By Scott Robbins, MBA Class of 2015
Finals Week for 2nd Year MBAs. It is hard to believe, but the first module of courses for the year will be finished this week. The module will conclude with a three day period designated for final exams. This examination period is quite different for many second year students than students in the first year of the program, however. This is for a few reasons, but mainly because the concentration elective courses that second year MBAs are mainly taking choose alternative examinations than a single final exam.
Most classes in the first year of the program end with a traditional final exam that cover the information and concepts taught in the course over the prior seven weeks. Second year courses are less likely to give these tests. Instead they tend to utilize business case examinations or group projects as the final examination for the module. These evaluations are more interesting than typical tests and force students to work in a team and directly apply the concepts they have learned to find a solution to a business problem. Many times, the cases students are given are problems that real-world companies have encountered in the past. The Business-to-Business Marketing course concludes with a case study such as this. Possibly the most interesting part is when teams present their solutions to the class and everybody can see the variety of perspectives used to solve the problem. Continue reading
By Naveen Raj, MBA Class of 2016