The Dreaded Live Writing

Being part of the so-called last batch to be permitted to be exempted from what majority of the students called the "live writing" in the MBA program. I was fortunate to know that even if we were delayed in terms of supposed to be defending our papers, but wasn't able to whether voluntarily or involuntarily, we were given one last chance by the department to make sure to defend and pass our thesis or else... we have to go through live writing like some of the students who just finished Strategic Management class this term.

So to further tell the story of how live writing works, of which majority of the students are said to dread at, the Integrative Action Research (IAR) of the MBA Program will be explained to further understand where the students are coming from and why doing a live writing is a dreaded thing to go through for majority of the students.

The Integrative Action Research or the IAR is the terminal paper of every student wherein he/she must pass and defend before one would be able to obtain a degree. If a student does not want to pursue doing the IAR, he/she can still graduate, but only with a certificate. When before the terminal paper for every student in the MBA program is a Strategic Management paper of a certain company; now the terminal paper is an IAR paper in which it is expected that the students (who are also employees or part of a certain organization) should be heavily involved in dealing with the organization or the company that they are currently affiliated with. Doing the said paper would mean that one should be able to solve any organizational problem by including your co-workers or stakeholders who will be affected in the outcome of the problem. This kind of thesis format has been done more or less for five years already.

The ideal trend that should be happening in our IAR is that we have to start doing our paper by the time Management Action Research (MAR) has been introduced to us as a subject. Once, you would be able to pass this subject, you can now proceed with compiling information for one's IAR paper. However, what happens in reality is that most students either had a hard time figuring out what would be their ideal terminal paper during their MAR class and instead just use any organization for the sake of finishing the paper. Come the time wherein they must present a paper for their IAR, this is where some students would scramble to find another organization in which they would consider it as their terminal paper. So this could be one reason why the department decided that live writing must be done so that students would be able to do the process of Action Research properly with the supervision of the mentor.


Below are the things live writing would require students to do:

• All the cycles or interventions that was done prior to thesis writing would be placed into context. Meaning you would have to find another intervention to further improve the issue that your organization is currently dealing with.


• Students are required to enroll at least two terms of thesis writing. This does not include whether student voluntarily delayed their defense and decided to instead continue writing.


• Mentors would monitor your intervention process. When before mentors would trust that you would be able to do the proper intervention for as long as the process is being done ethically, now the mentors would monitor your interventions before one would even implement the said intervention.

Stating the requirements of live writing, this would make a lot of students upset about it. I think the types of student who would actually prefer live writing are those who prioritize learning, money was not an issue and those who currently do not have an impending career or life role change. However for the majority of people, this is certainly a big issue. 

Below are the reasons why I think live writing is unfavorable to the students affected... or will be affected.

• It involves a lot of money. As much as mentors would not want students to speed up their pace to ensure a high quality output, it cannot be denied that one of the reasons students are increasing their pace just to finish their degree is to save money. The longer you are in school, the more expenses you are incurring. This means that more fees need to be paid, which is the reason why majority of the students are actually targeting writing and passing the defense in one term and in one attempt.


• Companies are just being nice to their employees for the sake of the students having an output - which is the IAR paper itself. If given a choice, companies would not want the name of the company to be dragged as part of research that would not give them significant incentives.
  
  Privacy is very important with these companies and involving one's mentor into the company's daily operations might cause inconvenience. It was already a form of inconvenience to disrupt employees or so-called collaborators to participate in the study even if the issues are part of the company, it would become even more inconvenient if a third party would be involved as not only it would put a threat to the company's confidentiality, there would also be trust issues between the company and the student itself even if mentors signed confidentiality forms.
  
  Usually companies will check whether the information their employee will divulge is threatening or a typical issue among corporations before fully supporting the employee in presenting the issue as his/her terminal paper in school. The reason some of these companies are permitting their student-employees to use their company as a part of the terminal paper is to not feel guilty about it as to inform the employee that they still helped them in a certain way and would not be one of the reasons why the student cannot finish his/her degree.


• All possible cycles (interventions) were exhausted. The rule stated that a student going under the live writing can still use the topic he/she used during his/her Management Action Research (MAR) class, but the interventions or cycles that were implemented before he/she undergo thesis writing would be considered part of the context (portion of the IAR paper which allows students to identify, discuss and propose solutions to certain issues).
  
