Friday, 24th February 2012 – University – permalink
Period 3 lasts only 2 weeks and you have a skill course. This intensive training was the last part of my exchange semester in Maastricht.
Andrea Chegut – our Excel tutor, Source: www.fdewb.unimaas.nlMost of the exchange students do not attend the skill course in Period 3, because coming back for 2 weeks does not make sense if you live far away. The exams for period 2 are scheduled before Christmas and period 3 begins in the mid January so only those who need the credits come back after 3 weeks holiday. The second factor is the course selection possibility. As most of the master programmes lasts only one year, the only skill courses provided at master level are thesis connected and as Erasmus exchange student, you are not allowed to enroll and of course it does not make any sense to do so. Your choice is then restricted to the offered skill courses at bachelor level.
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Labels: Erasmus, Excel, Library, MSc, PBL, Study, University
Thursday, 1st September 2011 – University – permalink
There are a lot of exchange students at School of Business and Economics every year and in order to present the Faculty of the Maastricht University and to provide people with contact with other exchange students, SBE organizes Introduction Day.
My group, Source: www.facebook.comAs I mentioned in the last article about SBE Master's Introduction Day, I kind of took this introduction day at SBE twice. But I am really glad as each of those two days provided a bit different experience and as a result, I know more and I also had something interesting to do and I met a lot of people. Obviously I made the same mistake twice – I can't find any any pictures of the day, but I definitely took some 
and there are only a few provided by the University so the description has to be enough.
Introduction day for Exchange students is compulsory – you have to be there to get your Student card and let the UM know that you arrived and also to get all necessary instructions. And you also get a plenty of additional stuff including quite useful student handbook. You can also find it online, but printed version is more handy.
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Labels: Bank account, Bike, Czech people, Erasmus, Library, PBL, Pretty Girls, Sightseening, Study, University
Wednesday, 31st August 2011 – University – permalink
Today is the last day of August and my first official day at School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University. Let's talk about how was my first impression of the Faculty, PBL system and the people I met today.
Slide from welcoming presentation, source: my pictureFirst I have to mention that I am an exchange student, but quite an active one. I took part at , which is more for regular students and also today – it's introduction prepared for regular master students, as will be tomorrow 
But I've already signed in and it's better to have more information and see the school from different points of view, don't you think?
The whole day was great, ideal introduction to the university and also to the city. Great thing is, that you are the whole day in a small group where are also your future fellow students – ideal for getting know each other a bit. You get the information about the most important things and also how to get along. If you still have any problems with the student card, missing documents or are you just not sure about something and do not know where to ask, than Introduction day will help you! Well, I had a great tutor so I can only give a very positive feedback and I hope that also other students had the same experience.
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Labels: Beer, Erasmus, Infonomics, INKOM, Library, MSc, PBL, Pretty Girls, Sightseening, Study, University
Sunday, 6th November 2011 – University – permalink
Going to school and passing exams is what full time student does. Period 1 including the exams is over and therefore it's ideal time for evaluation. How were my courses and how did I enjoy the first part of the autumn semester?
Lecture room at Maastricht University, source: my pictureFor three years I started my winter semester at the beginning of October. It's normal in the Czech republic, but the system is different in Netherlands. After Master's Introduction day we had weekend to get prepared for the lectures and tutorials starting the week after that. The first period at SBE took place from 5th September till 21st October followed by the exam week from 24th till 28th October. Obviously everything happens pretty fast so you are expected to be prepared even for the first class. It's your responsibility to check the EleEUM, where the tutors post material and information about the course. Maastricht University has problem based learning (PBL) approach and therefore students are required to read a lot and be really prepared for each class. No excuses like "I'm Erasmus" works here. Team assignments are common practice and therefore for most of the students, one of the university library becomes a second home. Get ready for that.
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Labels: Erasmus, Infonomics, Library, PBL, Study, University
Wednesday, 9th November 2011 – Personal experience – permalink
By chance a friend of mine told me, that some people from psychology are doing some research and are seeking for people willing to participate. I was, because I enjoy beeing part of a research.
GRE, Source: www.ets.orgWhat has the research to do with GRE test and PPI? The traget of the research is to determine some qualities of students at Maastricht University. GRE® stands for Graduate Record Examinations and PPI for Personal Potential Index, both done my ETS®. GRE tests are used by universities as an adminision requirement, some universities are also using GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test). The biggest advantage is its decentralization, meaning that you can take it in your home country at several places and you get universal result you can use anywhere. It's computer based test that acording to (Wiki) aims to measure verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing and critical thinking skills.
As any other research, there was also offered a compensation for the four hours spent with the test and questionaires. I got 25€ voucher, that can be used at several places. Nice. And I will also get the official GRE results!
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Labels: Infonomics, Library, Money, Study, University
Sunday, 2nd October 2011 – University – permalink
Library is a place where students in Maastricht spent their time stuyding, working on group assignments, actually most of them spent there so much time, that the library is their second home. This topic definetelly deserves a few more notes from my side.
There are two libraries where the most of the studnets of Maastricht University spent their time – Inner city library (close to the School of business and economics and Law faculty) and Randwyck library (Health faculty). As I take part in experiment taking place in Health faculty, I also spent more time in the library there, as it makes no sence to bike somewhere else to spent my time.
Library there get's really full after first block of lecutres – at 10:30. Since than until about 4 o'clock, it's not that easy to find a free place to sit. As everybody has a laptop and connect to internet via Wifi, the network is either very slow or it's almost impossible to get any connection to internet. I even have problems to connect to university website with portal containing course materials. That's annoying, but I cannot do anything about that, only prepare for that.
As there are a lot of students, it's obvious that everybody needs to do something else, has different wishes for study enviroment and to satisfy this demand there are some rules and also specific premises. Spending whole days in the library is quite common here.
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Labels: Bike, Library, Pretty Girls, Study 
