27.03.07 closer closer

We handed in the Operations Management paper on Monday at noon. Now we're working on Financial Management, that's due at noon on Friday. I also need to get a lot of work done on my business plan project before Friday. Basically, I'm on the same schedule as I was the last two weeks: 8 AM to 1 AM, working away all day. Though I have to admit I prefer papers to exams at this point... the exams here are so absurd that it really just sucks to take them. Everyone crams into a hall for 1 to 3 hours depending on the exam, you have to memorise every little thing you're going to use... for me this means boiling 8 weeks of reading and class down to several dozen frameworks/techniques and 5 to 15 sub points per framework. I sit down in the test, and write them all out on the paper they give us so I can refer to it. Then there's the bit about all work being done in pen. Even math. Oh yeah, and the exam schools won't let you bring in your own calculator, you have to use theirs, which generally means that it's fucked up in some way or other. And never forget the tuxedo and cape. Because you really wouldn't want to take an exam without your fucking tuxedo and cape would you? We all look like a team of Dracula juniors in there. Especially with the red carnations pinned to our lapels.

On to sunnier thoughts...

The reason I have to get the business plan work done this week is because the plan is due just after vacations, and I have a lot of really cool trips planned. Check it out:

- This weekend: Paris with Tash and Keith and Reba

- Next week: villa in Torremolinos, Spain with Barry, Renee, Shelby, and Dan

- Next weekend: Wales with Reba and AJ and Nat who are visiting us

- Week after: first few days in Belgium drinking weirdbeer with Kent

- Rest of week and weekend after: Greece with Jean and Julia and hopefully Reba if she can come!

Then Trinity term starts and I get busy again. Oh booh.

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23.03.07 all done

The last two tests are done, I am done, Reba has split for the weekend, and I'm here with my papers to write.

Developing Effective Organisations: 9:30 AM Friday. I nailed this one. I nailed this one good. Perverse metaphors abound, but let's just say that this one went well. I used more models, terms and diagrams than ever before in an exam, and that frankly makes me feel a bit weird. Honestly, what kind of a skill is that? Applying Greiner, Goffee/Jones and Tacit-Formal communication to any situation and being able to draw a diagram to exemplify it is of ZERO real world value. But, it gets me through the 3 hour case study exam, so whatever.

Macroeconomics: 2:30 PM Friday. This was OK. There were 4 short questions worth 10 points each and one long question worth 60 points. I knew 2 of the 4 really well, and on 2 had to bullshit a bit, but probably got some points. I thankfully REALLY knew the long one, so this was probably a reasonable passing exam too.

After the Macro exam, we all went out to the Turf Tavern for some celebratory beers. Then Shelby and I got dinner at Gino's (an actually decent Italian place in Oxford) and I went home and to sleep. Yes it's true, I did not go and rage with my colleagues, I was just too damn tired, and felt the sick coming on, so I decided to rest instead of getting sick. It paid off, I feel good today. Now I just have to finish my OM and FM papers, and it's off to Paris to see Tasha and Keith next weekend!

I think the big news this term is that I put a lot less freaked out pressure on myself but still worked just as hard. I also didn't do some really stupid things, like trying to pull a 37 year old all nighter. Just like last time, I don't know what's going to happen with final scores, but I'm pretty zen about them... I think I'll be OK and if not, I'll figure something out. Plus, I have the secret weapon of really really good grades going into most of these exams, so even outright fails on certain exams would result in passing scores. Whatever happens, I'm not going to lay awake at night freaking out about results like I did last term! It doesn't change anything, except for making me go from feeling good to feeling shitty.

a little AM guitar playing helps me get my zen on

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21.03.07 brief respite

Two exams on Monday, one on Tuesday and one today, now I have tomorrow off and two more on Friday. The exams ran like this:

Financial Management: 9:30 AM, Day 1, BAM!!!! Right in your face with a totally unannounced totally unplanned level of difficulty and super fucked up questions. NO ONE finished the exam of 10 questions out of 200 odd MBAs. We had 1.5 hours and the 3 practice tests we were given by the prof left us utterly unprepared (not to mention the lectures, but that's another story). Apparently the exam school (part of the university) had chastised the prof for giving exams that were too easy in previous years, and told him to make it harder. We had the same amount of time as students had in previous years. I guess he showed them! Either this thing is going to be curved like a mofo or I am going to be resiting this exam with 195 of my closest friends this spring. The MBA class reps have lodged a complaint with the academic committee at SBS, and they will probably address it at the typical Oxford (sub-glacial) pace. What a bummer!

