Preparing for Exams

Today was the first day of exam prep, which meant no classes, and a free agenda to do whatever we wanted (related to studying of course). I enjoyed getting to sleep in past 7, shower leisurely, and walk to school slowly instead of at my usual half jog. We have four finals, one each day next week from Monday - Thursday. I'm going to focus most of the next 4 days on Accounting and Finance, because those are the two in which I'm most shaky and in which there are concepts I still don't totally understand. The other two, Operations and Marketing, I think I can prepare for more easily, because I hope I will mostly just need to review the things we did.

The end of the first module means we're 1/4th of the way through the MBA. We've been here for two and half months, but it feels like much longer than that. When I look back and everything we've done already it's a pretty incredible image. The biggest test of all will be to see if the MBA helps us get to the places we want to get to in our careers. An article I read recently discussed whether CEOs with MBAs did better than those without, and the conclusion was that they did, even in the financial sector that has experienced such upheaval and mayhem lately. It said, "Although MBAs from Harvard, IMD or London Business School have more prestige than others, any MBA, whether it is from PIM, Colombo, SJU or the University of Wales Distance Learning certainly separates its owner from the pack." The article also said within companies, MBAs are presumed to be intelligent and to have the ability to move up the corporate ladder, and so companies give them extra opportunities to contribute and grow over the non-MBAs. It is also assumed that MBAs have integrity, social skills and emotional maturity, which are essential requirements for any leadership position.

It was an interesting look at the reasons why an MBA is useful, and I came away from the article thinking that beyond the analytical skills we learn, an MBA is a stamp showing that we're tough, that we we can handle any situation that is thrown at us.