September and October are exciting fun times for new students, but November comes and the first round of exams brings a new sensation: oh no.
How has it been for you? If you are a student, probably both exciting and tough. This is what the new students of the Peking University School of Transnational Law (STL) experienced during their first round of examinations as PKU graduate students. They had three exams in 5 days during their exam week.
As 1L students, new to the demands of graduate school, they expected a new challenge and a large burden. STL opened up three classrooms all night for students who stayed up studying. The study rooms were full all the day even after 11pm. If you want to study in the law library of STL, you needed to come early to get the nice and spacious seat. People posted some comments in their moments. Some complained about the difficult material, some regretted not catching up in time or studying hard enough in the past weeks, and others were looking forward to the happy hanging time after the exam. For a short period of time, it was like students were living in the building. You might run into classmates finishing their study and on their way back to dormitory at 6 in the morning, when you got up early to start your happy day of reviewing. Delivery became popular in STL and the trash was piling up visibly.
Zhang Xinyu: The exam week was so stressful and challenging that everyone was burning the candle from both sides. It would be better to prepare the exam early not just in the exam week. Please cherish your sleep time! Please cherish your sleep time! Please cherish your sleep time!
Fu Yijun: It is suffocating to prepare for the examination of the first quarter especially for Civil Procedure. The high demanding requirements and high peer pressure made me tired. I want a new life in my quarter two.
Basangyongji: I think it was sad because we didn’t have a day to rest after the exam. The next exam period is just two months later in January. I wish me and all my classmates can survive it. However, we may can really make improvements in this kind of arrangements.
The spirit of hard work and fair competition is not only the tradition in STL, but also in the genes of Peking University students. They may get tired and disappointed at times; they may complain about the thick books like bricks while being confused of the future; however, they do not give up and they maintain a strong passion for studying.
That passion is like trickling stars glistened in the dark. Thinking about future exams may be scary or stressful, but they persevere, overcome, and do it anyways. There is no doubt that these PKU students and all the others have bright futures!
Written by Wang Haozhe
The Nanyan Observer 
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