My Ashford University Experience : managerial accounting

Don’t Let Fear of Math Sabotage Your Education

Cajun — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:51:00 GMT

Fear of math. It’s something I see time and time again on discussion forums, blogs, when speaking with people in person or even when considering my own MBA. For some people fear of math isn’t the problem but instead it could be a fear of writing research papers, a fear of grammar or a fear of large and complex reading assignments, but the single most common fear I see is that of mathematics. Perhaps it is because of the exacting nature of mathematics, there is a right and a wrong answer, and frequently there is no room for discussion or argumentation. One either knows the answer or they do not, it’s generally that simple. Thus the fear bug hits. Many of us may carry over this fear due to our poor scholastic performance in mathematics at one of our public schools. Perhaps your past performance now results in anxiety about mathematics in college?

Fear however is of itself a problem for a student that is separate from whatever is causing the fear and must be dealt with accordingly. If you are somewhat afraid when you first enroll in school, receive your materials or sit for your first exam then guess what? Welcome to the group because we all go through that at some point or another. Many of us also dread mathematics, just as you do right now. Personally if I had known how much math was going to be involved in the Ashford MBA program there would have been no way I would have chosen Ashford, my fear of mathematics had that much power over my life. But guess what? I overcame my fear, made straight A’s in the very classes I so dreaded and ultimately am a better person for it. I now feel that if I wanted to get a PhD or DBA it’s merely a matter of desire, not will power, not intelligence. If I want it I know I can get it because I have been tested to the extreme and found myself succeeding through it all. This MBA has built up my confidence level and shown me what I am capable of more than I could ever have anticipated and I am a better human being for it. How foolish then would it have been then for me to allow fear to dictate my choices to me?

It’s very liberating overcoming your fear. It changes your perspective and sometimes the only way to do so is to face your fear and push through it. So here are some tips for overcoming your fear of mathematics (or whatever else, academically speaking).

First, don’t panic. If you work yourself up into a frenzy you will not be objective. If you are in panic mode right now, calm down, slow down and do whatever it is you do to get into a place of calm.

Approach the problem rationally and in an organized manner. This means that you need to have a plan. What do you want to do? A chapter a week? More? Less? Break down your deadlines into small manageable chunks. Don’t read a chapter a week, look at it more like 10 pages a day. Methodically work through things, don’t look up or look ahead, simply keep to your daily routine and keep at it one day at a time. Make a schedule and stick to it.

You fear math? Join the club. But you can do this, you’ve learned difficult things in the past. You learned to walk, talk, drive, perhaps you can even operate the advanced functions or your cell phone or even program a clock on the microwave. The point is that you have demonstrated that you can learn new things that are completely alien to you.

Work through example problems in the book as they are given. Check your work against the text and try to understand how they arrive at the data shown for each step in any equation. Break it down into small manageable chunks and paraphrase in your own words what you are doing in your notes. Review these notes the next day before going on. Even if you don’t understand the equation at least then you will have a specific question for a tutor or instructor which is important and will open helpful dialogue. Be sure to write down each question you have until you finish the chapter. You may find that you answer your own question.

Read the chapter summaries. These are great refreshers.

Keep your notes for quick references.

If you need additional help or equations check Wikipedia. I found multiple helpful formulas and explanations there.

Consult books other than your textbook. There are tons of workbooks for algebra, finance, calculus, statistics, etc. out there for you to consult. I personally like the Complete Idiots Guide and Dummies books but there are far more available than just those. Sometimes seeing the same problem with a differently worded explanation results in a “eureka” moment.

Don’t work tired, hungry, angry, frustrated, depressed, etc. You need to clear your mind, sometimes a change of atmosphere is necessary. You’ll be surprised at where you discover you learn best. For example I learned Quantitative Methods and Managerial Accounting and Finance in a Waffle House dining room during the wee hours of the morning, like between 1 and 4AM four nights a week. It was tough but it worked.

Don’t let yourself feel overwhelmed. If you start to feel overwhelmed you need to take a break, do something unrelated for a little while and then come back to it fresh and with focus. By the way the focus should be on the little picture and not the big picture at the time.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help but always be specific in your requests. There are several online tutoring services available, Google them and shop around. There may be one for you. Likewise you may know or be able to find a private tutor in your area. I came this close (-) to hiring a tutor before studying at all hours of the night at Waffle House.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking this will be anything other than hard work. It will be hard work so expect to work hard. Don’t let the feeling of hard work shock you into thinking you are in over your head.

Don’t give up if you fail at first. Remember it is a process and you will not be perfect the first go round.

That’s about it for now. I hope this helps.

