What Is The Best MBA Study Tool?

Today’s MBA students are increasingly busy multi-taskers, navigating life at home, work and school, so precious study time must be used efficiently! While at the same time, top b-schools students must learn how to navigate such a fast-paced, interconnected business world.

 

We are wondering how MBAs maximize learning in this environment, so we asked our MBA network, “What are your best resources and study tools?”

 

Luis Carlos Barraza Pinto, an EMLYON MBA student, said that “a traditional passive learning approach won’t cut it anymore” in business. Barraza, who has a background in international business development, said that he forces himself to adopt a real-world mindset while studying.

 

“It’s not just about learning new things, but understanding how can I put them to use just after I complete a course,” Barraza said. “This type of mindset changes entirely the way I hit the books and try to dissect the infinite business cases I have to cope with during the MBA, since I always ask myself ‘What could I do with this new tool if I were to apply it tomorrow?’”

 

A real-world approach also works for Christopher Probert, a Manchester MBA student, who said he turns to real-life resources like ‘The Economist’ and ‘The Financial Times’ while studying.

 

“Particularly if it comes to wanting to find out more about the financial performance of a company, ‘The Financial Times’ is a regular resource,” Probert said. “I’m doing a project at the moment where we used the International Monetary Fund GDP count for a few different countries.”

 

But for some students, like Lancaster MBA student Vinay Bamalwa, class notes and textbooks are the most trusted and proven resources.

 

“I always find the lecture slides given by professors to be of most importance,” Bamalwa said. “At the Lancaster MBA, we are a highly collaborative class where many students share their notes. Hence, I find reading other students' notes quite useful as well. After that, the subject textbook along with recommended journals and papers are helpful too, as well as online websites suggested by search engines such as Google.”

 

Malik Ajani Jr, a Manchester MBA student, said he agrees that uncomplicated, practical approaches are most useful: “My studying approach was very straightforward:  attend lectures, read and prepare for case discussions and when ensure then talk to colleagues and look for tutorials on any subject on YouTube,” Ajani said.

 

Barraza said that he doesn’t disregard traditional approaches like textbook-reading though, and usually utilizes them during his commute time to school, since he lives almost an hour away from the EMLYON campus: “Obviously, I don’t leave aside the traditional learning approaches of taking notes and reading every chance I get,” Barraza said.

 

It’s your turn to weigh in now through the comments below! Are there any particular study resources, websites or approaches that work for you as a busy MBA student in a fast-moving business world?