University Classes - Ecole d'ingénieurs de PURPAN

Ecole d'ingénieurs de PURPAN

Address of University: 75 voie du TOEC, 31076

Address of my House: 54 Rue des Fontaines, 31300 Toulouse

University Classes Info - Found Below

First, an update on my daily life here in Toulouse. 

This past weekend (Janaury 14-15, 2017), I went to the Pyrenees in Andorra to ski for the very first time! For some reason, Thomas (the guy teaching the beginners how to ski) thought it would be a good idea to start us on the 2nd to hardest level (there was 4 levels of difficulty). So I spent 1 hour trying to get down to the bottom of the course. Needless to say, I was bruised all over my body from falling over and over again, but after I tried some of the beginner courses afterwards I finally learned how to turn and slow down a little... 

I also tried for the first time "fondue bourguignonne". Super delicious!

While we were there, there was a  gigantic blizzard and the route back home was blocked off. This was a problem because, if I understood correctly, our bus driver was going to come back to get us from this route. So, we were stuck in Andorra for awhile until we finally found a bus and a driver who would drive us through Spain to get back to France. We arrived back in Toulouse around 2:20 am. Those roads were SKEEETTTCCCHHHY.

This week (January 16-20, 2017) was super laid back, I didn't have any classes due to a hiccup in my schedule, but it's been worked out since then. I explain more in the section below. :)

Has anything interesting been happening back home? What's new?

University Classes:

1) System 
     - Basically, it's nothing like a semester at Purdue or any colleges that I know of in America. You must take 5 years of classes to obtain your diploma at PURPAN. The diploma is considered an equivalent to a bachelors and a master's degree in the USA. At PURPAN, courses can last a couple days (extremely low credit courses), a couple weeks (low credit courses) or for most of the semester (medium/high credit courses). 2 European credits (ects) equals 1 American credit. Extremely low credit courses can range from 0.5 - 1.0 ects and medium/high credit courses can range from 3 - 6 ects.  
     - Attendance to class is mandatory and and showing up late is frowned upon. If you are late you have to talk to the "responsable d'année" to explain why you were late. This person acts as a student adviser for the entire grade/year. Classes normally last an hour and 45 minutes and you can have up to 4 classes per day.

2) My experience so far 
     - Personally, I think the classes are way too long. Especially when you can have 4 of these classes every day for the week. They give you a lot of information in a short amount of time, so make sure to listen in class and sit near the front so you can hear. 
     - IMPORTANT INFO. Make sure your schedule is nearly completed before coming to PURPAN. They don't schedule classes here like they do back home. All the classes are already preset for each year for all the "Purpanais" (PURPAN students). This means crisscrossing classes from different years is nearly impossible. There are way to many overlapping of class times to be able to make a schedule with some classes from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th year. Pick just one year that you like and stick to it. You may be able to add one or two classes from different years if you can find a way to fit it into your schedule... if you're lucky. Another aspect to be aware of is that classes aren't scheduled until a week or two before the semester begins. So, you won't know when and where your classes take place until you arrive.... oh, I forgot to mention... the classes can change times from week to week based on professors leaving or due to other unforeseen happenstances. For me, this grinds my gears because I like having set times for classes and making a schedule for the semester. 
     - When I arrived, my schedule was a mix of classes from all the years. They told me that it would be difficult to make it work, but in my head all I saw was a challenge waiting to be conquered... it ended up being a really bad idea haha. I've just recently up heaved my old schedule and created a new one based around classes in the 4th year. It's more clean,  streamlined and I'm no longer sweating beads whenever I look at my schedule. At least for the moment. :)

3) Exams 
     - They aren't really different from Purdue's exams, but it really depends on the type of questions (multiple choice, short answer, etc), the professor and the course content. Exams are graded out of 20 points. Anything above 9.5 is passing for international students and anything over 11 is passing for French students. I'm also told that getting a 19 or 20 on an exam is nearly impossible. High scores for exams range around 14-17. Receiving a score in this range basically means that you earned an "A". For me, I'll be taking everything Pass/Fail (aka any score of 9.5+ will earn me the credits) soooo... no worries :)... I hope 
     - For international students, they allow you to use a simple French-English dictionary during the test. You can use it to look up words that you don't understand... or tear apart because the test is in a different language haha.