Sunday, October 05, 2008

It's All Starting to Come Together

Until now I had not known how much walking from M Street to DuPont Circle had worn me out. My muscles are still soar even after my hour nap. At least I had solved micro homework problems 1 through 4 (Well, there are bits and pieces that need to be finished which I will do at 8pm because I need to score a check plus on this assignment. Never again will I skip another micro class and assignment!). I am only having problems with number 5 which I will email him at 9pm. He will probably answer tomorrow morning; meaning, that I will get it during lunch time (At least I have solved the majority of the assignment!).

This third assignment has been a journey of self-discovery. Friday I admitted that I did not know certain concepts and immediately started working on them by reading chapter 10. Saturday I made major headway by finishing chapter 10 and solving problem 4. Sunday I reread chapter 8, solved problems 2 and 3, and learned not to fear my Ti Voyage 200 calculator just because I forgot how to solve LaGrange multipliers. While rereading chapter 8 for a second time, I laughed at how I had to do the same thing when at Cleveland State. There was no harm in rereading all of the chapters if that meant that I totally understood everything and aced the midterm. Honestly I thought that this was what it took in order to do well because microeconomics was my hardest class!

Tonight I will reread a portion of chapter 10 and try to solve problem 5 then start reading ECON 505 because homework is due Tuesday and I want to submit it after meeting with th TA for my tutoring session. I know that there is a lot of pressure on me, however, I know that I can do all of it including econometrics. Right after tomorrow's class I will return to my office to register my name and log onto blackboard to print all of the material. Since I am in training the entire week, my days are essentially off limits. However, my nights are not so I will cram as much as I can into them. I am thankful that I do not have to commute to Virginia this week saving me in between thirty and sixty minutes valuable sleeping time. This week I can roll out of bed at 8am instead of 7am. And I will use every opportunity afforded to me to get all of my work done.

With the upcoming microeconomics midterm, I will skip ALDP training and return to the professor's office to review anything that I do not understand. I just do not want to freeze up like I constantly do during the homework assignments. I feel that with the review session, the TA session, Friday's appointment and my rereading all of the chapters, there is no reason why an A impossible. Ever since dropping microeconomics in 2006, I promise that this time will be different! Earning an A in this class (because I know that I will earn an A in mathematical methods), will give me my first 4.0 grade point average at the graduate level. This will help me during the comprehensive exam and provide a cushion for my master's thesis.

This week I will email my advisor my idea to examine the Academic Competitiveness Grant's impact on encouraging more native-born American citizens to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Education is so vital towards my success that this has to be my topic. I will fight tooth and nail to defend it next year. It is important to start now instead of waiting for my Education Department contact to deliver the end-of-the-year report because there are so many hurdles to clear such as assembling a three professor panel and getting my idea cleared. The more I contemplate my topic, the more it makes sense to buy the STATA econometrics software to run regression analysis on it. Learning another statistical software language gives me more credibility. In addition, I will put eViews on my computer. Heck, I have paid for it so why not? This gives me another language. I will shoe my advisor that I am so serious that there is no way of denying my topic!

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