Ricky’s Online Business Blog

Two years ago I was not satisfied with my A- result in the Marketing Management class in my MBA course, that I confronted the lecturer and argued with him. After all, I thought I was one of his best students in the class. If some others could get a full A, why not me too?

But he asked me instead, “What makes you think you deserve an A?” I didn’t have a good answer to that. I was made speechless.

It’s getting normal for students to expect an A instead of B or just a pass. After all, it’s becoming easier to get A nowadays. It’s also becoming politically incorrect for lecturers not to dish out A’s. In fact, for many students, the grade A has become the passing grade.

It’s good to aim high, but do we deserve it? Looking back, I didn’t really complete all my works diligently. I submitted late for one assignment. There were weaknesses in my case analysis. There were areas I couldn’t justify well in my presentations. There were weak spots in the subject I still couldn’t grasp well.

An “A” means excellent performance. But I didn’t perform well enough to qualify for it. If I went to Harvard Business School instead, I wonder I might not even pass! It’s only because others got A in the class that made me think I should get A too.

To limit the number of students who get A’s in a class, some schools might impose a “quota system”. Now all students are ranked statistically and A’s have become a precious treasure.

But what happens to those who deserve to get A but are edged out by even better students? What if undeserving ones getting A just because there are not enough students to fill in the quota for A’s?

Or perhaps students are marked and given their own grade they deserve. If the whole class have done excellently, then all should get A’s. If nobody deserves, then nobody should get it. I’m more inclined toward this solution.

But then students may compare one class to another, or one school to another, and find it unfair. Why is it that, given the same effort, they can’t get A while those in another class or school can?

And for those of you who think you should get A, allow me to ask you the same question. What makes you think you deserve to get A?

I’ve already lost count of how many times fresh graduates asked me about MBA and I told them to go to work instead.

Sure, they can enroll into MBA, pass all exams and graduate with this prestigious business masters degree. After all, “professional students” in our education system nowadays have been trained how to memorize, spot questions and cram through exams.

The problem is, anyone can study theories, but not everyone can fully understand and appreciate how these are applied in real-world business. With some working experience, one is better equipped to go through the learning experience more easily and smoothly.

I’ve seen many friends who are fresh graduates suffering in an MBA program. Worse still, some of them are not really interested in what they study nor the business world out there. What could have been a fruitful learning journey turn out to be bitter experience having to go through assignments, presentations, case studies and exams.

Due to their lack of “context” experience, they then are less able to bring meaningful ideas and insights for meaningful discussion when they work with their classmates and group mates who are more experienced.

There are different breeds of MBA students. But to cater for the needs of fresh graduates, even lecturers and business schools have to suit their teaching method for this group of exam-oriented students. As a result, teaching quality suffers. Business school ranking drops.

There are of course exceptions. I’ve seenvery bright MBA students too even though they don’t have any formal working experience. Their character and interest in business somehow compensate for what they lack. But they are in the minority.

Correct me if I’m wrong, for the sake of the fresh graduates, the more experienced students, the business school and the education system, I think MBA should not be open for fresh graduates.

Everyone has his or her own way of studying and doing revision, so am I.  Here is some tips I always share to friends and juniors on how I prepared for final examinations in my last MBA course.

• Read smart – Don’t try to read everything in a textbook. I read the table of content to get an idea of the flow and “framework” used by the author to teach the book content.
• Read less – We can’t remember everything. Most of the time, I read only the introduction, summary, headings and sub-headings of each chapter to get a general idea.
• Read more only if necessary – I dig into the text only for parts I don’t understand well.
• Ask questions – Don’t believe everything we read but think critically. I tend to ask and jot down questions especially why this and why that, while reading the book.
• Think more – I try to spend time thinking over the questions raised, problems, mini cases, and real life scenarios. After all, most questions in exam are problem solving ones.
• Use mind maps – I used to produce mind maps which I could use as handy and quick revision just before exam.
• Sleep on it – If possible, there should be a short period (a few hours, one or two days) between finishing revision and the real test.  Go do something else or simply rest. What we learned takes a little time to get into our subconscious mind.
• Trust our common sense – I tend to remember only the skeleton and trust the common sense to fill in the details. Then I can remember less things, yet I can remember more of the less.

I can’t help but think of some students who try to read everything but end up remembering nothing.  Just as Sun Tzu shares in The Art of War,

For should the enemy strengthen his van, he will weaken his rear; should he strengthen his rear, he will weaken his van; should he strengthen his left, he will weaken his right; should he strengthen his right, he will weaken his left. If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak. (故備前則後寡，備後則前寡，備左則右寡，備右則左寡，無所不備，則無所不寡。)

More than 2 years ago in 2009, I went back to school and became an MBA student in UPM.  Last month in January 2012, I finally turned in the very last comprehensive case study (similar to a thesis) and finished up the whole course.

I remembered joining the MBA course for 4 purposes: to learn, to develop, to network, and to enjoy.  I have always kept reminding myself on these throughout the MBA journey.

• Learn - I have learned much about business, its various areas and everything in a whole.  The last case study submitted was a consultative paper in which I learned to apply many things in the course to provide solution to a real-world problem.
• Develop - I should have become a better thinking person, thanks to certain good lecturers in the course.  But I’ve not been able to improve my communication skills including presentation and public speaking.
• Network - I might be one of the most connected person in my business school.  The last count on friends known through the course on Facebook stood at 318.  Unfortunately, most are shallow relationships and I hardly have more than a few buddies to speak of.
• Enjoy - After absence from school for years, I indeed have enjoyed the campus life.  In fact, I enjoyed every process including the stressful schedules to submit assignments, prepare for presentations and sit for exams.

• Financial goal – Increase my net worth for a certain amount.
• MiC (Masters in Communication) – I need to become a master in communication, the very thing that I missed out developing in the MBA course.

I guess I’m quite clear of what I need to achieve this year. How about you?