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Friday, July 22, 2005
~ 10:28 AM ~
this week was the start of uni. these are the units i m taking this semester: Intermediate microeconomics, Intermediate macroeconomics, Practical Econometrics and Actuarial Statistics.
if you are wondering what actuarial statistics is about, we do things like calculate the probability of you dying and prob of smokers dying...hmmz... tt's just part of it..there's also the pricing of some superannuation policies as well (which requires
to calculate the prob of the policy holder dying at a certain age...haha!)
have attended all the lectures. all i can say tt australian lecturers are really diff frm malaysian lecturers. they speak faster, they dun care abt titles (how we greet them), and they dun read frm lecture slides...a thing tt malaysian lecturers do best... in other words, they know what they are talking about and they know what they are going to say. it all links together..
however, there is this lecturer who is very impromptu. he is my lecturer of prac econometrics and actuarial stats. he only thinks abt wat he's gonna say on the spot. tell u the truth, i like impromptu lectures..but i dun like unprepared impromptu lectures. this lecturer, u can see tt he's unprepared as he is rather disorganised in his lectures, skipping pages here and there, drifting away sometimes. but u know what? he never stops talking. he occassionally pauses to think abt wat to write on the whiteboard (if there's one..or complains tt he cant write when there isnt any).
not too sure if i can handle his lectures. but it's only the 1st week and 1st week is usually the intro to the other topics that will be covered...will see how it goes.. i may like it a lot..but on the other hand..i may hate it a lot..yeaz..mixed feelings.. but then, i shall always keep my mind open (as always..haha)to new methods and things
one more thing tt i hated doing this week was buying books. to all my malaysian frens, books here in aussie r freaking expensive. if a book costs RM75 in malaysia, it is most probably gonna cost AUS$75 here...which is abt RM220...
for the 1st time in Monash, i resorted to buying 2nd hand books. i managed to save around AUS$100 frm just buying 2 second hand books. my microecons text is the one tt i used in malaysia..so my bro will be mailing it to me...actuarial stats require no textbk(thank goodness). must say tt getting the macro textbook was tough. called up abt 6 ppl to ask whether it was still available for sale, only to be told tt it was sold. it was only the 7th guy tt i called tt sold the book to me and also the lowest price among the 7..haha! so it was worth the wait...
digressing....
my room internet connection will have to wait...and i m not too particularly happy abt it. my application is on hold as there are no available ports at the moment..so wait wait wait...with the end no where in sight..sighz... gotta have it asap...esp when one of the units assessments are all online and constitute 40% of the final assessment...and also becoz monash here has a stupid policy of internet quotas...gotta watch my usage or else i gotta pay for exessive use...
well, tt's abt it for this week..no lessons tml since no tuts this week. bb and take care!
