Quarter 2 - Week of Exams

The one thing I like about the exams at IIMB is that they want to test your concepts and not how much you mugged. There's no chance to hold in as much as you can, and vomit it all out on the paper... and then conveniently forget it.

The questions all looked simple, but they tested all your fundamentals very well. Makes you sit and ask yourself questions in the exam hall that you probably didnt ask earlier. Depending on what you've read and how strong your basics are, you either do really well in the exam, or... well, you just drift along.

Macro Economics was a fun paper with a few multiple choice questions and a set of descriptive ones later.

Managing Organizations was in a completely Multiple Choice Questions format. We must have finished it within an hour or so... then we just had to sit and read for the QM1 (Quantitative Methods 1) exam for that afternoon.

QM1 - Biz Stats was interesting as we had a very good mix of MCQs and descriptive problems. Was really nice to actually mix all our basics and extract fundas out of it.

I just hope my basics are right. The marks dont matter to us, we aren't anyway going to get placed at the end. That's either a good thing or a bad thing, based on your outlook. To me, it's the basics that matter... because that means tomorrow I wont screw up someone else's life just because my formula was right, but for the wrong problem altogether. And I think that's important. :)

Quarter 2 - Week 10

The last week of the second quarter... phew, almost 20% of our course is now over! I really don't know how the time's flying!

We had a couple of tests this week... here I was thinking "These profs are crazy!". I mean some of us have our presentations coming up, and we had to study most of the portions for the test?? And why not, let's have both the tests on the same day... we seem to look like suckers for punishment!! Either that, or I felt the profs had mutated overnight into crazy theorists who were trying to try their evil experiments on an unsuspecting crowd.

But it's only after both the tests, that I realized that those profs knew what they were doing (I'm almost beginning to think the institute now has mad scientist tests, to weed out the evil ones to stop their plans of world domination [What?!?] ). I now actually know what we did in all the subjects, it was like a simple dry run for the main exams! I'm almost done with the preparations, now it's just a matter of brushing through and reading up this week's portions. Sure, the answers for the test came out on Saturday itself, and I got everything wrong, but still I was atleast in a far better position now than before the test! So let's just get on with our understanding of this week's sessions, because I actually understood it this time!

In Macro Economics, we've finally reached the last section of Net Exports, and how the global players bring in their weight. So we understood exchange rates, how they can be manipulated in keeping the exports and imports at acceptable levels. We understood how for a small economy which has no control over its own interest rate purely because it's too small to make a difference, how the exchange rate becomes important for their GDP. It was interesting to see how all the different attributes came together and make a final picture. And the IS LM curve, FINALLY, makes sense! I'm so proud I can now draw an X mark and say which of the lines is an LM curve and tell what it stands for (It stands for how money supply and demand can affect interest rates and output, ahaaah!). The classes ended with some pretty loud applause. That prof was just way too passionate about the subject and just way too cool.

In Managing Organizations, the last of our batches finished their presentations, the prof gave usa little gyaan about how it is important that we provide a presentation which helps everyone imbibe the lessons straight away. Sure, you can pack in data into 20 slides, and add in three-four org charts, but except for making everyone nod like they understand (when they really dont!) it's not going to help. So he said, that keep in mind the next time u make a presentation, that you highlight the underlying learning from your assignment, so that lay men can figure out what you're saying. Just because you spent two weeks talking to the top management of an org, and know it so well, doesnt mean everyone else does too. Simple, good advice from the prof. A round of applause for him at the end too!

Biz Stats! Finally! People answered many questions, not too many deer-staring-at-car-headlights-in-middle-of-highways looks... people were more enthu in the last class (maybe because it was the last class, maybe because they now understand what the prof is talking about after the quiz... the point is up for debate). We tried to understand regression, which basically states that points tend to move towards the mean. In a very effective example, we saw data on how people who were quite tall tended to have more kids who were shorter, and people who were quite short tended to have more kids who were tall... all drifting towards the mean (Average height). Very cool when you actually have the stats in front of you, and can you believe it... it's almost 100 years old! He got a quite a bit of applause too... this prof especially knows how to keep a class on its toes, and keep them attentive.

If there's one thing this techie understands from the journey so far, it's not the subject itself that is so important, it's the way it's presented and whether people want to understand it in the first place. The whole story of someone to give the bread, and someone who wants to eat it. I cant believe 1/5 is already over... just a couple of months back it was just 10%...!

