SISU!
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics: Men’s Ice Hockey Final:
Canada 3 USA 2 (“Sudden Death”)
Finland 5 Slovakia 3
So Canada (Gold) has a population of 34,017,000
U.S.A. (Silver) has a population of 308,372,000
Finland (Bronze) has a population of…5,356,500
Ratios: Finland is 1.73% the size of the USA and 15.74% that of Canada.
SISU!
I reckon the best way to tackle a new topic is when you get a new text book:
1. First flick through it very quickly. If you see anything interesting stop and read it, as you would any non-fiction book read for leisure. Why force yourself to read turgid stuff that makes your eyelids heavy?
2. Then, look down the contents page. If you see something interesting (who knows, “Internal Audit” might be of interest) then read that chapter first.
3. Next, instead of starting at Chapter 1 and boring yourself rigid by Chapter 3, start at chapter four, which will take you straight into the relevant part of the course. Chapters 1 to 3 are often mere “introduction” or “recap of assumed knowledge”. Easy to get bogged down at the start and wasting time on them so skip it until later, when you come to revise.
4. Have a quick read of the last chapter for an idea of the more obscure “higher marks”.
5. For an overview, best read the passnotes quickly first, before the textbook, to put the topic into context, then put away in a drawer until the exams as they are not much use.
BUT…I have just been looking at the new Kaplan cards and they are absolutely gorgeous: I have already spread them about in front of me on my desk at work. They are in “mind map” flash card style in different colours.
Anything that makes studying is more of a pleasure, has to be good.
From outer space?
“Astrobiology” Scientist Claims Human Life Came From Another Planet.
This gentleman’s theory is not so different from what some sci-fi writers have always maintained, e.g., Ron Hubbard – indeed, Scientologists to this day believe they are “Thetans” or whatever, the Ancient Egyptians believed that when a soul dies (albeit the soul of a king!) it went back to the stars it came from (Sirius and the Dog Star are the New Age theories). I myself am attracted to this idea as we live in a world of dual nature. Earth itself could be the inner space of an outer space. Our “soul” if you like is non-material but our bodily form is organic.
There is a view that psychoactive fungus came from spores from outer space, perhaps via comets or meteors hitting the earth. Once ingested, it imparted “the Holy Spirit” to developing homosapiens, and that most religions are actually founded on ingestion of hallucinogenic substances, e.g., the Ancient Roman rite of Elusysian (the Mystery Rites) may have involved psychotropic mead giving rise to religious ecstasy. Certainly we know that Native Americans used peyote – a succulent cacti native to the Americas – as part of their religious rites, as did the Incas and Aztecs.
Why would naturally growing plants and fungus impart this experience – could it be they are products of an alien life form only accessible by imbibing?
Jerome David Salinger has died aged 91 at his home in New Hampshire. Creator of the character Holden Caulfield, whose perception of the world as being full of “phonies” touched a chord with a whole baby-boomer generation, followed by Gen X and still sells well today.
His short stories, such as, For Esmé – with Love and Squalor were accomplished and intellectual. His younger brother who died young, and who drives the character Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye appears earlier here, in A Perfect Day for Bananafish, which first appeared in The New Yorker in 1948, and remains one of his best works. Salinger’s short stories were typically deep, intellectual and philosophical.
As one of the world’s best known recluses, many would-be biographers beat a path to his door, which resulted in strange half-bios, such as In Search of JD Salinger. His daughter recently joined in, writing a lurid biography of her father, which would not have pleased him.
Salinger was born in New York of a Jewish businessman father and a Scottish-Irish mother and grew up in Manhattan. ~ KrissyG1
[q/]In 1953, he bought a house at Cornish, New Hampshire, and retreated into seclusion, giving a rare and final interview in 1980.
Last year, Salinger took legal action to block the publication of a book by a Swedish author – 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye – that was billed as a follow-up to his classic novel.
He has taken legal action to protect his copyright on previous occasions, but has never appeared in court. He has also refused filming rights for his story.
His three subsequent books – including Franny and Zooey – were all best-sellers.
But no new Salinger fiction appeared after 1965 and he has done everything possible to try to thwart the efforts of biographers.
Source: news.bbc.co.uk[/q]
Results have just been released for the recent global CIMA exams November 2009. A candidate who failed P1 Managerial Level is disappointed to receive just 35% after believing that he had done well at the time and requested advice.
