ISB week 3

19th day on campus and you have examination.. That can only happen in an MBA college ... That too 4 papers back to back ...

My school theory, that in an year most important exam is atleast 300 days from day 1, was routed and I was cribbing for time ... This time too I was amongst the last ones to start .. I mean among those ones who started :-)

The subjects came stumped some , were beaten by some and dint bother many ....

Stats was easy , eco was amazing ( people apreciated the questions unsure about the solutions) , accounting was fun and marketing was GYAAN...

Exams at ISB were great in the sense they made clear that they do not want to test our anlytical minds to the deep... They just want to see whether our thought processes have evolved in the direction they were pushed towards.. How else can you explain concept of an open book exam or for that matter an exam where u are allowed to carry cheat sheets having all the formulas.. So the trick is not to mug up the formula but to know which formula to apply ...

My preparation was few hours per subject and major part went in devising my innovative cheat sheet and marking pages in book which had important concepts ...

I was exuding confidence when I entered exam hall with a cheat sheet in my pocket encompassing all the formulae ever derived , touched , used in a sample problem and so on...

Then came the end of midterms and suddenly the winds were blowing in reverse... the silent atrium was chaotic as usual .. the ever empty lawns of SV had parties ( multiple ) ... We had a section A get together , SV4 party and off course the batch party at the lounge of '08. I came back from last one only to find an interesting set of people strumming chords and singing all ditties ranging from kishore kumar to , english softies with an amazing mix of soutn indian melodies...

People here are talented and versatile... I am yet to explore if I have anything.. lets c...

Not to forget we are already overloaded with next week assignments with Rohm and Haas coming up wednesday and accounting proj due next weekend...

I have just come back from study group meet for R&H follwed by quick table tennis cameo and then penning this down before I crash to bed...

Life at ISB is never slow...

GoodBye Mohan Sir !!!

ISB drives us crazy .. If i dont pen this down today .. I may never will ...

I am a bad student .. I always have sky high limitation set for my teacher.. I want my teacher to teach me so that I do not have to study more :-)

Mohan Sir stumped me and my expectations in one day ... It has been 5 classes only and for me accounting has changed from greek and latin to assets and liabilities ... He is undoubtedly best teacher I have ever had... Next prof has some very big shoes to fill in ....I am sure he will rock too !!!

Mohan Sir taught in a way that even an idiot can make sense.... Best part he keeps class on toes and grinning for like forever... his mercurial wit and amazing capacity to present and explain concepts is impeccable... Here are some examples...

He deservedly got a standing ovation from our section and I am sure all sections had same feelings ... All sections dunked him too .. Now thats sporty ....

When I was clapping for him today I did not want him to go .... He was the one who made me feel that ISB is a good choice (though he is visiting faculty) ... He was the only prof in whose class I could understand things with the clas.. I lag behind a bit in other classes but in this I was almost spot on !!!..

First question I asked him today - Would be back for any electives and he said "NO".. I felt bad ...

You can never have enough of Mohan Venkatachalam ...

Thank you Mohan Sir !!!
Good Bye and Good Luck !!!

Week 2 @ ISB

Week 2 just got over. In layman terms I mean that a weekend is over on Monday morning 4 Am in ISB.

The week was OK .. My schedule is almost fixed.. Classes till1PM then lunch @ home ( luxury at ISB) then doze off for an hour or two (three if I am lucky or being stubborn or dead asleep where alarm tone stops existing) ... Wake up have some fun around .. Dine with Neha and then sit to studies... Till 2 at least ..

Well I am up till 4 today and still not feeling sleepy because nest week is mid-terms .. I m journalizing my second week and mid-terms are less than a week away ... This is the story at ISB ... Every three weeks there are exams and this goes on and on till you graduate from ISB (Hopefully !!)..

Did I mention that there are study group assignments which are due every monday morning ensuring we don't breathe in weekends and spend all our (available ?) time with 4 more morons in a study room shouting , screaming and seldom discussing assignments ..

This weekend was bad... Between Friday night 8 PM and Sunday morning 1 AM we spent about 15 hours on marketing assignment ( KODAK) and the result when compared to other groups is mediocre to be generous ( thats the consensus we have but we are still hopeful of decent grades ; given complex graphs and tables we have made )...

Btw, someone changed his status on USB chat network as " And I thoughr Kodak meant good time"... Bang !!! Crisp and Succint !!!

