MBA Quant Experience

I just got back from a visit to Cornell in Ithaca, New York where I met with administrators and faculty about teaching a 3-day quantitative skills course to incoming Johnson School just before orientation.

The campus was beautiful, with temperatures in the 50s several days after a freak mid-April snowstorm.  Sage Hall, home to the Johnson School, was the most striking building on a campus of impressive buildings.  The snowmelt had the gorges pounding with white water.  I highly recommend the Ithaca Pale Ale at Rulloff's in Collegetown a short walk from campus.

All incoming Johnson students already have access to the online MBA Math course.  The live course will be for a subset of the students who will most benefit from a quant boost before classes begin.  First-year core course profs emphasized the importance of having strong basic algebra skills.  The three-day course provides a "preview" of the quant skills needed for finance, accounting, marketing, statistics, and economics.  The material in the 3-day course will be more tailored to Cornell than is possible with the online course.  Topics covered in the 3-day course will be seen again, but faster and with less explanation, in the first year courses.

Here is a testimonial from Edmund Aziabor, a second-year student at MIT's Sloan School of Management and member of the MBA Math Board of Advisors, about his pre-MBA use of the MBA Math online quantitative preparation course:

Prior to attending business school, I worked in the financial services industry for 6 plus years with Merrill Lynch.  In order to prepare adequately for the quantitative requirement of the MBA curriculum I came across the MBA Math online course and chose it over other expensive in-class preps which were not necessarily structured particularly for the MBA program.

The flexibility of the MBAMath.com tools and exercises allowed me to pace myself and served my needs in all the coverage areas that I needed to refine, having been out of school for some time.  I highly recommend this to all prospective MBAs.

Here is a testimonial from Rick Bollar, an incoming student in the executive MBA program at Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and member of the MBA Math Board of Advisors, about his pre-MBA use of the MBA Math online quantitative preparation course:

I am enrolled in an Executive MBA program and I have been out of an academic environment for well over twenty years. While I did well in Fuqua’s quantitative assessment, I left my interview feeling as if I had holes in my experience and I wanted to make sure I had prepared as well as possible for the first semester.

Fuqua offers a quantitative readiness program and while it is good, I felt it needed to be augmented with additional drills, training and feedback - it also needed to be a program that could be done in short sessions from anywhere.

That’s how I came across MBA Math. MBA Math allows me to study and practice when I can between work and family obligations and I find that most of my work is done in 30 to 60 minute sessions. It’s easy to pop in and practice with just a few minutes time. In fact, most of my study time has been while I travel, from various hotel rooms.

I matriculate in May and I look forward to reporting my progress in the first quantitative classes.

Here is a testimonial from Tumi Adebiyi, a second-year student at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and member of the MBA Math Board of Advisors, about her pre-MBA use of the MBA Math online quantitative preparation course:

I come to the Tuck School of Business with an engineering degree from the University of Michigan and work experience at Ford Motor Company within three functional groups. As a Manufacturing Engineer, I developed expertise in logistics, supply chain management, and the launch of new warehouse operations. I then transitioned into marketing. Within marketing at Ford, I was responsible for helping in the development and management of the 2004-2005 Ford Motor Company African American Corporate Communications Campaign. Finally, I transitioned to finance within Ford where I worked on Sarbanes Oxley compliance and financial controls on inventory management.

At Tuck, a general management MBA program, I am gearing my studies to have a focus on my future career in finance. When I applied and was accepted at top MBA schools my quantitative background fooled me into thinking that advance preparation was not needed. After sub-par performance on a pre-enrollment assessment exam that focused on MBA math concepts, I quickly turned my focus to the MBA Math online tools.

MBA Math was the cornerstone of my MBA preparation because it:

• Was extremely comprehensive. Having all of my information housed in a central location and having my progress tracked in a central hub allowed me to travel to other countries during my summer without interrupting my studies.
  
