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The exam and module results have been released today.  It is always a nervy time when you open the letter to read the results; it was great to be with some fellow students as we all opened them together.

This term I did better than last term!

I am really pleased. Firstly I passed everything, which is not to be underestimated as it was a very busy period at the end of last term.  Made slightly more busy for me as I was also involved in organising the Ball.

I managed to get distinctions in 3 (nearly 5!) out of 5 subjects; Corporate Finance, Modelling & Analysis for Management and Practise of Management – that was for the charity work we did with Age Concern.  The other two subjects were Marketing Strategy and Strategic Advantage.   My course work for these two was enough but, even with my best ever exam essay performances (!!), the exams were still what let me down from completing the full sweap.

Life on the MBA contines at a different pace these days.  I have just completed the module on Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation and it was excellent – watch out you Entreprenueurs out their as I need a victim sorry, candidate, to interview for the assignment.  The course had a good number of guest speakers who all brought their unique view of Entrepreneurship; academic, business owner and venture capitalist investor.  

Next week is the last taught week on the MBA for me and for many.  The course is International Business and I have heard it is excellent.  It is going to be another sad time I fear for life in lecture room A0.01 will come to an end.  It is the last module for a few people too, so we are organising a BBQ for the class for when it finishs, as a final farewell, until Graduation.  What a fantastic roller coaster it has been.

The exams are all done.  It is possible that they are the last exams I will ever do.  An exam is a strange environment and a total intensive memory test.  In the past I have never performed at my best in them but this last set were the  best I have ever done. Results aside, I was very happy with my “exam performance” and did my best.

I took a different approach this time to before and although my nerves (and adrenaline!) were still high as I turned over the papers, I was able to recall much better and gave myself time to compose what I was going to say.

Exams are stressful but I kind of enjoyed it!  Also, I learnt a lot studying for them that will be very useful for me in future – the ultimate aim anyway.

The results will be out in a few months (after the marking and external marking and appeals and other admin …)

Yeserday was a great party.  Some of the guys put on a bash at their flat, with every colour alcoholic jelly, shotters and beers.  The weather was warm and sunny and it felt great letting off steam.

Tonight is the “Night at the Oscars” Ball and so final preparations are underway.  It will be a good night and everyone is making a big effort on the outfits.  Who has won the Oscars themselves is a closely guarded secret, with all to be revealed on stage later …

The exam week is upon us and even though I was well prepared today, the nerves are always there.

Those chilling words “and you may now turn over your papers and begin” echoed around the (different) basketball court (again) as a few hundred of us got our heads down and calculators out.

The exam format was such that there was a multiple choice, two long numerical questions and an essay question to answer in the time.  Counterintuitively, by far the most difficult section is always the multiple choice.  The reason for this are that you can only be right or wrong (no method marks!), there is little time (only 3mins on average) and because, the lecturers are super worried about people saying it is easy, I recon make it super tricky.

For example:

Which of the following statements is true?
a) The beta of a simple portfolio consisting of only two assets does not
depend on the correlation coefficient between the returns of the assets.
b) According to the CAPM, firms with the same beta will earn the same
expected return, irrespective of how large or small the firms are.
c) Other things being equal, the higher the covariance between the returns
of an asset and the returns of the market, the higher the asset’s beta.
d) All of the above.
e) None of the above.

or

The MacDonald family are considering the following retirement plan: for the next 30
years, they will pay a fixed amount each month into a fund. Thereafter, they will
withdraw £2,500 each month for the following 20 years. If the fund earns a return of
6% per annum, how much (approximately) must they pay into the fund each month
for the first 30 years to finance their withdrawals for the remaining 20 years?
a) £347
b) £363
c) £755
d) £935
e) None of the above.

It is those killer choices at the end ‘All/None of the above’ that make questions like this so tricky.  Rather like the GMAT for those reading this who have been through that boot camp of a test.

Happily I think the exam went well regardless so now have my head down for the next three, that are all in quick succession Wednesday through Thursday.

Next week we have (another round of) exams and where I have four, others have only 2.

Revision however is going well so far, after a fairly shaky start to Corporate Finance, everything is now much clearer.

The MBA definately gives back the more you put into it and you are not spoon fed.  This has come as an annoyance and shock to some at first but really what can you expect.  There is an interesting dycotomy however, as they are paying significantly for something that they may not actually get in the end i.e. the MBA ticket.  It is therefore interesting to see the different reactions to that, especially when exams, projects and jobs are being discussed, as they are all really tough.

