February 26, 2024
When I complain about this semester, this is what I mean. I took three exams yesterday. I have taken three exams tonight. I still have one more to take by midnight. I’m only taking two classes! Why are there so many exams?!
—//—
May 5, 2024
For anyone wanting a semester update — I had a quiz and two assignments due today. There are two exams due tomorrow, and two more exams are due Tuesday. Then, two more exams are due on Sunday. Again, I’m only taking two classes. This semester has been in survival mode since January, and I am thoroughly burnt out.
Back in December, I had no idea how similar Microeconomics and Managerial Accounting was going to be. Now, I know they are both obsessed with costs and inventing new ways to parse out allocations. Which has been like reading Hamlet and Macbeth at the same time. You would think the similarities would be helpful, but that’s because you don’t know what I know! I remember being ignorant. Those were better days, my friend.
Okay, time to rip off this proverbial band-aid.
On second thought, that sounds more pleasant than these exams. Yet, I’m not sure what to think anymore, because most thoughts in my head consist of graphs and formulas depicting supply, demand, production possibilities, opportunity costs, social costs, internalized and externalized costs, intrinsic and extrinsic costs, average total costs, average variable costs, average fixed costs, marginal costs, deadweight loss, and equilibriums. Slopes and curves, short runs and long runs… my eyes hurt. I just want to sleep. Maybe ripping a band-aid off will wake me up.
—//—
May 7, 2024
P.S. I finished my exams due Monday at around 11:00 pm on Monday. Out of curiosity, I checked the allotted time for the exams due Tuesday. There were two of them and each had a time limit of two hours. So, there were four hours to take these two exams due Tuesday. Then I noticed something. They were due on Tuesday — at 2:00 am.
Even without math, you can compute what this means, and that’s how my semester of Microeconomics ended. Exactly as it should, as the perfect ending to encapsulate what this semester felt like.
Honestly, the concepts were not my issue, it was the constant onslaught of questions that ruined economics for me. For example. If a manufacturer devotes all time and resources to making computers, the output will be X. If all time and resources are dedicated to making cars, the output will be Y. Put X computers at the top left corner of a page, and mark Y cars at the bottom right. Connect the two points, that’s your Production Possibility Frontier/Curve. It’s a great way to illustrate opportunity costs and it leads to the question of why trade with someone that is relatively inefficient with resources.
However, I am not going to answer that question, because my point is — personal interest was good for about twenty questions. At around sixty, my attention was barely there. By question eighty, I no longer cared, but I had one hundred questions to answer. The names and numbers would change, but they were all generally asking about the concept of the week. It was like a song you enjoyed and decided to repeat. At some point, and I’m tempted to plot this on a graph, but at some point, you no longer desired to hear that song.
Rather than taking this opportunity to refine my understanding of PPF, it produced symptoms of apathy. This bombardment of questions was then repeated the following week, and again the following week, and again the following week, and again the following week – like an iconic band from the 70s releasing a greatest hits album every subsequent decade, posthumously if needed.
I mean, the concepts were interesting, but not THAT interesting. So while I regret to say that my straight-A streak is ruined, I am still kind of numb from all of those questions.
Blog 