Dear friends,

It is almost a week since I took the OM paper. It is a RESTRICTED open book ie. only the official textbooks plus any scribblings on the pages. We were however reminded not allowed to write on 3M page markers nor slot pieces of papers into the books.

What is the exam format? 10 short qustions of 5 marks each from all over the text books and a case study for the remaining 50 marks. If only I had a version of Google that could have help to search for relevant materials to answer the questions, things would have been easier. Example - How do we apply Heskey's Theory of Conflicts to the blah blah blah..? If you had the books, you would have some vaque memories. As vaque memories are not good enough to answer or if you had no idea and you can't bluff, you start the pages frantically.

Can you imagine 50 people doing that in the exam hall while to look cool and relax? Haha..

What is OM? Oh yes.. it is Operations Management..

Cheers.

Dear friends,

It was the first time in my life to take an open book exam for MBA. Prior to the exam, some of us wrote in to clarify the exact definition of open book. The response we got is anything textbooks and any written materials can be brought in to the exam hall.

So what did I bring in last evening? The textbook, of course plus my scribblings over past year exam papers with answers.

The outcome is that it was a really pleasant experience. How much did the referring to the textbook help? My frank assessment is about 5-10marks.

There was a particular 5 marks where I have to calculate the expected outcome assuming perfect information is available. I didn't know how to do but I remember I read about it.

For coming Friday, I will be having a limited open book exam. This time round I can only bring textbooks. No 3M post-its with scriptures written in minute words are allowed to be pasted into text books. I will let you know how I feel about that later.

Smile and chat later.

Dear friends,

Slept at 2.30 and woke up at 8 to a gloomy greyish morning. Soon after, rain. I have a meeting at 12pm and sitting here wondering what should I do first given the next 2 hours. For the afternoon, I know I have to be in the office. Many things to follow up and I want to give due attention to them.

I just checked the time for today's first paper. 6pm it is.

I guess I will take the first move of taking my shower before I plunged myself into work again. Till I chat with you again, take care.

Ed