  For some students, this might not be much of an issue, but for others it would be a big deal. It is true that students must ensure to keep improving the issue and should not only be limited to two interventions. However, the problem comes when one was able to solve the issue without the need to actually further improve their issue. If it was told that they must place all of the previous interventions into the context, this meant that students would either need to come up with a new solution for improvement, or discard everything and find another issue within the organization he/she currently belongs to.
  
  Another possible issue that came into play is that the MAR subject was considered as a Foundation Course. This meant that when you entered the MBA program, this is one of the subjects that you need to take before proceeding with the Core Courses. Also, professors of this subject highly encourages student to use this subject as a jumpstart so that we could prepare ourselves for the IAR. If that's the case, then probably the issue was actually addressed already by the time the student reach the IAR writing.
  
  Let's say the student is a business or accounting undergraduate and is taking two subjects per term (with the exemption of Strategic Management which is required to be taken alone). There are four foundation courses, five core courses, one elective and one strategic management for a total of 11 courses and the school is in trimester. Suppose the student took the subject at Term 2 (one of the last subjects in the foundation courses), if we add the remaining six core and elective courses divided by two subjects per term plus one strategic management, that means the student would have to take at least four more terms (Term 6) before reaching the IAR writing. Gauging on the normal pace for working students, the student would be entering the IAR writing on his/her seventh term. As one could see, the issue is probably addressed before the student would enter his/her IAR writing. By asking students to put all cycles into context would mean that their output in MAR would technically be useless especially if one really decided to use their output in MAR as their terminal paper for IAR.


• Organizations may not be in sync with the mentor's idea of the intervention. It seemed like mentors would be the ones acting as an unsolicited consultant in which whatever the intervention was decided upon by the students and collaborators involved in solving the issue, the mentors might play a hand in which he/she might be controlling the decisions of the collaborators in creating change in solving the issue. This may not sit well for all entities involved especially nobody want to receive unsolicited advises from third parties.
  
  Also, if the intervention of the student based on the collaborative decision can be done in a short period of time, why would the student need to wait for the term to finish before proceeding with the next intervention just to follow the protocol of the school? Companies or organizations cannot just make the issue idle just for the sake the students can translate it into writing (thus, the term live writing). What if after the first intervention - or cycle, the company was able to already pinpoint the flaw of the first intervention and decided to immediately discuss it to usher for the second cycle? I think this seemed to be questionable while yes it's true that interventions should not be processed quickly; however, there are instances wherein the effects of the interventions can easily be pinpointed without the need of waiting for the cycle to be finished.

In summary, I really think that the school really wants to ensure that our paper would be of high quality. However, I think because of the nature of the curriculum and the student expectations on how they are going to complete their paper. I really think if they really want to strictly enforce the so-called live writing, they should revamp the curriculum by at least allowing the students to actually take the Management Action Research (MAR) class before proceeding with their Integrative Action Research (IAR) paper. So that even if the students would be extending by at least one term, they would actually translate their MAR paper into IAR paper because they are now aware that they should actually start thinking of the paper they will be using for their IAR paper and not just submit any output for the sake of a grade.

Write at Your Own Pace

In an environment wherein everything is competitive, people would keep on wanting to get ahead at a fastest possible time. In the corporate world wherein having a graduate degree would mean that you could already leave the unsatisfactory work you currently have or you could now vie for a higher position because of your degree.

During college, everybody would aim for a one-shot passing of thesis writing and defense. It was a graded subject and counted against the number of units. Also, this means that all you need to focus upon is to finish your thesis as a full-time student. However, in graduate school, things are different. You could actually complete your MBA already by getting a certificate without going through the grueling thesis writing and defense. Of course, nothing still beats having a degree or having a title at the back of your name as to compared to just having a certificate.

As it was said, thesis writing in the MBA does not have any number of units attached to it. So if one thought that he/she is not prepared for the defense, it would be fine. It would not count against your inability to make the writing and defense in one shot. Besides, all of you are working students and not students having part-time jobs.

As of now, some of my classmates were preparing themselves for the thesis defense while people like me were either not granted to defend due to the shoddy construction of our thesis paper or backed out on our own volition thinking that we could not meet the deadline. When they learned that I would not be defending my paper, most of my former classmates were shocked about it. They may think that I became incompetent to finish what people deemed the most crucial part of the MBA program.

