Experiences

Every year, many vwo high school students participate in our programmes. On this page, some of them share their experiences with you.

Mathematics: Elaine Wan

For Elaine Wan, there was no doubt about which Pre-Class to choose. She chose Mathematics because she wanted to be sure of her choice of that study after high school. In this Pre-Class, Elaine learned a lot about the RSA cryptosystem and how mathematics is used when sending confidential information over public channels. She was faced with abstract problems that could be understood with mathematical solutions.

"It's very abstract and that's what makes it so difficult. That's why we tried to present it as simple as possible." At the Pre-Class graduation ceremony, Elaine and several others explained what she has been doing in the Pre-Class. Using brightly coloured boxes, they explained to the audience how best to share confidential information. 

For more information on Elaine's graduation ceremony, read the following article (only available in Dutch). 

After completing the Pre-Classes, Elaine found it very helpful that she took specifically the Mathematics Class: "As much as I like maths, I have found that it is not something I want to be involved with every day." She found taking the Mathematics Pre-Class a really fun challenge, but is also happy that she now has a bit more clarity about her choice of study.

Law, Rhetoric and Democracy: Lois Warmelink

'You hear it's wrong, but you can't put your finger on it exactly.' Enthusiastically twelfth-grader Lois Warmelink tells how she scrutinised a speech by Geert Wilders during the PRE-Class Law, Rhetoric and Democracy. Both theoretical and practical aspects of rhetoric were covered. The students were immediately thrown in at the deep end: they had to write speeches and learn all kinds of speaking skills tricks in order to then speak as convincingly as possible in front of the whole group.

Although it was a bit uncomfortable at the beginning, Lois benefited enormously from those practical lessons. For instance, she learned how to give and receive feedback properly. Moreover, she had a bit of a tendency to speak very quickly and softly. Every time she had to give a speech in front of the group, she improved.

Lois was looking for a challenge, but also thought this PRE-Class would help her with her choice of study. The name 'Law, Rhetoric and Democracy' alone piqued her interest. The PRE-Class certainly did not disappoint. Partly because of the Class, she decided to study Law and Political Science or Public Administration next year. 'Sorry to leave so soon!' After a brief interview, Lois got up to quickly move on to the next appointment. Her tendency to talk fast is quite handy sometimes after all!

Linguistics: Stijn Zelhorst

Curiosity was the reason for Stijn Zelhorst to join the PRE-Class Indo-European Linguistics  taalkunde (now Linguistics). The name of this Class appealed to him, but mostly it raised more questions about what exactly the study of linguistics entailed. Within this PRE-Class, students went in search of the oldest origins of a wide range of languages, including Latin, Sanskrit and Farsi: the primal Indo-European language. The PRE-Classers were immersed in theoretical linguistics within a short time: 'Even within those eight lessons, you really go in depth!'

When they went on a field trip to the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, the students were shown tablets in hieroglyphic and cuneiform script. During the PRE-Class, they were not only taught about ancient scripts and language systems. Stijn's favourite lecture was about sound systems, laws that reveal how sound changes occur.

Although Stijn no longer plans to study linguistics, this Class helped him a lot with his choice of study. The Class gave him much more insight into exactly what studying Linguistics is about. Stijn is now thinking of studying literary history: 'Maybe this PRE-Class is a stepping stone to better understand the differences between medieval and modern English!'