Happy Winter Break Travelers!!

I am done with my first semester of my first year of my MBA program. It has been a week since I have taken my last final and instead of giving some random recap I want to give you 10 lessons that I have learned this first semester that I will be taking into, and possibly forgetting by next fashion week (that should say finals week). So let's dig in:

1. Editing is not just for Magazine Editors - After a certain point in the semester I was really overwhelmed with how much homework was assigned, on top of that I am an intern, and a research assistant for an undergraduate professor, so I still had work that was due for them as well. I had so much work due in one week I thought that I was going to throw up. So I had to edit. I have come to the conclusion that the objective of an MBA program is not that you do all the work that is assigned to you, but to teach you that you can't do everything so do you have the foresight to determine the important vs the urgent, and discern your basic needs for success, from there you will be able to edit your workload and become a better manager.
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas is NOT the Way to Show How The Price Rate regulates itself in the Long-Run - I really am not a fan of the standard read-straight-from-the-bullet-points presentation style, so in my Econ class I decided that I was going to do the fun story-telling presentation...it did not go well.....
3. Paying Attention to Your Classmate's Learning Styles Pays Off - There is a lot of group work in the MBA program and it pays off to pay attention to your classmates learning styles, also class participation styles, and what works best with your personality You will be working with pretty much the same group of people for the next several years, as awesome as it would be to work with your new friends, the weird balding guy that sits in the back that you never talk to will definitely be the one with the 96 on your Econ exam while you and your friend are praying you don't get C's. Pick your study groups wisely!
4. You Can Never Have Too Many Flashcard Apps - I have Chegg, Flascardlet, and Brainscape (a Flaschardlet supplement). Each of the apps quiz me in a different way and serve a purpose for different times of the semester. Now that I have them figured out I know that Chegg flashcards work best for me during the course of the semester between chapters, but for my exams Brainscape is more effective.
5. Dropbox will save Your Group's Life - From class notes, to recorded lectures, updated group powerpoints, and exam study charts we really needed that DropBox folder and it was way less annoying than emailing back and forth a million times. I also keep all my other documents there so that I don't lose them if something happens to my computer, plus I can access and print them from my phone for whatever reason. 
6. Recording Your Classes May Not be a Bad Idea - I listened to my Business Law classes over and over. I may not have gotten an A in that class but I do know that my grade would have been much worse if I was not able to go back and reference what the professor said.
7. Rome May Not Have Been Built in a Day, but Sometimes Your Term Paper Will Be - And going back to Econ...my professor totally did not like the paper that I spent weeks researching and after reviewing my draft said "You might what to pick a new topic" ....this was AFTER I had already presented on my current topic 1 week before the paper was actually due. So what did I do? I wrote a brand new paper in a week that I am sure was not my best work, but met the requirements of the assignment per his instructions.
8. Just Deal with How Long You will Be There - I keep trying to take more classes than I should in one semester to get done with the program earlier....it makes no difference and the cost will still be the same. Don't speed to the destination, just enjoy the journey (that's what this blog is all about anyway)
9. Talk With Your Adviser - I really like our adviser, and I think that engaging her in our journey makes her a more effective liaison to the administration that builds our program. Tweet her, schedule an appt, I really think that when we have access to someone who can see the whole picture we are able to better navigate the part of our journey that we see.
10. Do Not Feel Guilty about After-Finals Sloth - I have only been out a week and I feel like I should be doing something. Granted there are only two weeks between the other semesters so I won't have as much time to sloth about as I do now, but still. Take the pressure off and give yourself some time to be a bum. 

So there we have it. My first 10 lessons of graduate school. Have you learned any? What are they? Feel free to share them with me.

Happy Travels!