Dear friends,

Finished my first exam on Monday last on financial and management accounting. Like many of my classmates, it is first exam for a long time. Over the weekend, I went to a buy a suitable pen for exam condition. It should be a pen that should be able to write the right answers automatically and quickly with minimal manual effort!!! Generally the pen has delivered. Only worried about Type 1 error ie. you think you are correct, but you are actually wrong.

Room was stuffy with aircon temperature at ridiculously warm level. Exam paper itself, in terms of typo and typesetting and printing - I would rate it "poor" given the history behind the University.

Looking forward - my marketing paper on Thursday. Theory, theory, theory = memorising and reading. No time - a common excuse for many. But I was actually working till 1am last night and slept for 5 hours.. So examiner, please give chance if you are reading this.

So much for now.. got to work and study at the same time.. how? Dun know lei.

Smile.

Dear friends,

To signify the end of Term 1 of my MBA journey, I have signed up for 3 exams over the next two weeks.

The main problem is that I have had formal training and to a large extent, am actually using the knowledge in my work of 2 of the 3 subjects to be examined. Consequently this may lead to some sense of complacency. I have to keep reminding myself to practice, practice and practice.

As for my third exam, it is on Marketing. It is something we do conciously and unconciously while we work. In a theory paper like this, one would need to memorise the points with respect to each topic to demonstrate academic knowledge, competence and completenes. While to some, we may think we can get away with the subject by basing our answers on professional experience and fluent language skill. I beg to disagree. My strategy is to try to immerse my brain in marketing jargons and lingos by reading and reading. I am proud to say I have completely read a book from cover to cover, albeit just one book. The next big challenge is to memorise, tough for an old brain like me.

The end of the term also signify the need to write a BIG cheque to pay for next term's classes. I am now broke and stress..

Talk to you soon. Take care, my friends.

Dear friends,

I only started on working on my paper about two weeks ago during the Chinese New Years holidays. When I first read the four questions, my reaction was "Oh my goodness! How am I going to finish this?"

As all projects, you must take the first steps. Painful initially. Slowly but surely you are moving forward. And before you realise it, I finished it at 4am on Sunday morning. It thus gave me a bit of time to spend with my family for the final day of CNY celebration with mahjong till 2am!!!

What are the things I learn from this subject?

For the first question on Cashflow and budgeting, nothing. This is part of my bread and butter of my profession.

Second question on Efficient Market Hypothesis, surprisingly I read an article which I thought was very interesting while researching for material to answer the theory. Hurray to the power of internet and Search Engines!!! I will share my summary of that article after the submission date of assignment ie. March 5.

Third question on Variance and Std deviation calculation for a portfolio of 5, 10, 15 and 20 stocks is the killer of many of my brain cells and hair follicles. I am amaze that Excel can help to calculate almost everything eg. variance, std deviation, regression for gradient and-intercept, covariance etc etc..

Fourth question was on Call and Put options. Easy after I have to brush up on a knowledge I first learned 20 years ago.

What is next for this? Two huge  SIGHS!!!!I need to pay the 2nd instalment. No money oredi. Secondly, March is the exam month for me. So got to study lorr!!