After tomorrow, i’ll only have one week of classes left in 2010, then it’s just the small matter of Christmas exams. Next week is the biggest week so far this year in college for me. 5 different things due, one for each day of the week…
Monday
Multiple choice test in ‘Enterprise Architecture’. I hate multiple choice tests, they lull you in to a false sense of security and don’t fit in to my tactical approach to exams at all. The problem with doing well in a multiple choice test is that not only do you have to know the correct answer, you have to be 100% confident in it which means you also need to be 100% confident all the other answers are wrong.
So it generally takes a hell of a lot of effort to do well in multiple choice exams – it doesn’t suit my exam style at all. Usually i won’t know anything in great detail, but i’ll know a lot of things is small detail and will be able to manufacture an answer and score well thanks largely to my ability to look at a question, pick out the keywords in it and define them in simple english 🙂 Earlier this week i got 50% in a multiple choice exam – about right… i do intend to make up for it though in the Christmas exam which is where i can let myself roam free. No ticking boxes.
Tuesday
Three exam questions on ‘Enterprise Telephony’ have to be answers by Tuesday. That’s basically all about VOIP and how great VOIP is compared to the old telephone network. Packet switched, circuit switched, SS7, PBX, SIP, H323… there… that should be enough to lose you 😉 Whilst i can’t explain any of those terms in great detail, i know roughly what they all mean.
This is a subject which falls in to the ‘networking’ category which for me is the least rewarding category. I just don’t find it interesting, it’s not creative enough for me…
Wednesday
Another multiple choice test in ‘Strategic Information Systems’. This is very much a suit and tie subject. Mention words like; strategy, vision, efficiency, management, productivity, competitive, logistics, evaluation, workflow and you get 100%.
Ok, so it’s not quite that easy but it’s all just a case of talking the talk and putting on your business hat. This is a subject which probably suits me down to the ground because it’s all fairly waffly – not a great deal of knowledge needed and the knowledge that is needed is mostly common sense.
photo credit: mattiasostmar
Thursday
‘Business Organisations’ presentation. Two people in a team, 10 or 15 minute presentations on human resource management. Ours will be on “The role of training & development” and “The nature and role of Performance Appraisal” – i’ll be talking about the latter.
Of course i’m completely clueless about this stuff in the real world. Zero experience, all theory based.
“Appraisal, yeah, that’s about telling people how good or bad they’ve done”.
End presentation.
That’s essentially what i’ll be saying only i’ll be padding it out with points that i know help me pick up marks and i’ll probably be throwing in mad pictures and analogies just to keep myself entertained – i find myself doing that this year… e.g. if i get my way, there’ll be a picture of ‘Rambo’ on one slide and a ‘Swat Team’ on another to demonstrate the problems with training & development – not everyone will fall in to line and use their training as you want them to.
The crazier the better – i’m sick of seeing bullet points or reams of text on slides from both from lecturers and students… YAWN, it just doesn’t work and how many times do people have to be told it doesn’t work before they change their style? Whatever about lecturers, us students should know better – we sit through lectures daily so we’re pretty much experts on presentations without knowing it. It’s too easy to throw up bullet points and blocks of text… it’s too safe too. If i had my way i’d ban bullet points and get people to present information using pictures & titles only… no reading from notes either. That would force people in to being creative plus it would keep us (the audience) awake.
Friday
Dissertation proposal day for my ‘Research Methods & Seminar’ module. 2000 word document which needs to be handed in by 1pm. I’ve said before it’ll be on social media… i’ve now narrowed it down to CRM (customer relationship management) & social media… basically how businesses can interact with customers to gain more knowledge about them but at the same time also create a better experience for the customer. I’ll keep it irish based too, otherwise it’s information & case study overload.
As i’ve said before this is one area i think i could ‘add value’ to if i was plonked in to a business right this second. I’m also interested in it and we touch on it in some parts of my course so i can’t see why it would be rejected as a proposal. I’ve already racked up about 50 bookmarks on this area so there’s no shortage of information on it, i just have to keep everything as irish as possible and if i have the time or ideas, i might carry out some kind of experiment too just to come up with something original.
For the first time ever, i’ve also *thought* about staying on and doing a masters in computing. My own thoughts on that are that i’m too young and wouldn’t appreciate the full value of it… i’d be better off doing it later on in life on a part-time basis, if at all… however there may be benefits to doing it now… i’ll have to wait and see.
Ideally, in a world which revolves around me, i come out of college, start a business or get involved in a start up business and live happily ever after… apparently it’s not that easy though 
So over the Christmas break i’ll probably give more thought to the masters idea and weigh up the pros and cons and right now, there’s more cons than pros in my mind.
photo credit: Polymer Princess
Tuesday