When you’re studying abroad, many students get caught up in the excitement of traveling and socializing and find it difficult to balance it all with school. It is important to remember we are still aiming to achieve an education while abroad. This semester in Madrid I am taking four classes, two of them through the IES Madrid Engineering program, and the other two through UC3M, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. This semester is my first full, back-in-person semester, so I am excited to be spending it in a different country and learn from these new experiences.

During the first few days, I noticed a lot of differences compared to my classes back at Mizzou. The biggest one I noticed from the classes I am taking at UC3M is that they do not have much homework throughout the semester. The grading system is heavier on midterms, finals and labs. Personally, I found it really difficult to study and practice leading up to these exams without having any application of the course content through homework assignments. Luckily, IES has required weekly tutorials that help you prepare for these exams, which are extremely helpful. Also finding a good study spot is very important. I usually have about two hours in between my classes or tutorials, so I like to find a spot on campus, whether it’s inside or outside depending on the weather, to get any studying or assignments completed.

One of my favorite classes through UC3M is User Interfaces. I have learned so much from this class, and have really enjoyed the lab assignments where we have designed a traveling website using HTML and Javascript to make it functional. I have this class twice a week, for two hours each, which is very common for most courses at this university, instead of the 50-minute lectures and 2.5-hour labs at Mizzou.

Although there are many differences and challenges I had to overcome the first week or two at this university, it is very rewarding once you adjust, and I have learned a lot while being here. With only a month left in the semester, it is now time to start preparing for finals!