The Road That Ends Here, Chapter IV
The Road That Ends Here will tell you the summary about two months of my life in this Merlion country. It will have six chapters, corresponding to the six terms that I will endure in this one year. The idea about the title comes from a journey to hike a mountain. I imagine that getting my master degree is like enduring a long mountain path. Between the summit and the peak, there will be five stopping points to rest and regain strength (this is Chapter I through Chapter V). After the five stopping points, if I still endure, then I will reach the peak and reach my final destination (Chapter VI). Enjoy these stories and may the tales bring you new strength and encouragement to reach your goal.
Chapter IV
On to the fourth semester of my MBA, by now I have finished eight subjects of the allocated twelve. For this term, the subjects were Organizational Behaviour and Competitive Strategies. Like I said in an earlier post, got two most entertaining lecturers in my campus, Samuel Lee and Frankie Yee, who made studying in this term very interesting and so much fun, so no problems with boring lecturers at all, but the biggest problem came in the way the schedule for this semester was laid out. That’s right, no holidays other than the Study Week one week before the exam, so right after the exam it’s a new term again. This made the assignments scheduling very much hectic.
I don’t know what went wrong along the way, but it seems that the schedules were a bit messy in this term, which in the end led to the deadlines of assignments keep getting pushed back again and again, until in the end the deadlines for two assignments came into the Study Week. This was a problem, as I have to return to Indonesia during that week.
For the first assignment it was no problem, since it was an individual task and I managed to finish that 4000 words essay in due time. For the second assignment though, it was a whole lot of problem and in the end it was my teammate Angel who suffered most. Due to lack of communication, the workload distribution became a bit messy. I was thinking that she could help me on this one and handle the work, just for this once, but she was thinking that I should at least work on one question of the three presented (and the 50% marks one at that, so basically in the end it came down to 50:50 work).
This issue came into light just a few hours before the deadline, in the morning, so we only did what we could do at that moment and hoped we could pass with that. I know she was disappointed with me, but in the end, there was nothing that I could do, as it was too late to do anything drastic and I am not too good with this strategic thing altogether. If there was better communication and she told me to do my work earlier that might made a difference. This is the dangers of assumptions - I assumed she would do all the work and she assumed I would help her on the work. Because of our assumptions, our assignment suffered. Let’s not dwell in the past then, and move on, hope that all will be okay in due time.
For the exams, I think it was a bit easier than previous term (especially the Marketing Management one, that was difficult). Both exams were case studies and we were already given a glimpse of the kinds of questions that will arise on the exam, so when we came into the exam hall, we kinda knew what to expect will appear in the question paper. And it was, so we were able to answer the questions quite well, and even though I might not reach a Distinction mark, at least if I am fortunate and God wills it, I can get a Credit, or at least a Pass, I am sure of that.
So that’s it, moving on to the next term, with only four weeks of the usual six weeks and a lot of double classes in a day. I believe that I can make it out though, with God’s strength, and even give myself in to participate in the Christmas ministry. With Him all things are possible, and I surrender what will come in the next term entirely to Him.
Related Links:
The Road That Ends Here, Chapter I (May 2006)
The Road That Ends Here, Chapter II (July 2006)
The Road That Ends Here, Chapter III (September 2006)