As for myself, the only people that I owe an explanation to in my situation are my parents, who were the ones paying for my tuition in this program. My mother does not want me to finish my graduate school yet as she is aware that once you finished your graduate school, you'll no longer have the enthusiasm to work. She also thinks that learning is more important than getting up to the ranks of the corporate world. Upon thinking about it, I realized she had a point. Before I entered the MBA program, I was quite lazy in getting up to bed and going to work since I would be doing the same thing over and over again. Also, I rarely go out to meet with my friends after work, so it was always home to work and vice versa. However, when I entered graduate school, I made a lot of new friends from different aspects of not only personally, but also professionally. By doing something different, it allowed me to become more enthusiastic in going to work again as you now always have something to look forward to - which is to go to school not only to learn but also to mingle with new found friends.

Additionally, it should be noted that the graduate school should not be treated like a sprint wherein one would attempt to finish all the courses required for a short period of time. If I got delayed in the more critical aspect of my school life - which is college due to health reasons. There is less pressure on my part to actually finish the degree on time especially if nothing is at stake on my end.

Again, one should really write at one's pace so that they would have an output that they really desire - of course, to also pass the thesis defense with flying colors.

Choose Your Group Mate When Nothing's at Stake: Talent or Effort?

How do you choose group members in graduate school when almost everyone knows that nothing is really at stake except to get a pass? Rarely do professors fail a student in graduate school, unless the student is performing very, very poorly.

During college or even high school, usually people tend to be lucky if they end up with a group mate who is not only intelligent enough, but is also running for honors or even achieving a Latin honor when they were about to graduate college. This would mean that not only you're going to have a talented group mate, but they're also the ones who will exert most effort even if it would come to a point that he/she will be the one doing everything. Additionally, this would also mean that the group mates around this person could actually afford to lax in terms of their contribution to a particular project or activity. However on the other end of the spectrum, there are students who are average or sometimes below average intelligence wise, but their effort sometimes exceed to that of the honor students.

Then comes the graduate school - where nothing is really at stake in terms of your personal, educational or even your professional career. It was not like in high school or in college wherein every grade or performance mattered. Here a graduate diploma is more of an icing on the cake. So when it comes to groupings - whether choose your own or count off, one might be hearing lots of friction among group members. Of course, since you would be label as professionals, it would be expected of you to confront things professionally and not just argue with each other like kids. Also, that would mean that professors may not care whether your group would contribute their part or not. In all the subjects I took in the MBA program, I only had three professors who actually do care about ranking group members.

Unlike college and in high school, making excuses is possible in graduate school because of work. One can constantly say that they are busy at work, they are in weird shifts etc. You cannot make those kinds of excuses during college - unless of course you are really working as part time (then, that would be a different story). Also, you cannot cite extracurricular activities as an excuse not to contribute your part (it was your choice to join there in the first place). In graduate school, you are all working and being a student is a part time.

So how do you choose your group members now knowing that some of your classmates can have a leeway of using work as an excuse not to contribute much? You may have group members who are intelligent, but does not want to make significant contribution. On the other hand, you may also have group members who are deemed incapable of contributing significantly, yet you see their initiative to find ways in contributing to the task.

For those who are aware that they are incapable to make significant contribution in terms of knowledge, they might depend on classmates who are very good at talking but does not provide the translated output. As for other students who are on the "always busy" mode, they might lean towards classmates who are very industrious when it comes to providing meaningful output, in that way they can be afforded to buy some time in finishing their work at the same time allow them to somehow provide minimal input.

Generally, I think students would choose someone who could provide the best effort in any task even if nothing was really at stake. In an environment wherein everybody is busy doing something whether it is about work, personal matters or even family, one would really need to depend on someone who is willing to put an effort rather than those who are intelligent enough yet fail to provide a meaningful output in a group.

"You'll Never, Ever Experience Doing a Book Report in Your MBA"

During the last day of our class in Investment Analysis (one of my elective class as part of completion for my specialization), we had our final exam in a multiple choice format. During this time, my core friends in MBA and my former classmates from previous subjects are done with their Strategic Management class and were participating in their Integrative Action Research workshop.

During the exam, I happened to stumble upon two questions that are Strategic Management-related concepts such as Porter's Five forces. I just took a picture of those questionnaire and did not post it on social media until all exams are done since I was planning to make a joke that we're also taking up Strategic Management - albeit during the final exam.

