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December 12, 2004
Performance Anxiety
So I was feeling pretty good about my presentations scheduled for tomorrow--that is, until I talked to the Program Manager. It all started when I saw my grade for the first term (7 weeks after the term is over). I am 1% away from having an "A"--right now I'm at a "B" (they don't believe in +/- here in Sweden), and it all comes down to a bad grade in the last group presentation (on Kobunaki Ecovillage). Apparently, I spoke too quickly, covered too much information, and used too much jargon when speaking about community investing. (To be honest, it's been so long that I don't remember at all what I said--but I certainly didn't feel like a failure afterwards.)
So now, with less than 24 hours to go until both of my presentations, I am feeling extremely stressed. I can surely speak more slowly, but I also received comments about not covering information with enough depth--I'm at a loss on how to speak slower and cover more information.
As a side note, I'm also rather irritated with the grading system as it was explained to me. All along we have been told "there are no right answers" and "this program is different--it's all about the learning process". And now it appears that one point will separate me from a good grade. (It's true, bumping up my grade on the final exam by 1 point would bring me up to the % required for an "A".) Very exasperating.
So now it's 11 p.m. and I'm frantically going over my notes. Grr. I will be SO happy when tomorrow is over. We decided to wait a bit before turning in our Strategic Management report, which gives us more time to incorporate responses from the class. So it looks like I won't quite be done at Christmas, as there will be some polishing to do.
