Graduated!
Last week Thursday four students from the master’s program “Energy Policy Studies” took their final state exam – and passed. The stress of wrapping up the thesis and studying for the state exam was building in the last weeks. But then finally, on June 15th the hard work of reading hundreds of pages, meeting in study groups and preparing the thesis defense paid off and four students, who had entered the building left as masters.
During the exam the students are tested on the core fields of the master’s program. Facing four professors and defending your thesis before being asked about the most relevant International Relations theories as well as Czech and European energy policy can be quite intimidating at first. However, sufficient preparation definitely helps. As such, many students used the library with its study rooms and the Atrium to make the final preparations. To cover all three areas that are tested during the exam, we had to read more than one thousand pages and go through presentations. As we had three weeks between the thesis submission and the state exam, it made most sense to prepare one area each week, before having a last revision of everything.
The day before the exam we meet in the Atrium together. Going through the state exam preparation list topic by topic took almost the entire day. At the end of that day, we were exhausted and nervous about what will happen tomorrow. As sleeping was not easy the night before the exam, we all were a bit tired, but sharply dressed and confident to take the last step to become a master. After the exam, we had to wait sometime for the results. Being happy that the exam was officially over, the first celebrations started at the horse.
Coming back to the faculty we lined up in front of the panel and received our grades. Being relieved that we all had passed, we took pictures with our (now former) professors. So we leave MUNI and FSS, grateful for all that we had learned here and we hope to stay in contact to see the many familiar faces again.