Great Opportunity

Just when I thought my Spring schedule was set, I got an interesting email from the course coordinator of the MIS department. Dr. Neuman explained that, since my work in MIS 111 placed me in the top 10% of the class, I have been offered an opportunity to be a preceptor for the same class this spring. What's a preceptor? Here's how the email explained it:

"The term preceptor dates back into the 1400's and means tutor or instructor. As a preceptor, you'll help develop exams for the course, assist in the grading of course materials, and work with the teaching faculty on other projects throughout the semester, such as FlexLabs and proctoring exams."

The payoff for me is twofold: an extra 3 credits that will count for general business lower division elective requirements, and also something useful to put on my academic resume when I apply for Eller College admission at the end of my sophomore year. As I understand it, they're looking for more than just GPA and I think this would be a good fit.

Every time I turned in an assignment in my MIS class - there were five projects times 1500 students! - I wondered how the heck they managed to grade them all. Now it appears I'll find out!

A Sophomore?

Well, the grades are in and... I'm a sophomore! I guess since several credits transferred from Pima Community College - classes I took in the early 1990s - they now say I have enough credits to be a sophomore. Not sure what that means, exactly, or what advantage it might give me... I'll have to figure that out as I go along. Kinda cool, though.

Anyway, as I said, the grades are in and I got all As! Even in math! I don't feel I deserved an A in the math class since I struggled immensely and still only understand or retain about half of what we covered. I did very poorly on tests and in-class quizzes, but fortunately the grade points are evenly distributed between homework assignments, an essay paper, in-class projects, and some other smaller assignments. I guess I made up enough of the difference to hit 90%. Yippee!

The important thing is I passed remedial math so now I can enroll in my first "college" math course which is a prerequisite for the "real" math courses that my major requires! I will have to take one during summer session in 2008 to get back on track so I don't have a bunch of math courses piling up towards the end. Maybe the sophomore designation even accelerates that urgency a bit more.

Of course I expect every accounting or economics course to have an element of math in it, but the true math courses I have to look forward to are:

- Spring 2008: Math 109 - College algebra course that emphasizes data analysis. Topics include functions, rates of change, linear functions, exponential & logarithmic functions, and systems of equations. Graphing calculators and spreadsheets will be used.

- Summer 2008: Math 115A, Business Mathematics I - Probability, conditional probability, Bayes' Theorem, random variables, random sampling, compound interest, expected value, computer simulation, and spreadsheet functions. The course is based on an electronic text, with extensive use of spreadsheets, downloaded data, and team reports on major business projects.

- Fall 2008: Math 115B, Business Mathematics II - Variance, normal distributions, distribution of the sample mean, integration, differentiation, advanced spreadsheet functions, and computer simulation. The course is based on an electronic text, with extensive use of spreadsheets, downloaded data, and team reports on major business projects.

And that's it for my "Foundation Mathematics" courses. They all sound interesting and I feel like if I can make it through them still standing, I'll be a lot smarter than I am right now! I love that feeling.

I also achieved the expected A in both English and MIS. I don't know how long I can keep up the good grades, but I'll certainly do my best to. I'm looking forward to getting started on my second semester!