IBGG: 2:30 PM Monday. Not as bad, but not great. I didn't like how I did on this one, it just didn't feel like I got in all the models and concepts that I should. It's probably a passing paper, and my scores going into the exam were at distinction level (70%) so I'm not worried about passing. Though I would have liked to get a good grade in this class! I certainly learned alot and enjoyed it.

Marketing: 9:30 AM Tuesday. This was OK too. I finished, which is more than I can say for a number of my colleagues, but it wasn't concept rich like I wanted. I did cover all the points that the prof wants covered in a marketing plan, but still, it left me with a lame taste in my mouth. Probably another passing grade. Combined with my marks going into the exam, I'll be fine. What sucks is that we even had 3 hours to do this one! Everyone I spoke with (except Barry, mad genius boy wonder, of course) said they spent way too much time on the financial analysis and got all goofed up in the numbers taking time from the essay writing. That's certainly what happened to me: I wrote right up to the bell. Oh well.

Operations Management: 9:30 AM Wednesday (today). This went pretty well. I had to bullshit a bit on a couple of answers, but I think that I even covered those reasonably well enough. The rest of the questions were cut and dried: I knew them and kicked out the jams. The f-ed up thing is that I committed about 30 major concepts (each with 5 to 10 sub concepts) to memory for this test, and these STILL didn't give me all the answers I needed. Oh well, it turns out that I am not a human mimeograph, and repeated Oxford exams demonstrate this fairly consistently. I still learned a lot, and actually rather like the subject, so as long as I pass, I'm cool

Now I have the day off, and tomorrow off as well. I have to study for DEO and Macro next, because both of those will be coming at me hard on Friday, so I will need to get cracking. This term has been exhausting: I have been studying from 10AM to Midnight or later every night, weekends included for two weeks, the exception to this being meals, trips to the stationary store, and exams. After Friday, we have an Operations Management paper due MONDAY (40% of our grade), and then a Financial Management paper due Friday (40% as well). Given the level of general disaster and mayhem around the exam, I suspect that the MBAs will be working their assess off to get a killer FM paper in by Friday. This, of course, means that everyone will have to be really good or else get stuck on the low end of the curve. SUCK SUCK SUCK!!!

Reba, forever the trooper, has been taking care of me very well: cooking, cleaning, making sure I have clean subfusc, making late night tea, being supportive, quietly reading while I study, and oh yeah WORKING TO SUPPORT HER STUDENT HUSBAND. So, once again I can only say how much I appreciate her. She's going down to Amsterdam to meet Tasha and Keith who are on vacation, but due to the scheduling conflicts with my EXAMS AND PAPERS, couldn't come to Oxford. :( After next week, Reba and I are going to go down to Paris to meet them for a few days at least. That will be fun.

Ok, now I study for DEO.

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17.03.07 what I see when I close my eyes

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14.03.07 getting weird in here

This term has been really busy: 6 classes, business plan, way more papers, intensified job search, more papers due the week after exams, and now: I'm in 9th week: the week off before exams. Next week is the big gnarley: 10th week means tuxedos and anxiety and exams. I'm holed up in the apartment from 10AM to 1AM doing revision (English for review) and as the exams get closer, I get weirder. I'm much more comfortable talking to myself, and spend a lot of time writing out frameworks on my whiteboard. I start to feel like I'm some sort of medieval monk in his chamber, scratching away at some academic work , oblivious to the outside world. But relief is in sight: 1 more week of this, 1 week of exams, 1 week of papers, and then it's off to Paris to see Keith and Tasha, then to Malaga with Barry, Renee and Shelby, and then to Wales with Reba, AJ and Nat. After that, I don't know for sure what I'm doing. Probably drinking. But for now, it's getting weird in here...

the stuff

the stuff close up

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