First meeting

As soon as my lecture ended, I ran or rather walked hastily to the social science building. My first meeting with my supervisor was starting at 4pm and according to the email from him, he can't postpone the session any longer as he had already did it once to accommodate the business school students. Upon arrival, he had just started handing out some forms for the students to fill in. There are more than 10 students in the room. I looked for a seat. He saw me and gestured me to the front row. Great.

He began the session by explaining to us the 3 big grouping of all our dissertation topics. Each of us was assigned to one of the supervisors who formed the consortium of three. "We want your help", he said. The meetings were designed to help one another, between students and supervisors and among students. We were encouraged to hold our own group discussion. I like that idea.

So, yesterday, he just went round the table asking each student to brief the group on his/her ideas. The ideas range from global macro to credit crunch to the oil market. When it came to my turn, I couldn't believe my own nervousness as if I wasn't prepared even though I had mindmaps and slides ready to be distributed. In the end, I did not distribute any as I was caught by surprise. Initially he said only students who had discussed with him will be speaking. Hence, I thought I won't need to say anything this round. I was wrong. Nevertheless, it was helpful to let him know my plan, allowing him to suggest papers to check out and to speak to another student working on similar topic.

For the next meeting, 3 students will be allocated 20 - 25 minutes each to present their ideas to the whole class. I am not one of the first three yet. Phew.