Tonight I turned in my applied problems for week 2 of Managerial Economics. Later this evening I will take the Objective Assessment (the quiz) and give it a whirl. I became so frustrated on one of the applied questions that I went ahead and posted on the bulletin board in a fit of desperation. Eventually I calmed down enough to make an educated guess. Okay I know it sounds completely naïve of me to say this, but I honestly thought Economics was going to be something of a "give me" course. I've always been fairly good at Macro Economics and at St. Joseph's College I aced their MBA Econ class without even breaking a sweat as it was primarily a research course.
Cajun = Good at research
How's that for a formula? I get into this course and week 1 is primarily understanding supply, demand and of course equilibrium pricing. Basically I needed to learn which graph to use and which way the lines curve, not a huge deal given a couple of weeks to absorb, but 5 days can be a bit overwhelming.
Week 2 is a whole different animal. Now we are looking at statistical data printouts, subjecting them to microeconomic formulas and attempting to justify decision making based upon our findings. I completely understand why this is in the MBA core requirements as this is yet another area that separates the MBA from other business degrees, but to have no prior experience in this stuff and attempt to soak it in within a 5 to 7 day period is not only stressful, it can be outright discouraging. I'm sure given this information over a 16 week period would be better but right now I'm in a 6 week semester and I'm treading water trying not to drown.
So a tip to those of you considering an MBA from Ashford University or any university with a serious MBA core, get the basics of business down first. Understand the basic concepts of each core class. I recommend the Portable MBA, the 10 Day MBA or What the Best MBAs Know as just a few books to read and understand BEFORE you enroll. I am using these books as kind of a life line at this point. I spend the first couple of days or so reading and understanding the concepts I should already know, then reading my textbook to get an understanding of what the school expects me to learn. This is the ONLY way I have survived thus far in Business Law, Intro to Quant and now Managerial Economics. Make no mistake, this stuff is advanced enough even for those with an undergraduate degree in business, but for those of use who majored in something else? You'll quickly discover your weaknesses.