Gary's Boring Blog

Warwick Business School MBA September Seminar 2005

I went to my first Summer Seminar at Warwick Business School this year. It's an integral part of the Distance Learning MBA I started this January. I arrived in the UK on the Thursday evening, relaxed for a little that evening and the next morning at the Royal Court Hotel in Coventry before heading to the campus.

I arrived at Warwick University on the Friday, and explored the campus a bit. It's a big place, and it was nice to walk around leisurely on what was a lovely sunny day. I then went to Tesco to get something for dinner, since my 'meal tickets' started from the next day. I went back to my room, and as I was tucking into my quiche and salad, there was a loud banging on my door (and of all the other doors along the hallway.) It was a group of likely-looking lads, wondering if I was interested in going out for 'a beer or two'. Tired, hungry, and hungover as I was, the only answer was obviously 'yes', so I changed my shirt, and went off with my new friends. I won't go into details, but suffice to say that Paul, a big Canadian, bought a blow-up sheep from the pub toilets, and most of the group ended up going into Coventry city to a nightclub until 3 o'clock or so in the morning. Being far more sensible than that, (and very jetlagged), I came back after the pub and got a few hours sleep before the classes started on Saturday morning.

Classes the started, bright and early on Saturday morning, and basically continued from 9AM until 9PM or so at night, every day. The cunning buggers in the admin/support departments put all the important lectures like 'how to pass the exams' and 'this is how you decide on your electives next year' at 8 in the evening or 9AM, forcing us to attend!

In the first year at Warwick, you study five core subjects, and so we had lectures, seminars and group work on all five of these subjects. Some were better than others, but the quality in general was high, and the lecturers tried as hard as they could to make (often dull!) subjects interesting. Operations Management, in particular, was at the end of the week, so they let us watch videos rather than boring us with too many lectures!

The week had a lot of value, in a number of ways:

1)It was good to meet some of my fellow students. Many of us realized we have the same kinds of problems, troubles, and fears.
2)It was also good to meet the teaching staff and support staff. It's always nice to put names to faces, but it also helps with your studying if you know which of the teachers you can approach easily. My OM tutor even gave us an extra bottle of wine from his table at the final dinner.
3)Reinforcement of studied material. This is one of the main aims of the seminar, and was achieved very effectively. It is one thing to study at home, or discuss things with a study group, but listening to well-organized lectures or participating in focused discussions often helps the material 'stick'.
4)Exam practice. We took a test exam in Modelling, and there was also an optional exam in Marketing, which I took. There is no substitute for actually taking tests in exam conditions, and I found these sessions very useful. In fact, I think each of the 5 topics should have included an exam practice session.
5)Finally, the seminar helped me feel like a 'real' member of the University and the Business School. Access to the library, the computer centres, and even the student bars, helped me realize that I am a Warwick Business School student, in a way that access to online resources and a few email from tutors and staff cannot compete with.

So, all in all, a very good week. I met some cool people, had a few beers, studied a fair bit, and got a bit of a suntan. What more can you want...?

Posted by Gary at September 20, 2005 04:58 PM