We last met on April 22nd; it’s been a rollercoaster since then.
I have four hours of classes every day alternating between morning and afternoon sessions. I become really sleepy in accounting class, this is partially explained by the wholesome lunch I gorge on and partially by … umm … accounting(?!) . The way the course structured is that students have to put in some effort at grasping the basic subject matter before they come to class. Professors assign us pre-reads to be completed before coming and in the case of accounting, we also have an online quiz . The quiz has marks so naturally everyone studies for it, ending up knowing what the professor will teach! Another reason to feel sleepy.

Reducing my food intake before any afternoon commitments is becoming an important skill. We also have a constant supply of assignments, club activities and other commitments, you tend to neglect fitness and health. This is something I want to actively focus on . I haven’t yet reached the phase where I’m sacrificing sleep for anything but I definitely want to engage in some physical activity daily. For me it’s going to be between running, football and swimming . My attempts thus far have meant that I only play/exercise on the weekends but I want to make it a part of my daily routine.

FLASH: We have only 4 days of classes every week – THREE DAY WEEKEND! Club activities are kicking off. Being relatively experienced in product management, I conducted a session for my batchmates explaining the in’s and out’s of the job . The session got some great reviews.

Oh did this post start with the word exams? That’s because our mid-term exams just wrapped up. I have courses on Economics, Accounting, Statistics and Marketing but exams for only the first three (the Marketing “exam” is in the form of a case submission) . The exams were all closed-book but we were allowed to carry one page of notes. The style of questions was very different – while a typical statistics exam in my undergrad would’ve focused on calculations and picking the right distribution, here it was more about interpreting the data/question properly and drawing proper inferences; with calculations relatively much simpler . Since the syllabus was relatively short, there wasn’t much to study (or be scared of). The general best pattern that’s emerging is that you should learn in sync with class – doing the pre-reads, thinking of the subject matter, doing problems immediately after class . Because of the pace of the course (and competing activities), there is no time to separately sit down & study as one typically would.

Our marketing professor Mr. Raj Grewal enlightened us about the concept of psychological distance. Though we feel mildly accomplished that our mid-terms exams are over, and our “final exams” are far away; in reality, the end term exams are just two weeks from now . The psychological distance is much more than the temporal distance!

Anyway, I must leave my time is running out!