Last part of weekend is sunday .. We did Eco assignmenr because our first assignment was not upto the standard and to catch up on grades ( I have started wondering if this is all I care about ; needs lots of introspection) we gave it an honest shot because best of 2 assignments will be given weightage ... Then came FADM assignment which ate up time post dinner...

Btw,
Here are the profs:-

Fadm prof rocks !!! Funny , intelligent , fast , energetic ( infectious energy level) , crystal clear

MGEC Prof 1 ( there would be one more too ) is almost catching up with Fadm guy .. but concepts are not too cler to me yet .. gotta work on that too ...

The stats prof reminds me of Guruji !!! My chemistry teacher @ IITR ...
The explanation is beyond the scope of this blog :

Marketing is something which worries me .. I need to understand it better and for that pre-reads .. Will plan on doing them too .. sometime .. hopefully ...
If you wanna know when will I study for mid-terms.. I wanna know the answer too .....

Frantic !! This week too !!!

My first assigment @ ISB

This is an interesting one. At least for me it was.
We submitted our first group assignment last week and today the results came out.
( Max marks 49)
Here is the conversation I had after the results were out.

Deep - Oye, number dekhe
Me - Nahi
Deep - 47
Me - Wow , cool .. (thinking the effort paid off , as we spent 5 hr more compared to whole classs)
Deep - Avg is 48.67
Me- S**t !!

Epilogue:
One whole year lies ahead obscuring such shocks and surprises.

Week 1 over

That was frantically fast paced.
I cant believe I am 1/50 MBA already...

When I heard only 4 days classes that too only 4hrs each I was like "Huh , cakewalk for a good boy like me".

But I was surprised to find myself cribbing for time in less than 50 hours into the core term.

There were assignments, pre-reads( never ending ) and case studies all hogging my time of sleep and fun ..

Need to get used to it soon so that I can fully use my stay here @ ISB.

At this very moment,
I have a stats quiz in abt 6 hirs and 45 minutes and I am barely midway.

This is fun !!!
Consider it a pun !!!

The fun has begun !!!

Core term has started on Monday and on the night of tue and wed I have studied ( actually fun interspersed with study attempts) till 3 AM with my study group.

Did not want to not-blog this night. An year of such nights is here but first one deserves a mention.

Ciao !!!

Week 1 and 2 @ ISB

Phew !!!

Long Orientation week ended last sunday.. Was pretty much jam packed with Alum Gyaan , Team building activities , Club presentations and placement stuff thrown around everywhere.

Special mention for treasure hunt in which we discovered the map of ISB and many useful places too.

This week I am chilling around as there are pre-terms going on and I have not taken any. Though there is a slight glitch in the fact that I should have opted for accounting as I don't know anything abt it.

Lots of pre-reads have already been suggested and I havent started yet..

I am utilising the pre-term to do the precious thing @ ISB.... Sleeping to the fullest.

Parties and dunking sessions @ ISB can be done anytime... That spruces up the fun here ...

ISB Rocks !!

Joined ISB !!

Finally,
I hv joined ISB

Orientation week is in full swing and it is fun
i am already falling in love with the place

lack of sleep and laptop are the primary reasons for scarcity of details in this post

probably later :-)

Writing essays ??

This post is too good.
It has links to some good tips.

No value add from my side. :-)

Profile vs Chances

The ISB co 2011 thread on pagalguy has started and exactly same trend shows up...

People are posting their profiles and asking if their profile is good...Whethe they will get a call .. how much GMAT is gud enuf ...

Here is what i replied to few such posts... It is posted here in Gyaan-Section because the post in ISB thread will be lost soon in flurry of new posts..

What would you do if I say your profile is not good... Will u give up ur dream?

What would you do if I say ur profile is gud ... Will u stop polishing your profile?

Either way it is harmful...

No one is capable or rightful enough to comment on anyone's profile or interview chances...
Any one who thinks that he needs an MBA from ISB , or for that matter any other good B-school , would have something in his profile which could make him unique and can b his/her USP...

So plz plz plz ...
1) Identify ur weaknesses
2) Polish ur strengths
3) Address ur weaknesses for eg if u have poor acads then get a good gmat score ...
4) Trust urself.. Everyone is unique.. So are you !!!
5) Be honest to yourself.

ISB , for sure , says HOLISTIC evaluation and completel believes in it.