Having successfully survived a semester at Bocconi University, I thought I could share some tips from things I’ve learned over the past four months.
Finding Your Classes
Bocconi’s campus is a lot smaller than the University of Glasgow, which is a big relief on your first day of classes! Bocconi offers Campus Tours the week before classes start specifically for exchange students, which can help you to get your bearings. For undergraduate students, there are two main buildings that you will become familiar with – Sraffa 13 and Sarfatti 25. If your class is in Sraffa 13, the room number will begin with an ‘N’. All classrooms consist of two numbers, and the first number represents the floor. For example, room N33 is on the third floor of Sraffa 13.
I’d definitely recommend downloading Bocconi’s app, YoU@B. This app allows you to check your timetable and schedule exams, as well as book study spots on campus. After about a week, I promise you’ll have no difficulty in finding your classes!
Interestingly, there is a superstition in Sarfatti 25. In the main entrance, there are two lions in the centre of the doorway. According to Bocconi students, you will fail your degree if you walk between the two lions. Although just a myth, students take it very seriously! It is a sure-fire way to stand out as an exchange student, and I’ve heard audible gasps when people have mistakenly walked between them!
Exams
The examination system at Bocconi is quite different from Glasgow.
For some subjects, there is the chance to sit partial/mid-term exams. These exams cover the first half of the course and contribute to a percentage of your final grade. The material in the partial exam will not be repeated in the general/final exam. If you are unhappy with your partial exam result, you can choose to make the general exam count for 100% of your final grade.
Bocconi split their exams across three sessions. At the end of first semester, there is a December session specifically for exchange students, an early-January session, and a late-January/early-February session. The same happens at the end of second semester (May, June, and late June/July). You choose which exam session you wish to take your exams in. Additionally, you are not limited to sit all your exams in one session. For example, I chose to sit 3 exams in December and 2 in January, which I personally found made it a lot easier for studying. If you fail your exam, you can resit it in the next session.
Italy also has two different methods of examining. The first is a written exam, exactly like Glasgow. These often contain a combination of multiple-choice questions and open-ended/essay questions. Their exams are substantially shorter than the exams at Glasgow; most of my exams were only an hour long. The second method is an oral exam. This is a type of examination specific to Italy. You sit in the exam room, and you are called one-by-one to have a 10–15-minute conversation with the professor. The professor will be purposely vague when asking you questions in order to give you some room to steer the conversation to a topic you are comfortable with. Having spoken to various people about oral exams, the opinion is very divided. Some people love them, some people hate them. If you end up sitting an oral exam, my best advice would be to take a snack with you! Whilst I got a good grade for my oral exam, I had to wait around 5 hours for my turn!
Teaching Methods
One of the biggest culture shocks I experienced at Bocconi was the lack of tutorials. Bocconi’s teaching is purely conducted through lectures. Each subject has approximately two lectures a week, each lasting 90 minutes. I definitely had to adapt my way of learning, as I did not have the pressure of tutorials and seminars forcing me to revise the lecture topics. However, removing tutorials from my timetable greatly freed up my time to catch up on readings (and travel!)
For most classes, attendance is mandatory. To sit the final exam as an attending student, you must attend 75% of the lectures. Attendance is registered on the YoU@B app or online. Interestingly, Bocconi allows you to choose whether you wish to be an attending or non-attending student. Attending students are students who meet this 75% requirement. As an attending student, you usually also have a piece of groupwork or a course assignment which contributes to a percentage of your grade (like Glasgow). However, you can reject the groupwork or coursework grade if you are unhappy with your result. Non-attending students are students who either do not attend lectures or students who fail to meet the 75% attendance. As a non-attending student, your exam result contributes to 100% of your final grade. Often, attending students and non-attending students sit two separate exams. The non-attending exam tends to be longer and more textbook-based.
I hope this has been helpful in establishing the basics about Bocconi. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to me.
Arrivederci,
~ Jenna Starkey, Global Opportunities Ambassador 2022/23
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