After the examination, I indeed post the said questionnaires with the caption "Sinong may sabi na kayo lang may Strama [Strategic Management], kami din noh? Sa final exam nga lang." Some of my former classmates took a laugh on it based on their reactions of the said post. Meanwhile one of my former classmates somewhat took a shot on it commenting on my post that nothing beats doing a Strategic Management paper. It was utterly true that nothing beats doing a Strategic Management paper as the paper was really hard to do, but I think all of those who reacted on it knew that it was just humor. Since I took up an additional electives in pursuit of my specialization in Financial Management, I replied to his comment as "True, but you'll never, ever experience doing a book report in your MBA." One of my classmates who also pursued specialization saw my comment and he was like, I did a great job replying at that post because it made sense.

While the quote seemed to be that childish as that graduate students should not supposed to be doing book reports as it was supposed to be done during elementary or at most college days. However, the book report is not just a book. We're talking about The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb and The Return of Depression Economics by Paul Krugman. Those are quite sophisticated books - way beyond what we normally read such as novels or even articles.

Those that were ahead of us may have the bragging rights in terms of experiencing something that would make other people like us somewhat jealous of their accomplishments. However, the desire to experience everything first might fail them to miss on other things that were also worth experiencing. One could post that he/she could finish the program at a faster pace, while people who chose specialization like me can brag that at least we get to have an extension of our degrees like MBA-FIN or MBA-MKT by the time we graduate. They may never get that chance again as they chose to do things at a faster pace even if one thinks it's such an unnecessary thing to do.

Dear Friend

Dear MBA friend,

Once you came back from your trip in some part of North Asia, you would probably know that I would not make past the endorsement for our Integrative Action Research (IAR) defense on my own volition. I had made up my mind for the past few weeks, but couldn't tell it in our group chat that I plan to defer as I know that you would be quite upset about this as you all wanted our group to graduate together this coming June.

In our group, perhaps I was the second one who chose to be left behind as you all chose the typical route in the MBA program. I know that I would be left behind until three of our friends in MBA decided not to enroll thesis writing and you were the only one left going through the IAR writing alone. It was a determined way of you to do that and I admire you for it. How could I wish that I could be as determined as you despite having a lot on your plate whether it's about school, work, family, etc. Heck, you actually passed the writing and defense in one shot despite all the setbacks you've encountered during the defense.

I know that you weren't able to march with some of the students who also passed the defense during that term for personal reasons, which actually kept our hopes alive that we could march in June together. While you are waiting for us, I can join our other friends in the thesis writing as I was done with my last formal class.

But then, two weeks ago, I started to reflect back as I was doing my Chapter 2 for IAR writing around 3 to 4 in the morning thinking if pushing it through was actually worth it in exchange for my health. I am aware that I'm not the most immune of all. Lessons during my college days taught me how to actually take care of my body and not to abuse it anymore. I would not want to repeat major subjects (or in this case thesis writing or defense) just because I got hospitalized two weeks before the semester ended. I guess knowing that one of our friends in the group firmly decided to stay behind to further hone her paper made it an easier decision thinking that I can join her as we all cheer the rest of you to your June graduation.

While making this one last push would mean that I could finally get free from the school duties and finally becoming an MBA-FIN, at the same time being able to march with all of you so that we could embark on our far away travels should there be one. However, I think this is the battle that I chose not to fight thoroughly or desperately with. I know some of our classmates were quite startled that I was quite relaxed as the endorsement date approaches, but lots of factors came into play like nothing is really at stake for me in terms of planning for a career change or a change in life role. Perhaps my mentor giving me very minor feedback concerns me as I was not used to those kinds of feedback which might haunt me during IAR defense. The times that our group have gone through would be enough for me to cherish even if it would mean that I would be marching with our other friend at least one term behind.

What's more important is that we'll both make it at the end of our MBA journey- albeit not on the same pace. Again, congratulations as you're going to march this June!

If MBA Journey Would be Treated Like Travelling to Places...

As I was about to attend my last formal class for my MBA next week (it was supposed to start last week but suspension and professor's errands prevented it from happening), it allowed me to see how different people approach their MBA journey. Most of the people would think that taking up graduate school is a key to success or promotion in the corporate or government ladder. How people treat their MBA journey is where differences lies, which is why if this journey will be treated like a person's way of travelling, this is how it will goes in my opinion.

