My Fourth Year at University (2003-2004)
This is how I completed my Fourth Year of Management Informatics. See my comments on all subjects!
General
This school year is the first year to present less work than the previous one! For the first time I noticed that I had more time for extra curricular activities! That's why I had time to do lots of work as a Freelancer! However, I always had to be careful not to fall behind. After all, there are always things to be done!
Subject |
Commentary |
Mark |
Marketing |
Teachers: - Filomena Veiga This was the second time my class had Marketing (for beginners) during my degree. I believe that the course direction should have avoided this, as we learnt the exact same things twice. This marketing class is not a more advanced marketing than the lessons we had the first year in Economy Class; meaning I lost many hours having to attend these classes and study for the exam. There is not much to say about it, except that I preferred investing my time in other things over studying this again. |
16 |
Audit and the Tax System |
Teachers: - Carlos Cunha I didn't really look forward to these lessons. Everyone said that they would be very boring and that time would never pass by - and they were right. The classes were boring, but they were interesting as well! It might seem a huge contradiction, but I am being serious. I found it very useful to learn about financial law and how laws should be interpreted, and it will probably be very important in my future jobs! I actually think that we should have more of these lessons, even though they are very hard to get through! |
16 |
Management of Information Systems |
As to the amount of work necessary to obtain good marks, I would say it is average. One is expected to participate and be active in general, and it is very important to go prepared to lessons! We had no major projects, as the philosophy of the teacher in charge of the practical lessons was to do almost everything during the lessons. We only had to spend one hour each week preparing the practical lessons. The theoretical lessons had to be equally prepared for us to be able to participate actively. I'd say that the practical part of the subject was mostly wasted time; we spent lots of time learning a proprietary Method for Developing Information Systems (used by one very small Portuguese company). Although I recognized the application of some theoretical concepts, I would personally find it a lot more useful to have learnt a more widespread Method, which could actually have been used by more than one company. The theoretical lessons were a lot more useful. Not because of the new models and theories we learnt, but because of the extensive use of Business Cases. I believe they were important, because we could actually learn from real mistakes and real successes! |
17 |
Artificial Intelligence |
The amount of work needed to get a good mark in this subject is average. I practically only studied before the exams, but know that most people had to study a lot between lessons in order to get through the practical lessons, where we did lots of problem solving! The project, that was started some weeks into the second semester, took lots of time though. My group partner and I were the only ones turning in the project before exams; extensive research and lots of work was needed just to make the applications work! Even though the project occupied lots of time while it lasted, the time spent during the year was not more than 1-2 hours a week in average, plus the time to study for exams. |
19 |
Distributed Systems |
The time needed to get good marks in this subject is far above average. The projects are very extensive and include lots of programming. My group partner and I spent various hours each day with our projects, but then they got beyond perfect in our opinion. We couldn't get the top mark though. Anyway, we are getting used to that, as it only depends on the teachers if they are willing to give the top mark or not. During the first semester I was invited to participate in a University Research Project along with two colleagues. I accepted reluctantly, and ended up not attending practical lessons during the second semester, instead working on the Research Project. I made an excellent choice, as I got the chance to learn new technologies a lot better than my colleagues. The project was about developing a Web Wall that should use sensorial data to dynamically show information depending on its environment. I developed and assisted in developing various application using webcams, computer network data and one that is to be used with SMS and in the future Bluetooth too. |
19 |
Enterprise Resource Planning |
Teachers: - Claus Kaldeich This subject was all about functional and data integration in organizations. The theoretical and practical lessons were interrelated, and the wrap up of the whole semester was a project that consisted in modeling a company with Aris. My group was responsible for modeling the Enterprise Information System of a Factory. The work needed to get good marks in this subject is about average. |
19 |
Integrated Management Systems |
Although this subject should be about developing applications, most students didn't seem to be ready for the challenge. The projects were quite light, but I got the opportunity to choose what to do with my group; so I developed a complete solution for a Rent-a-Video Store. The solution was developed completely in SAP, and included renting and returning videos, title management, simple accounting, a small EIS, customer management, supplier management and much more! It was a very exciting project that consumed lots of time, but it was worth it. In the end we were awarded with a 20; finally! |
20 |
The History and Philosophy of Technics |
|
16 |
International Organizations |
Teachers: - Sandrina Antunes This is a Cultural Option. This subject took almost none of my time, except the time I had to attend class. I didn't find it very useful, but that wasn't the intention either. The original meaning with this subject is to give us some extra knowledge outside of our main fields of study. |
17 |
| Avg. Mark 4th. Yr. |
Prize for good marks (*) |
17,99 |
| Avg. Mark Total |
And another prize (**) |
17,34 |
(*) If a student receives fourteen - 14 - or more as the average mark during a school-year, the student wins a prize and a space in a honour list. If a student receives fourteen - 14 - or more as the final mark of the course, the student may apply to take a Master Degree and / or apply for a job as a teacher at a Portuguese university.
(**) This is a prize regulated by the Portuguese government. It is awarded to approximately 0,2% of the university students nationwide, based on the students' average mark. At my University it is therefore only conferred to the single best graduate student of each course - and I was the best in my course. The prize was also given to the single best "runner-up" among all courses, in order to apply to the governmental regulations.
