Math classes

Today we got free math classes for all who have been interested in refreshing their math before the Finance seminar in two weeks... it was kind of like all seminars with the full-timer students. Classes started at 2pm, the last guys arrived at 3pm... this rudeness of this people annoys me more and more ...

I'm really happy that I was accepted to join the Executive Seminar for Project Management! Tomorrow starts the seminar for the full-timer and there are still guys who didn't even start reading the book. Because this is a subject which is really important for me and my future job I was really scared to end up in a group of people where I'm the only person who ever worked in a project and can bring in some of his experience (like it happened to me in Marketing where I was standing at the board during group work and was doing all the work like most of the "members" of the group were taking notes of my stuff without participating in anyting). Now I'm sure to have a proper group where I can learn of others, too! JUHUUUUUUUUU :)

Tomorrow I'll go to town in the morning to have a look at different flats, hope to find a nice quiet one which is already available so I can move this week and leave this sad place behind me... Think I didn't write it yesterday, but beside the fact of the false fire alarms in this hall there are many more reasons to go e.g. during the holidays is almost everything shut down, so I ended up to stand in front of the closed student shop on Saturday at 2:30pm (during term it's open till 10pm every day...)

Weekend

This was a nice weekend, the weather is finally more like spring and so I went jogging again and it was nice and even the sun feels warm now :)

Studies are going on fine, I reached Module 6 in Project Management, two more to go and then I have to go back to my Finance book... Tomorrow we will have some Math classes in the afternoon, I'll have a look, if there is something new for me or if I already know the stuff...

The fire alarms are getting worse, in the last 3 days we had now 5 false alarms! One of them again this morning which woke me up :( I now desperately look for a flat in town! Hope to find something nice, soon!

Oh and today I saw my first Bollywood movie. That's wired stuff, but lots of dancing and music stuff and hot girls ;-)

What a day....

How can a day be when it starts with waking up by hearing the fire alarm? ... I really have to find a flat soon in town to get out of here! Hope to find something soon...

I finally managed it to finish my tax-bill for 2007 and brought it to the post office, then I continued reading Project Management ... parts of it are so boring... I hope it's getting better after this Chapter...

In the evening we went for a movie called "Juno". I can really recommend this movie, was very good. Just go there as a couple, everything else looks gay ...

Try to study now a bit, have to finish this module... and I'm tired ....

Project Risk Management

I'm back on track, reading my books prior my seminars in two weeks and I just started Module 3 now in Project Management with a nice definition I want to share with you guys :)

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Risk can be considered from many perspectives and we are all familiar with risk in our everyday lives. Obvious activities that carry sigificant risks are:

• driving an automobile;
• rock climbing;
• gambiling;
• speculative investments;
• entering a relationship;
• getting married.

Easter-Trip to the Highlands.

Finally I made it to the highlands and it's amazing there! Even when it is still kind of winter and there was lots of snow, but still can you see the beauty and imagine how nice it will be in a few weeks when spring and summer are coming ... :) I hope to show you some impressions with this pictures.

This is called "Queens View"

Picture of me and Lukas there
Stop on the road up north
Inverness castleView from the castle down to parts of the city

Loch Ness with the ruins of Urquhart Castle


Eilean Donan Castle

Bridge to the Isle of Skye

Ferry from Armadale to Mallaig

View from the ferry

Beach on the west coast near Mallaig

View on the way back south on the coast line


The trip was amazing, I'm just now really exhausted after driving for two days round Scotland :)

Brussel - Trip

I missed the report about my trip to Brussels after my exams two weeks ago with some pictures for you guys...


Here we have a picture of me in front of the dome of Brussels.


This is somewhere on a hill between the old town and the palace.


On Sunday we went by train to Brugge and visited this city there. It was really nice, even we



There are still a few pictures missing, something went wrong with my mobile hard disk and I can't read the files ... hope to get at least almost all of them...

Project Management: The experience trap

Today I started my studying for Term III, which includes for me the Modules of Project Management and Finance.

