Well so far this week has been a little tougher than last.  There’s a lot more reading to be done and both discussion questions, while not technically difficult, require a pretty good understanding of the concepts discussed in the chapter.  I wasted so much time assuming that the first discussion question was covered in the first chapter of reading, chapter 5.  I read and read chapter 5, I then read the notes at the end of the chapter thinking “how could I possibly miss such a big concept like non-value added versus value-added processes in costing”?  

It never occurred to me that the actual concept might be defined in the following chapters, 6 and 7 and so I spent so much time on chapter 5 I could have just as easily finished the whole reading assignment.  Frustrating?  You betcha’.  Next time I’m going to get a jump on the reading assignments the day before the actual first day of the week.  Just skim over the entire thing and roughly reference where what is covered.  Trying to figure out the sequence of topics covered in the reading assignments and their relations to the written work is not efficient to say the least.  In fact, you can say that it was a “non-value added” endeavor.

On the plus side, the professor’s notes are incredibly concise yet thorough and entirely handy.  I may even keep a little bind with them for later reference after the class is through.  One word of caution to those considering the class however, formulas are not covered in the text or reading materials.  You are expected to know accounting basics before attempting the course.  Luckily for me I have my “MBA Essentials” the student bookstore wouldn’t buy back, complete with all kinds of wonderful and handy little formulas.  Also the Portable MBA has a few handy little finance formulas.