Oh so very relaxed!

I'm calm. I'm relaxed. I'm happy.

I have barely thought of MBA work. Ok, that's a lie. There isn't a moment that passes when I don't think about brushing up on readings or wonder about exam results. Luckily, I'm hanging out with my family and baby nephew, so I can easily resist cracking a book.

I'll admit, this morning I put together a master syllabus - i.e. I consolodated all my syllabuses (syllabi?) into a large spreadsheet so that I can easily see what is due each week and keep track of my readings. Oh Excel, what can't you do?

Coming up at Rotman

When you become a student, you are invited to a plethora of speaker series events. Let me tell you, there is quite an impressive line-up. I haven't been able to attend everything that I might like, but there are two coming up in January that I hope to see:

Bob Pozen talking about "Too Big To Save? How to Fix the U.S. Financial System" and "4 experts on Achieving Social Impact Through Business".

Refreshed

It's amazing what 24 hours away from school can do!
I'm already refreshed and ready to go.

I am certainly appreciating the small things in life. Dinner is in the oven, the smell of melting cheese is wafting in the air. My dog is faithfully curled up at my feet, snoring in front of the fire. I'm in Barrie (about 100 km north of the city) waiting for my brother's family to arrive. This is what holidays are all about!

I'll admit, I did bring my laptop and books with me. While I'm enjoying the little things, I think it's important to keep up momentum.

Need to work on test taking skills

Still not feeling better today even though I spent most of the day doing non-school related things. I did get back my MCV exam this morning and made some stupid errors including putting part of my calculation on the line reserved for the answer which confused the marker, losing me valuable marks. I misread another question (our exam room was dark - literally, the lights wouldn't turn on, so I was squinting the whole time). Anyway, I'm really bummed about it - I really know the material so I hate to lose marks for stupid things.

The moral of the story is I keep psyching myslef out right before taking tests. I seriously need to start calming down.

Strangely ill at ease

Q2 is officially over and I'm not as excited as I had anticipated. In fact, my feelings are quite the opposite.

I'm having so much trouble explaining why I am not beaming from ear to ear this second. We struggled so much as a class this quarter and together, we accomplished so much. We have a right to be proud of our accomplishments. I should feel proud of my accomplishments - I never would have thought it possible to learn so much. To be inspired to learn even more.

Maybe it's lack of sleep or maybe I'm just in shock of the sudden end of the quarter, but my confidence has been severely shaken and I find myself nearly reduced to tears as I reflect on the past 4 months (has it truly been so short a time?). I can honestly say that I worked my tail off, but I fear that it wasn't enough. Would studying one more hour have made a difference? Should I have proofread that paper one final time. Why didn't I spend even more time rehearsing that presentation?

I know that I haven't always expressed what I want out of life all that elegantly and while this blog is lighthearted, I take my studies very seriously and I wholeheartedly want to excel in this MBA program.

THIS SUCKS!

I swear to you, I'm not a depressing person and I will bounce back. Tonight a bunch of my classmates are going to a karaoke bar and I plan to join them. I promise in advance to not sing the Blues!

All the world is numbers...

Remember the famous Shakespearean quote, "all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players"? I would like to counter that "all the world's a number and all the men and women merely calculators."

The evidence:
Statistics = Math
Finance = Statistics = Math
Accounting = Finance = Statistics = Math
Marketing talks to Finance = Statistics = Math

See a pattern? What about outside of business?

Art: Art = Paint = Numbers = Math

Music: I see a fraction. Fractions = Numbers = Math

I rest my case. (My rest from Finance is also done)

colder than an mba post accounting exam

I kid, I kid. No one is mad that the accounting exam was a bit on the long side. Plus we received an insanely short marketing midterm yesterday - 45 minutes - so it all evens out.

Today I face off against my ultimate arch enemy: finance. It's funny, I've met way more people this week and I've reconnected with some that I haven't seen since orientation.

P.S. It really is freezing out today! -10 Celsius but with wind chill it feels like -20. Plus, I live next to the lake so it's always a bit cooler.

Wishing time could stand still

I consider myself to be fairly proficient at speed reading. I'm also quite good at writing which is why today's fiasco of an exam has really gotten me down.

