Updates

For me, the going at IIMA is quite tough. This is my opinions and in fact that is exactly the opinion of all my batchmates.

We have 10 subjects for the first term (9 weeks), 3 classes each day (each class for 85 minutes). The profs say that for each class you have to prepare for approximately 2.5 hrs, however experience of last 2 weeks says that this kind of preparation is not enough. We often end up preparing for more than 4 hrs per subject (this includes both reading indvidually and discussing / solving the relevant courses). Given this info, you can find out that sleep comes at a premium and one is lucky if he/she can manage more than 4-5 hrs of sleep. Thats for the academic side of the program.

The objective of the program is to prepare the participants towards the middle/senior management roles. So the program doesnt just teach you methods of doing a task but also emphasizes the implications of each way of doing tasks. For example, it doesnt the prof doesnt stop after teaching how to allocate costs in management accounting, but also tells about various ways of doing it and the implications of doing things in certain way. There are whole lot of "aha" moments in the class.

The profile of the class is fantastic. Since we are only 61 people, it was very easy to know others at a personal level. It is too early for me to say that I know each one of my class, but given the level of interaction, I think i will know and connect to each member of my class at a personal level.

The facilities are taken care of in a excellent manner. We all have individual accomodation and the mundane activities like cleaning your room, changing bedsheets etc., are all taken care of by the Housekeeping and they are doing pretty good job of it. It is not like living in a hostel, but almost like being in a fully furnished suite.

As I mentioned before, time is the only thing we dont have here in suffcient amounts and hence my replies will not be as frequent as you expect them to be. Frankly, many of the questions are adequately addressed by the other members of the iima_iimcal_pgpx yahoo group, and in that case, I do not respond to those questions. However, if there is a specific question about program, I will definitely try to respond (not promptly though).

I encourage you to visit the campus, meet the current students and talk to profs (they are very easily approachable) before making a decision about PGPX one way or the other.

Quizzes and more quizzes

We had our 3rd quiz.. and it was not surprising that this was not a surprise quiz (the dates of this quiz is known to us from day 1). The average performance in the 3rd quiz is slightly better than the performance in the previous two but it is essentially not upto the expectations (self and institute's). Prof declared that is open book quiz which means we will not be able to find answers directly in the book. What is worrying me now is that despite the signifcant lead time on the quiz, the performance is only marginally better.

At wimwi, thus far, we have 2 types of quizzes - surpise quiz and announced quiz. The results are not too different. It is like choosing to die by taking a bullet shot or slow poison. The end result is the same, you are killed.

Split wide open

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away". Here at IIMA we have no shortage of such moments. Infact we have so many such moments that we are often found gasping for breath. Today's Strategic Cost Management was one such moment which made many of us "Breathless".

Who would have imagined to have a surprise quiz just after 3 days of classes. It will take sometime before we get the results of our performance but if the reaction of my classmates is any indication of their performance on the exam, Binary system is more than appropriate to indicate our performance.

Heard in campus and sincerely reporting:

Student to TA: "Ma'm, can you please tell Sir not to be offended when he sees my blank answer sheet".
TA to Student: "Dont worry, Sir will not know that it was a blank sheet 'cos I am gonna correct the papers. You should not be offended when I give you the marks" :)

Day 3 @ IIMA

3rd day of our orientation and tomorrow is the last. 12 noon - the induction segment will be completed and I thought we would be free. To my surprise, this is not going to be the case. We got the books and boy there are indeed too many books. (I havent owned so many books in my four years of Engineering studies).



And tomorrow we have 3 classes and one is expected to read atleast 3 x 30 pages and to make attempts to solve the first case in each of the 3 subjects. Hmm.. now I dont have to wait for the completition of the new gym to start exercising. I could use all these books as weights. :)

The profs we have are good and so are the participants of the program. But then the topics discussed thus far are general topics and each of us had some kind of experience in dealing with those topics/situations. Lets see how many participants will be able to keep up with the pace of the music thats gonna start playing from tomorrow.

Day 2 @ IIMA

Who would have imagined that day 2 of induction and the work after that would go on for 14 hours. The honeymoon period has to get over at sometime, but I was suprised (shocked would be more approrpriate) to see that it got over so soon.

I was rather hasty in my previous post in commenting about lack of team based activities. During day 2, we had couple of such activities and it was my first chance to know my group mates at a closer level. We called our group the "D Company" - Marketing Guru, Techies, and an Army Colonel - Quite a group.

Logout Bangalore .. Login Ahmedabad.

I resigned my job on 28th March 2006, after working at HP for 7 years. These seven years of work experience at HP was like being on a roller coaster ride in more ways than one and I carried a lot of memories, experiences and more importantly some lessons with me. After centi sessions with friends over a couple of rounds of whisky, it was time to say "Bye bye Bangalore".

The welcome for "PGPX pioneers" was warm and the registration process was a breeze. I got the single accomodation and the facilities provided were pleasantly surprising. The accomodation is as good as a serviced apartment, complete with facilities (should I say luxuries) like AC, Cable TV and house keeping. Most of things are in place, but it is still work in progress and might take about another couple of months to complete.

As impressive as the facilities and ambience of the IIMA are, equally impressive are the backgrounds and previous experiences of PGPX classmates. Some of the PGPX classmates are already shot into fame, thanks the eagerness of media. The study groups are formed and it is somewhat clear as what to expect in the next couple of days.

I admit that I am impressed with the way things are arranged for PGPX. The induction module would cover a lot of topics that are relevant to our learning in the course. But I would have liked to see some initiatives towards team building. One thing I learnt from my work experience, is that it takes a while to create a team based environment and without team building activities (which could be as simple activities as playing some games as a team) it takes even longer time for the team to be fully functional.

Its been a good start and let me see how the life turns on from now onwards. Wishing good luck to all the PGPX students and congratulating the outgoing PGP graduates, I sign off to get all the sleep I can before the grinding begins tomorrow.

cheers
Vasu

Campus placements

Its placements season at bschools in India. If the lateral placements of this year are any indication of the rosy job scenario, one can be sure that the final placements will break all previous records at WIMWI.

We, the PGPX students, wish you good luck and success to all the 2nd year PGP students @ IIMA.
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