The Final Week as Accounting Students

Facing the last final exams of their college careers, the twins discuss the harshness of school, brain fog, and their love for naps. Becky and Norma discover that they and the rest of Generation Z may have an instant gratification problem.

[00:13] Becky: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Accounting Twins podcast. My name is Becky.

[00:19] Norma: And I'm Norman, and we're excited that you could join us again on today's episode. We're going to be talking about how really schools somewhat treats you a little bit more harshly than they do in the real world, whether it be you're having a brain fog, a mental health day, or just remembering whether she use a formula or tables or absolutely anything. Just overall, school can treat you a little bit more harshly than work. We'll also be talking about how we're emotional before finals. If you want instant gratification or if you want short term pain for long term pleasure, just all along those lines. So we hope that you're going to listen in and enjoy this episode.

[00:60] Becky: So we're going to give you a quick little recap of this past week of school real quick. So this was our last week of school before finals. This was my last week of undergrad classes ever. So it started off we pretty much just had presentations that were being taught to us, and then we had a review session in a class. And then we got our exam scores back from last week. And Norman and I are not shy to talk about the fact that we have been getting C's on this exam. However, we both got A. Norma got a 98, and I got a 100 on this exam. How did I go from CS to 100%?

[01:36] Norma: Yes, you should have seen us when we got the text message notification that the grades had been updated. I think we were, like, eating lunch or something, and we started screaming because, yes, I did think that I was going to do well on this exam as compared to the other ones. I didn't think I was going to get a high A. I was so confused that I did so well, because I think I studied the least amount for this exam, that I got the best score. And even though it was a great score, because of my other exams, I'm going to get a B in the class, which will be my first and hopefully my only B in high school. Not in high school, in college. So it's so great. I don't know. It was a great feeling to end on a great note, we also got A's on our individual projects for that class, and we killed our presentation last week. It was great.

[02:24] Becky: It was. And honestly, maybe I'm going to miss school, maybe I'm not. But that leads into what we're talking about next, is how school may be a little more harsh than the workforce. And I think Norma should take this full force because she experienced it a little bit.

[02:40] Norma: So Monday morning, I woke up, and I just don't know what was wrong. I had the worst brain fog ever. I was in a horrible mood. You can ask Becky. I could not concentrate for the life of me, and if I could, I was getting everything wrong. I could not study. And I think I may have mentioned this in our last episode, but after the two exams in the presentation that Becky and I had last week, we decided to give ourselves the weekend off. We had some sorority things we had to do. We had some things with our friends planned. So we had, like, five days of doing nothing. And then Monday came around. We were like, okay, we have to study for our one final. And we really just wanted to knock the ball out of the park and really get rolling with our studying, and I could not do it for the life of me. I had the worst brain fog ever, and it kind of got me thinking. Whenever I have really bad brain fogs, I have to push through it, especially if I have really bad brain fogs, I really have to push through it, especially if it's like an exam or a presentation date. And it just got me thinking how school kind of like judges or grades you harsher or treats you harsher, actually, than you do in the real world. I think if I have a really bad mental health day or a really bad brain fog day, and I take an exam and I get a really bad grade, that is going to affect my grade, like my overall grade for the rest of the semester. But if I'm in the workforce, if I'm having a brain fog day, I can just do all of the easy tasks that day that don't take a lot of mental stimulation, and then the next day, I'll be able to work on my work when I have a better mindset, or if I still have a brain fog day, but I need to get something done. I can just ask my teammates for some help. Whereas when you're in school, if you have a brain fog day on an important exam, you take the exam, and that's it. You can't retake it.

[04:32] Becky: It honestly is so hard to be able to move forward after you've had a brain fog day, like Norma said, especially on those presentation and exam days, because it seems like school is very unforgiving of those. Like, there are some weeks I will study so much, I will spend all of my free time studying. Then comes the exam. Brain fart, brain fog get a terrible grade. And that's not a true representation of me as a student. It's a representation of me that day because my brain decided to disconnect from my body. But that doesn't mean I don't know it, especially if I've been studying so much. So I think there's a disconnect, a little bit of how we might be treated. Granted, this could be taken with a grain of salt, because, Norman, I've truly just done internships and all that stuff, but I think there's a little bit of leeway if you're having a hard day, because there's not one huge singular day where you test out on every single little bit of knowledge. Yes, if you have a presentation or you have to finish an audit or something, but that's accumulation of everything, you have multiple weeks and months to do all these work papers, but in school you have an exam and then you wipe your hands and you call it done.

