The carnage was minimal

Well, it all turned out pretty good for a first semester in upper division classes! It was pretty stressful waiting for grades at the end, but with a couple of "curved" classes, I was able to hang onto a fairly decent GPA.

I'm not sure how I feel about grade curves, even though they have worked in my favor more than once. It's not something I completely understand, but it seems as though college professors (at least some of them) are quite enamored of the infamous normal distribution "bell curve" and are likely encouraged (by their departments, maybe?) to normalize the final grades to fit it. However, it just doesn't feel right to me. Those who earned the highest grades should be rewarded, yet, in a curve, their grades are "normalized" down. Of course no one in "A" territory is in any danger of getting a lower grade, but those of us who either screwed up an exam or two (me!), or just got lazy at some point during the semester (not me), shouldn't really be allowed to get the same grade as those who worked the hardest. (Here's a prof who agrees!)

Maybe it's best not to fight the system, though, especially when some grades are awfully subjective to begin with. Projects that don't have "right" or "wrong" answers are pretty hard to grade, I would imagine. Rubrics are used - and often published along with the project description - so we know exactly the items that need to be present in a paper or presentation, but it's still a subjective exercise by the prof or grader(s) to decide how well we hit or missed those specific targets.

In any case, I'm ecstatic with how my grade sheet turned out for the semester, but hardly have time to enjoy it as Winter Session started just two days after my final exam! Operations Management is the class I'm in now. It covers things like forecasting, supply chain management, inventory, facility layout, productivity, and capacity. Taught by a PhD student who is somewhat making it up as he goes along! Only 14 students in class so there is a lot of interaction and the concepts aren't all that new to me. There is a lot to fit into the 14 days of class, but I love the opportunity to focus on just the one subject.

I'm only enrolled in two courses for Spring semester: Intermediate Financial Accounting (Part 2), and Business Communications. A year ago I assumed the Bus. Comm. class would be a slam dunk because it looked that way in the course catalog. Spent most of my secretarial career communicating in a myriad of ways for the Grounds Department - writing memos, conducting small training sessions, coordinating events, contacting vendors, etc. But I got wind of how convoluted they made this course for the incoming Eller students and dropped it from my Fall schedule so I could concentrate on Accounting. Can't put it off forever, however, and it isn't offered in the abbreviated semesters (winter or summer) so I do have to endure the case competition and other busywork things that are fine and dandy for the kids but seem like overkill to us older students! Group projects and presentations, here I come!

Spring will be a light semester due to my commitment at H&R Block - I'm scheduled around 15 hours a week there. New semester starts just one day after Winter Session ends so there's truly no rest for the wicked!