• Offered me a variety of dynamic learning tools. The online lectures were very clear and direct and the reference guides served as a quick reference during the problem solving exercises.

As a result of my preparation using MBA math, I started off my MBA career with the solid understanding that was needed to thrive in my fast paced MBA program. I even referenced MBA Math during my first term at school when I needed to quickly refresh my understanding of key concepts.

Here is a testimonial from Lenika Dorman, a first-year student at McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and member of the MBA Math Board of Advisors, about her pre-MBA use of the MBA Math online quantitative preparation course:

I am a first year MBA student at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. I graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 2000 with a degree in Political Science with an emphasis in Pan American Studies. Upon graduating from the University of California at San Diego, my passion to enhance my global perspective motivated me to teach English in Prague, Barcelona and Madrid.

After over a year of working abroad, I was given the opportunity to join American International Group (AIG) as a Business Development Manager in Boston. With a strong desire to pursue a career in the marketing field, I left Spain to embark on a successful, 5 year career with AIG.

My marketing roles at AIG required sharp analytical skills. My responsibilities included; analyzing consumer purchasing trends and distribution models as well as conducing risk and financial analysis. While I had gained a great deal of quantitative experience throughout my professional career, I lacked the formal, quantitative training that was needed to succeed in a top MBA program.

MBA Math gave me a broad overview of the quantitative skills I would need to feel confident in the MBA environment. The program allowed me learn at my own pace and focus on the areas in which I had the most difficulty. The tutorials were very clear and the content was very applicable to my first year courses. MBA Math was an extremely efficient way for me to prepare for my first year of business school.

Here is a testimonial from David Landers, a first-year student at Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and member of the MBA Math Board of Advisors, about his pre-MBA use of the MBA Math online quantitative preparation course:

With the GMAT and admission processes behind me, I turned my focus to preparing for the first semester of B-school. Most blogs I came across from current students at top schools stressed tuning up quantitative skills.

Reading the BusinessWeek forum regularly, I came across several recommendations for a comprehensive solution: mbamath.com. Given that my work experiences as a dental hygienist were considered very non-traditional I knew the difficulty in accurately performing a self assessment.

I signed up for mbamath.com hoping that I could identify my weaknesses and find a few key takeaways from the web-based lessons. I started immediately and was pleased with the experience. The lessons were easy to understand, well organized, and very relevant.

Having just recently completed my first semester of B-school I can say that mbamath.com was an excellent preparation tool and an outstanding value. If you’re looking for an edge you won’t find a more efficient option.

Here is a testimonial from Xiaoming Alex Yang, a first-year student at Columbia Business School and member of the MBA Math Board of Advisors, about his pre-MBA use of the MBA Math online quantitative preparation course:

I read history in undergraduate and earned my master's degree in International Relations. Pursuing an MBA after nearly 7 years' absence from classroom environment, I am kind of a poet for the business school.

Having worked in the Financial Institutions Department with the Bank of China for the past 6 years, I will soon attend the Columbia Business School. As a relationship manager, I have a good mastery of soft skillls and definitely need to sharpen my quant skills and get prepared for relevant knowledge to hit the ground running at my dream school.

To this end, the MBA Math online learning tool really gives me an opportunity to catch up and crack the nuts.
Comfort and confidence both build up in the process of self-paced learning.

Here is a testimonial from Stefano Pardi, a second-year student at London Business School and member of the MBA Math Board of Advisors, about his pre-MBA use of the MBA Math online quantitative preparation course:

After graduating in economics and business administration from L.U.I.S.S. University in Rome, I spent more than five years working for Andersen Business Consulting and Deloitte Consulting and one year and a half in industry as a corporate controller.

I am now studying for my MBA at London Business School, focusing on Strategy and Finance. A year ago, once I learned that I had been accepted by LBS, I started considering the subjects that I would like to review before the start of the program. Looking at my first year curriculum I soon realized that quantitative skills were the basis of the entire first year. So I decided to focus my effort in that area, and, even though I have always been familiar with math, both from an academic and professional perspective, I wanted to be sure that I was up to date with the skills required by the program.

