If you’re at high school in America, chances are it’s finals time, and if you’re in 12th grade, that means while English students are just begining to start revising hard for their A levels (for those that don’t know, think of them as required APs, and that you only take APs), you’ll soon be kicking back for a summer before starting uni. For us at Surrey, however, we’ve just finished up our four week long Easter Break and are into our final few lectures and tutorials before our exams in June. As a law student, I’ve got five modules, four of which will be entirley assesed on essays due on the 1st of June, and the last, European Union Law, will be assesed by exam on the 5th. As stressful as it is to have my grades all based on single assesments, it’s still an excting time, and although our first year grades don’t count to our final degree grade, I’m still trying for all 1sts. A ‘1st’ is the top mark that you can get at an English university, and for my course it’s a 70% and above, but 70% is a difficult thing to acheive here! A 1st is followed by a 2:1, which is a 60% and normally the degree required to do a masters degree, and after that is a 2:2, a standard pass, and a fail, though our tutors do their best to make sure as long as we’re paying attention, that last is difficult to happen. All of this might sound a bit complex compared to American college GPAs and the like, but rest assured you’ll know what you’re doing when you get here. If you’re in America worrying about your SATs and ACTs, just think that in a year (or two) how excting it could be to finish up you’re first year in Guildford!