Effort for A

Marist changed the format of online MBA foundations classes. Forums, group projects, problem sets, all of that is gone. Now it's you and the book with a chapter quiz to gauge your learning. When the semester started, you passed if you got 80% of the quiz questions correct. Less than that was a fail. Well, a grade of pass is not allowed under their accreditation. Two and a half weeks into the class we find out we're getting letter grades.In the new scale, you need a 95 to get an A. You get an F if you have a 79 or below. I started the second week right at the 80% passing line. I just wanted to pass. Why put in the extra effort to get all the answers right when I really only need 4 out of every 5? I have other things going on in my life. I'm busy with work, my son starting kindergarten has taken away the time that I was using to study, and I'm trying to get a paper published so I can start an academic career. I was being economical with my time.

Now that I'll need a 95 to get an A in the class, I've been trying to decide how hard I want to work to get that grade. I'm not planning on finishing the MBA (and even if I do, it's not going to be through Marist, not after how they've handled the introduction of the new class format). I have to pass to get my money back through the reimbursement program so I need a B at the minimum. I really want that A. If anybody ever looks at my transcripts, which could happen given my potential career change, I would rather they see the A and draw some positive conclusions rather than seeing a B and start wondering why I slipped in Econ after getting A's in the other classes. When the broad strokes between candidates for a position are similar, the little details become that much more important. This feels like a detail that will matter. Getting an A despite everything that I have going on creates a much better impression than accepting a B because I was busy with other things. I'm going to put in the effort for the potential buzz that a solid performance in business school might create for me in a committee meeting.