1. Multiple cities in a very short period of time (1 city per day).

In this generation, traveling to various places will already elicit a lot of people should you opt to broadcast your experiences to them. So the more place you were able to go, the more people would be jealous at your accomplishments in a short period of time. However, traveling to multiple cities in a very short period of time could actually mean that even if you are a very busy person, you want to experience everything in a short period of time with probably low expenses, but probably a more tiring way.

This is a kind of a student who is speeding it up not only just to satisfy the corporate requirements of promotion or salary increase, but whose life roles are about to change or expand. Example of which are those who is set to get married. If one would still do the regular pacing, they would have a harder time to accomplish the things that they dreamed of which is why speeding it up would be a better option to them as they would not know when will they be able to finish them should they decide to stop. In addition, since one will be taking more subjects, this would mean that one will be saving a lot of miscellaneous expenses every term.

2. Single city in a usual period of time (e.g. 3-4 days per city).

In a multiple location/cities travel in a very brief period of time such as one country or city per day, it is true that you may get to experience various places, but it would actually not allow you to spend more time in the other places in the city than you would like to. If you would spend more days in a particular city, one would be able to appreciate it better despite the fact that you might want to spend the portion of the trip to some place else just to keep on accumulating travel experiences.

In graduate school, most likely this are the students who may be said to be on the right pace. In graduate school since students are also working, most of them would be taking only two subjects every term. Enough for them to still be balanced in terms of work, social life, etc. They will only comply what is required for them and would not take other options unless there is a change of plans that would affect their immediate goal.

3. Single city in more than the usual period of time

Visiting a city in a required period of time might only allow you to visit the key places in a city that are deemed attractive, but it might not allow you to further explore yourself in the other areas that might interest you. It may be a choice that would be frowned upon by majority, but it would still allow you to experience things slowly.

These students were the ones who are biding their time in school even if it would mean more miscellaneous fees to be paid upon. They are aware that they need it to be promoted or to be deemed successful, but they are not in a hurry in getting their diploma for as long as they think they would be able to learn more such as pursuing specialization. Their classmates may be waiting for their graduation march while these said students still haven't experienced the difficulty of taking up the more advanced subject or thesis, but they know that they were able to experience more than what their peers encountered. In addition, these people probably know, they'll reach there too, but for a longer period of time.

Learnings of "Pinoy Henyo" in Relation to Business and Life

Yesterday, our quiz in Information Management class is that each group will write six terms then one representative per group will be asked to guess three terms from the other group, that was randomly selected by the professor, in a span of six minutes. Each group will draw lots to determine the order of the groups in guessing the set of terms. The game is similar to "Pinoy Henyo" with the twist that the guesser will be blindfolded. The two groups to guess all three words/concepts the fastest will get a perfect score while the next two groups will get a score of 3.5 then the last two will get a score of 3.0. Here is my reflection of the activity we did.

1. You cannot be nice all the time.

One may be thinking that we should be nice to others hoping that they'll be nice to us also as what the Bible says. However in business world, that does not work most of the time. Competitors will and always will be taking advantage of everything. They'll even give you fits even if you are nice to them. In our case, we chose terms that are easy to remember or what we thought are important, but other groups would give you terms that are out of your hindsight. Fortunately, we weren't the ones who encountered the out of nowhere terms that we're asked to guess.

2. If you are going to throw fits, make sure you're ready to receive one.

This is probably why great businesses survive, when they throw difficult things to their supplier/customer, they ensure that they'll be able to protect themselves against possible threats that will be imposed to them and they have an immediate counter against these. In this case, the group who gave the most out of nowhere terms were the ones who guess the terms the fastest since they were able to prepare themselves if they were given a difficult one like what they did.

3. Be vigilant, be prepared.

Sometimes we had a tendency to be laid back on things that we thought we're assured of. In this case, our professor told us a week before that it is an open-notes exam. Probably most people are thinking that as long as you have all the notes, you're going to do fine. However, in the "Pinoy Henyo" it showed that it is not really an open notes for everybody. In fact the ones guessing the terms should actually have studied or know the terms for him/her to guess it correctly. In this case, one should still be prepared for the things even if we are guaranteed an assurance because sometimes there is a hidden clause in the contracts that we're agreeing with.