It seems just in time, that I subscribed to get the Harvard Business Review which has the following article in its February 2008 edition, I give you a quick impression in typing the first three paragraphs here for you, some of you guys may be simile after finishing the reading... for a copy of the whole article send me an email :)

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The Experience Trap
As projects get more complicated, managers stop learning from their experience. It is important to understand how that happens and how to change it.

If you were looking for an experienced manager to head up a software development team, Alex would be at the top of your short list. A senior manager, Alex has spent most of his career running software projects. His first responsibility was developing scientific software for NASA, and since then, he has overseen ever more complex projects for commercial enterprises and government agencies.
Alex was typical of the several hundred project managers who participated in our research initiative on experience-based learning in complex environments. We invited him to test his skills by playing a computer-based game that entails managing a simulated software project from start to finish - making the plans, monitoring and guiding progress, and observing the consequences. We set goals for him: finish on time and within budget, and obtain the highest possible quality (as measured by the number of defects remaining).
Alex's decisions and outcomes were representative of the group as a whole. He started with a small team of four engineers and focused mostly on development work. That tactic paid off in the short run. The team's productivity was high and development progressed quickly. However, when the size of the project grew beyond initial estimates, problems cropped up. Because Alex still chose to keep the team small, the engineers had to work harder to stay on track. Consequently, they made many mistakes and experienced burnout and attrition. Alex then tried to hire more people, but this took time, as did assimilating the new hires. The project soon fell behind schedule, and at that point Alex's lack of attention to quality assurance in the early phases started to show up in snowballing numbers of software errors. Fixing them required more time and attention. When the project was finally completed, it was late, over budget, and riddled with defects.

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UK is getting cheaper!!!

For all of u who plan to visit me there are good news: UK it's getting cheaper and cheaper!!! But theres no sense in waiting too long to visit me because I have half time now and this means that there are just 6 month left for potential visits! So everybody who wanna come up here, contact me sooner than later to plan the trip!

That's the prices for buying £1:

Here is the EURO to the GBP since I arrived in October...



And here the Swiss Franc...

Accounting exam -> term 2 is over

My exams of term 2 are over!!! JUHUUUUUUUUUUUUU
What a good feeling!! :)

To relax a bit, I'll go to Brussels for a weekend to see friends who are just staying there.
I can't wait to sleep in a nice bed :) On Monday when I'm back I have to plan my next term, I already got the books for it and it's again lots of stuff to read ... and this time we just have 3 weeks left to finish this books ...

Marketing exam

puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.
That was a tough one, but I have the feeling, that I did it pretty well. I saw many hanging faces after the exam and I just can say: Your fault, study harder next time! :)
This was finally an exam, where my value of this course is increasing again. The questions where hard, but fair and I think everybody who just thought to pass with a bit reading will have to try to pass this exam next time again :)

I started writing in the first minute of the exam and started at the last minute and still had pages and more pages of content in my had which I could have applied...

Now I'm relaxing a bit and listening to music because I slept really horrible last night... later I try to go back to Accounting in starting again with a few MCQs before I go back to Accounting cases tomorrow to be prepared for Thursday ...

E-Day of Marketing ahead

Tomorrow it's time to write another exam and proof, how much I understood and how much not ... this time I feel much better prepared then for OB and I'm confident, that this time I can do a really good job. My only fear with will follow me through this hole program is still, that I have now all the knowledge in my head, but I get a question I don't understand and screw it up ...
But in now 12 hours and 20 minutes I'll start writing and 3 hours later I can let you know, if i screwed it up or iced it... hope the latter :)

Today I just did an easy revision day with writing about tow pages for each topic to cover and then did one past paper about a strategy decision and now I'm back in my room, listening music and relaxing ... later before I go to bed, I read once more a few papers what I did today and special the points I missed and that's it ... try not to look at anything tomorrow morning which could destroy my confidence :)

the days before exams

Just to give u guys an idea, how my life looks like at the moment, my week since Sunday...

