IIM Ahmedabad - The Journey - Part 2 - Term 1 - Post 1

SITUATION ANALYSIS

The first term at IIM Ahmedabad is LEGEN….wait for it …..DARY!! And there are a number of factors that contribute to its fame. And in honour of one of the most painful subjects in that term, ie. WAC or “Written Analysis and Communication”, I shall format my post as a WAC report. Anyone who got into IIM for the 2008-10 batch…BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (Evil laugh)!!!!

PROBLEM STATEMENT

How exactly was my first year at IIMA?

AVAILABLE OPTIONS

1)Awesome (or as it’s said here…OSSUM!!)

2) Crappy

3) “It depends”

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION and EVALUATION OF OPTIONS

CRITERIA 1 – Studies

Any story about the first term at IIMA wouldn’t even have begun if it does not mention the academics involved. The time before I joined was filled with stories about the enormous amount of studies that would be involved in my two years there, and the first term was filled with the Tuchchas constantly reminding us of how hectic the first year was with their chants of “Muggo Fachchon Muggo!!!”….which after a point of time, we became immune to. (Looking forward to being on the delivery side in June :D).

Those chants were not unjustified though! Academics are tough out here. HRM, OM, MC, QM, ID, WAC, EA and the dreaded “MANAC”!!!

HRM classes were a joy just because of the professor, someone who many a student has referred to as “GOD LEVEL!!!” (That’s just one of the terms that are so overused on campus that it has lost all significance.). I still remember a 3.5 hours session he once took. And honestly, that has been my best class in WIMWI to date. It was simply brilliant.

The first few weeks, I never understood how people could sleep in class. Don’t they sleep at night? Sheesh!!

A few more days later, I understood. In the first term, the amount I slept in class was actually quite less…especially when compared to the hours I spent sleeping in class in Term 3, but that’s a story for another time. While some classes were spent in absolute bewilderment at the sheer brilliance of the professor’s analytical skills, some were spent also in bewilderment at the sheer complexity of the subject (or was it my sheer stupidity for not understanding?? I cant remember!) There were loads of assignments to do (again…nothing compared to term 3!) but some of them were fun as well.

The exams are very scary….atleast the first time. I didn’t know what to expect, and on top of that, I didn’t know anything related to the subjects. So most of my exams involved pure gas. And that was when I discovered my secret to surviving the first year here:- Fart! The success of a person here is dependant to a certain extent on his/her ability to talk absolute bullcrap for hours about anything under the sun. And I was quick to learn that. But that my friends, is not applicable to all subjects.

This gives me an appropriate opportunity to introduce to you, the subject known as “Managerial Accounting and Control - 1” or as we like to call it (or do we??) MANAC-1! My reasoning for why this is arguably the most dreaded subject in the first year is that no matter how much I work on this subject, I’m still gonna get f*****!! Classes were generally a lot of fun as the Prof had a good sense of humour ( Arjun and Anirudh might disagree), even though I never understood anything, hence leading to it being one of my worst subjects in the first term.

And what better topic to lead me onto my next “sub-division” than MANAC!!

CRITERIA 2- Quizzes

This was the biggest pain in the @$$ for the whole of the first year. But it never hits you as hard as it does during the first term. I mean, at that point of time, we just aren’t ready for this kind of torture! The nature of quizzes can be broadly classified into two:

A) The Shotgun : One shot and youre dead! (Remember QM-1)

There are only one or two of them, but they are of such critical importance that the cost of screwing one up is astronomical. And I am sure all of my batchmates will never forget the first QM-1 quiz we had.

Weightage : 20%

Maximum score : 20

Highest score : 20 A+

Batch average: 4 D+

My score: 2 D

Lowest score : -10 F

Need I say anymore?

B) The machine gun: Too many bullets in the chest and too quickly!

Every other day, we would go to the mess tired and completely drained after 4 hrs of classes, only to our dread, find pinned to the “Quiz Notice Board”, a strip of paper that had written upon them those words that have caused many a nightmare: “This is to inform you that there will be a short MANAC-1 quiz in your classrooms at 2:30pm today. Thank you.”

Or in other words: “This is to inform you that you will have to line up against that nice brick wall at 2:30 today so that the firing squad can have some shooting practise. Thank you.”

And it certainly felt like facing a firing squad! The build up was humungous! We skipped lunch, ran back to class, got quick Rems (remedials for the uninitiated) and prayed to the All Mighty to spare our poor souls for once. But it got over before we knew it. All we remember is getting the question paper. These MANAC quizzes are so short that no one knows when it begins and when it ends. Inevitable, the instant that the concepts strike me is when the time is up!

Over time, we got used to these quizzes and they too became a part of routine life.

CRITERIA 3 – Group Work

With the number of assignments and submissions that are present in the first term, group work is extremely important. Mine was a 5 member group. In alphabetical order, they are:

Harish V Rao

Rajiv G

Rohin Thampi (Me :D)

Sandeep Gupta

Tenzing Loden Lepcha

Most of our group meets were in either Sandeep’s or Tenzing’s room. Me, Rajiv and Tenzing would end up sleeping around half an hour into the group meets, leaving poor Sandeep (AKA Maggi) and Harish to do the work. But later on as we began to adjust to life on campus, we formed strong bonds of friendship and hung out together when not studying.

---- Due to the fact that I have reached the limit for a WAC report – 1000 words + /- 10%, I shall continue this report in the next part. Also T-Nite deserves a post of its own. Till then, Adios----