The week from hell continues

Your second year is suppose to be much easier than your first. So far I have found this case to be mostly the case, with some exceptions. This current week has been on big exception.

Most second years take fewer than five classes and many classes do not give finals. This Mod not only am I taking five classes but I have a final in each and every class. So far this week I have had one take home (complex deal) due on Monday, an in class (customer relations management) yesterday, a second in class (fixed income) this afternoon, and two other take homes (advanced topics in accounting and mergers and acquisitions) due on Friday. The last time I had five final exams was Mod II of my first year.

The hardest of the five exams is clearly fixed income. As I was studying for it last night, I divided the class’ content into two halves, the half that I can remotely understand and the part that I do not stand a snowball’s chance in hell of figuring out. I spent most of my preparation time on the half that I knew better. This may sound counterintuitive, but it’s the equivalent to a politician campaigning in “friendly districts” rather than in neighborhoods more inclined to support the opponent. The goal in both cases is to identify the areas where you are strong and more likely to generate a larger marginal unit of outcome per effort exhausted.

 

As I was leaving the library at 2:30 this morning, I thought I had a good plan mapped out on how Iwas going to master the remainder of the material in time for the 1pm exam. That was until I got into my car and turned the ignition key. My car has had this problem with the battery not starting ever since last year when I bought a new battery from Sears (in case you are wondering, I made a conscious decision to name the company where I made the purchase and had the installation done).  While I knew exactly what the cause of this problem was, I had trouble understanding why it came back again after more than six months in remission. I ended up bringing the car to the garage, taking the P2P to as close to my apartment as possible (P2P can only pick up and dislodge students on university property), before walking into the front door of my apartment at 4am.