How studying in Finland is different from studying in Austria

One of the main reasons why I chose Finland to be my host country for my exchange semester was that the country is known all over the world for the best education system you can get on this planet.
So far, I’ve experienced 2 months of Finnish education and I can already see a lot of differences, but also a few similarities, compared to the education system I am used to.

First of all, the grading system was a bit confusing to me as in Austria it’s the complete opposite. Therefore, one is the best grade and five is already failed, there is no zero in our system. For that, I had a good laugh with my Austrian friends showing them my first five proudly. Besides the different grades, there’s also a higher percentage you have to archive in exams in my home university. To pass the exam you need at least 60%, not 50%, which is graded as a four.

Moreover, we do not have as many group projects in my university, maybe in one or two courses. But in Finland, there’s literally none of my courses without any group work. On the one hand, I think it’s good to work in teams to see different aspects and attitudes towards certain issues, but on the other hand there’s often difficulties with team members and sometimes it’s quite hard to find time to meet as we all have different schedules.

But there are also some similarities in Finnish and Austrian education system. Just like in Finland, education is free for Austrian citizens from elementary school until university. Further, you often have to pass a test to get accepted in Austrian universities and those are quite similar to Finnish entrance examinations. Multiple choice, memorization and quick mechanical problem solving are the main focusses on these tests to select appropriate students for various universities. Depending on which university a student chose, the tests can be fairly easy or extremely hard to pass.