To my fellow classmates. interesting article for own benefit

Surviving Architecture School without burning out! 3 things that you should know
August 29, 2009

Going through architecture school can be both a stressful and
rewarding experience.  Here are three things every architecture
student should know before embarking on that very first project!

1. Understanding Time Management.

Many people going through architecture school may be lead to believe
that pulling all-nighters on a daily basis is the price you pay for
enrolling into such a rigorous program.  This couldn't be further from
the truth.  It's actually good practice while in school to understand
that when you practice architecture in the "real world" clients won't
have exorbitant budgets for you to spend endless hours working on a
single project.  So, when you're given an assignment instead of
immediately sketching ideas and coming up with concepts, get into
Project Management mode!

First, know your deadline; plan on finishing your work before that
date, this leaves time for contingencies.  Second, to avoid becoming
overwhelmed take time to fully understand what needs to be
accomplished for that deadline.  Lastly, write a simple 'to do' list
to help organize your thoughts, then begin to prioritize, and estimate
how much time you think it will take to complete each task.  This is a
sure-fire way not to show up burnt out in your pajamas come
presentation day!

 2. Start Conceptualizing!

Now comes the fun part.  Designing!  Once you have gotten an idea of
deadlines and timelines, start sketching!  Always be original -
remember this is architecture school so no idea is too zany!  If
you're having trouble getting started the best thing to do is start
pulling together precedents to help give you ideas and inspiration.

 3. sell, Sell, SELL!

I've witnessed first hand how students can become so enthralled in
their ideas, the architecture, and the design that they never set
enough time away for presentation, marketing, and selling their idea
to the jurors.  This last piece of information is of the utmost
importance because even if you have a strong solid concept and design
if jurors can't see that in the presentation - it won't matter.  Take
graphic design courses and become extremely proficient in graphic
programs such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign (Having
knowledge of these programs also comes in handy when seeking design
internships because for most firms knowing these programs is a
necessity!).  Make sure you set aside an appropriate amount of time to
pull together your presentation.  Think about it!  Everything in your
presentation from images, to fonts, to the color palette should
support your concept.  This will make your idea easier to sell if you
don't have the gift of gab!

Did I leave anything out?  If so please let me know - write a comment
and contribute to this piece!

Written by Dominique Wilmore

Cad Monkey

Great week it was, and a lot of experience has been gained within a short period of these 5 days. We went to site for measuring some existing structures to be renovated in Boschendal for some fancy Client. However we currently making AutoCad drawings of stables and Arenas of the same client as part of a different phase of the project.
The guy says he is ready to spend hundreds of millions of rands to make the project a success... Good news for the company (;... He has came to the right place, we are going to make his dream a reality.
I feel that our superiors have seen potential ,gain of enough experience to trust us enough to deal with serious projects such as this one. All the designs are done by the Architects though, we are just given the technical stuff and be Cad monkeys all day.

...

Last week was a bit relaxed. I took a break from the office work a bit and had to go back to being a student again... fortunately I didnt write any test or exam (I hate the most),which makes architecture my favourite because most of the time it is just practicals. But we visited a school that we are  going to be doing our MIP reality project as the class of CPUT 2nd year over the mountains of Strand a couple of Ks from George. I was the first to get to the site which which gave me an oppotunity to take clear pictures of the school(site) without my fellow classmate's funny faces all over the show, All I did was take pics of the little  disadvantaged kids rather (:
However, the presentation of my hub didnt go so bad. I just have to include some ideas from my lecturers for my portfolio submission and then all will be up to point.
Home is where my mind is right now, and the good part is I got atleast a two days leave to attend some important ceremony back home... 'there aint no place like home' ...
This week at the office has been good, I learnt a lot and got my supervisor to sign my logsheet for the first time in 3 months...'great'... I'm glad he could still write good comments about me though ,yet I have not been so much of an impact at the firm as yet but soon to be. I leant how to use a Tripod today (feeling like aprofessional already). My colleagues are the best. Big Up to Allen Darren, Ian Gordan and Asiphe Ntanjana... You guys are the Best...

Cheers.