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    Mbark Coping Stree

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    Abhishek Singh
    The document discusses the stress that students often experience in their first year of an MBA program. It outlines several sources of stress, including unfamiliar course content, different teaching and evaluation styles compared to undergraduate programs, intense semester schedules with many assignments and group work, and high-stakes competition among students for grades and job placements. However, it notes that living through the challenges of the first year acclimates students to the stress of an MBA program and the business world.

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    Mbark Coping Stree

    Uploaded by

    Abhishek Singh
    21 views2 pages
    The document discusses the stress that students often experience in their first year of an MBA program. It outlines several sources of stress, including unfamiliar course content, different teaching and evaluation styles compared to undergraduate programs, intense semester schedules with many assignments and group work, and high-stakes competition among students for grades and job placements. However, it notes that living through the challenges of the first year acclimates students to the stress of an MBA program and the business world.

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    The document discusses the stress that students often experience in their first year of an MBA program. It outlines several sources of stress, including unfamiliar course content, different teaching and evaluation styles compared to undergraduate programs, intense semester schedules with many assignments and group work, and high-stakes competition among students for grades and job placements. However, it notes that living through the challenges of the first year acclimates students to the stress of an MBA program and the business world.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    21 views2 pages

    Mbark Coping Stree

    Uploaded by

    Abhishek Singh
    The document discusses the stress that students often experience in their first year of an MBA program. It outlines several sources of stress, including unfamiliar course content, different teaching and evaluation styles compared to undergraduate programs, intense semester schedules with many assignments and group work, and high-stakes competition among students for grades and job placements. However, it notes that living through the challenges of the first year acclimates students to the stress of an MBA program and the business world.

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    of 2

    %MBArk&

    Read on ...................................

    COPING WITH STRESS


    The First Year of MBA
    -Jaya Deshmukh

    he receipt of an
    acceptance letter from a
    reputed institute to
    pursue an MBA degree
    usually results in
    exultation and tears of joy. The
    happy scene continues all the way
    till the candidate actually sits
    down for the orientation program
    and thats when reality strikes..and
    it strikes hard. The orientation
    program is usually held in the
    auditorium of the institute and
    there is this air of solemnity that
    hangs about the place that is soon
    transferred to the candidate
    making him realise that the
    program may be a different ball
    game all together. As the candidate
    interacts with the other lucky ones
    who were selected, he realises that
    there are others in the program
    who are better qualified and who
    have better accomplishments than
    himself. His confidence takes a
    beating and stress makes an entry
    into his life. Questions such as
    Will I be able to complete this
    program? or How will I compete
    with the others? plague his mind.
    And this is just the beginning.
    The next shock comes in the
    form of the course content. It is
    totally alien to what he has studied
    before. Take the following:
    Peoples and Culture of India
    Organisational Behavior
    Verbal Communication
    Basic Marketing
    Only if the candidate had been
    pursuing a BBA would these
    subjects sound familiar. However,
    to an engineering, science,

    commerce or arts graduate, these


    subjects are almost as intimidating
    as Greek and Latin! Websites of
    institutes do touch upon the course
    curriculum, but there is a vast
    difference between reading about
    a subject and actually learning it.
    The subjects are very diffused in
    the sense that there is no set
    curriculum. While graduating and
    even in our school days we are
    used to portions i.e., something
    like: chapters 2 to 9 from the
    textbook for the exam. In the first
    place there is no textbook, there
    maybe reference books, not one but
    many. There are definitely no
    chapter numbers. Study Material
    replaces the Text Book and this
    study material could be loose
    handouts, chapters from various
    reference books, articles from
    newspapers and magazines,
    academic articles etc. The loss of
    the Text Book can be very
    frightening and confidence
    sapping for many students.
    Apart from the bewildering

    variety of reference material, the


    next problem that a candidate faces
    is the way each subject is taught.
    Raw graduates are used to a
    teacher who stands up and
    dictates, or a question-answer
    format etc. This is not what
    happens in an MBA program.
    Classes are more discussionoriented rather than classical
    teaching-based. This can be very
    disorienting, because in most
    school or college systems within
    the country, one is brought up to
    accept what the teacher says as the
    correct or the only answer. In the
    B-school programmes, professors
    act as sounding boards, they do not
    have the answers, or even if they
    do, they never give them out. The
    candidate is encouraged to think
    and come up with the answer or
    solution, and there may be more
    than one! In other words, they
    make you use your mind to arrive
    at an answer. And given the fact
    that as students we spend 15 years
    simply receiving or being spoonfed answers, to suddenly start
    coming up with the answers, and
    sometimes even the questions
    ourselves, becomes a difficult and
    confusing proposition.
    The way a candidate is
    evaluated is completely different
    from what he has experienced so
    far. Case studies, group
    assignments, projects, class
    participation are the primary
    evaluation tools. These tools help
    to test the candidates ability to
    apply theory to real life problems.
    To the candidate used to learning

