Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Crisis Week

Thursday, March 01 Update: I got an email from my Political Science tutorial group last night reminding me that I have my 10% worth presentation this Friday as well!. I had totally forgotten about this module! I'm stooped! Will I live the last weekday this week? Only God knows...

Hi, this is Nabeel reporting live from the middle of the 'crisis week'. Monday was my second mid-term exam worth 30% for South Asian studies, and I don't want to jinx it or anything, but it went better than what I expected. Having only studied the first lecture, I was lucky enough to get the highest weighted question from what I had studied.

Today [Tuesday] was my project group's mid-term presentation worth 25% for my Interactive Media module, and as the module name may infer, we had to present an interactive product. Compared to other groups, we not only had a video with special effects, but we also had a blog. We only took one extra minute to present, which is okay, I believe, considering everyone had only 7 minutes to present and all the other groups also exceeded their time limit [one group took 15 minutes]. Do check out the details and video for our product, called "Pehno 1.0" at our blog: http://ourdreammachine.blogspot.com/

So far I think I have been able to kick some ass without getting my ass kicked. Tomorrow I have the mid-term worth 10% for my Communications Management module, and I must mention, not much work has been done so far on this module's project that is worth 40%. ^_^ We have to identify an unresolved Public Relations issue in some company and base our research on the possible solutions. Hopefully my group-mate will get hold of the Singapore Airlines' Vice President [some PR guy] and get him to talk about a PR issue in his company that we can provide possible solutions for. We could give him our report as a way of thanking him for his time. The project and mid-term, both really need to go well because I have missed the submission of two out of four reaction papers that I needed to submit [worth 10%], which means I have lost 5% of my grade just like that.

I also have to complete these "research studies" for my Psychology module, and I've got one to do every day starting tomorrow onwards. See, graduate students of Psychology need people to participate in their research and to fill out their survey forms, but no one seems to take them seriously. [They're like Al Gore in South Park: "I'm serial!" LOL.] So our professors made it compulsory for every undergraduate student of Psychology to complete 12 "research points", where each point denotes 30 minutes spent participating in the research. Oh, and if we sign up to participate in one and don't show up, 0.5 points are deducted for every point we were supposed to complete. For example, if I don't show up for a 2 point study [1 hour], I would get 1 point subtracted - hence raising the total to 13 points that I would need to complete rather than 12. So far I have only completed 3.5 points out of the 13.5 [heh] I need to complete, and time is running out!

Thursday I have my South Asian studies presentation worth 5% [we have one every other week!]. Our group meets online on MSN at 11pm tonight to discuss what we have done or will do for our topic "Children's working conditions in South Asian countries". My group members don't care if I have a mid-term tomorrow - thankfully, I have already done the research on "identifying particular instances of improvement in the situation of working children in South Asia".

Friday I have my Psychology mid-term exam that will be a 100 MCQs to do in one hour, and it's worth 30%. I haven't studied a word of it and I'm trying not to think about what will happen - just focusing on what I need to do today for tomorrow. This week's Friday begins with a research study I have to report for at 9 am, followed by 7 hours of lectures/tutorials [one with the mid-term] with hardly any breaks, and then barely enough time for food before I have to leave for Raffles Boulevard to attend my Salsa class. By the time I reach my room, it would be 11pm. Hopefully, it will all be done.

We also have AIESEC's Preparation Seminar, which is a series of sessions and lectures by top-notch people on career advancement, that AIESECers can attend for $12 and others can attend for just $15. It's from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm both Saturday and Sunday, and I have already signed up for it. One of the sessions I look forward to attending are "The latest recruitment trend: who's recruiting who?" by Mr. Peter Tay, President of NUS Business School Alumni Association.

And that's just this week folks! Next week I have miscellaneous research papers due, homework assignments, project work and, what it seems to be like: hundreds of group meetings.

Things I'm doing regularly or bit by bit: Am constantly on the look-out for summer internships [applied to 16 this week already]; Cooking all my meals myself, which takes hours but saves a lot of money - and I can still study/work while I overlook the pots; Need to complete the EB [Executive Board] application for AIESEC NUS by this weekend; Also need to push my project's 'design team' to submit me the first draft of their design for "AIESEC Singapore's first Annual Stakeholders' Report" - a project I have undertaken. For any other AIESEC matters I am appearing to be deaf - at least till my crisis week is over.

It may appear to be scary, but I'm loving it. It's the feeling of having a purpose in life for each and every second of the day. I just hope I don't lose my enthusiasm.

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