MBArk

Dangerous December
Month 6 at the B-School
In our series on the monthly
events at a B-School,
Avantika Vohra tells us about
the pains and perils that
come knocking in December.
Avantika is a second year
student at IIM-Lucknow

sk any first year student

at the end of his one-year
stint and hell tell you the
second term is by far the
toughest. Not only are
the subjects more detailed and in-depth,
but the course content is far more
application oriented than anything else
youll study that year. The term is also
the toughest because of the overload of
extraneous activities that demand the
better half of our time throughout the
three-month duration. Nevertheless, by
now it becomes evident whether you can
cope with the pressures of B-School or
not. All students with the higher-end
Cumulative Grade Percentile Averages
(CGPAs) assume that this term, too, will
be a smooth glide. However,
assumptions never did anyone any good.
Term II results hit you like a blast of
cold air.
This is what each course was like.

Read on ...................................
MANAC II: Management Accounting II
is a continuation of the previous terms
horror. What started out as an
introduction to Book-Keeping and
Formation of Balance Sheets gives way
to Cost Accounting, which by popular
opinion, is slightly less taxing. Truth be
told, I too found MANAC a little easier
to cope with this term, though that isnt
the same as saying it was easy. The
subject continues to be a nightmare and
sleepless nights are inevitable.
QAM II: Quantitative Analysis for
Management- Part II. Arguably, the
toughest course this term. Or at least
one that takes down a fair number of
students in its aftermath. As if QAM I
wasnt bad enough, QAM II is equally
punishing. The problem with this course
is the intimidation it creates in the minds
of the students well before it starts.
Instead of taking that positively and
approaching the course with caution and
determination, most students get
confused and dejected fairly early on in
the game. One needs to handle this
course very carefully, as it is not easy
to clear it in the exams. Attentive

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow

10 Advanc'edge MBA September 2005

MBArk
Read on ...................................
listening in class followed by a
rigorous self-practice schedule is a
must to pass QAM II with flying
colours.
ECO II: Economics. As opposed to
Eco I, which focused on
Microeconomics, ECO II is an
overview of aggregate economics,
a.k.a. Macroeconomics (Macro, for Library of Indian Institute of
short). Again, a rather tough course. Management, Lucknow
The concepts taught here are core to
Kotler refers to a particularly thick and
Finance fundamentals that follow later.
burdensome book which happens to be
Some say Macro is tougher than Micro;
the Bible for Marketing throughout your
many feel otherwise. Personally
course. From my point of view, its a
speaking, as I enjoy Economics, I quite
reasonably interesting paper that
liked both the courses.
involves a substantial amount of reading.
FM I: Financial Management I. As the
name suggests, the course makes a
foray into the basic principles of Finance,
viz. Annuities, Cash Management,
Inventory Management, etc. It really
isnt overwhelmingly tough, but those
weak at quant. or phobic of the same
may struggle a bit. The best way to
tackle it is to practise a bit and be a
little meticulous in ones calculations, as
a fair chunk of the marks lie in
generating the correct figures in the end.
OM II: Operations Management II. A
continuation from the previous term, it
now entails a field of Operations known
as Quality Management. Many students
take this up in the 2nd term as well. The
topic is slightly technical in nature, but,
on the whole, it is a reasonably
manageable course. It requires a certain
amount of quantitative skills but this is
not unmanageable. As far as this term
goes, this course is one of the easier
ones to handle.
MM I: Marketing Management I.
Welcome to the glorious world of Kotler.
For those unfamiliar with the jargon,
12 Advanc'edge MBA September 2005

To give you a slightly clearer picture,

on the days you have a Marketing class,
there is approximately 2-3 hours of
reading for this particular course alone.
Other course reading requirement is
additional to those hours. If you dont
keep your reading up-to-date, youre sure
to face problems at exam-time. A word
of caution: as this is one of the very few
non-quantitative courses, students
sometimes tend to take it a little too
lightly. You must be careful and make
sure you give the subject its due time in
order to avoid unnecessary trouble for
yourself in the end.
DWO: Designing Work Organizations. I
think I can safely say that this is the
easiest one this term. A major chunk of
the marks in this course are allotted to
a group project that requires you to form
and run a company of a dozen-odd
employees. The purpose of this activity
is to assign and define the different
management positions that exist in a
company and to work out a structure
for the same. This stems from the course
material that is an in-depth study of the

different structures that exist in an

organisation. Most students dislike
this course because its way too
theoretical and boring in nature. I
guess youll just have to see and
decide for yourself.
Having said all this, I must restress the main problem students
face this term: lack of time. Not that
time is ever a particularly abundant
commodity at B-School, but this term it
is particularly bad. Students
permanently find themselves in a timecrunch due to the other nefariously timeconsuming activities on campus. In all
honesty, these activities can hardly be
avoided but the strain they put on your
time leaves many a student in deep
waters at the end. If you havent been
wise with your time from the very
beginning, before you know it, the
waters will start to close over your head.
Moving on to a slightly lighter note,
how many of you have taken an exam
on Christmas Day? Right from our school
days, we have taken Christmas holidays
for granted. One of the many firsts on
campus include burning the midnight oil
till late on Christmas eve, followed by
groggily ambling to the examination hall
to take a paper on Christmas morning.
Sounds like fun? Wait till you experience
it for yourself. I guarantee that when
you return home to celebrate New Years
Eve, youll never take Christmas holidays
for granted again.

The writer, a graduate in

Mathematics from St. Xavier's
College of Arts and Science,
Mumbai, is a second year
PGDBM student of IIMLucknow.