Monthly Archives: August 2008

missing the group dynamic

Posted on August 9, 2008 by | Leave a comment

I am sitting on my bed, deep in paper and printed off excel sheets, trying to figure out a sensible sentence for my final paper. It is torturous for a number of reasons.

The first is that it is the last, final thing and it is hard to find the motivation to keep going. It is also really sad to think that it is actually the last thing.

Although fortunately the weather has conspired today to give me grey skies and rain. So at least I did not really want to venture out into the great outdoors today.

However, the other thing is I miss working in groups – I miss the tension, the creativity and the sharing of the problem, laughing.

It is really boring working by yourself…..

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The GMAT ghost

Posted on August 6, 2008 by | 3 Comments

For those that are not in the know the GMAT is a truly horrific standardised exam that you need to do to get into an MBA of any note. You need to complete a multichoice question about every 20-30 seconds, and as you get them correct they become more complex..yuck! And obviously if you get them wrong they become easier… so the perfect outcome is that you come out completely, mentally knackered! It is possible to study to get better at the questions……Excellent news I know…. what a joy!

I sat the rotten thing in August 2006..I did okay but not in the super 700′s… it was ages ago… since then I have completed finance and accounting, cost accounting and before that I did a steady stream of chemistry, physics and biomechanics in my various undergraduate degrees. It is also known that women do worse on the GMAT than men, but that their score does not predict their position or performance in the MBA. I can do number relationships, I can use a calculator and I am better now with spreadsheets, none of which are measured on the GMAT. It is all about strategic guessing.

So why am I still haunted by my GMAT score? Why do people chose this one measure to decide whether I can play around with numbers or not and whether I can do the job at hand?

Curious how 3 digits can be so influential.

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Frolicing in the French Sunshine

Posted on August 5, 2008 by | 1 Comment

I am sitting back at my desk – clearly procrastinating, listening to the rain, and watching it fall from the sky.

Who would have thought that a short hop away is the sunshine in France?

But it is very sunny, lovely and hot in France – or at least in the Ardeche region where I had the pleasure of spending the last few days with friends from the MBA. We climbed the hill pictured, it was pretty heavy going, rather steep and a little bit slidey in parts Although this was about as action as we got…. it was the only semblance of exercise we did if you don’t count lounging in a lake, carrying picnic baskets or repeatedly lifting your hand to your mouth and then clearly chewing. This final one maybe could be considered an exercise just based on the high repetition?

I also had the chance to have a crack at my newly improved French…. hmmm…. not so sure it is that much improved… although I can now ask for the toilet in a full sentence!

It was a lovely break from the current project/IP/Thesis which is proving to be rather tough going!

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