What are classes like?

One of the biggest differences between Saint Mike's and Cardiff Uni would be the classes. To give you a better idea of why, I'll go through my Saint Mike's schedule for a previous semester, then attempt to explain the craziness that is the Cardiff one.

Last Spring (Sophomore Year), I took 4 courses: Evolution, Medieval Christianity, Organic Chemistry and Elements of Calculus. This amounted to 16 credits (which is pretty standard). All the classes, except for Medieval Christianity, met for an hour each every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Organic Chemistry and Evolution had a three-hour lab each that met weekly. Medieval Christianity met for an hour and a half every Tuesday and Thursday.
Fairly straightforward, don't you agree?

This Spring (Junior Year!), I am taking five courses: Horror, Fantasy and the Media (the filmstudies course I can't stop raving about), Welsh Culture and Folklore, Cytogenetics and Human Genetics, Medical Microbiology, and Genome Expression and Regulation. They do not have a nice, tidy schedule like my Saint Mike's classes. At least, the science courses don't.

• HFtM has a two hour lecture on Mondays, a film screening Monday evenings and a seminar (group discussion) on Thursday.
• Welsh Culture meets for an hour on Fridays (although we have some fieldtrips planned for other days).

My science classes meet twice a week (some twice in one day!) for an hour each. Labs are called Practicals and meet for three hours. They also have something here called "Workshops". I had one today for Med Micro about "Epidemiology and Related Issues". Our lab coordinator (Dr. Beatrix Fahnert, she speaks British English with a German inflection) had a slideshow and activity prepared for us. I felt so accomplished when I was able to diagnose a patient with either anthrax of the lung or pneumonic plague (It was a potential bioterrorism situation). Turns out it was anthrax (in Cipro we trust). Score one for the Vermonter!

Cheers!