I found MBA Math ideal for my goals because it:

• Allowed me to tailor my study in terms of schedule and format--training through quizzes, quick review of formulas, lessons
• Covered all the main areas I wanted to review before the start of the program--statistics, finance, spreadsheet modeling

As a result I felt extremely comfortable when tackling my first statistics, finance, and accounting assignments during my first term.

Here is a testimonial from Hugo Lorenson, a first-year student at Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto and member of the MBA Math Board of Advisors, about his pre-MBA use of the MBA Math online quantitative preparation course:

I started my studies at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management in September 2006. Before this, I had been a lawyer with the Province of Ontario's Legal Aid Plan for several years, where I provided legal services to disadvantaged persons. My previous work experiences included my working with a criminal defence firm, and as an analyst with Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General.

Clearly, my professional background was entirely non-quantitative. After I decided to transition into the business world and enter business school, I wrote the GMAT as part of the application process. Although my overall score was serviceable, there was a large discrepency between my verbal and quantitiative scores. I quickly realized that if I wanted to do well at business school, I would need to brush up on my math skills.

Luckily, I came across MBA Math after Rotman accepted me and intensely prepared for my studies over the summer. The results have been very satisfying thus far. Not only do I understand economics, finance, accounting, and statistical concepts that otherwise would have confused me, I am doing quite well in all of the courses. MBA Math was instrumental in positioning me for success at business school and helping reduce a lot of the first semester anxieties that are common to first year students.

Olin School of Business purchased MBA Math subscriptions for all incoming students and will use MBA Math in place of an on-campus pre-term quantitative preparation course.

Here is a testimonial from a student admitted to Chicago GSB's Class of 2009 about his use of the MBA Math online quantitative preparation course:

I have just accepted an offer of admission from Chicago GSB, and feel far more confident about entering such a quant-heavy program after having worked my way through the MBA Math course. It is excellent, and entirely understandable, even to someone (like me) who had not seen many of the concepts presented since high school. Furthermore, a few things were entirely new to me, yet taught so clearly and logically (thank you for the appendixes and derivations) that I had no real problems.
 
MBA Math is a great value, I don't remember having ever gotten so much for $100.

Here is a testimonial from Peter Park, a first-year student at Harvard Business School and member of the MBA Math Board of Advisors, about his pre-MBA use of the MBA Math online quantitative preparation course:

Prior to business school, I spent three years in Eldoret, Kenya, where I worked with Indiana and Moi Universities on the development of an HIV control system for western Kenya. I was responsible for ‘income security’ strategies for our HIV+ patient base, and linked sustainability measures with HIV care and prevention.

While my work in Eldoret certainly called for sound business intuition, I had historically been a poet of sorts with a mean non-profit bent. As an undergrad at Middlebury College, I studied religion and environmental studies, and after Midd, I spent a year on a non-profit fellowship at Indiana University called the Jane Addams - Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in Philanthropy. So by the time I had my admit letters for business school, while I understood the general feel for business, I still had hardly ever opened an Excel file, and terms such as ‘equity’ conjured up notions of poverty alleviation or social justice or something.

I am now a first-year student/RC at Harvard Business School, and through some smart pre-MBA prep, the transition into HBS life has been markedly smooth and my first semester went really well. While I used a number of resources during the summer, MBA Math was the cornerstone of my independent preparations for a number of reasons. For me, I found it to be the best way to become familiar with unfamiliar terminology early on, the best introduction to the process of solving problems in Excel, and perhaps most importantly, a painless and efficient way to learn the essentials. It was definitely a lot more effective than the books I bought over the summer but never quite got around to reading, and the reason is that MBA Math is structured in a way that makes it easy and effective to learn independently.