Saturday, November 25, 2006
Reading Week
Reading week was last week, basically it's a one week "break" for mugging like mad in preparation for the finals. Something like the mid term "break", which is a week for mugging like mad in preparation for the mid term tests. The difference is that the finals are worth about 3 times more than the mid terms, and the time given is the same. On top of that, I had to finish up the FNA project.
Some tips to remember when picking project group members next time. Firstly, it is good to pick people you know. That way, it is easier to work with them and they are more likely to be cooperative. If you cannot do that because there is no one you know in your tutorial class, then good luck to you. Whatever I say next is from personal experience, there are always exceptions, so do not generalise from the comments and get all worked up.
It so happened that there were two foreigners in my project group. There was one whose english left much to be desired. To me, that's pretty much ok since it's relatively easy to correct. However, the concepts in the answers were sometimes wrong, the phrasing was vague and the answers uncertain. Even after I basically provided an essay outline, the answers were much the same. Just like another person taking fna said, instead of spending the time explaining to them why it's wrong, it's much faster to redo the whole thing yourself. In the end I rewrote most of the answers.
The other member copied and pasted straight from the annual report, twice. I told that member to redo it the first time without copying, and when I saw the new version, it was only marginally better, and I had to ask for another draft. It was much better on the third try, but still required quite a lot of editing. This member was in charge of the final question, arguably the most important as it required quite a bit of analysis. Applying what we learnt in the lectures, all the various ratios which could be used to evaluate financial statements were applied in the answer, but the explanations and analysis was lacking. In the end I wrote those myself, using the ratio numbers and the definitions which were part of the draft answer.
All these took up a LOT of time in reading week, time which I could have spent studying other modules. I think I can safely say that I did more than my fair share of the work.
Anyway, when xn and I went to hand it up on Friday, we look a brief look through some of the others which were already submitted. Quite a few of them were printed in colour. One even had pictures of the company's products in it. Didn't take a closer look after that. Since ours was totally in black and white and nearly all text. seeing some more might have been demoralising.
Therefore when doing projects, try to pick people who have good linguistic ability, or at least the ability to express their ideas in a coherent manner. It will make life a lot simpler. If there is no way you can tell, like for mine, then I guess it's just too bad.
Spent the rest of the week slacking a bit, played some computer games and managed to finish reading all my notes for the first 3 papers. However, I haven't had any practise and still need to go through the tutorials.
Looking on the bright side of things, it's 1 more week to the start of a month long break from school. As JJ's nick said a few days ago, this is the first exam we're taking in 3 years.
Some tips to remember when picking project group members next time. Firstly, it is good to pick people you know. That way, it is easier to work with them and they are more likely to be cooperative. If you cannot do that because there is no one you know in your tutorial class, then good luck to you. Whatever I say next is from personal experience, there are always exceptions, so do not generalise from the comments and get all worked up.
It so happened that there were two foreigners in my project group. There was one whose english left much to be desired. To me, that's pretty much ok since it's relatively easy to correct. However, the concepts in the answers were sometimes wrong, the phrasing was vague and the answers uncertain. Even after I basically provided an essay outline, the answers were much the same. Just like another person taking fna said, instead of spending the time explaining to them why it's wrong, it's much faster to redo the whole thing yourself. In the end I rewrote most of the answers.
The other member copied and pasted straight from the annual report, twice. I told that member to redo it the first time without copying, and when I saw the new version, it was only marginally better, and I had to ask for another draft. It was much better on the third try, but still required quite a lot of editing. This member was in charge of the final question, arguably the most important as it required quite a bit of analysis. Applying what we learnt in the lectures, all the various ratios which could be used to evaluate financial statements were applied in the answer, but the explanations and analysis was lacking. In the end I wrote those myself, using the ratio numbers and the definitions which were part of the draft answer.
All these took up a LOT of time in reading week, time which I could have spent studying other modules. I think I can safely say that I did more than my fair share of the work.
Anyway, when xn and I went to hand it up on Friday, we look a brief look through some of the others which were already submitted. Quite a few of them were printed in colour. One even had pictures of the company's products in it. Didn't take a closer look after that. Since ours was totally in black and white and nearly all text. seeing some more might have been demoralising.
Therefore when doing projects, try to pick people who have good linguistic ability, or at least the ability to express their ideas in a coherent manner. It will make life a lot simpler. If there is no way you can tell, like for mine, then I guess it's just too bad.
Spent the rest of the week slacking a bit, played some computer games and managed to finish reading all my notes for the first 3 papers. However, I haven't had any practise and still need to go through the tutorials.
Looking on the bright side of things, it's 1 more week to the start of a month long break from school. As JJ's nick said a few days ago, this is the first exam we're taking in 3 years.
posted by cosine @ 6:29 PM 
