Upping the Ante

So we're in our second day of Strategy Management, and it's clear from the professor's approach that this will be much more difficult than it first appeared. The syllabus was light, the reading seemed easy, and the topic seemed digestible-- we should have realized it was a trick! The professor is the chair of the Strategy department and he is clearly one of the most disciplined thinkers we have had to date. His exacting approach to lecture, his tendency to call on random people in class, and his breakneck speed of delivery have shown us very quickly that we need to rise to the occasion and ratchet up our thinking. Yesterday we were all in shock, and today I'm finally starting to appreciate the challenge. This is much more like what I expected in graduate school.

One of the maxims that has held thus far is that you can measure the value-add of professors and classes by at least two factors:

1. The delta between the number of PowerPoint slides in the handouts and the amount of material covered by the professor in class (being able to spend 20-30 minutes per slide while speaking "off the cuff" is a sign of preparedness and intellect).
2. The amount of notes taken in class represents the net new knowledge delivered. The more notes I take each session, the more "learning" that's taking place to justify the class time spent.

We'll see if the trend continues, but right now this class has the best numbers for both measures above. It's also been very interesting to see how this professor's approach has elicited comments and contributions from every member of class- something that hasn't been true in any other class we've taken.