Things to be done before you’re in a B-School for a course in Finance

I know it sounds funny and far fetched but last week a friend of mine asked me for advice on pre-preparation before an engineer joins an MBA Finance course. The advice was for another friend of hers who had just finished engineering and was about to join a B-School. Obviously, she has chosen a wrong engineer for advice but however awkward as it may be for me, I generally never waste an opportunity to impart Gyaan onto others. So here’s my advice for all those engineers who are about to join a B-School and have time for trivial things such as preparation and all...

“Engineers need not study anything before the course has begun. They can manage everything you see... ;-)”, I told her. But, on a second thought, I think I would have had a better time in the class if I had brushed up little stats or read a chapter or two of basic accounting. So here it goes:

Statistics and Mathematics

Most of the part is covered during the 5 semesters of mathematics during engineering. Basic concepts of measures of central tendency (Mean, Mode, Median, etc), graphical representation (Frequency Polygon, Histogram), limits, sequences and series, calculus, matrices is what you are supposed to know

Financial Institutions

NCFM book for Securities Markets – Basic Module is a good read here. Different financial institutions, regulators and intermediaries in the Indian Financial System and their functions is what you need to know (You can download this book from NSE website http://www.nseindia.com)

Word, Excel and PowerPoint

I have seen many of my fellow classmates struggle with this. You at least need to have skills to make a ‘not-so-good-presentation-so-far-as-the-content-is-concerned’ look extremely good with different layouts and animations. For those who are already comfortable using office, some knowledge of macros and VBA programming will prove to be a great help...

Accounting Basics

If you don’t want to be in a position where you don’t have a clue what your accounts or FSA (Financial Statement Analysis) professor is talking to other commerce background students, you need to grab an 11-12 standard commerce book for basic accounting.

Laptop and Basic working knowledge of computers

Decide which laptop model are you comfortable with. Is it a Mac or a PC? Check out different models out there. See which one are you comfortable with. Another must have is a USB Drive or preferably a USB hard disk. If you are not comfortable with computers/ Internet, spend some time exploring and using the Internet. 

Meet-up with Friends

This is the best thing you can do during the holidays is that you can meet up all your friends. When the course will start you will not have time to do such things. The presentations, projects and other such activities will keep you occupied for your two years in the B-School.

I think you’re all set once you are through with the things I’ve mentioned here... Have I missed anything? Fellow capmarks students can chip-in with their suggestions...