considering dropping out...

[Scryer]

Hey everyone,
I'm having a bit of an existential crisis, and, maybe you guys can help me out.
I was looking through my outline looking what to do next, (I'm trying for a BSBA Gen Man.), and I was looking at all the professional Business requirements, and, I am really starting to feel it. I am terrible at anything really math related,and looking at things like micro/macroeconomics, Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Principles of Finance I just feel overwhelmed and ready to throw in the towel most of the courses are through Straighterline. Is there anything I can do?

edit: I'm thinking of maybe checking out the CLEP variants primarily because it is multiple choice.
Thanks

[videogamesrock]

You pass any at SL?

[Scryer]

I haven't started any yet, i was just reading through the special instructions where it was saying things like graphing calculator and the like. Am I jumping the gun?

[videogamesrock]

I took US Hist 1 and Business Ethics both easy. Maybe if the calculator becomes a challenge, maybe you should go for a liberal arts degree?

[Scryer]

thought about that as well but, I find that a liberal arts degree won't give me a lot of flexibility in the real world

[videogamesrock]

Dropping out will have even less utility. So give the courses a shot if not liberal arts is an option.

[rlw74]

I too was going to suggest the liberal arts degree. At least it would get you a degree and maybe you could go back and get a second degree with the business emphasis. It would be less pressure then because at least you would have a degree. Some of those business courses transfer into the liberal arts program so you could take them and see how you do. If it's really not working out after a couple of months, then switch gears.

[keepsingin]

I see you've already taken Aleks' intro to stats...in my opinion, the accounting courses you mentioned are much easier mathematically than that stats course. Through study.com, I've taken some of them, and I'm in the middle of advanced financial, advanced managerial, and micro/macroeconomics, and it's not as mathematical as it sounds. It's mostly about concepts, with a little math here and there; but definitely not as complex as statistics! Taking the courses through SL or Study takes a lot of the pressure off also, because you get credit through the lesson/quizzes, so there's that much less stress for the final. I'd also suggest for you to find your optimal learning style, and then align your courses with it. Personally, I love study.com because they have access to a variety of ways to learn the material. So I'd say go for it!

[bghill]

From what I've read, accounting is mostly not about math, it's about classification. The math involved is pretty much just the four basic functions (+, -, x, / ). The trick is knowing what to put where.

Macro- and micro-economics is mostly concepts, not calculations.

Finance is more math-heavy, but I just passed the Principles of Finance DSST, and math has always been my weakest subject. 70% of the questions on the version of the exam I got involved no calculation. You just needed to understand the concepts involved. So I could have gotten none of the calculation questions right and still passed the test.

If you do CLEP/DSST exams, you don't need a graphing calculator for any of those; in fact, I don't think you'd be allowed to use one, since they're generally programmable. (A financial calculator was helpful for the Finance DSST.) I can't speak to the SL courses, since I haven't taken any.

Now, I can't say just how much of a problem math is for you, so YMMV, but you really don't need to be a math whiz to pass those exams.

Unless you're really pressed for time, you could do some prep for one of the CLEPs and see how it goes. It might turn out to be less of an issue than you fear. Until you actually sign up for the exam, it doesn't have to cost you anything -- there's various free resources on the Internet that you can use for studying, not to mention what your public library probably has.


ADDENDUM: Oh, I hadn't noticed you've done Stats and College Algebra. Those subjects are both way more mathematical than anything in the business core classes. If you can handle the math in those, you can certainly handle the math in intro finance, accounting, and econ!

[dfrecore]

Financial Accounting usually uses really simple math (addition and subtraction) to explain concepts, Managerial Accounting and Financial Accounting are more about formulas than actual math, and econ has almost nothing to do with math at all - no calculator necessary.

Some of those courses I dreaded as well, and they weren't as bad as I thought.

The ability to use SL or Study.com for most of those will help.