The Ball organisation is coming together too, with one of my friends leveraging his girlfriends expertise in such matters – it is going to be great.  Doing different things like this really brings out talents in people you may never have happend upon – the discovery of mastery negotiation skills in one friend, for example, has been truely impressive!

We are going to take advantage of the garden this summer so went out and got some garden stuff this morning.  The highlight being (I hope!) the grow your own chilli’s … check back for chill growing progress!

Good luck to all those who are racing this weekend and to those of us left who are revising.

It was with some shock that I went to my Mandarin class last night to find the rest of the class waving exam results.  They were not meant to be out until today, yet, here they all were, with papers in their hands, and mostly looking happy – although not all it has to be said.

With no chance to get my paper results before the Chinese class began, I was imagining spending the two hours of facial gymnastics (of which Chinese is without equal) completely distracted.  As it happened one of the lads was online.  Aha!  I could check via my.wbs.com ….

The obivious drawback of that being everyone in the room was now ribbing be and trying to look over my shoulder at the computer screen.  It was a painful process.

Very happily, I have solidly passed them all.  In Economics I even got a distinction, including my review of Land Rover so that has made me feel pretty good.

I can now look forward to the next set of exams (in about 6 weeks time) but more importantly, properly enjoy my birthday this weekend.

Term 1 has now come to a close; an awesomely intense period with now being the first time to take time to reflect.  Finding the motivation for Economics was tough after the party weekend post exams, however in the end I really enjoyed it; just like most things this term.  Interestly it was on Land Rover and so from an Economics view point I had a fair amount to say, especially at the current time.

Subaru and Suzuki have joined Honda F1 in pulling out of motorsports and today Toyota announced that they will make a loss, for the first time in their 70+ year history. Of course the ‘credit crunch’ is to blame as, being a luxuary item, car purchases can normally be delayed or postponed. It is therefore  a tough time ahead for my many friends in the industry.

On a more pleasant note the snow has come in serious amounts to the mountains (gives me another excuse for a winter picture!) For all those going away for some ski or snowboarding action this season, you are in for some good conditions – you can now even get from Whsitler direct to Blackcombe without coming back to base (as long as you can get up to start with!)

Have a great Christmas and enjoy your few days off.

The exams have ended and the parties have begun. All in all, I think the general conscience was that the exams were slightly harder than expected or than in previous years. As they say though, there is little one can do now and so the focus shifts to completing the Economics assignment next week and to the festive period ahead.

I have had some feedback/comment about the amount of car based stuff on here! Well, I am kind of into it so that is what you are going to get … it is the Race of Champions tomorrow and so expect some comment on that at some point – a great event where the best drivers alive get together from all over the world to have some fun driving around in buggies against the clock, in the amphitheatre that is the new Wembley stadium. Great stuff.

In the mean time, here is a much more festive and gentile photo of some trees and snow!

Sofia??

After some serious disruptions, just before exam week, we are now all moved and set-up again.

Since I last wrote, we have sucessfully completed another project, for Operations Management. This was a challenge but I feel we come through good in the end, both for the presentation and the report. Other groups did well too and so congratulations to them.

It is head down now for the push into the exams next week ….

It seems strange to be writing this but term end is rushing up on us already. People generally are starting to think about the end of term exams and getting all those reports and presentations finished, as well as keep up momentum with their PoM project. Seems a bit sad that we won’t be having more time with the these lecturers too as all too soon (next week in fact) it is pretty much our last lecture with them.

Keep those comments coming in regarding life and the things they didn’t tell you about Warwick.

Today we presented our view on the concept of Fear Marketing. This is where companies use a perceived danger or threat to manipulate your behaviour and get you to buy something. It is quite a theoretical subject and we only had time to present some of the fundamentals of the teams’ research. Even then I think it might have been a little heavy going in what was quite a short presentation. Saying that, from the really positive feedback we got, I think the message got across. Certainly there was some lengthy and constructive discussions before we presented as to the best way to do it and I hope (for the cohorts sake at least!) we got it right. The presentation was punctuated with some funny Ad’s so if nothing else we lightened the mood. In terms of learning it has been a really interesting project, from both a direct subject matter point of view and also a group dynamics point of view; both positive it has to be said … I will never look at a screaming kid in a screaming kid in a super market and will definitely think twice before asking directions!

Organizational Behaviour (everyone’s favourite subject) was today on leadership. It presented a really interesting model on the subject and one I could definitely relate to from my former management experience – certainly I felt I got way more out of the session, having had to struggle and solve these issues in a real situation; it made the whole context way more relevant.

Only one more week of lectures for this term and then we are into the revision for the final exams. Time is flying by.