[Structural Integrity]

I don't quite understand why you have to write essays for an exam? We always got a list of questions, 20-30, open or multiple-choice, that we needed to answer. It has been like that always. The only time I had to write an essay was for the subject Dutch for my final exam when I was 17 years old.

In uni we had project-oriented studying, which meant a group of students (2-8, depending on the project) got handed out a project with a goal and we had to design and implement it. We got rated for the result, which included the actual application (software èh), the documentation and a final report.

I'm not sure what I should think of all this essay-writing. It kind of fits the image I have of the English way of doing things: very cultural, very conservative, very... Victorian... I don't know... I can't really explain. When I was in London I was kind of surprised about the sheer number of people with a servicing profession (as opposed to production/development professions). I saw people walk around with red signs on a pole with a yellow M painted on it, so to say, and the number of people cleaning up the stations. Here in the Netherlands you find a trashcan on every corner of the street so you can toss your own trash away, but in London you have these guys who walk around with their trash-wagons. I often found myself walking around with an empty can because I couldn't find a place to toss it away.
Or kids with "security" on their shirt. Very weird. But I know I only saw the tourist part of London, so I don't have a good total image of England to compare with.

On the other hand, the manner of testing is good for professions where one needs to be good with words, like lawyers or business people. But I feel it's a tad unfair for professions where skill and understanding of systems, such as in software, is more important.
But I don't know what pig is studying, so I probably don't have a good total image about how educational things work there on your island.