Richard Barnard current student of the International MBA program – Class of 2010 describes his experience during examweek in the second core period:
We are midway through our second exam week of the International MBA programme and this period, Core 2, has flown by. Regarded as the busiest term and often the most testing in terms of time, team and workload management, it has proven to be struggle at times but overall we’ve pulled through and are now heads-down, charging for the finish line.
Core period 2’s difficulties lie in the fact that we’ve had to manage 3 work groups: our Core Period 2 work group, entrepreneurial management group and also the Core Period 1 work group which we’ve used for the Economics and Marketing projects (the subjects that straddle Core Periods 1 and 2). Finding the time to commit to each of these teams has been hard and conflicts have naturally arisen. However, we were advised that Core Period 2 would produce ‘crunch’ situations and thus we were prepared.
There have been some major deliverables this term; memorable moments have included the final entrepreneurial management project presentations, carrying out questionnaires on the streets of Madrid for our marketing assignment, and revising for the subject that has given us all nightmares, cost accounting.
Inevitably the groups experienced moments of blowout, but thankfully all issues were resolvable and the mood within my section is positive, looking forward to clearing the exams, enjoying a few days well-earned break and then cracking on with Core Period 3 or, for the minority, embarking on an internship (IMBA in Practice).
Once the exams are over IE has granted us all 3 days holiday to fly to Paris and attend the annual MBAT (MBA Tournament) Europe’s largest annual MBA sporting/ social event, or to just relax and recuperate on a Spanish beach. I’m taking the first option, flying to Paris to represent IE at cricket and dodgeball, am presuming the skills required are vaguely compatible … run, catch and throw!
The past few weeks have seen blue skies, long sunny days and rising temperatures, the weather we all came to Spain for. With temperatures rising to the high 20’s centigrade, the parks and plazas are now filled with people chatting, drinking and eating long into the balmy evenings, and the prospects of a long hot Spanish summer await us all … happy days!
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