So the conversation went something like this.

X: "What happened in chapter 14?"
Me: "Chapter 14? There was a chapter 14?"
X: "It comes after chapter 13."
Me: "I don't remember that one either."
X: "Organizational structure, behavior and matching controls to structures."
Me: "Nope, nada."
X: "Functional? Multidomestic? Global-matrix area?"
Me: "Chapter 13?"
X: "No, chapter 10."
Me: "Chapter 10?"

Okay, so a slight exaggeration. But this was pretty much what all of the conversations were like today in school. Part of me was completely flustered as I scored a 20 on the practice quiz on chapter 13 and though I'd read it like 80 million times, for the life of me, I didn't know what I'd read. No big deal - no one else seemed to know what was in chapters 13 and 14 either. It's like we all got to chapter 12 and our brains gave out.

We were prowling the halls, curled up in little nooks throughout the building, frantically memorizing the book (some people had just opened it for the first time this morning) and trying to figure out the differences between international, multidomestic, global and transnational strategies. Because, they only look the same. The pretty pictures tell you otherwise. Everyone had a mental block. Mine happened to be the last two chapters of the text but other people blanked out on other chapters. This is one exam where groupthink would have been a very Good Thing.

But thankfully, hardly anything from chapters 13 and 14 were on the exam and I feel very, very good about it. For once, I think memorizing an entire textbook (don't try this at home, kids!) paid off for me. To the point where I was sitting in the lounge with a couple of friends and reciting entire diagrams from memory. Scary. I'm going to dream about this stuff in my sleep.