[05:39] Norma: Yeah. So I feel like something needs to change within the education system where if you're having a bad day, you have an option to either redo that work, redo that presentation, or improve upon it. Whether it be like you can get half credit for redoing the questions that you got wrong. Because like we've been saying this entire time. The real world is not going to judge you as harshly. And you're going to be working alongside people who can perhaps pick up your sock that day. And going alongside the fact that school might be a little bit more judgy or just treat you a bit more harshly than work. I think I personally have never liked the fact that we're not given formula sheets when taking exams. Obviously, there are some formulas that are so easy to know, like the Pythagorean theorem, but we were doing I think it was like RNoA or no Pet formulas, and luckily our professor gave us the formula sheets. But if I had to memorize that by myself, it would be so difficult. But when you're in the workforce, you're given these information formulas or these templates, and that's just less for you to do. Like in school, you're told how to memorize formulas and templates. So you're not really understanding the concept because you're really just trying to get those formulas memorized in. But in the workforce, you're given those templates in those formulas, so you can really pay attention to the work and understand the significance of it.

[07:06] Becky: Exactly like Norma said, we're having to memorize these formulas. So then when it comes to exam time, all I'm trying to do is remember the formula. However, if I have a formula sheet, I can spend more time understanding the application of this formula, what it does, what affects it, what changes it. However, if I'm having to spend time just going down, memorizing 10,000 formulas, not my best use of time. We have a cumulative final on a Wednesday, and it's everything from the entire semester. So many formulas and so many equations, and it's just so hard to try to do it all at once, because now I'm sitting here trying to memorize all these formulas, all these equations, all these different applications, but if I had formulas, it would make it so much easier and I could focus so much more on the application and the understanding.

[07:54] Norma: Yes, I think I know exactly what topic you're talking about. Specifically, like the variance formulas, there's eight different formulas. He said we had to remember. I understand how to do the concept, I do it very well, but sometimes if my brain has tripped up what information to use for the variances, I get it wrong. And luckily our professor is super nice and he gives you partial credit, but it's still just like, I'm trying to remember these formulas, and if one thing goes wrong, it all implodes.

[08:24] Becky: Oh, I was definitely thinking of the static and flexible budgeting stuff. Exactly. I was trying to review that today before we got here to record. And there's so many things. There's direct materials, direct labor overhead, and you have cost of goods sold, you have your units, you have your production. There's so many formulas and they don't really follow the same guidelines.

[08:44] Norma: So I am truthfully in quite the.

[08:46] Becky: Brain fog trying to study right now. And it's not that I'm nervous I'm not going to do well, I'm just nervous I'm not going to go to my full potential because I'm sitting here trying to memorize formulas, not trying to remember the application and the understanding.

[09:00] Norma: Yeah. So while we're on the topic about this specific class that we're having the final for, I think I just kind of want to talk about how we're feeling about our last final. I know for Becky, her emotions are probably a lot different than mine because this is her last final ever. But I have up to ten finals I have to take during grad school over the course of the year. So I think my emotions are a little different. I'm like, okay, whatever. This is a final I have to take, it's not the end of the world for me.

[09:26] Becky: I think it's more emotional, in a sense. I'm going to take it and I go, holy moly, I'm done. I don't have classes, I don't have exams, I don't have school. So I think I'm going to be more emotional, in a sense. Like, wow, twelve years of my life for schooling is over. Oh, no. Not even twelve years was it like 1816? A lot of time, a lot of time of my life in school is completely over now. So I think I might honestly shut a few tears, cry a little bit, feel my emotions, just because it's the end of an era, as they say. So I'm very emotional over the fact of that. And I loved college, I loved my friends, I love the memories I made. And so it's just, again, an end of an era.

[10:11] Norma: I will say I think this is the absolute best class for us to end our final on, because we enjoy this class a lot. We came into it thinking from our peers that this was supposed to be one of the hardest classes you were supposed to take in the undergraduate accounting major. But Becky and I, not to brag, are thriving. We have both of like, 98 or 99 in the class. So I think it's a great way for us to end, not only because we're not putting as much pressure on ourselves to do well on the final, because we need pretty low scores to maintain our A, but also we enjoy the content and we both also know we're going to perform well on this final. I hope I didn't drink that.

[10:50] Becky: Oh, my gosh. Knock on wood. I swear, if I do bad now, I'm blaming it on you and I'm going to take all your squishmallows away.

[10:59] Norma: Oh, don't get me started. Oh, my gosh. You can take my squishmallows. Just don't take I think I talked about this in episode two. I went to Target and I got a weighted stuffed dinosaur named Benny. Just don't take Benny because I use them to go to sleep every night.

[11:14] Becky: Maybe not again. I'm just excited for school to end, but I don't know what my emotions are going to be. I want to cry, I want to laugh, I want to take a nap. And that's one of the things you should do if you get a brain fog, like Norma was talking about earlier. Take a nap, go for a walk, have some healthy food, just take care of yourself.

