Two weeks ago I was faced with my first exam in the Concordia MBA program. A few days before the exam, anxiety began to kick in. All these questions started running through my mind: how much should I study? Am I prepared for this exam? What do I study? What happens if I fail? Can I even do this?
The exam was in my Quantitative Methods and Statistics class. I excelled in math in high school, but that was almost 10 years ago. I only took one math course for my bachelors (Gotta love Communication degrees!). I knew I would be rusty. As I was reading the course material and working on practice exams I couldn’t understand why everything seemed so foreign to me. Was it just rust or was it that I just forgot everything and was going to have to relearn it all over again?
I decided early on that I would need to attend all of the study sessions, classes, and even self teach myself at home if I wanted to succeed in this class. As I began to learn my professor, Dr. Blanke’s teaching style, and continued on with my own study problems things finally started coming back to me. The turning point was when I was able to envision my high school teacher at the board yelling “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sallie,” which in math terms transferred to parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. Mr. Veselka at Reicher Catholic High School always had a way of simplifying things!
The unique thing about the Concordia MBA program is that it is here to enhance what we have already learned and allow us to push ourselves to the next level. As SOS Leadership teaches we need to continue to teach ourselves and never stop learning. When it came to the exam day I knew that there was no turning back, and now was my opportunity to show that I understood what was being taught. Although, it was nerve-wracking, it was great to have that feeling of pressure. I knew that I wanted to succeed, and would not be happy unless I did.
All the study sessions, classes, and at home self study sessions must have done some good because I did get an “A” on my exam, which gave me that reaffirmation that I do belong in the Concordia MBA program. Although this is only one test down, and there will be many more to come, I know that I am meant to do this, and that I can do this!
My goal was not to start an MBA program. My goal is to finish the MBA program and to be the best that I can be in the program. This won’t be easy, just like this first exam. But it will be worth it when I walk across the stage with an MBA in Organizational Leadership and Management degree from Concordia University!