First Semester Update

Terra encouraged me to give an update of my results from my first semester. Overall all, I did well but before I tell you how I did I should explain the grading system. Just to note, marks and points are used interchangeably. Here, they prefer the word mark over points or percentage.

For graduate degrees, there are four levels of marks: Distinction (A equivalent), Merit (B equivalent), Pass (C equivalent), Fail (F equivalent). These marks translate to a number range. To receive a mark of Pass, you must gain at least 50 marks. Merit begins at 65 marks and Distinction begins at 75 marks. The professors are quite serious when they say every five marks past 50 is exponentially harder to achieve as it takes that much more work. For example, if I wanted to gain a 60 for the class, I would work twice as hard than to gain a 50. So you can see by that system to gain Merit (the B equivalent) you would have to work that much more. Personally, I am not sure I buy that but I would say going from a 50 to a 75 is a lot more work to cover enough material and synthesize an argument to represent all that you have done for the class.

For Management in a Complex World, the paper that made Terra cry the first time she read it, gained me an 80. It was the highest mark in the class by 10 marks and gained me a mark of Distinction. My highest mark came from the Managing Customer Value class which gained me another Distinction with a mark of 82. It was the highest mark in the class by 7 marks. Managing Business Resources, which I found to be the hardest and also the most time constrained, netted me a 68 which is Merit. My one exam for the semester, Managing Decisions, the managerial accounting and statistics class, earned me a 62 which is a passing mark. Obviously, I was not happy with this but out of the 13 people that sat for the exam, 6 of them failed. Come to find out, my 62 was the second highest mark in the class after an accountant who earned a 68. While I did not get the 75 I was hoping for, I did OK in comparison to my classmates.

This degree truly gives back what you put into it. That is a stupid statement but it is very true. The more you learn, the more you know what you do not know and the more you can be focused in learning what you wish to know. After I came out of my undergrad learning, I thought I had a broad background to understand anything. What I have learned is that in reality, I know very little but I have the tools to figure out what I do not know. I reckon the rest of my life will be spent trying to find niche areas of knowledge that interest me and learning as much as I can about them. Any notitions I once had about possessing a large swath of knowledge was certainly trounced in my first semester of study.

So there you have it! I need two more classes to be at 75 marks (Distinction) or above and I need to achieve the same on my dissertation which will earn me a degree with high honours. Having a level of Distinction should parlay into a better earning potential when I enter the job market.