Knowing Enough to Learn Something
A few years ago, talking with a business management lecturer named Simon Fishwick, I jokingly threw away a line about work and university. I said, maybe I’m a better academic than a businessman. His immediate response was that I’m not an academic, I’m a good student.
Knowing how much you don’t know is probably one of the most important things you can do as a student. Knowing that the lecture isn’t about you, for example, so you don’t interrupt constantly with feedback beyond a certain point. Listening, absorbing, thinking – they are the roles of the student. Unfortunatley sometimes it can become about a student constantly telling everyone how much they already know; talkers are rarely listening (hint: key component of learning?).
Yesterday afternoon at Marketing Management the lecturer mentioned he had already marked about 10 per cent of our assignments (averaged between 20 and 38 out of 50). I looked across the room at a certain someone and they were devastated. Now I wonder who was expecting 48 or 50 on that assignment, and hey they may actually get that because I really don’t know. But it was a sign that their MBA is about how good they’ve been in business already. In a way, that’s where the graduate students in the MBA (especially right at the beginning) stand out from the business experience people – we know the landscape.
Marketing management can be hard, it’s a big picture thing. It’s the juggling balls while you drink a Coke and massage your sore achilles tendon as you turn the next page in your novel type of event. It’s an internalisation of the world’s complexity to exhude a solid aroma of cause and effect that even a layman can understand. It’s a little difficult, and students need to accept that assignments have holes. In fact, I’m gapingly aware of the holes in my assignment. Embarrasingly aware. Cringingly aware.
Knowing just enough to learn effectively is the skillset of being a student. Learning when to open your mouth in lectures and reining it in when you have to is also a big part – hecklers and pseudo-lecturers make it difficult for everyone. If there’s any tip I could give to students it’s to shut up and listen… listen to the stuff between the lines… don’t listen to your own arrogant self-promotion. Do your best and move forward. Too easy…
And remember, your marks aren’t the definitive thing about how good you are! What’s that motto again? Yep, A students often end up working for C students. And a pass gets you the same degree as a high distinction. Amen.
