A different weekend

Exams are over! Now there’s a full weekend of celebrations ahead!

It’s a funny feeling to have a whole weekend with no work or assignments to do. I don’t know what that is because since the MBA started I never had one. It’s not like there is loads of work every weekend but there’s always something to do. Either work group or career related things or even sports activities; there was always something in my mind for every weekend since mid September. But not this weekend. Well, that’s not entirely true, as we have to choose our Global Consulting Project and many of us are trying hard to get interesting projects outside the list that is available.

Nonetheless, many people are flying away to spend the weekend away. Also, this weekend is the ski trip for those who are going, which is not my case.

So I guess this will be a different weekend. A weekend where there’s nothing to do at all other than relaxing or maybe doing some shopping or enjoy the enormous quantity of pubs Cambridge has to offer. There’s also a lot of catching up to do with my colleagues after this winter break.

So this will be a different weekend…

Two more to go

Accounting and Finance are over. It should be a happy thought but the Accounting exam was so hard everyone is a bit freaked out. Anyway, there’s nothing we can do now and let’s just pray.

Tomorrow is time for some Organisational Behaviour and Marketing. Two exams with four questions each from which we should answer two. I don’t know if it is the excitement of the term to come or if it is just an ageing problem but I’m finding this studying and focusing thing a bit too hard. And apparently I’m not the one only.

The good news is by tomorrow at lunch time the exam week will be over. And to celebrate that there are already two pub meetings adjourned: one in the afternoon after lunch and the other one later on in the evening.

I have the feeling it will be a very long day for our livers….

Exam week

A great deal of marking process in the Michaelmas Term involves exams. The other part has to do will all the assignments and projects we have to hand in. But for some courses, the exam accounts for 100% of the grade. That’s the case of Accounting, Finance and Marketing.

The exam system is quite different from the one I was used to. Firstly, I’m not used to doing exams of different subjects in the same day. Not only they are in the same day, they are done at the same time. For instance, Accounting and Finance are two different subjects but evaluation is made through a 3 hour exam with a part A (accounting) and a part B (finance). Not only it is a bit confusing but it makes time management absolutely key. There’s no point in doing a perfect finance exam if I spend 3 hours doing it and do nothing in the accounting bit. So I think exams are one more thing I’ll have to adapt to. And a hope I can adjust fast, because the first one is tomorrow :) For what I’ve seen so far, exams aren’t of an impossible difficulty level. The main issue is how to manage time. And apparently, some exams are meant not to be finished. This approach can be a bit frustrating at times especially if you are not native in English….i just have the feeling it takes me even more time than it would if it was my first language.

Anyway, Accounting and Finance will be on Wednesday and Marketing and Organisational Behaviour will be on Friday. I’m sure Friday night will be a great time to party as we will official put an end to the Michaelmas Term :)

As we are all trying to encourage each other, I think the main idea that we’re trying to pass through is that marks don’t get you a job. They sure don’t, but it’s always a nice feeling to perform well!