For three straight hours I scribbled FURIOUSLY in the attempt to get as many marks as possible. I skipped questions worth only a few points, even thought they were fairly easy to do and tried to get as much done as possile.

I shouldn't sound completely bitter because I did think that the questions themselves were fair, I'm just worried that I likely made silly errors because I didn't have any time to think.

This is just disheartening because I put a lot of time into learning the material. I went to tutorial. I even explained a few concepts to others in the past few days and alas, it won't reflect on my grade. I just need to remind myself that my goal coming into this program was to learn as much as possible and I really do feel like I learned a lot in this class. Plus, I loved the project.

Sigh.


Sigh.

The weather outside it frightful

which is one of the reasons I would really prefer to stay in today. Alas, accounting awaits. I'm writing in a random room in a building I've never heard of. I guess the outdoors await. I'm definitely going to wear a ridiculously large (and warm) pair of boots. Let the hilarity begin.

It's good to have goals

My goal for today is to go home in time for dinner. Eating out all the time is making me thin in the wallet region and round about the waist.

What this means is I have exactly 4 hours to review the entire second term accounting class.

- Liabilities
- Notes & Bonds
- Leases
- Off balance sheet financing and retirement benefits
- Financial statement analysis (i.e. ratios)
- Capital contributions and distribution
- Earnings
- Cash flow statements
- Investments

The above represents no less than 11 lectures and 199 pages of exciting text book reading (think size 8 font).

Good thing I've done a fair job of keeping up!

Study or Sleep --> The Debate Rages On

I got home just after 10 pm tonight after spending more than 14 hours away from home. I live a bit further away from school than some in a neighbourhood known at 'The Beaches', or to some 'The Beach' (it's complicated). This is generally GREAT because I don't think it's healthy to live right next to where you work and school is WORK. During exams, however, it's the pits. Studying in groups is a great way to learn material such as strategy since a variety of opinions helps to expand perspectives. I have yet to convince anyone to make the trek to my lovely beach home.

Here are the positives:
-->1 block from the beach
-->Wireless connection
-->Coffee maker
-->Giant bloodhound who never fails to make you smile

Negatives:
-->30-40 minute transit ride
-->it's winter, no one wants to hang out at the beach
-->dog fur sticks to just about any item of clothing
-->coffee at school can be found for as little as 80 cents, PLUS the store has bulk candy.

*Sigh* 14 hours at Rotman it is...

The real issue is that it's been 20 minutes since I got home and I've yet to commit to either more studying or succumbing to sleep. Considering that I spent 90% of that time googling various people (including myself - hope that's not weird!) and the other 10% of the time writing this post, I think it's pretty clear that napping is a necessary evil. I won't be doing much focusing at this rate.

My plan of action is as follows - sleep, alarm to go off at 5 am, actually get up at 6 am after hitting the snooze button no fewer than 6 times. Study for 2 hours before trekking into Rotman for the 10 AM Strategy test.

This is such a sad life these days. Need to stay focused on the main priority - Friday night's ultimate end of Q2 party... uh, I mean next year's graduation and subsequent glorious life.

You can't win in a trade-off game

I finally understand - you really can't win in a trade-off game. In this case, it's dark in the atrium and really quite cold, however, my wireless connection is EXCELLENT. On the other hand, it's bright and delightfully warm in 121, but wireless is spotty at best (still not sure if it's my laptop).

Either I choose dim lighting and great tunes (via streaming internet) OR I choose warmth and silence. I literally can't win! There doesn't seem to be an integrated solution. I suppose I could hunt up my ipod, but that sucker has been missing for MONTHS (and would require cleaning my house, *shudder*).

For the sake of my studies, I'll stick with silence, but my sanity might suffer.
(how's that for alliteration!)

We are the CHAMPIONS

OK, the moment was short lived, but the second I closed my exam booklet and handed in the worlds best aid sheet (in the world), I felt like I was on top of the world. It is highly probable that I have successfully passed statistics (with statistical significance and a confidence interval of at least 85%).

After a much needed lunch (not the liquid lunch I was hoping for), I'm now back in the fleck, mentally preparing for the next challenge - strategy.

