Post-Michelmas, Pre- Hilary

As most of my classmates would probably tell you, the one-year Oxford MBA is intense. It packs a traditional 18-month MBA program into 12-months and brings together 221 students from 48 countries. Overall, I'm learning a lot, making friends from all over the world, and enjoying the larger Oxford experience. I return to New York to visit Chris from time to time, and in addition to those visits I hope that this blog will enable me to update my friends and family regularly on life in Oxford.

The first term, Michelmas, went well overall. There were six courses: Finance I, Financial Reporting, Decision Science, Developing Effective Managers, Strategy, and Managerial Economics. My study group consisted of two Indians, one South African, one Colombian, one Canadian, and me. We worked well together, and I'm sure this made our lives easier is some ways.

The exam week at the end of the term was by far the most hectic exam week I've experienced. As an undergrad, all final exams were self-scheduled. The exam period normally lasted for 5 days and students had the option of picking up their exams either for a morning exam session or an afternoon exam session. When I explain this set-up to people, they often ask how the administration kept students who took the exam early from providing students who planned to take the exam later with the exam questions. I'm not naive enough to think that this never happened, but in four years I never heard about it, and neither did anyone I talked to before I enrolled or since I graduated. I attended a women's college, and the students were quite competitive with themselves. Providing test questions (or suggested answers) was simply not part of the culture; students respected themselves and the professors in a way that was (and still is) perhaps unique.

In contrast, Oxford scheduled six exams during a four day period. My classmates and I dressed in traditional sub-fuscs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-fusc and took the exams together in one big room. Early in the term one (American) professor half-jokingly noted that some students looked better in sub-fuscs on exam day than they had all term. My section laughed at this comment, but I have say that I think it held some water. We really did clean up, and it was kind of neat to sit for exams in a different atmosphere. Following the last exam we headed for the Turf pub, one of the few pubs in Oxford with the space to accommodate most of our class. After a busy first-term and intense exam period, it was nice to spend time together in a relaxed atmosphere. The break was certainly welcome and has been both productive and enjoyable, but I'm looking forward to returning to Oxford to start the next term.