Jason M. Hanley :: Custom Software Developer

So far I’ve spent 6 straight, solid hours of studying and doing Finance questions today. This is on top of at least another 4 hours of studying during the week. And somehow I’ve only covered about half of the material so far. It’s going to be a fun weekend. At least the exam was moved from Monday to Tuesday. That extra day should be just enough to make sure I can at least pass the exam

Last week was ok. Got all the assignments handed in, and our Marketing assignment that had been due Wednesday got pushed back to Friday. It made for having to come in to school on a Friday we were supposed to have off, but the extra time was well worth it. The presentation we did on the report also went well. Our group had the best results in the Marketing game so that made our presentation a lot easier than the groups that had to try and explain why their results were poor. We had a good strategy, but I think we had a little bit of luck as well.

Better be getting back to Finance now…

Things are busy again. Group meetings every weekday plus one this weekend — Sunday night. A strategy assignment and an organizational behaviour assignment due on Monday. Group presentation Monday. Group essay and presentation in Marketing on Wednesday. Nine chapters of textbook reading plus six cases for next week. Two exams next Monday. At least one (Operations) is a take-home. The other (Finance) will be very difficult though. And then we get to top it all off with a dentist appointment next Tuesday. Does the fun ever stop?

At least that Marketing simulation I mentioned in my last post is going well. Our group is currently in the lead with share price and market value, and the final decision is Monday (hence the Sunday evening group meeting). Hopefully our final year’s results will be as good as the past seven.

Another week begins. Thank goodness for the Thanksgiving holiday. I actually managed to get caught up on my readings as well as spend some time with friends and family. This week we add another course to the roster — Finance. (Yeah, I know I thought it started last week, but turns out it didn’t) After a sampling of one class, I think I can safely say that it will be alright. There are no assignment or participation marks, just a final exam.

We’re also doing a really interesting project in Marketing. It’s an online simulation of the auto manufacturing industry. The simulation has more information and decisions to make than any one person could do, so it makes sense that the professor assigned this as a group project. Every day or two for the next two weeks, we need to get together as a group and make choices like issuing stock, improving current cars, designing new cars, scheduling production, doing a host of marketing surveys and studies as well as allocating marketing budgets. It’s a fascinating game and a great way to learn, in my opinion. Our group has made some very risky choices, but we think they will pay off in the long term — a simulated 8 years. We get our final results on October 24th. I’ll certainly provide an update after that.

Finally, the worst of it is over — for now. I just handed in the last of a stream of assignments this morning. Surprisingly, we received marks for two of our exams today. I suppose it was a whole week ago, but it seems like yesterday I did about as I expected on Accounting and much better than I expected on Statistics. I guess that ol’ Math degree helped me out a bit after all…

Last week we also handed in a major group assignment, and did two group presentations. Our group put a lot more work and hours into these than I thought would be necessary, but I was really happy with the end result. Hopefully the mark we receive will be somewhat proportional to how much we killed ourselves working on it. I recall one night last week when I was up until about 5am, then back at school at 10am-10pm, then at school the next day from 9am to 12:30am. Much of the rest is a blur…

So with last week, we finished up 3 of our 8 courses. Accounting, Statistics and Economics are more or less done, but the contents get integrated as we go forward. This week we’ve already started Operations and Marketing, and start Finance tomorrow. The remaining courses, Organizational Behaviour and Strategy, continue throughout the entire 4-month term and are related to the other subject.

So after about a month and a half, things are still going well, and I’m still very happy I decided to put my career on hold and go back to school. We’ll see if I’m still singing this tune come November