ISB - Stats with Bob Stine

Our Statistics professor for the first half of the First Term was Robert Stine - one of the wittiest person I have ever met.

One day when he was teaching in the class and someone's cell phone rang. He just blurted "Say Hi to Mom" in the middle of whatever he was saying and carried on as if nothing happened.

Here are some of the funniest one liners that he used in his class - courtesy Deepak

Life at ISB - Hectic to the Core

Life so far ....... hectic to the core

One week gone - 51 more to go.

It has been a roller coaster so far, but I am enjoying it.......... at least philosophically.

On the Grades front, it has been a mixed bag

I got 6 out of 8 for Class Participation (which is basically shooting your mouth off in the class --- on a serious note it means how effectively are you contributing to the learning exp in the class ) - this is above average score I got 5 out of 5 in the first Eco Quiz and 2.5 out of 5 in the second eco quiz - these two are so far above average scores
Our group got 57 out of 63 in our first eco assignment (again above average)

The group assignments are funny, because the egos and the so called "leadership qualities" of people are showing up.

We are a group of 5 ( for the first 6 months we are more or less a team)
1 - an IIT engineer with 3 years of Infy exp - brilliant chap - absolutely
2 - a BITS Pilani engineer with 4 years of Kanbay exp
3 - an economics graduate with 2 years of exp in Ernst and Young Consulting
4 - a CA with 3 years of exp in Banking (Lending to SMEs) - fun loving

They are wonderful team . Most of them (including me) have worked in teams with a hierarchy and with at least one boss. Here it is completely a flat structure. So it gets funny sometimes and someone ends up moderating . I think things will settle down in a couple of weeks once we know each other well.

Most of the assignments are Group assignments and thus it will be fun working with these brilliant minds.

Happy weekend at ISB

Happy weekend at ISB - The Indian School of Business

I know that there is still one more day to go in the week.

But that is how it is over here. We have lectures only from Mon - Thu. Cool isn't it?

Now that is where the fun ends, because the last 3 days of the week are more jam packed than the first four. There are tonnes of assignments which take your day and night. (just as a relief I thought of writing to you at 4:52 am). The amount of pre read that we have is so much that if I could maintain this reading speed for 2 months I can read all books in TCS library.

Anyways, core Term 1 has begun and life is hectic beyond doubt. The class hours are ok but that is all. Nothing else is close to OK. But I am not complaining because the professors are amazing. The guy who teaches us Statistics is a world renowned author and his books are used around the world as a textbook.

I have Marketing, Accounts (Basic), Managerial Economics and Statistics for this term (5 weeks). I have been given 'exemption' from Basic Accounting only if I submit a research (independent study) paper by end of the term. I am going for that option. I have decided the topic of Valuation of Brands. Let's see how it goes. I thought that rather than attending the classes and showing off in front of non CAs why not take something different. Anyways, I have taken the year off for studying so want to utilize this to learn something. It would have been far easier to sit in the class and top the same (Grade A) but where is the fun in that. So I will be graded based on the Paper that I submit. There are other CAs too who have taken this option.

I am finding it difficult to cope up with Statistics, but hope to catch on.

Amruta (my wife) and Sai (my kiddo) are doing fine. I think they stay somewhere close by because I do bump into them every now and then :-)

Thats all for now -

@mit