“I think the end of July is too late. If students don’t pass their retake, they’re out of the programme and it’s too late to apply for other courses.”

While some have just completed their first year and others are already flying back from a week of much needed sun in Mexico, other students are still battling with resit examinations. At some faculties, holidays only start by the end of July.

Most logically, students retake examinations at the end of the year because they failed to pass a course earlier on. This was the case for Carme Bis Thobi, first-year IBA student. She has to retake four courses, the maximum IBA allows, because of failure. “I failed all my second trimester courses and one from the third. I made a mistake in setting my priorities as I was always busy with ASAH (the Association of Students of African Heritage) and learning new languages that I often forgot to dedicate time to my courses.” The 19-year old Spanish student explains that the pressure is on. “It’s in or out, I have to pass theses four or I will have to leave RSM. I made peace with failure in the beginning of the second trimester by booking my flight home for after the resit period. I made sure my vacation wouldn’t interfere with my education.” Carme’s last resit is on the 22nd of July.

Only four weeks of summer

Students retake an exam because they have to, but second-year International Psychology student Ligia Monné decided to sit through the stress of studying once more for a higher average. Rather than talking about the resit, Ligia emphasized that she would rather have the retakes earlier in the summer. “I won’t study for four weeks now, instead I’ll just hang around with friends and start studying once the exams are a lot nearer. It’s a waste of time, I can’t really go on vacation and neither can I do an internship. My summer is only four weeks.”

Ligia Monné Image credit: Tom Hollestelle

Ligia is retaking for a higher average, but can imagine the stress of students who have to pass. “I think the end of July is too late. If students don’t pass their retake, they’re out of the programme and it’s too late to apply for other courses because the application deadline was in May. I really dislike the system; it makes no sense to me.” The last International Psychology resit is at the very end of July.

Missed the exam

Taking a resit during the summer period because you’ve missed the original exam? It almost sounds like a bad joke. For IBA Pre-Master Student, Jasper van den Dungen, it was reality. “It was a Saturday morning and I was on my way to my girlfriend, convinced that my exam was on Monday. When I checked my phone for the details of the exam, I saw that it was scheduled for Friday. I had missed it completely because I focussed on another course too much”, he tells. “It is what it is now and I’m confident that I will pass the resit.” If he fails to succeed, Jasper won’t be able to start his Master degree in Global Business and Sustainability in September.

No pressure

Andrew Gebahrd Image credit: Tom Hollestelle