Advice from Students. Shouldn’t we learn from those with more experience and great track records. Stand on the shoulder of giants. Use best practices. Learn the hacks. Work smart. I started asking students who crushed my class last year, what their advice was for the new-incoming group of students. Here are some verbatim comments related to exams, class participation, and teams. Hint: this applies to all of us, not just students.
Exams (read: any assessments in life, GMAT, projects, presentations)
- Be able to think broadly and really think about application of material. How does this actually play out?
- Play devil’s advocate when eliminating choices
- Actually explain it to someone, if they understood you, you understand the material
- Start early. The brain needs time to develop the intuition for newly learned concepts
- Don’t just memorize the concepts in the PowerPoints
- Study in groups and quiz each other
- Focus on the takeaways
- As you learn concepts and principles, apply them to your daily WSJ readings and to other classes
- Write your own test questions using the slides. . . distill essential information
Team Work (read: All project-based, cross-functional work in Fortune 500)
- Put in the effort and do your part
- Support each other, but also battle out the best ideas
- Start early, and schedule meetings a few days in advance
- Split up the work, but make sure everything is cohesive and has an overall message that makes sense
- Don’t always be in a group with your friends because it’s harder to hold a friend accountable
- Everyone should do a little of everything if you want your paper to be unique and not just good
- When first meeting, lay out everyone’s strengths, weaknesses, and fear about team projects
- Set expectations for work contributions and work styles early on
- Focus on quantitative metrics and measures of success
- Make sure to keep asking “Is this logical?” and “Do these facts connect and tie back to the main idea?”
- Treat your projects like real-world assignments. Would you turn your work in on the job at an investment bank or consulting firm?
- Be concise but thorough. Don’t be superfluous
- Have one person proofread everything
Getting the most out of the experience (read: continuous learning)
- Ask questions and try to apply to projects that are also outside of class
- [Think] how I can offer a meaningful contribution that advances everyone’s learning?
- Business classes can only provide you a logic framework
- Go hard on the final project. It’s a lot of fun if you put your heart into it
- Have fun with it
- Tell yourself the content is interesting and it will become more interesting (heh, heh)
- Use frameworks as tools to organize your thoughts and as a common language for strategy
- Relate it to your internship, your job search, and day-to-day life
Learn how to learn
When I share this list (12pg total) I also provide a major caveat, that all advice is not good advice for you. In fact, some of the advice (re-read everything, memorize everything, watch all the videos again) is not what I would recommend. That said, we all learn differently. Find the way that makes sense for you. N=1
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