So, here’s the deal…
I am currently working towards my MBA. I’ve always been one of those “too smart for my own damn good” type people, and in general, I’ve been able to sustain a pretty respectable GPA without spending nearly as much study time as the course literature indicates I should. This abruptly ended this semester, with my entry into the International Macroeconomics course. Economics has never been my favorite subject (I’m a marketing guy, really), so I am not helped in any way by a love for the material.
I took the first exam earlier in the semester, and quite honestly, it beat the crap out of me. It was the lowest grade I’ve gotten on anything since I began this degree, by a big, big, scarily big margin. Fair enough - like I said, I’m somewhat given to poor study habits, and this MBA program probably wouldn’t be worth a damn if it didn’t actually kick my ass once in a while.
Anyway, I had no choice but to rally, so I did the unthinkable and actually hit the books. The next assignment was to forecast the economy (given a few specific benchmarks outlined by the professor). I read all the accursed readings, and even subscribed to Wall Street Journal (which we were supposed to do a full month before I did) to get a better informed opinion.
Fast forward to today. I haven’t yet received my grade on the forecasting thing, and I am effing stressed. For all I know, my predictions were horsepuckey, and the final exam (today) is the only thing that can save me from academic ruin. I enter the classroom, take a deep breath, and plunge into the exam.
Afterwards, I emerge shakily, and receive my grade from my previous assignment from the professor on my way out. Turns out, I forecasted pretty well. Hmm. Ok, great - I head to a nearby computer and try to figure out what my final grade could be. As it turns out, the calculations indicate that there is almost no way that this final exam can affect my grade, unless I either completely failed it (which I’m confident I didn’t) or got close to a perfect score (which I’m also confident I didn’t).
[If you’ve made it this far, I truly applaud your patience. I’m not sure why anyone except me would remotely care about this]
So, I’m left with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, I could have probably spent far less time worrying about this exam and still received the same final grade. Which = argh. But, on the other hand, I probably actually learned quite a bit more than I would have otherwise. Which = cool. I guess I’m just still unsure whether the cool outweighs the argh…