Well, not yet 20% anyway... the main exams are next week. Off I go to cram! :)

Quarter 2 - Week 9

* Sounds of impending doom*.

Do you hear that? I do. It's the guffaw of the learned ones... as they mock those amongst us who are not prepared for the oncoming exams. in two weeks. That's right.

For one thing, all but one assignment has now been completed. The last one is due two days before our final exams. Like a playful tantalizing chance, that maybe you can avoid doing it till a day before the submission date. Like hell you can! So good students that my batch and I are, we've already begun.. take that you cunning prof!

Anyhoo, this week was far far free-er compared to the horrors of the past few weeks... maybe the proverbial calm before the storm. In macro economics, I think we studied how monetary policy can affect the environment. There's a lot to read, and I'm waaaaaaay behind. Two weeks, that's all I have. All that stuff about how you increase money supply, how banks maintain balances with each other, the smart things that banks do to make sure they maintain their minimum balance with the Godfather of them all, the Reserve Bank of India. Fun stories. Hope I'll remember them.

Managing organizations was a lot more easy-going. We had a few teams from our class present the companies they studied for the quarter. Was ooook. Too many slides, too much strategy and "what they've done", some structure information here and there. Will give a 5/10. Liked the Honeywell presentation though. From the reactions of the prof, looks like he did too.

Business Statistics. We continued to study ANOVA. It stands for Analysis of Variance. Does that mean we analyse variance? Prof says a vehement no. So did the rest of the class. Beats me. Where's that book again? Then we studied how to fit a distribution, how do we know its a good fit. In lay man's terms... when we're predicting something from a sample, we need to make sure we are using the right formulae for the right type of graph. So this process tells us if the wool we're putting on the wolf makes it like pretty much like a sheep, or a wolf with a wool hat. and wool gloves. and some wool stretched across its chest. Like a Baywatch model. (What??!)

That's pretty much it. Tried to study on the weekend, and slept most of Sunday. Time to hit the books!

P.S. This post was much easier to write. Small. simple. nothing. Wonder if this is better than rambling on and on like a Duracell battery. (Thinks........ )

Quarter 2 - Week 8

Ahaah! I see the "My time's more important than blogging" a.k.a "I'm lazy" is raising it head yet again... Gentlemen! It's time to roll that mouse, scroll it and keep the keyboard at the ready, we've got a long fight ahead of us...!

WTF? Who writes such stuff, this is a PGSEM diary, not a rant spot (It's not?). On to what we're here to talk about, Week 8. This means we have just two more weeks left of classes in this quarter after this (Awesome!!!! Cant wait!), and then we'll have exams (SHITTT!!!!). Now anyway, why would this quarter be any different from any of the others?

Well, to begin with, we had a project (that's like fourteen times bigger than an assignment) to submit by Friday, and as fate would have it, nobody was done (or started) with the assignment... so someone asks the prof a week ago - "Sir, when's the last date to submit the project", and the prof says "The next Friday", and the whole class went "Whaaaaa??? Sirrr!!! No time!! Pleeeeeeeease Sir...!". The prof cut everything short by saying "I expected this, ok, I wont stretch the deadline... next week is our last week of sessions, we will be doing presentations after this, so those of you who submit on Friday, I'll take your assignments. Those who dont, have to get a hard copy to the PGSEM Office by the Thursday after that. I WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY SUBMISSIONS ON THE FRIDAY AFTER THAT!" Glad that we got an extra five days, we went "phew!". But our bag isn't complete yet, we also had a QM assignment set for Sunday, a QM quiz that was on Saturday, and trust me when I say this "The QM assignment is like two normal projects." What, an assignment bigger than a project? That's right, it is... you'll find out when you come here.

So a couple of week nights, half of Saturday and the whole of Sunday was spent at IIMB while we tried to figure out what questions to ask to make our data fit the question, er, i mean get the right answers. I think we finished by Sunday 6 PM, and immediately got started on our Managing Organizations project. That's right! ON A SUNDAY! That's family time! (In fact as we speak, in the mid of the next week, I have just sent out a draft of our latest doc for review). So junta, rest assured, if you plan to do this course, and you wanted to be on the IIMB campus, you'll BE on the IIMB campus, even if you'd rather be elsewhere. No doubts of that.

