moreover, here your Prof can say there will be a final exam in the end of the semester and it'll be a pass/fail exam. That is, if you get more than 50 points, you pass, otherwise you fail.. It's not gonna effect your grade. The grade is based on the assignments. Then you think it's not a problem, you go to the exam and the exam paper says it'll contribute to the final grade just like it's an assignment.. Very fair!
Then the grades are announced but not the exam results, and it's said that the exam didnt contribute the grade.. Thats it.. everybody passes the course. No logic.
- The other thing is grading of the assignments. Your grades are mainly based on two things:
First your Microsoft Word Smart Art skills!! If you draw fancy tables and figures, this will increase your grade siginificantly.. The content is the second important thing.
Secondly, your empty talking skills during the class. I understand this should effect the grade, I dont have any single objection to this. BUT, also your assignment grades might be affected by this!! Yes, your assignments are graded according to the overall image of you in the eyes of Profs.
I am personally not active during the classes and do not expect that high grades in my final records. But I just want to do what I have to do and expect to get a grade between 7-8 and do not care about the rest. More important thing is what I learn or what I wanna learn. But obviously Spanish system doesnt fit to me, as you expect to behave like in primary school where you try to use colorful pencils and pretty hand writing .. and hold up your finger as much as possible in the class. This is my thing and I'm happy with my grades that I deserve.
But, this is not always the case that you get what you deserve.. For example you can be in a group of 3 for a course and you can do 6 out of 9 assignments with your group. I mean, upload exactly the same file! And in the end your final grade might be 5 and the other members 6 and 9. And there's no explanation about the grades whatsoever.. The assignment grades are not announced (yet). I dont what were the weights of the assignments that were individual but apparently they can effect your grade tremendously.. I'm sure the weights will not be announced anyway as it will be a part of teacher's "personal assessment"..
Again, I dont think I should have had 9 or anythng I'm just talking about my relative grade, which in my opinion should have been around 7.
btw the other group mate who got 6 was the same guy that the name was crossed out in another course.. I dont know if I should make any conspiracy theories if the gossips in the teachers room has something to do with this. I'd prefer to think positive and keep this as a bad joke.
So... This was my experience in Spain. If you have any plans to study here please think twice.. if you dont change your mind, read here again.. until you change your decision..
I really dont know what the future of Spain will be with this kind of system.. I hear similar stories from my friends in other universities. I guess the trend of Spanish economy is not a surprise...