[11:36] Norma: I saw on TikTok, I think it was yesterday, I think I sent this to you, Becky. I think it's called a marine nap. It's like a marine eight minute nap that the Marine Corps teaches their soldiers on how to take an eight minute nap. I think I need to learn how to do this because, yes, during school, I can take an hour nap if I want, but when I'm in the workforce, I'm not going to be able to do that. So I need to be able to sneak out to my car for ten minutes, take an eight minute nap, come back in and be fine. So I might have to research that a little bit, especially if it's a brain fog type of day, because for me, the best way to get out of the brain fog is to take a nap.

[12:13] Becky: I love taking naps. Normally, I've probably talked about taking naps in every single episode because if it's that large a part of our lives, we eat, breathe and sleep naps. It's the best thing ever for us. And honestly, that's what I do when I wake up and I have a brain fog. Granted, every one out of ten naps, I wake up in a worst brain fog, but what can you do? You can't be perfect all the time. As much as I would love to be perfect, you can't be.

[12:41] Norma: So today, Becky and I had a pretty interesting conversation with our uncle. He called us. One of his coworkers is making a presentation on people who are just now entering the workforce or people in our generation, and kind of just how to not only go into interviews, but also how to act in the workforce. And he brought up this really interesting topic that I wanted to talk about. It was like, about instant gratification and how people need to steer away from it.

[13:08] Becky: I definitely have been someone where I like the instant gratification because my love language, my way of showing that you like being around me or that I'm doing a good job is words of affirmation. So give me the instant gratification. I want something to show me in the moment that I'm doing fabulous. However, I need to learn not to. I need to learn how to take a step back and realize the best gifts may come years later, but it will show the accumulation of all your hard work.

[13:38] Norma: So, like, an example of what this instant gratification type is, I've seen a lot of these videos on like, TikTok or YouTube where these parents sit like their toddlers down and put like, M amp M or marshmallows in front of them and say, okay, I'm going to leave you for five minutes. If you don't eat or touch the marshmallows in front of you, when I come back, I'll give you even more. So the toddler is like, do I want to eat this now? Do I want to wait a little bit? And it's like one it's super cute to watch, but also I think it's just a great small representation of how you should have not short term pain, but maybe uncomfort and doing something that you don't want to do. So in the long term, you can have pleasure. So, for example, when I go into grad school, I know that I'm not going to have a lot of money. I've been over this on the podcast before, where I'm going to have to take a lot of student debt, where I'm just going to have to really watch my discretionary spending. I don't mind doing that because I know in the long run it'll work off because I will have graduated with my Masters, I will have gotten my CPA license, and I'll be making money in the future to make up for the fact that I will be kind of watching what I spend for the next year.

[14:50] Becky: Me, on the other hand, I'm making money. I need to learn how not to spend money. I love shopping. It's my favorite thing to do. I need to learn how to stop again if I don't spend my money. And then I can save it up and go on a big trip in a few years. That can be my big gratification, not the whole opening up your package and feeling so fabulous for those 2 seconds. I need the instant gratification now, but I'm learning how to not do it as much. I need to learn how to hone it in. I need to learn how to be patient, pretty much. I think the opposite of instant gratification would be patience.

[15:30] Norma: Yeah. And I think, honestly, I feel like this is something our generation needs to know. Sorry if this offends anyone who's listening. We kind of need to realize that we do need to wait for gratification. I know some of us are expected to always be happy, but sometimes we have to go through a little bit of discomfort. So in the future, everything is great. And I know for a while that was so hard for me to admit. I just wanted to be happy all the time and get what I want. But now I know that's not realistic and I'm hoping that going forward, even to those who are listening, they also realize that that's not possible. Not everything is going to be happy. And if you have to make a decision, think about what's going to be the best for you in the long term.

[16:15] Becky: Like my decision of probably when I go home and say, do I watch an episode of Netflix or do I study? The instant gratification of being able to do absolutely nothing and watch Netflix is probably going to tempt me. But I know tomorrow, even though that's a very short period of time, I'm going to be so thankful that I did not study as much. So you got to pick and choose your battles, but I need to learn how to choose the battles that will help me in the long run.

[16:40] Norma: Yeah. So I think that's it for this episode. Thank you all listening so much. We're going to go study for our finals. Don't forget to subscribe if you already have it. Leave some feedback for us. Ask us questions if you want us to answer them on the next podcast.

[16:55] Becky: The next time you'll hear from us, we will have finished undergrad. So I'm so excited. I know. So have a great week and we'll see you next week. Bye. Bye. This has been a production of the Accounting Podcast Cast Network.

The Final Week as Accounting Students
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