This week in Macro Economics, we had another prof come in, since our actual prof was away on leave. She spoke to us about fiscal policy and what the government can do to influence spending. Maybe I was stuck on the impending QM quiz the next day, or the couple of assignments, that I was unable to pay much attention to what was being said. I mean, I was listening, but I wasnt really listening. Like a block between the short term and long term divisions of my brain. Divisionalized form, anyone?

Managing Organizations went neatly, we were supposed to look into the working of organizations that go from "Good to Great" and how they ensure their employees are driven, and how a common vision goes a long way for everyone. It pretty much said that for an organization to succeed, your primary resource is your people. Keep them happy, keep them motivated, and give them direction... they'll be efficient inherently. Yea, yea, common sense you say, but this had pictures! and nice bold headlines, and even had the not-so-unimportant distinction of possessing DATA! It had stats in it! Hah, in your wildest dreams you couldnt come up with numbers to match your common sense, so there! (Come to think, all our articles have had the exact same attributes, some of them have gone further to lend credibility by appearing in the Harvard Business Review. Guess someone thought it would be a good idea to have this stuff published, so people can refer to a one stop spot for how to "Manage an Organization"). We studied Aravind Eye Hospital again, and saw how they went on to become a highly efficient and successful hospital. All with minimal donations/funding by "badde bhaiyas"! The next day, we studied "Why transformation efforts fail", which I think everyone really wanted to know, as in why can an org not maintain the changes it proposes... So we saw the 8 reasons for it (yes, there are eight. I'd show you the article, it's bold and black, and highlighted on another chart as well!). In brief, it said that you need to stress the urgency of it across the org, make sure your employees GET it! and then purposefully put in small successes along the way to keep morale up, and maintain it for 5-8 years, that's when it gets into the actual org psyche. Useful pointers here are there...

QM, well, remember I said if you read and come, you'd get everything the prof said? Well, with the coming quiz, couldnt read the stuff... so a lot of nodding here, shaking there, sleeping everywhere. The first day was pretty much a recap of the portions for the next day's quiz.. so that was ok. The next day we did "ANOVA - Analysis of Variance". Even the name sounds important enough, so I can say without hesitation that I've not understood one of the most important fundas of all time in statistics. So need to read up (atleast now) and come prepared for the next class. The quiz was, well, let's just say... well, it was easy to read for certain! Interesting problem and all that, my analysis may have gotten a *little* derailed... I think I reached Chennai instead of Bangalore, when I started at Madurai. Yep, a little derailed.

Oh, totally forgot! We were supposed to have a surprise quiz in Managing Orgs on Saturday. Only, everyone knew it was the last week of "actual classes", so EVERYONE read the article of the day. The prof comes in grinning with a bunch of test papers, to find all the students grinning back! And he knew, for the first time, that the class was ready for the surprise quiz. And hence came the line I'd remember for quite a while "I take it the surprise quiz is no longer a surprise quiz.". Our classmates sure are a fun lot, I'd never thought I'd be playing hookey, throwing tantrums and pleading the hell out of a prof, trying to convince them to postpone a test/cancel it/give out the answers anyway (wait, the last hasnt happened... yet). It's good to be back in school.

Quarter 2 - Week 7

Results for the tests are now out... got around 7/10 in the BizStats quiz, a 56/100 on the MicroEconomics and a 14/25 on the Managing Org paper. Respectable, atleast at class average! ;) (Note to self: Study a little harder, everyone else seems to be doing so!)

This week seemed a whole lot easier than the last week, probably due to the absence of three tests! But the classes have picked up pace, and I mean PACE! I think we hurtled through topics in MacroEcon just because we now know the IS-LM curve, we discussed how the markets reacted the way they did during the dot-com bust, the recent realty bust, then we spoke about how a credit-card fraud can affect markets... man, and I thought you need to be intuitive to manage money, it's all science and formulae here!

