I’ve just finished my fourth week of my first subject, Accounting & Financial Management. I did Accounting 101 in my undergrad degree so I have an advantage that I have heard of this stuff (when Moses wore short pants).
AGSM lectures are pretty fast, you’re expected to have done the work before the lecture. Jack Flanagan, our lecturer, assures us the hardest part of the course is weeks 3 and 4. That’s when most students freak out as they’re learning all the accounting jargon.
I started well, with all the reading and optional exercised completed in time for lectures. That was the first two weeks.
Then work got in the way! For week 3 I’d done the reading and the sample execises but hadn’t worked through the class exercise for discussion. Even so instead of listening to the discussion I was busy following the logic of the exercise.
Week 4 was worse. Work was insane as we got our annual report out to the market and I’m launching 2 new stores in Melbourne. I’d managed to only skim the materials, no exercises, no reading, no nothing. I almost didn’t go to the lecture, but thankfully changed my mind and went.
I’m not the only person in class who is behind. We’ve started a study group and it’s a great opportunity to revise, but it actually creates more work to prepared for it. But it does make me accountable to others. So at last night’s meeting we went through the major exercise again and we all think we understand it now.
So even the best intentions of staying ahead can be abandoned when life gets in the way. I’m finishing my catch-up tonight so I should be ok.
Photo credit: Number Crunch 3 by Benjamin Earwicker Garrison Photography