I write:
35% looked at another way is just 15% off the pass mark. Assuming you have the ability, the knowledge and have put in all the hard work, the reason for this could be one of several things. It is a very good idea to get an adminstrative review (your college may do this free as part of a “pass guarantee” or you may have to pay a nominal admin fee) this will tell you exactly where you scored poorly. You would be surprised to know that something like 50% of available marks in P1 are to do with written parts and yet many candidates focus on the mathematical part.
Exam technique: if you found you had trouble finishing questions or sections on time, or left out any all together, this could indicate you need to raise your time management skills. This is where lots of timed question practice is essential. I would recommend investing in a cheap sports stopwatch, set it to “zero” at the start of your exam and keep a very close eye on how you are doing for time all the way through.
For example, say the question is to do with Just in Time, or whatever, and seems like a very simple question. It is all too easy to jot down a very quick but dull trite answer of a couple of paragraphs, believing you have got it “sown” so that you can move on and concentrate on the harder questions. Or, alternatively, you spiel out whatever comes to mind. In fact, you may only get two or three marks for this approach because the marker perceives your answer as superficial and lacking in depth.
You deserve the full five or ten marks!
In the time you have, write your answer – using an answer plan – with as much depth and as insight that you can muster. Be sure it relates directly to what the question asks. If the question says “how?” do not write about “what” “when”or “why” as you won’t get any marks for it. This is why you may think you have done well on leaving the exam hall, but your answer is not on the marker’s crib sheet.
To add depth, instead of just putting, say, “JIT means lean manufacturing” add the word, which can be imaginary, “…because…” “…stockpiling does not add value”.
As you will only have 8 – 18 minutes to write essay-type questions, it is important to have practised writing these in advance, keeping your sentences pithy and punchy. Introduce the point/s you are making as early on as possible.
As soon as you are reaching the end of the time allowed for the question or section you are on, quickly sum up in a good sentence that relates both to the topic syllabus area and the thrust of the question.
For example, Just in Time = modern business environment = competitive advantage = revision acronym [use them!] = Full Concentration Gives Quick Clear Thinking = FCGQCT = Flexibility, Customer-Focused, Global, Quality, Costs, Technology.
So, to sum up the question “Explain how quality control systems help Just in Time” you are ready to conclude, “In the modern business environment, which is flexible, customer focused, global and utilises high technology and cost controls, quality systems are important in giving Company X the competitive advantage in the market.”
State the obvious.
The other way to improve on time is to practise being able to do pro-forma type questions at top speed, blind-fold and with one hand tied behind your back, so that when the invigilator shouts out, “you have fifteen minutes left!” (and you hear the flurry of panic and gasps in the hall, including your own!) you WILL be able to throw down the pro-forma and bung in your figures. You WILL learn how to use your calculator as speedily as possible using ONE fell calculation for each column instead of several separate ones (use the brackets function for long-winded expected values calculations). Put the Discount Factor values in first on the NPV proforma so that you can automatically multiply by this when you get to your end total.
Make sure you can sling together a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow proforma in two shakes of a cat’s tail. Be able to go straight into workings one to and three, with little to no thought, and transfer your figures over to the proforma systematically.
Markers will be looking at your time management skills, as the examiners like to throw in complicated calculations early on to try to trick the unwary candidate into taking too long over a question. It is important to attempt and finish all questions for this reason.
Often, the obscure tricky calculations are only worth a couple of marks anyway, so just move on instead of getting bogged down. Make sure you state that you have not just ignored it, if you can. If it is an area not really in the syllabus, nor within your skill range in the time given, or you just do not have time, put, “Assumption: the contribution for Supplier X is at a special rate, but it will be assumed here that it is calculated at the normal contribution rate, which can be adjusted for in the financial statements.”
Put, “Assumption: this is relevant because of inflation” [when normally it would not be]. If you are wrong, this tells the marker it was not because of carelessness or ignorance.
If you know your figure is wrong acknowledge this (eg, say, you mess up with the decimal places but there are only a few minutes left). State in brackets afterwards “figures need to be checked” and then on the basis of your wrong figure carry on with the next part. You can only be penalised once for this incorrect figure. Don’t waste time by starting over again, as P1, P2 and P8 are deliberately designed to be extremely time-pressured.
Spend most, if not all, of the 20 minutes reading time studying the Section C question/s jotting down notes in pencil and highlighting key facts. Read the “requirements” part of the question first. Invest a lot of time reading this section very carefully, while your mind is fresh. Only make a choice of which questions to do when you have read them all. Do the question/s that will give you the most marks – not the most interesting one!
We all know all of this, of course, but still we leave ourselves five or ten minutes short on the last question…
“A person who cannot state what they do as a process, does not know what they are doing.” ~ W E Deming
KrissyG's Eyes 