I was recently asked, “what’s the worst class you’ve ever taken?” Without even really thinking about it I immediately blurted out “Managerial Economics”. Of course this would really depend on the definition of “worst”. By worst I didn’t mean that the materials or instructor was inadequate, they were both superb. I didn’t mean that the school wasn’t supportive or didn’t treat me right, they were and they did. I didn’t mean that the course was even the most difficult I’ve ever taken or that it was the class that I made the worst grades in, it wasn’t on both counts. What I defined “worst” as, was in taking Managerial Economics I had the realization of something completely contrary to what I originally believed I was going to be doing, but in a bad way.
You see I had taken “The Economy as a System” an MBA, (obviously) graduate level Economics class that I sailed through without any problems. Supply and demand got it, no problem I thought. I was so horrendously wrong though. Just because I had sailed through one Economics class at St. Joseph’s College does not mean that I could sail one anywhere else as every school is completely different from the next, even in a class that appears on the outside to be much the same. Let me tell you my friends, I’m not a big fan of surprises, even good ones most of the time. This class had a surprise akin to being told I was going to see a monkey only to suddenly be locked in a cell with an angry orangutan fighting for sheer survival. It was like going from minor amusement to sudden fear and inhuman efforts towards survival.
I naively thought that Managerial Economics was going to be one of those courses where once you get the key concept, everything else just elaborates on it. That was about the only thing I got right in that course. By “elaborate” what they really meant was a complex array of statistical data, calculus, finance and don’t forget my best buddy from high school, algebra. So in a way it’s not that the class itself was bad, it’s that my expectations were misplaced.
So the moral of the story is, when beginning a new class, set your expectations aside until you’ve met the instructor and read the syllabus.
Oh….by the way for those of you who care (I know who you are) I am starting to slowly recover from the flu. Today was a good day, I could breathe through one nostril, I have regained purposeful control of my faculties and the body aches have almost completely subsided after 3 ibuprofen. TMI anyone?