Question of the Week: What I wish I knew for finals, MOD I

Looking back on MOD I there is a lot of stuff I wish I knew then I know now, especially for test time.

I was talking with an Alumni yesterday and we got on the topic of "passing down tips and pointers" to the incoming class.  He had a great point-  most of the underclassmen you try and "coach' about finals strategy really just turn around and ignore your words of wisdom and end up making the same mistakes you did.  Looking back, I did the same thing when 2nd years tried to give me tips on test taking.

Besides the fact most of you incoming students wont heed this advice, I think it's still cathartic for us 1st year students to share our thoughts on how we'd be better prepared for MOD I finals.

1. It gets easier.  MOD I and MOD II finals are a nightmare.  You'll have at least 3, maybe 5, finals.  For MOD III and MOD IV, I had 3 and 2, respectively. The sheer volume of studying is simply easier to digest later the in the year.
2. It will be very, very, very hard if you want a good grade, very hard if you want an average grade.  You should know now the scores in any given class usually follow a normal distribution; to have an average grade (let's call it a "B") you have to be very prepared; hours and hours of studying, be fully prepared, etc.  To get a good grade (let's call it an A) you have to work more than 3 times as hard.  You have to be over-prepared.  You have to leave the test wishing they would have asked you question X because you were more prepared to answer that question then the question they had on the test. So the good news is, with a reasonable amount of studying you can get a descent grade.  The bad news is, to get a great grade, the amount of work is unreasonable.
3. Grades matter, but then again, they don't.  I've had a slurry of interviews for internships and not ONCE did anyone ask about my GPA.  Then again, for some jobs, like traditional business consulting roles, they probably will ask.  So if you know what you want to do, and you know you want to work for firm X, they might care about your class rank; this means if it's halfway into the semester and you decide then you want to work for firm X, it might be too late.  I'd estimate for about 85% of the jobs and internships, as long as you're getting average grades, you'll be fine.
4. Get a good study group.  Get it early.  I had the best study group the world has ever seen (affectionately known by Sharran as the four wise men).  We each had our strengths; some were rational about setting goals, some of us were constantly pushing the group to work just one more accounting problem... Some knew the finance cold, some knew the best way to frame up the marketing exam (which we ate alive, by the way).  Had I not been in this group, my GPA would be half a point lower than it is right now.  This group will become a part of your life; you'll know their schedules and routines by heart by the end of the first two MOD's.
5. Keep all your notes.  Keep them in order.  Keep them organized.  B-school prof's are pretty good at annotating the entire MOD through their class notes.  It's a tremendous amount of material (my MOD 1 binder is over 4" thick) but if you keep it organized, it's your best friend come test time.
6. Use OneNote or a similar note-taking software.  The Four Horsemen approve OneNote for class outlines and Visio for diagrams/formula sheets.  We had notes for Accounting and Ops that would bring tears to your eyes. Now if we can only get sponsored by Microsoft...
7. B-school exams arent tricky, they're just very very thorough.  Undergrad exams tried to trick you to see if you were paying attention.  B-school exams force you to use what you know to connect the dots and answer the problem.  A typical question, let's say in accounting, will look similar to other cash flow problems you've done, but will require you to "think" about how to structure the answer.  It's not a trick, it just asks you to push back from the table and ask "ok, this is a new way to approach this, but if (X+Y-T/G) =Z, X, T,and Z are given, how would I back-solve to find Z given a logical assumption of G?  That's an oversimplification, but you get the idea.  It's asking you to take what you've been taught and be able to actually work with it to find answers, not just plug in values to formulas.