Agilo's Weblog (text-based version for ancient browsers) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are seeing this page in the technology best suited for your browser. Enjoy your stay here and if at any time you feel the urge to see this page in its full glory I kindly and friendly suggest you to get a better browser. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Entry title: Passed admission exam for Hogeschool Rotterdam! Date added: Saturday, August 18 2007, 06:10AM Written by: Agilo (agilo3@gmail.com) Entry ID: 244 --- The past weeks/months I've been so busy with my studies/work, I barely had time to make entries in my weblog. :x I'll now explain why the best I can, for it's practically impossible for me to bring it across well enough so American/English people can relate well enough due to huge differences in schooling systems. First, a definition according to Wikipedia (this explains it better than I ever would): Hogeschool Another type of institution of tertiary education in the Netherlands is the hogeschool. While the literal translation is "high school," it is more accurately described as university of applied sciences or university of applied arts. Such institutions can award Associate's, Bachelor's and for some of them Master's degrees. College In the Netherlands the term college is used for institutes of secondary education. The term college is also used for classes or lectures at university. During the end of my present school (college) I was working on getting myself a job and applying for a Computer Science study at the Rotterdamse Hogeschool (or: "Rotterdam University; a university of Applied Sciences" ― www.hro.nl). I wasn't acceptable a the Rotterdamse Hogeschool by default, I had to take an admission exam in "Maths For Higher Education", English and Dutch. Of course, English and Dutch were a given and I expected them to be relatively easy but Maths.. now that would present a huge problem for me, as I've not had any maths at school for over four years! Luckily there was a course I could take at the Rotterdamse Hogeschool, for a mere two hundred and fifty dollars (excluding the hundred dollars I had to spend on purchasing the maths books themselves)! The prices were outrageous, in my mind, but I paid it anyway for my own benefit. So I took the two weeks-course during school and my internship, only my school was against me doing it during school/internship. In fact, I had countless talks with the head master in order not to get sent off school (they said if I'd attend they'd throw me out of school). I don't want to go in detail explaining this entire affair, it'd take too long: in the end, I worked things out and I was allowed to attend. The course itself was really tough on me; I've never, ever studied as hard as I did for that maths course, ever. A typical day would be; me attending the maths course, writing down and taking in as much as humanly possible, go to school/internship for the remainder of that day and as soon as I got home study like a mad man until 11/12 PM, then going to bed to be able to get up relatively fit the next day at 7 AM. The weekends consisted of nothing more than maths, maths, maths.. nothing else; I didn't even turn on my computer! After the two weeks course there was the long-awaited admission exam which I took, and passed!!!! :D (I want to thank my neighbour and a girl called Paulien for helping me; you've both been a HUGE help to me!) A few weeks later my internship ended: at the end of my internship for my present school I had to hand in a report for what I've been doing on my internship. My teachers knew it was well above the standards the school laid upon me but I still needed to "officially" get it over with in the form of a report detailing what I've learned and how I've improved myself during my time there. So at the end of it all, I thought I had it all rounded up and presented it but it was disapproved! Instead of failing me they decided to push the submission date forward a bit, to upcoming September so as to give me time to get my things sorted out. After that ordeal, I started working full-time in my summers vacation for a web developing company Michel introduced me to (a company he works for himself); Liones. They make websites based on their own Content Management System (CMS): Lynkx, comprised of C# and XML. I like the company a lot, it's a very professional and fun company. :) During my time there, the time came to take the other two admission exams at the Rotterdamse Hogeschool: Dutch and English. The exams themselves were not very difficult at all, though: The Dutch exam consisted of reading a large text, answering a few questions about the text and writing a letter (in correct form and within 500 words). The English exam consisted of much the same except there were only seven questions (which I could answer in Dutch!) and no letter to write! I was still uncertain of the outcome as I've been skeptical of the English exam for being that easy. I also didn't meet the 500 words requirement in the letter I wrote for the Dutch exam. All my uncertainty was in vein though, as today, in the mail, I received the outcome of the exams and learned that I've passed them both, now being officially accepted for a study at the Rotterdamse Hogeschool!!! :D:D Of course, I'll still finish my unfinished college education (which is still a lot of work) but I'm happy to know that I've finally reached the goal I've set. :D -------------------------------------------------------------------------------