Add to:

Hindsight 20/20: Individual Courses Rated on Difficulty and Content...part II

Cajun — Fri, 23 May 2008 06:26:00 GMT

BUS 620 Managerial Marketing

Managerial Marketing was actually a fairly fun course. I find it interesting how marketers cater to a specific demographics, the research they use to determine why they need to cater to that demographic and the tactics they use to do so. I enjoyed this class a lot and it was interesting to see how in tune we are to the constant bombardment of marketing in our daily lives. I seem to remember hearing on the radio not to long ago that consumers are hit with 3,000 (or was it 30,000?) ads of some sort per day. Whether it be driving down the road past signs, television commercials, radio ads, the t-shirt on the back of the guy in front of you at the grocery store, right down to the wrapper on your Big Mac.

The difficulty of this course was not bad at all for me. I enjoyed the research and it pretty much consisted of a couple discussion questions and a research paper per week. However the final week was a little tough as you had to develop a marketing plan for a company as a final project.

I give Ashford an A+ for this course as marketing occurs in every type of industry, even law enforcement (like the “dial 911 for emergencies on the patrol cars) so the universal nature of the course made it helpful for me to relate to the material.

Difficulty level was about a 5 out of 10 for me. Your results may vary.

BUS 630 Managerial Accounting

Hold on to your hats here folks. First ask yourself, do you like complex rules? Do you like to add and subtract? Do you divide and conquer numbers? Can you work with ratios and perform simple algebraic formulas? Can you take a long, long data sheet and condense it into tiny but powerful little reports? Do you love attention to detail and is your idea of “roughing it” an abacus instead of a calculator? If you answered yes to all of the above then you will positively LOVE this class.

This class ate my lunch. I really struggled working with spreadsheets in the beginning and the long number sets beat my AADD (Adult Attention Deficit Disorder) mercilessly about. I started to get distracted by floating dust particles when trying to work on this stuff and honestly I really struggled to find a learning method that would allow me to focus on detail for a long period of time without breaks. I really, really had a tough time in this course. It wasn’t the hardest one, but it was one of the hardest 3. The good part is that I learned something about myself as a manager and a person, I need help in the area of accounting. I have a big hold in my skill set in this area and it is something I need to improve upon and I intend to.

This class is a MUST for anyone who wants to manage anything that will ever involve money, which is pretty much every management job out there for the most part. So expect to be challenged here.

Ashford University gets an A+ for recognizing the need for this class and executing the material in an applied real world manner.

Difficulty level 9 out of 10. Approach cautiously.

BUS 640 Managerial Economics

Have you ever heard the phrase “for whom the bell tolls”? It’s one of those ominous sounding lyrics that can conjure images of darkness, black clothing, solemn funeral goers and crying widows. Yet for me it will forevermore also conjure up Managerial Economics. The title of this course is misleadingly innocent. I skipped my way wide eyed and naïve about what I was about to endure, kind of like a cow who is just enjoying the breeze on his first and last truck ride to the slaughter house. Blissfully unaware at what looms on the horizon.

Little did I know I was about to be brutally subjected to applied managerial economic theory using statistical data in all of the formulaic variations, flavors and colors that they could cram into a 6 week ordeal. This class taught me the meaning of the word “economics”. And I’m something of an authority on the subject as I took MBA Economics at St. Joseph’s College of Maine and the two courses were night and day in their differences. This Economics course was far beyond understanding supply and demand, but also in the application of theory to make decisions based upon the concepts of supply and demand. Look, I’m starting to babble so let me just say this, the course isn’t nearly as easy as you think it is. And if you think it’s hard, it’s tougher than what you are imagining right now. Now too. Yep, still now.

So just brace yourself, buy a nice comfortable scientific calculator that you can curl up on the couch with and work from the fetal position if necessary. Learn how to graph, learn why you graph and learn how to apply theory and formulas. Good luck.

Ashford University gets an A- on this course ONLY because I’m really not sure how everything we learned here will apply in the real world, but just in case someone wants me to do this for a living I now know “just say no” is not limited merely to drug use.

Difficulty level 9 and ¾ out of 10 with10 being like performing brain surgery in a nuclear physics lab on the far side of the moon while being propelled by a rocket ship.

Add to:

I’m about to start at another university

Cajun — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:27:00 GMT

No, I’m not about to drop out of Ashford University, not only do I love the school, I have only 4 classes left. But I am about to enroll in the Louisiana State University post graduate Certificate in Accounting. Even though I have basically spent the last 6 months doing graduate quantitative methods, finance and accounting I still consider this to be my weakest point in my business education and skills. Likewise, the MBA pays off the largest dividends on average in the areas of finance and accounting. Even if I do not end up working in this area I really need to hone my skills.

