I wrote my Ops exam today. Exams at Ivey typically consist of a four-hour case analysis including a staunch recommendation and action plan. They are mostly open textbook and open notes, but I usually find that I spend little time looking at either. Although there are formulas I may need to reference, or frameworks from a class slide deck I want to apply, my exam time is usually spent combing through the case for key facts, building an Excel spreadsheet, or hammering out my analysis into a Word document. I have developed a strategy (as have many other students) to construct an exam template ahead of time, consisting of key notes and questions that will assist me in formulating a well-rounded analysis. It is easy to get bogged down on a certain issue, or to continue down a certain thought path, so this template helps me to expand my thinking to broader issues. I think my classmate Joe said it best when he admitted on his Facebook status that he is “embarrassed that it took him 10 months to realize that EVERY MBA exam is a strategy exam.” I tend to agree with this; although we may be focusing on an issue related to a business function (today it was Ops), we are pushed to draw strategic implications for the organization in question. Training ourselves to always consider “the big picture” will significantly affect our abilities as future business leaders.
Speaking of the future, I’m a little uncertain about mine. We have roughly two months remaining in our program, which is exciting and frightening at the same time. My timing to return to the work force could have been a little better, but who could have foreseen the current situation? (And to those who said you could: why didn’t you act on your prediction and make millions of dollars by shorting the stock market??) Then again, who could have predicted even a couple years ago that Barack Obama would become president? I watched his State of the Union speech last night – while studying of course – and I have to admit, I was inspired.
He seems to have his priorities straight: the importance of reducing the country’s dependence on foreign oil, the need for higher education for its population in order to stay globally competitive, the need to eventually cut the deficit so that the greed of the current generation is not paid for by future generations to come. He set some very lofty goals, and he will need to live up to them. I fear that the man is doomed to fail given the level of expectation that he has set. He has inspired hope for millions, but eventually reality must set in.