5 EXAMS, 5 DAYS

Synonym for winter MBA exams = bleeding ulcer.

Saturdays are best spent doing nice, relaxing type things. Not being holed up in the same small study room for countless hours! My day started bright and early, while normal people were still abed. Daisy (my delightful bloodhound) had a 9:30 veterinary appointment which unfortunately left me late for my (wait for it) Saturday morning Accounting Tutorial.

Yes, you heard it right - Saturday Morning Tutorial! Time well spent. That is until we started talking about capital leases. I definitely had a little bit of a fit. WHY CAN'T THIS BE MORE STRAIGHT FORWARD????

The rest of the afternoon was spent in a statistics haze. There is literally SO MUCH to go over. I know you're not supposed to make compromises, but it's literally impossible to get everything done. For me, Q2 stats has fallen on the wayside. Luckily, it's nothing that 80 cent coffee and chocolate covered almonds can't cure.

We're all a little bit manic these days. 5 EXAMS in 5 DAYS!!!

I think my brain has enough to digest for the next couple of hours. I think it's time that I bid my study partners adieu for the evening and head home. Sometimes changing locale is enough to get the study juices flowing.

MBA Games

I'm sad tat I won't be going to the MBA Games this year. It looks like a lot of fun. Plus, one of the events is curling... as I only partcipate in the more obscure sports, this is something that I know a little bit about.

Hope I heard wrong

I thought I heard Anita say something about making recommendations to whomever teaches Strategy next year.... I hope this doesn't mean that Anita won' be teaching next year because her class really was FAB!

A Controversial Post...

I LOVE PROJECTS!

Yes, I said it. Shoot me.


Just completed the first, complete draft of our accounting project. I'll admit, it was my slow writing holding it up. I sometimes get wrapped up in the minutia and get overwhelmed by my innate curiosity. I literally need to think and understand every detail. I was surprised that this happened with accounting as well. Thankfully, it's finally DONE. Just sent it off to my partner and have my fingers crossed that he's satisfied with the work.

Too bad it's all ugly and double spaced. I much prefer 1.5 spacing!

Sigh. Now that all the "fun" is over, it's time to attack my arch nemeses - EXAMS!

U of T on the high seas

In our final Strategy lecture this morning, Anita said she'd heard a news report on the CBC this morning that 1 in 7 university of Toronto students have mild signs of scurvy. For those of you that are unfamiliar with scurvy, it's a disease that used to affect sailors on long voyages because they didn't get any fruits or veggies.

This is actually not that surprising. Let's take a look at the food pyramid for illustration:

This is the typical food pyramid. A good mix of healthy grains, fruits, veggies, proteins and milk.Now let's take a look at the MBA food pyramid.

Hmmm... Yup, a solid foundation of coffee and 'lunch provided'. Followed by study snacks and topped off with Tipsy Tuesday, Thirsty Thursday and Post Exam Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday. Nary a veggies to be seen.

Is scurvy really a surprise?

Hijacking Tutorial

It's official - I can confuse anyone!

Somehow I managed to hijack a perfectly planned accounting tutorial with what I thought was a simple question. That so called simple question resulted in a 1/2 hour discussion, followed by the tutorial leaders having a side debate and culminated with hunting down the prof.

I still don't 100% understand the concept, but I do apologize to all those in attendance for creating such confusion! I blame it on my crazy curiosity and wanting to understand everything, not just understand how to answer correctly on an exam.

Andrey and Chris were great sports entertaining my questions! THANK YOU!

Statistically Speaking

Today we're viewing the results of 14 statistical studies that were undertaken throughout the course of the year. It's certainly interesting seeing the scope and variety of the projects. Categories included:

- Cigarette Sales
- Website Traffic
- Contest Entries
- Self Storage
- Construction

A lot of more superior revenue prediction models were developed. I'm beyond impressed with the teams! Particularly those that had significant results. Our project was inconclusive based on the data that we were able to collect. :(

I'll probably get in trouble for this...

but I wish we had more projects in the MBA. I know that tests are faster, but projects are so useful!

That being said, I'll be thrilled to finally hand in the accounting project. What a beast!

Master of Baking Appreciation

These pics were taken Peter. As you can see, we had a lot of fun baking and hocking our goods!