CERITA #25: SEMESTER ONE, YASS.

Reading time: 5 minutes
Number of words: 715

Horas, people.

I can't believe semester one just finished. This post aims to document and share my postgraduate journey in Edinburgh, which hopefully could benefit others.

I always give credit to Jesus Christ, my immediate family, and LPDP (as my sponsor) to make this happen.

1. Master of Accounting and Finance class
1a. The courses
I took four courses, namely Advanced International Financial Reporting, Advanced Management Accounting, Foundations of Finance Theory, and Statistics for Finance.

1.b Key Dates - Semester 1
1.b.1 9 September 2019: Welcome Week starts

1.b.2 16 September 2019: Semester 1 starts

1.b.3 21-25 October 2019: Reading week (no teaching)

1.b.4 29 November 2019: Semester 1 ends

1.b.5 2-6 December 2019: Revision week

1.b.6 9-20 December 2019: Examinations
1.b.6.1 EXAM - CMSE11081: Foundations of Finance Theory. Mon 09/12/2019 9:30 AM-11:30 AM. St Leonards Land Dance Studio (Enter via Viewcraig Gardens)
1.b.6.2 EXAM - CMSE11086: Statistics For Finance. Wed 11/12/2019 2:30 PM-4:30 PM. St Leonards Land Games Hall (Enter via Viewcraig Gardens)
1.b.6.3 EXAM - CMSE11101: Advanced Management Accounting: Wed 18/12/2019 2:30 PM-4:30 PM. Playfair Library.

1.c University Closure
The University buildings were closed for the Christmas period between 5pm on Tuesday 24 December 2019 and 9am on Monday 6 January 2020.

1b. The friends
The number of postgraduate students is 51 people. We're Aakanksha Jain, Aphinya Somsiriwong, Arisa Lleshi, Armen Vardanyan, Aroma Perdana, Can Cui, Chen Zhou, Chenglin Liu, Chuning Song, Danxia Luo, Darren Luo, Efstratios Filippotis, Fanqi Ning Ning, Ghaida Alhooshani, Guanghong Zhang, Huidi Peng, Indah Yuliana, Jiayi Guo, Jing Wang, Jingyi Hu, Junxin Wu, Lewis Fry, Li Cheng, Mariyam Abdrakhmanova, Matthew Joubert, Mouna Yaha, Nathan Lalonde, Nattanon Kunanusont, Omar Alkous, Pitchayamon Vanichpipat, Pratik Gandhi, Qianjun Fu, Qixuan Liu, Rohan Navlani, Shuaiqi Wang, Shubham Kumar, Shulin Zhang, Wanwarat Poomsrisaard, Wenting Wei, Xiaodan Xu, Xiaoli Li, Yanji Wang, Yenglik Alpyspayeva, Yidan Feng, Ying Qin, Yiran Hu, Yuer Yao, Yun-Cheng Hsiao, Yuning Wang, Zeyu Shi, and Zixiao Huang.

We come from Albania, Armenia, China, Greece, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan ROC, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

1c. The lecturers

Meet the lecturers Sebastian Hoffman (Advanced International Financial Reporting), Marian Gatzweiler (Advanced Management Accounting), Maria Michou (Foundations of Finance Theory), and Angelica Gonzalez (Statistics for Finance). I would say, Maria Michou is my best lecturer for this first semester, She's wholly warmhearted and passionate, and she gave us a practical group assignment.

1d. Edinburgh Award
We could find all about Edinburgh Award here.

I was required to sign up and to complete these two steps, which were the Qualtrics Skills Rating Survey and (2) Edinburgh Award Reflective Journals.

Three essential things why I joined Edinburgh Award. First, I have three determined skills to be developed which are (1) Effective Teamwork, (2) Verbal Communication and Presentation, and (3) Knowledge Integration and Application. Secondly, I am paired with someone who is working on similar skills, who is not in the same MSc Programme as me, which is Winnie Ho, from Master in Marketing. Last but not least, I am assigned a coach who is Stella Wang.

In the first semester, we met twice on October 17, 2019, and November 27, 2019. At the first meeting we discussed about (1) Why have we chosen those skills, (2) The activities that we have both been through, a time when we were not able to work on the selected crafts in the past, (3) some areas we can explore together, and (5) how we can help each other. It is so good to take an outside view while working on skills I'd like to be excel at.

During a coaching session on Tuesday, November 19, 2019, Stella listened and helped me reflect on my thoughts; supported me in developing an action plan focussed on a goal I have set myself; and encouraged me to implement the plan. My coach didn't tell me what she thought I should do, gave advice based on her own experience, or shared the content of my conversations with anyone else.

1e. Personal tutor