    %MBArk &
    Read on ...................................

    Almost all activities including


    tests are required to be
    undertaken as a group effort.
    What this means is that six to
    8 students come together and
    are expected to work on the
    project. Mostly candidates are
    not accustomed to working in
    groups. During our schooling
    and graduation days, we study
    on our own, when we
    ourselves schedule the time according to our own rhythm.
    However, when you have to work in a group, other peoples
    rhythms, their intelligence and commitment levels, influence
    how you study, when you study and even how you are
    evaluated. The initial introduction to group dynamics can be
    quite harrowing. Typically, the quiet ones end up not giving
    any opinion even if it is right, and the assertive ones run the
    group. Learning to cope with groups and to work with them is
    not easy. You also have to learn to deal with other peoples
    egos and group undercurrents and the rating of your own
    performance depends on all of this.
    by rote and writing copious
    answers, or to engineers who are
    more
    comfortable
    finding
    mathematical solutions, these
    evaluation methods can be very
    confusing. Moreover, the outcome
    of the evaluation is very subjective.
    For example, what differentiates
    good class participation from
    excellent class participation is
    completely left to the professor
    taking that subject. Similarly, since
    the outcome of a case can be
    manifold, there is no right answer!
    This makes the evaluation very
    subjective and very vague. Adding
    to the confusion is the fact that each
    subject has a different professor
    who assigns different weights to
    each evaluation format. Thus what
    may be good for one subject could
    be inadequate for another!
    All MBA programs are divided
    into Semesters. A year typically
    consists of three semesters, each

    having a duration of three months.


    Each semester has a different set of
    subjects to be studied. This comes
    as a huge shock to candidates,
    since we are used to dealing with
    8 to 10 subjects per academic year.
    This adjustment from 8 subjects
    every 10 months to every three
    months can be traumatic since the
    scale of studying suddenly is
    crashed from 10 to 3 months and
    the number of subjects could
    become an overwhelming 24!
    Everything about the MBA
    program is different. Even
    something as trivial as the duration
    of a single class begins to make a
    difference. During school, a single
    class usually lasts 45 minutes; in
    college, it stretches for an hour, but
    in an MBA program the class
    continues for an hour and a half!
    While this may not apparently
    sound to be a major issue, it
    actually is quite a demand on your

    concentration levels. Keeping


    concentration up until the end of
    the class can be quite a challenge!
    Similarly, a typical day has five
    such classes, which means classes
    from 9 in the morning till 7 in the
    evening. There are no set holidays.
    Sundays are reserved for guest
    lectures and workshops. On top of
    this backbreaking schedule, are the
    numerous assignments and group
    activities that have to be
    accomplished overnight.
    Finally, to add to all these stresscausing unknown aspects of the
    MBA program is the soul crushing
    competion. The MBA program is
    where battles are fought for 1/4th
    of a grade point because as small a
    difference as that can decide
    whether a candidate gets short
    listed for a top placement or not.
    At a time when starting salaries are
    in the range of 5 lakhs and above
    for a good B school, the stakes are
    very high since that fourth of a
    grade point could add to or reduce
    your prospects by some lakhs of
    rupees.
    So how does a new candidate
    cope with all of this? There is only
    one way live through it. Take
    each day as it comes and suddenly
    as time flies by, you get used to the
    routine and stress, and one day
    you awaken to find that nothing
    can faze you and you begin
    cracking case studies in two hours
    flat! Not to mention that it also
    equips you largely to face the
    stressful careers that are the order
    of the business world today.
    The author runs a market
    research consultancy specialising
    in business intelligence. She is
    an

    alumnus

    of

    MICA,

    Ahmedabad. She has also been


    a faculty at some of the leading
    management institutes in Pune

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