The Exam of a Lifetime

For at least the past week, a sense of dread has surrounded all juniors in the accounting program. Thoughts about an extraordinary exam, looming at the end of the week filled our heads. An exam, about which many rumors

swirled around, about how it would be harder than anything we’ve done before. Many of us took these rumors seriously and sought, perhaps in vain to study long enough and hard enough to overcome the challenge. Many of us would gather in the Accounting Resource Center (pictured left) for long hours. Though we were already generally quite motivated by the threat of the coming exam, it can be tough to keep focused for so long. I was able to motivate a friend to keep studying by encouraging him to think about his goals, why we were studying, like I had been researching. I pointed to a picture on the wall of our professor for that class with two others, maybe students. I suggested somewhat jokingly that If we continue to study hard we will have our picture taken with him as well. This somewhat amusing idea became our new goal, our new motivation. The humor of it helped us to continue on with our studies and even reamain positive.

I think this method worked well, it was fun and the idea stuck. Having our picture taken with our professor became a rallying cry of sorts for us. This method works better than others I have used in the past, I realize now that incorporating some imagination into motivating can make a real difference.