The certificate is really inexpensive and can be found here http://www.is.lsu.edu/ACCTCertificateProg.asp?nid=103&Level=CO&Online=1

And being from Louisiana I’ve kind of always been brainwashed into believing that LSU is the greatest school on earth anyways. Which they are!

The program requires 2 intermediate accounting courses at the undergraduate level to enroll as a prerequisite. I’m kind of hoping that Managerial Accounting and Managerial Finance from Ashford will sufficiently meet this requirement. If not, no biggie I suppose, it’ll just add a couple more courses to the program. I will say that after 6 months of doing this stuff that even though I’m not good at it, I am starting to understand the language and concepts a bit better. In other words, I know enough about this field to know where I need improvement, which is a good thing.
I will likely be doing these course concurrent with my MBA courses however these are more of a work at your own pace kind of thing. Also I will once again be taking proctored tests which is never any fun whatsoever but I suppose it is all part and parcel of being a tiger right? (That’s LSU’s mascot for those who don’t know).

Add to:

Managerial Finance…I received my grades for week 3

Cajun — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:55:00 GMT

I logged in last night to my Blackboard account and clicked on my “grades” portion of the menu. Honestly I was dreading looking at them because I struggled so much with week 3 that I was almost certain that I had failed miserably. As it turns out I made 100% on everything which is a shock. I don’t even know why I bother to have expectations anymore as I pretty much turn out to be wrong every single time.

I’m working on week 4 right now and I am tempted to say that so far it isn’t as brutalizing as week 3 was but I won’t, because I’ll just turn out to be wrong and wind up with something like a 50% or whatever. So I won’t say or expect anything, I’ll just do my best and that’s it. After this assignment I begin week 5 which will be the last normal week in this class. Week 6 is usually something special because the final paper is going to be 35% of my total grade. One of those make you or break you type of papers and of course as such, the actual assignment itself is going to be in the ballpark of 8 to 10 pages in length barring the appendix, references, cover page, abstract, etc. Not totally impossible but it can be fairly difficult to type such a paper in 7 days while still maintaining quality work on a subject so new to me.

I really could use a break of a week or two to catch my breath before starting on my concentration requirements, but it doesn’t appear that I’m going to get one. I’m also going to have to continue in my education in accounting and finance beyond this because it is the one area that I’ve encountered that I am weakest in. It also tends to be the most sought after skill that many if not most employers expect from MBAs. So there it is. At least the next accounting and finance courses I take will not be as accelerated. I plan on LSU (Louisiana State University) which is at your own pace so I’ll have time to fully digest it as I go.

Add to:

Managerial Accounting Grades = Big Surprise

Cajun — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:13:00 GMT

Today I checked to see if my final worth 35% of my grade had been posted with a score and you wouldn’t believe it, but I made 100% on it. It’s the only 100% I’ve gotten on a final since, well I think ever. I couldn’t believe that I even got all of the numbers and applied concepts correct over the span of about 12 or more type written pages along with tables, graphs, etc. Nice little confidence booster since Managerial Accounting was one of the 3 classes I was really dreading but I made a 97 or 98% on it, not bad for a hack. Managerial Finance has really picked up right where Managerial Accounting left off so I’m hoping that some of this success will translate to good things to come for this class.

My book the Portable MBA in Finance and Accounting has been most useful, I even used it some more tonight, however it is more of the “why” and less of the “how” than the textbook. The brilliant thing about using this book though is that once you have the formulas down, when you are hit with a case study the “why” becomes just as important if not more so than the “how”. Again, anyone considering an MBA should pick up a copy.

Another thing that Managerial Accounting did was reinforce that any expectations you have about which class in the MBA program will be the tough one will likely be wrong. It’s impossible to know before hand. I seriously labored under much more frustration in Managerial Economics and Business Law than I have in Accounting or Finance thus far. Perhaps because I have learned better study habits, perhaps because I have just gotten into a mathematics mindset since I’ve been doing it for 19 weeks in a row, perhaps because I’m better at math (highly doubtful) or perhaps I was just sent reeling after the first assignment because my expectations for those 2 courses were way off the map. So I’ll say it again, toss any assumptions you have in the garbage now and it will help you in the long run. I’ll also reiterate that it is highly important that you do not search out an “MBA-Lite” or and MBA with few if any quantitative courses as I am quickly discovering that these course teach you the essential skills you will be expected to have once you complete your degree. Seriously, how foolish would you feel if someone asked you to determine something as basic as the present value or future value of a set dollar amount at a given discount rate only to have you reply with “huh”? Big shot MBAs have to know the time value of money among other things in order to make those big picture decisions.

Well it’s 4AM and I’m delirious from work and homework, so I’m out.

Add to: