First Intuition

My classes have started. How quickly time flies, it seems like just yesterday that 2008 started, non, was it not just yesterday when we were looking forward to christmas holidays, let alone the new year.

Now here we are, near the end of first quarter 2008. What a reminder of how short life truly is, how many senses have to be blind not be see just what our ultimate fate is. It has always been the same for our ancestors and will be the same for us.

So, yesterday, on Saturday 15th, I had my first P3 class. I guess anyone who has been with BPP or FTC probably heard of the few professors who left BPP to start their own institution. In Jan, when I was thinking about which of the two (BPP or FTC) to enroll with, I got a very timely postal advert from First Intuition. As I have always considered BPP to have some of the best teachers at their disposal, I knew one thing, that these 'mavericks' will be good at their trade. I had not studied with any of the five teachers and could not recognize any of the their faces but still that had little relevance in my deicision. Hey, even the course fee was less than BPP so I decided to add them to my list for consideration.

It did take me arond two weeks to decide which ones to choose. I ended up registering for 'weekends' & revision courses with 'First Intuition' for P3 and just revision for the other papers with BPP.

So, yesterday, as I walked into the the alley leading to 'First Intuition', I noticed this grey haired (well, lets call it semi grey haired) tall gentleman, wearning a pin stripe trousers walking out the front glass door holding a brush and pan, clearly intending to get rid of the content in the pan. I knew, this was not a cleaner, comeon, how many cleaners have you seen wear a pinstrip suit to work?! I immediately knew this must be one of the professors, I was impressed.

I walked in and was most surprised by the number of students. I mean, it could not have been more than 20-25 students, maybe because weekend courses are not the most popular courses among students. I brushed that thought aside. Made my way to the notice board and took the stairs to the classroom.

As the class started, I was totally surprised by the number of students in P3 room. It was around 10-12, no more. Ok, put this into prespective... I am use to classes of around 50-70 student at BPP or FTC. It felt quite strange yet most comfortable. As it turns out, the man in pin stripe suit was going to be our teacher for P3, Nick Brice and what a good/interesting/enthusiastic teacher he turned out to be.

To sum up the day, I really enjoyed the day at 'First Intuition'. Nick really made the topic interesting and his humour was often quick if a bit quirky. I really enjoyed the examples catered to various cases and he was quite open to thier experience of starting 'First Intuition'. If anything, he was very open about this topic. How BPP responded to their decision of going their own, the challenges they dealth with, neighbours, profitability. Here is one thing that I really liked, they seem to have this rule that all the professors say the greetings to whoever passes them by, now, I dont know how long they can keep those greetings going as 'First Intuition' grows and prospers but it was very comforting to find jolly cheerful people who seem to be mutely screaming how glad they were that we trusted them. How nice.

Nick also shared the experince of going your own, there really is no substitute for hard work and all the professors have mutually agreed that there is not going to be such a thing as 'sick leave'. Working 6-7 days and then not being able to take time off even if you are sick must be tough and I really am impressed. They also have this rule that no class shall be bigger than 30 students, thats half the average size of BPP & FTC!

I really cannot encourage others enough to try 'First Intuition'. BPP and FTC are far too big for their own good, and that feeling becomes all the more clear upon experiencing my time at 'First Intuition'.