Managing Organizations now seems to have gone down a little "gyaan" route... We read up an article which spoke about how organizations can be "learning organizations", basically by making mistakes and REALLY learning from them, not just putting into a MS Word doc, and leaving it there. We saw how you can disseminate this learning across all parts of the organization, which in theory is difficult. Why would a engineering division bother to know why the finance division failed? Apparently, there's a lot of common learning. You just have to pass your experience around, that's how ABB's doing it. Those guys have 5000 "mini-companies" which keep communicating, and acting on some points. The next day, we learnt about how good organizations become great, and it's apparently when the leader is humble and yet iron-willed. Humble and iron-willed? What is this, moral science class? Be the lion and the rabbit?! Seriously! But, grudgingly, you have to admit that guys who gets to smell clouds (a.k.a. stuck-up nose) tend to stop focussing on the ground, while the guys that look at the grass, tend to see the pace of movement while looking at the horizon to ensure they're going in the right path. But seriously, I came to a management school to hear "Be humble"? Me finds the air to be cool and scented at this scintillating height... (Note to self: Shut up, stuckup!)

BizStats, I finally understand SOMETHING of what's going on!! Credits to the prof, he posted on a thread that 'you're no longer in nursery, so stop expecting golden words to drop out of my mouth and fit itself in your head'. Not exactly. He said, you're now studying post-grad, read up the topic BEFORE you come to class... I aint spoonfeeding your lazy butts! Well maybe not the second part verbatim, but in spirit. He's right, pulled up my socks, went to class and actually understood something! So we studied Confidence Intervals (what confidence I had I say, too much!) and Hypothesis Testing (Yea, I didnt read for this one, so didn't understand much). Anyway, his style of teaching has changed a bit, we now do more probs in class.. so that's more of looking at each other in dismay and then smirking at ourselves and the nerds in class. But was able to do the Confidence Interval probs... looks like I'm a half nerd, a herd? Summarizing the two, Confidence Intervals is about how confident you are when you claim that your sample statistic represents something very close to the actual population parameter. For e.g., how sure am I that the toothpaste I use is used by a majority of India's population? To put it better, if by taking a sample, I find 74 out of 100 people use my toothpaste brand, then with what confidence can I say that 74% of India's population uses the same. So it comes to be sometihng like "With 95% confidence I can say that 70.4% to 78.6% use my toothpaste". Something like that.

Hypothesis testing is more like coming up with some funda, and because people don't believe you, you have to prove it to them. So to do that, you have to prove that whatever current funda is there, is not responsible for the output of your sample, and that only your funda can explain your sample's output. As prof said, let's say there's a normal battery brand (Nimboo) and a sooper battery brand (SuperNimboo), and SuperNimboo is claiming it gives 20% more charge. So you have to assume that "SuperNimboo can't give it" and prove that if you take SuperNimboo batteries, it doesnt fall within the standard deviation of Nimboo's output. If you find SuperNimboo's sample lies outside of Nimboo's output, THEN you can claim that yes, ok, maybe SuperNimboo is actually a way more awesome battery.

Saturday went off in a blur, since after class we had (no time for lunch and) a talk with the Director, and this was followed by another class of Quant, and then some project discussion till 7 PM. Wait, roll back, a talk with the Director?? Yeah, he wanted to speak to us mano-i-multimano about what we thought of the programme, what was on our minds... the usual stuff of placements and internships came up, and the Director said that this course was more meant to enhance our skills, we have access to all the facilities the other courses have, and it's upto us to use it... if our company allows us to go do an internship elsewhere (like hell it will), then by all means, go for it! But placements is another thing altogether. The other courses here come with a huge opportunity cost, they lose that salary when they're studying here, the PGSEMers keep their salary. We are here for two very different reasons, the full-timers to actually make a major orthogonal shift in their careers, and the PGSEM-ers to enhance their skills. He pretty nicely told us you cant have your cake, manage it AND eat it too! I thought he did make sense, I mean, we did know that the course offered no placements before we came here. And besides, with over 8 years of experience, who'll just drop a senior position in my lap just because I have a PGSEM degree? Even the full-timers dont have chocolates dropped on them like that!! And I sure as hell dont plan to take a cut in my salary just so that I can start at the lower rungs of management, like hell no!

But anyhoo, everyone's entitled to an opinion (placements shouldnt be there!! SHOULDNT!!), and the day got over and I went home to study. Why? Cos we had a tute the next day, on the BizStats course, and I for one definitely wanted to understand the fundas of sampling and confidence intervals, like, pukka! The class was good, got a couple of probs solved (out of what looked like fifteen! #@$@$!!!!) and our teacher kept telling us to pay attention! I felt like I was in pre-school, good ol' days... Good thing I understood something in this class, else would have been a major waste. Rest of the day, I spent at home... dreading the fact that I have a whole load of work and assignments/projects to submit the coming week! Sigh.