It has started again...

Some of you might be confused by the title of this post. One of the things I love in my life right now is that I am close to completing my coursework for my doctorate. What most of you don't know is that I am having a hard time getting into some of my classes. Part of that is because they have so much busy work.

I have been trying to make A's in all of my classes. Although I have, I still don't have a 4.0. That is a gripe for another day. In short I am going to say that apparently not all A's are created equal. In some cases an A- doesn't count the same as an A.

I had come to the decision that I would strive to be satisfied with a B in the class I started yesterday. I was feeling good about the fact that I could put in less effort, maybe not do some of the assignments and still get a B. Life was good. Then we got the syllabus. For those of you who might not know what a syllabus is, it is the single most depressing document for any class. It tells you all of the work you have to do and when it has to be done. In the case of this class, it also broke down how the grading would be done. I assumed going into the class that I would have four assignments due in a week. That is pretty standard for the classes at my school. Based on this assumption, I thought that I could skip an assignment or two and still get at least a B. I think someone was reading my mind. The course has a total of 370 something points possible. If you divide that among the 29 assignments, missing a couple of assignments would not kill you. The problem is that the overall grade is divided into 9 assignments. Each of those assignments is divided into multiple parts. In order to get credit for the assignment one must complete all of the parts. Thus my skipping assignment thought is gone. As my best friend, next to my wife, told me, "You might as well try for that A."

I guess that is where I am at. the class has started and there is much work to do. The course culminates with a 40 page final project. Here's to hoping I get that A.