Assignment 26

This semester has been a real eye-opener for me. I started my first part-time job, networked with many, driven to campus more, read more books, started the hardest class I've taken in a while, and learned more about myself.

This post will focus on the hardest class I've taken in a while... Business Finance. Shocker, I know. Definitely not unique also haha. Wonder how many entries for this assignment is about this class. Even so, I'd like to tell you about my experience.

First off, I'd like to describe myself a little bit as a student. I think I have a natural ability to learn and perform academically good. I have close to a 4.0 and I've had a 4.0 or higher since high school. I'm the type of student where I can usually study 1/4 of the time of someone else and use my good test-taking skills to perform higher than others. Of course, I have put a lot of study hours to perform well; I don't consider myself a natural genius in anything. I don't consider myself naturally intelligent but I usually pick up things quickly.

Please don't take any of this as arrogance, cockiness, patronizing, condescending, or whatever!

When I was younger, I loved the subjects that were "concrete" like math and science. Things that were set in stone. As I've matured however, I've liked more abstract concepts than the concrete stuff that to me is now repetitive. At first, my family that I would go into accounting since I had strong math skills; that certainly hasn't panned out. Accounting and finance stuff aren't my strong suit.

Now you can maybe start to mold a picture of how Business Finance has been for me thus far.

I had already known that this class was hard and that I would dedicate most of my time towards Business Finance. I knew I had decent math skills but I had to wait and see how I'd deal with the class.

In the beginning, I took the class a little too lightly. I was confident with the formulas and how to go through the problems after one or two problems. I thought this was going to be another class where I'd pick things up quickly. When studying, I would look at the answers and use some of that information when solving a problem and count it as "correct." That was the wrong approach. I took my first practice test and got a 30. I didn't feel as if I struggled while taking it, I was just simply doing problems 75% correct and usually made one or two errors in calculation that would mess me up.

I spent a lot more time studying before the exam and got a 70. I was relieved to be honest, even though it was the lowest exam grade that I've had for a long time... since Physics (shows I'm not good with multi-step calculations haha).

I learned that I had to keep practicing problems, even if I felt confident after one or two problems right after learning the material. If you stick with the latter mindset, once you do a problem again after some time, you will most likely mess up some intermediary calculation. Don't "cheat" yourself when studying by looking at solutions and completing a problem with information you wouldn't have had.

I got an 85 on the next exam. The material was technically easier, but I still implemented these approaches so I am sure that there was some carryover from my shift in studying technique.

I am currently studying for the last exam and I am continuing this studying technique. I am getting many questions incorrect but I am slowly learning and being more consistent.

Failure is necessary to grow. I truly believe that. Failure used to hurt me emotionally since I had always thought that I needed to be relatively perfect and if not, then I wasn't learning or that I wasn't applying myself. In the last few months, that mindset has changed. Life is a journey and failures are the stepping stones to become a great person.

I think that ENT3003 has helped me change my mindset, though I have also changed my mindset from maturity and other classes this semester. I am definitely more willing to take a risk, because if it doesn't work out... I realized that you just try something else!