DarqByte

Many people are aware that my approach to the MBA program at UNLV has three tiers to it, in terms of my performance.

1. Get a 4.0 grade-point average
2. Get better than a 3.56 GPA
3. Get the degree

Obviously, the top tier is a 4.0 and the best I can possibly do. Better than a 3.56 is my next target should I fail in getting a 4.0, because 3.56 is what I had in undergraduate studies. I had a 3.4ish in high school, so if I get better than a 3.56 then I’ve improved my GPA at each successive degree level. Finally… Obviously my lowest desire is to get the damn degree.

I’m mentioning all of this to illustrate that I’m trying to challenge myself to do as good as I can possibly do. I’m not posting this so people think I’m trying to show off or think I’m better than anybody else. It’s all about achievement here. I know my GPA may not make any difference in my career at all, but I’m still trying to challenge myself to do as good as I possibly can and to really, really learn the material.

Anyway, I’m fairly certain I can kiss a 4.0 goodbye. I took my economics final on Tuesday. I knew going into it I’d have to virtually ace it in order to get an A for the course. I was mistaken on the grading scale for the course and the threshold for an A was higher than I thought. Combine that with my A- average scores on my two prior exams and I had an uphill battle… So I went into the final thinking I had a good chance. Multiple review materials were distributed to the class and we had a review session on the last day of instruction. I felt I had near-mastery of everything in the review materials and session. It was all mostly computation, but there was a little bit of theory and graphing in there. But I felt really good about all of it.

Final exam comes. And the reviewed material accounted for maybe 35-40% of the actual final. The rest was either barely a blip in the review materials or it was very theory and graphing heavy. So I felt woefully under-prepared for what actually was on the final.

I pretty much hold myself and only me accountable for my grades, but this is an instance where I feel a little wronged. The entire class and I were basically led to believe we needed to focus on the review materials and review discussions, which I’m sure most of the class did. But I felt totally blindsided by what was on the final. I know I’m not the only one, as one of my classmates commented on a Facebook status update of mine saying about the same thing (Amy Walker).

There was a little bit of this kind of thing on the second exam in the course too, but not near to the extent it was on the final. One of my classmates had taken this instructor before and he mentioned this kind of thing very early this semester. I didn’t dismiss what he said, but I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be just as bad as he made it out to be.

It’s not like I want my grade unilaterally adjusted. Actually, I don’t even know what my grade is yet, it hasn’t been posted. But likely, because of how I felt I did on the exam, I think I have a B+, which will really tick me off. I don’t even necessarily want to take a different final. I just want the situation addressed and for the instructor to take a second look at how he’s handled the way he designs his reviews and finals so that it’s more fair to the students.

Gah.