Sunday
9am, getting up, going jogging, then breakfast (which means just coffee for me...)
11am, start studying at EBS, Accounting 3 past papers with 2 cases each. 1 Case 30min.
3pm, having a quick sandwich and a little break.
4pm, coming back to EBS, doing 2 more past papers, in between doing MCQ's online and read parts of the book where I made mistakes....
9pm, going back to my room, have a quck dinner, back to Accounting MCQ's till 2am
2am, going through my Accounting notes before falling assleep at about 2:30am.

Monday
9:30am, getting up, going jogging, then breakfast
11am, starting with another 3 past papers of Accounting at EBS
3pm, lunch: some ready menu of the supermarket
4pm, back to studies
10pm, leaving EBS, done now all past papers availiable (10) and read a whole chapter of the book again about investment decisions and net present value (what is our money worth next year...)
at the room, having tea, then discussions with other guys about Accounting problems and going back to MCQ's.
12am (yeah, midnight is 12am), Start studying Marketing
Going to bed after revising Accounting notes again at about 4.

Tuesday
9:30am, getting up, going to do some grocerys
11:30am laundry beside studying at the room
1pm arriving at EBS, start reading past papers in Marketing
3pm going to the student union to have a Starbucks coffee and sit there to study for one hour
4pm back to the hall for having a sandwitch
4:30pm back at EBS, practice "Positioning Process", then Forecasting and Segmentation of Markets.
10pm leaving EBS, back to the room.
10:15pm going to have dinner with Lachlan in town, discussing Marketing concepts while eating
12am, coming back and start studying agin till 3am

Wednesday
10am getting up, breakfast
11am coming to EBS, start with a little practice of drawing the 4C's on the board and check what I know about positioning.
1pm start my target of the day: The Marketing Mix (Price, Product, Place(Distribution), Promotion)

I'll post u my MindMaps for the 4P's here later, I just have them as PDF at this computer...

Now it's 3pm, so it's time for a reward, I'll grab my book and go to have a coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

By the way, my consumption of products keeping me awake is increasing dramatically.
Last 3 days: 7 Red Bull, about 15 Coffee, a double Espresso and I don't know what else...

revision behind, exams ahead

sorry for not writing much nowadays, I'm busy with trying to get as much knowledge as possible about Marketing and Accounting in my head...

Today I was getting up at round 9am, went 30min jogging. At 11:30 I started my first "Past Paper" exam in Accounting which includes 2 cases each. I spent 30 min for each case and did 3 Past Papers till 4... then made a quick lunch with some ready menu and back to EBS at round 6:30pm till 10pm and did another 2 Past Papers ... tomorrow I plan to do the other 5 Past Papers available and hope that so I'll be able to do as many mistakes as possible to learn all the hidden hints and threats they have in this papers ...

Last week we had two days of Accounting revision and two days of Marketing revision. The days were quiet good, we practiced a lot of each subject and the lecturers tried to push our existing (or non existing) knowledge in the right direction to get an exam focus for it.

... the Marketing seems to be the more difficult one, because it is an open secret, that the first question is about making a Marketing strategy decision ... that's the good news... the bad is, that the way to do a marketing decision goes through nearly every module in the book :( ... It starts with the 4C's, which are the analyzing part, where you look at strengths and weaknesses of the own company and then at opportunities and threats at the environmental context, the competitive environment and the consumer. After you went through this you have to look, how your market looks like which means, that you look, which segments you can build. Then you target one or more segments for your product and formulate a positioning statement. The next step is to get a forecast with the help of market research tools and estimated sales volume. ... After this is done, you go straight to the 4P's, which are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. For each of this topics you have to describe what you do at each stage to bring our product to the market... after this you have everything together to formulate your overall strategy ... and we have about 50 minutes time to write round 6-8 pages about this ...
And that's just the first case! ... then follows case 2, which is more focused on one of the topics above and to get the punishment completed we have to do an assay about one of the narrow topics in the book... because there are so many topics they can cover and I can't remember every little point the only way to get it done within the time is to decide which parts to cut and hope they won't ask for it ...