AMP weekends

Since this question, "How much of a time commitment is AMP", is asked a lot about AMP, I am going to go ahead and post again on this topic both for posterity and to try to really give prospective AMP enrollee's a perspective.

Thursday and Friday night, I think I got a total of 8 hours sleep. Friday I was up at 4, reviewed our presentation for completeness, then out the door to Charlottesville. I was nursing a sore throat this weekend so I wasn't exactly sleeping well anyway. Charlottesville a few minutes before class started (do not be late for Professor Haimes' class!) Class all day, presentations in the afternoon. Mid term retake at 5 because I flat out bombed the first one, along with a few others. Dinner, then seminar, then worked with my econ group to finish our homework. Bed at 1. Up again at 6, scrambled for a printer that actually worked and had paper, then breakfast, class. Left Charlottesville at 4. So, from Thursday night after work at 5 until Saturday at 4pm, I was either doing something for AMP, sleeping or eating.

Now, I normally give a fellow cohort member a ride back to Richmond, but there was a game that he stayed for.  I feel bad for him because I am normally grumpy and brain dead by this time so the ride back is not pleasant.

Saturday nights after AMP are a good time to schedule something social or to spend time with your family or friends.  You will not feel like do anything productive.

I had an oyster fest to attend which was nice, but its always hard to hide your mental fatigue. Fortunately, most people are understanding when you mentioned that you've had no sleep.

Crashed early Saturday night, up late (to me, 8:30) Sunday morning. Brunch at Black Sheep, which I highly recommend,  including copious amounts of caffeine. Then more coffee and the post at Starbucks.. and then a nap.

It was about 3p before I felt like doing anything productive.

I am constantly trying to find the right amount of work/rest ratio that produces the best output (d/dx that function?)

I am sure others have a much different story to tell, but that is mine and that is my typical AMP weekend. Hopefully, it gives insight to what kind of time commitment you are looking at with AMP. The good news is that this only lasts a year and we are halfway done already.

Almost half way

We are all searching for a way to rationalize saying that we are halfway done. Kind of tells you something.
The course is moving along at a pretty good clip. You have these nice 2 week sprints (Agile method-esque.) Charlottesville has turned cold in the morning. A quick take on Risk and Econ

Risk is a very insightful course. I mean that it has opened my eyes to many things that I hadn't even thought of before. The industry is still relatively in its infancy so there is still lots of promise for a young man or woman in this field.

The risk mid term is ahem... rough. So for this cohort, we waited until the 4th session to take a mid term. The mid term accounts for 20 points of your final grade, IE, the difference between a 95 and a 75. It is also closed book. So we have your first exam, in class, closed book. The first mid term given was bombed by many of us, your blogger included. I did not do well and it was morally crushing. The grades were poor enough that they gave retake which i took last night. I feel much better about this mid term.... amazing what a difference that makes.

Econ is not what you think it is. It is not macro, it is not micro. The best description is that it is econ wrapped in riddles. You will see what I mean, but it is not what you think it is.

Lagrangian Duality

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_programming#Duality

the Lagrangian

Make doubly sure you understand the lagrangian before you come to AMP. You will need this for both Risk and for Econ.

This is close to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_multipliers
Get to know it, live it, love it. You cannot escape it.

AMP nightmare and scheduling

I woke up at 4 AM this morning from a nightmare where I envisioned prof Scherer saying to me, in disgust "get out of my classroom."

Let the psycho-analysis begin.

This is not the first incidence I am aware of where I have been dreaming about AMP. I definitely taught a lot of probability in my sleep, which is an obvious metaphor for "I must be dreaming if I think I can teach probability."

I've also revved up the study time this week in advance of the mid term and and going to spend the $ to go down early so I can be ready.

more continuum

Today's status - head down, trying to get my arms around the risk assignments and prep for the mid term.
Cal Newport says you should study the material until you get to the point where you can teach it. I am hoping to recalibrate to this goal.

My "special friend " is a HR project manager who just happens to be putting together a project plan and she must account for risk. I'm hoping to be able to teach her some of the concepts we are learning in risk and perhaps we can create some of these awesome charts and graphs we end up creating in academia. That's a win win.

On the flipside, we are well into econ and haven't received any grades yet. As an engineer,the lack of feedback makes me wee uncomfortable, but I am sure we are doing fine.  Though I am singularly focused on risktoday, I will start on the econ final tomorrow. Per usual, the final expects us to incorporate everything we have learned so far in the course, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

Which leads me to this;

as you go along in class, be sure to grasp everything as you go, as you will see it again. This is very different from some of my undergrad experience. If something baffles you, you can kind of minimize it and get through.

The expectation of AMP is that you grok everything. This is true even though we are doing a master's degree in less than a year.