Part I: How to fail an Exam?
Seriously? looking for a recipe to fail. Wow! Well then – wait no more, jump
directly the section marked as “The Recipe to Fail”
However, if
you were forced to descend on this land-of-rants via some strange looking
link out of google search result then, may God be with you and I hope
and pray this post wouldn’t disappoint you in on how to achieve the epics of failure.
Well, they
say: “Failing to plan, is a plan to fail”.
But, hold
on! Before you judge my ingenious self, let me quote, “Never confuse education
with intelligence” – I don’t know whoever said that, but just keep that in mind
while you scan through my rant.
Times make me wonder if it’s a
genetic fault, or was a failed-experiment mutated in my genes by UFO hovering Dubai Skies while I slumber – as to why (unknown/strange) I happen to look for trouble
(I was gonna write *challenges* but that didn’t sound just right.).
Anyway, so one fine Friday
morning I decided to study for another mysterious *thing* called Treasury
Management (related to banking); and I started the research.
Primary motivation was to
understand the Treasury and Working Capital Management (now that I represent a
team that sells best Treasury Solutions in Financial Industry), and came across
a globally recognized certification exam called Certified
Treasury Professional (CTP) administered by Association of Financial
Professional (AFP). If you quickly want to know what this havoc was all about, my
previous blog post may give you an insight: What
is Certified Treasury Professional?
Flash Forward.
Applied, registered for membership
Submitted exam application
Paid fee
Scheduled test center
Order the book online that came
in ~2 weeks later by post
Ready. and came up with a study
plan, and “planned” to stick to the plan.
All set.
The Plan
A plan that eventually turned
into an airplane and flew away. Starting with the chapters in the book I was hoping
to build the momentum for the exam itself. So, every day I would come from
office and dedicate an hour (at least, 3 hours at most) reading book page by
page, chapter by chapter.
Day-1: Module1, Chapter1
The moment I picked the book, it
felt heavy, like physically ~4kgs; can’t carry it around with you. Desk, a must
have. Anyway, weight doesn’t matter (size does, pun-intended), and with all the
enthusiasm, focused on chapter-1.
Day-2: Chapter1
Focused, trying to understand;
with kids jumping around. Very detailed information, to an extent that most of
the things I had to search online to make concept out it.
Some things, couldn’t understand,
but… well: “way to go”(was the thought).
Day-3: Module-2, Zero progress
Next day I came in and found that
my daughter was *reading* the book by sticking smiley stickers, so to buck me
up she added smileys. Cute, but not cute. I was angry! She had to go through
some scolding sessions, and free lectures that I gave on-the-spot. Well…
Well, started to read again, no
momentum yet, no understanding, trying to stay focused!
Day-4: Enough of study,
relaxing day.
And of course my son followed
applied his artistic sense- I found the next day.
Day-5: Module-2
… Trying to keep my grip on – and
losing *concepts* part of it; for a moment I though I am in attempting for some
MBA courses. Seriously though, think about it: Capital Markets, Funding,
Capital Structure, Dividends, Policies, Investments, Operational Risk
Management, Cash Management, Payments, Liquidity, Collections, on and on and on
the list goes.
Days 6, 7: Module-3
Zero understanding, lost interest…
actually struggling to carry on
Days, 8, 9, 10: Lost the track of
module
Lost it.
Stopped.
With the spilled tea when my son
landed on my shoulders while jumping from the table.
Exhausted! I felt.
This is not working!
Couldn’t study for days, and
weeks… thinking on how else can I move forward? Lol, and initially I thought I
could kill it.
Well. Rethinking.
Days… going on:
Progress is Zero.
With mounting pressure of the
exam date, I was thinking of alternate ways I could approach. My friend, DDG.com,
surfing YouTube videos, strange-thick-dense-financial-lingo websites, and finally
found something that started to make sense of this senseless book (I thought). Something
that I was able to understand and relate to: investopedia.com
Very helpful resources for dumbos
like myself; …and you’d find answers to things that you never even thought of. Yes,
for free.
I found myself more interested in
the video tutorials instead of the book; in any case I had to stick to the
book.
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