4. Be confident with your strengths.

People say that do not be overconfident with your strengths because it will backfire. This is true in some circumstances, but in a pressure situation, you have to depend on your strength especially if one of the ingredients to success of a game or project is one of your strengths. Personally I felt that the game is all about strategy, memory and luck. I know luck is not on our side that time since our groupmate had drawn to be the first group to guess. In addition, it seemed that he wasn't that confident enough for him to pull it off. I've been told by my mother and other former classmate of my ability to remember things. In addition, I read the slides prior to the class so I hesitantly told them that I'll do it since our group is quite hesitant to volunteer. It might have been a risky move as your group grade will mostly fall on your shoulders and it might sound a little brash for them, especially in a Filipino setting wherein you are not allowed to flaunt your strengths and if they compliment your strengths, you have to deny or thank them for noticing it. Fortunately, I was able to guess all the three terms before time expires.

5. Setting a trend without patent is a dangerous.

Being a first mover or the trend setter, you should be careful from threats from competitors and patent or copyright is really, really important especially in a competitive industry. If one failed to patent a product, it is easy to copy it because all they need to do is to use your product as a basis and improve it from there. Being a trendsetter, you encounter trial and error and if the competitors saw a strategy that worked in your company, they are going to do it with much more improvement. In addition, no matter how ridiculous your strategy or product is in the eyes of the competitors, they will always follow or improve it once you've proved to them that it worked even if it took you longer to accomplish it.

In our quiz, since I was the one guessing, I had a hard time getting hints from my groupmates since all I got is a "no", perhaps my lack of experience in this game is probably another factor. Instead of asking whether the term is a person, object thing especially when the terms are difficult to be categorized, I went with the strategy of stating the letters of the alphabet hoping that the first letter of the word would allow me to recall the terms easier. The strategy worked, but since I wasn't able to figure it out until the latter part of the game, I ate much time figuring things out. However, the basis of the grades is speed. Since other groups already saw how we fared and figured out our strategy worked, the succeeding groups was able to prepare themselves better and copy the strategy that you did, to the point of abusing it. In some groups, they are already asking the 2nd , 3rd or even up to the 5th letter of the word; thus guessing all the words at a faster pace. But then, in a quiz or game, you cannot request for patent since other groups can say that it was really in their mind, it happened that our group have to go first.

6. A proven strategy can make similar processes work no matter the difficulty.

Creating something is very difficult, revising it is easier. In businesses, once a structure is formed, it is easier to implement it in other areas especially when they are of the same process. It is similar to figuring out how to automate a particular data, then do it for the rest of the data available by improving it. In this game, even if the terms or concepts of the other groups are more difficult than ours, by figuring out the strategy, it is easier for them to guess the word at a faster time.

7. You cannot blame the leader or boss for all the company's flaw all the time.

In business, it is said the leader reflects the attitude of the organization. Yes the leader has a lot of responsibility on his/her shoulders, but it should be taken into consideration that the people around or the board chose a leader that they think could lead them. A leader cannot function if his/her subordinates are not listening, following or even have a dialogue with the leader on how to improve their company. In this game, the representative would act as a leader and the group's grade will depend on his/her ability to guess. The representative would not be able to guess the right word if the subordinates or the other members of the group would not participate in answering whether the representative is asking the right hints.

8. Communication is the key.

In a company, even if you have a good strategy in place, if the boss and employees are not articulating their thought to each other or are not communicating with each other clearly, it will be of no use. In our group, prior to the game itself, I told my groupmates about the use of "first half" and "second half" of the alphabet to determine the first letter of the word without blurting out the letters of the alphabet. However, when I mentioned that, they probably didn't understand what I'm saying. Perhaps they were thinking that it is the first half of the session or something else. This is why it is important that you've communicated well even if you are under pressure.

In the end, I might not able to get the highest possible grade for my groupmates, but looking their appreciation for what I did is already a great relief from me since I was able to give all my best in a most disadvantaged situation that was being thrown at us. In addition, I think that it's not only my good memory that enabled me to get it though, but also through my experiences as a leader in previous organizations such as quick thinking in finding an alternative to the solution, in this case a strategy of blurting out the letters of the alphabet since it is not restricted in the game. Also, learning from other groups is also important and if ever these kinds of games comes in again, I would be able to figure out on how to improve based on what I've saw and experienced.