Yesterday and today i’ve had Christmas exams. One in ‘Enterprise Telephony’ and another in ‘Strategic Information Systems’. Or, if we’re dumbing things down and calling them as they are, ‘phones’ and ‘business’ in relation to IT Management (which is the course i’m doing)…
Comfortable
I’d love to be able to say i nailed both exams but i can’t. I can however say i passed both exams very comfortably. A pass is 40%, max available is 100% with 70% being the magic number if i want to stay on course for a ‘first class’ honours degree. I reckon i got about 60%/65% overall in both subjects which i’d be fairly happy with.
I don’t like either subject, so it’s always difficult to do well when part of you is saying “screw this, i want to get online and do ‘fun’ stuff”.
Enjoyment
When i think about it, i don’t actually enjoy any of these subjects i’m sitting exams in. Business Organisations (which i have on Monday) is probably the one exam i’m most looking forward to. Which is strange as it’s the one subject that isn’t IT related at all. The problem i have is that the IT stuff we do just isn’t interesting to me and it’s as simple as that.
When i think way back to deciding what course i wanted to do (in about 2005), i’d picked out IT Management because i felt it was more important to have a general all round knowledge of IT rather than hone in one one particular technology so early on in my life… which was a smart choice and if i had to choose again, i probably wouldn’t change my mind. I think it’s very important to be a jack of all trades or at least be able to talk with people in all different areas of IT and have some level of understanding what it is they’re talking about.
photo credit: DenisGiles
I figured IT will always be around, but IT today will be very different from IT in 20 years time or 30 years time. Just shoot back 30 years ago to 1980 and look at the crap they called ‘IT’ back then. No internet, no mobile phones, no laptops… stone age. But of course back then that crap was cutting edge and thanks to a few brains and more brains along with some vision, new stuff came along and morphed in to what we have today.
Understanding where all that old stuff came from, how it came about etc… i feel is very important in order to move forward, which is why i’m doing IT Management as opposed to Software Development or something pretty specific.
Next Semester
Anyway, back on topic and the one module we DON’T have an exam in this semester is our dissertation one called ‘Research Methods & Seminar’. That was something i did enjoy and will continue to enjoy next semester because what i cover in that is dictated 100% by me. And as i said before, i’ll be talking about social media which is where i’m most at home.
The two toughest exams i have are on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Enterprise Architecture and Database Management Systems. It’s very difficult to bluff any answers in those two which means a lot of studying & memorising is required, something which i am good at but only when it suits me and when i’m interested. I’m not interested in either of these subjects so it will be interesting to see how i do.
Overall, if i can average above 65% i’ll be happy, it will still leave the door open for a first class honours should i be hungry enough for it. 65% this semester would mean i’d need 75% next semester which is just about doable however, as always, i won’t put in the effort if i feel it’s going to suck up too much of my time and bore me to tears.
Come next wednesday at about 2pm, i’ll be left facing just one semester of the eight i originally committed to…