By Scott Robbins, MBA Class of 2015
Whether a student has been out of school for 5 years or coming directly from undergrad, one concern they will have is how grades are given in the MBA program. More specifically, they might wonder what final examinations are like, how difficult they are, and how to succeed on them. Although each class is technically different, and it is up to professors to create their own grading structure. However, there are similarities that are seen across most first-year courses. Having just finished Module 2 finals week, I will share some insight into what to expect for MBA finals.
Final exams will probably be similar to exams you have taken before depending on one’s undergraduate background. Finals are meant to test your understanding of the concepts you have learned throughout the module and show application of them. They will also be weighted similarly. Final exams tend to account for a large portion of the final grade, but there is no specific rule for this. Professors’ goal is not to trick students or make solutions extremely difficult although they are challenging.
A method of examination that may be new for some is case-based exams. I had never taken one of these exam types coming from a social science background, but I can say that they should not be feared. A case exam uses realistic business problems facing a company, and students are expected to apply lessons they have learned throughout the module in order to solve business problems in the case. Although this can seem daunting, it actually makes exams much more interesting than simply doing individual problems. In most cases, you will need to analyze and decide what the problem truly is, develop possible solutions, and then deliver a recommendation supported by data. These cases are also not designed to trick, but they will likely require students to tie in concepts from more than one class to fully understand them.
This module, two finals were based on a business case. One of these was a team presentation, rather than an exam. For this, teams were all given the same case a few weeks ahead of time and were directed to prepare an analysis around the case problem. The analysis was to be presented to professors and graded based on the quality of work. The second case-final this mod was a typical exam. The case was still given out ahead of time to prepare analysis though. This is because exam periods are restricted to 2-3 hours and would not provide enough time to fully analyze the problem and generate solutions.
My best advice is to prepare for final exams as much ahead of time as you can. The MBA program offers so many activities and things to do that it can be difficult to set large blocks of time for studying, but doing so will definitely help during finals week. Secondly, preparing ahead of time allows you to reach out to professors who are very eager to help make sure you understand the material. Many of them offer practice problems and past exams with detailed solutions, and these materials are great study aides. It is very helpful to do these practice problems and ask about questions you got wrong. Also it is highly important to spend time in your class teams to go over past class and lecture topics to verify your understanding. Classmates usually have valuable perspectives that will help understand it better too.
Furthermore, teammates will likely be stronger in various topics, so help each other early and often. Through early preparation, using all of the resources professors provide, and learning from your teammates it will be much easier to succeed on MBA finals. It will be much easier to succeed on MBA finals if you prepare early, use all resources provided by professors and learn from teammates.