BRUSH-UP CLASS

As soon as we are done with our induction we were introduced to Brush-up classes, the goal was to bring us up to speed on what we would be expecting in the MBA program. The brush-up class lasted for two weeks and I must confess, it was really stressful. The brush-up classes were scheduled in the evening at the close of work so most time some of us stayed behind at work so we could attend the class while some attended the class while driving. I would say it was stressful because at the time it was new to most of us, having to work for the day and attend classes for an extra 2 hours.

One of The first brush-up courses I would like to blog about was Introduction to Excel. I was very much interested in this course as it was one of the courses I felt most people would be familiar with considering that everyone used excel almost every day in day-to-day work. Our facilitator for the day was Dr. Francis Okoye. He brought us up to speed with Microsoft excel as it is the number one data analysis tool used in most corporate organizations if not the world.

I recall him asking that we should rate ourselves on a scale of 1 to 10 how proficient we all were on Microsoft excel, some said 8 while a majority of the class said between 3 and 4. I remember stating that my excel level was 2 reasons being that I had taught as an ICT teacher during my National Youth Service  Corps days and I knew how broad Microsoft Excel was. I also knew I have always been under-utilizing the excel tool as there was much we could do on Excel. To most people’s surprise, Dr. Francis rated himself a 2 out of 5 which most of us found strange considering that he was very proficient with Excel. He later went into detail lecturing us on how to use excel and it became clear that many of us were at beginner level when it came to Microsoft Excel. There were lots of shortcuts as opposed to navigating the mouse which makes it easy to perform arithmetic operations. 

The following day we were introduced to Analysis of Business Problem. I found this course particularly fascinating. We were asked to analyze a case and proffer a solution to the case. I was impressed at how we were all able to analyze the case with little time. Everyone had amazing ideas and even the lecturer was happy with our reasoning process.

I must admit, at this point, I was really considering my position in the program, the standard of the program was remarkably high. We signed up for a part-time MBA program but at some point, it felt like it was a full-time program. We were expected to read before classes which is fine however we are given too many assignments which took long hours to get done. I have already noticed a significant change in my personal life as every free time I have is used for something productive like reading.

To be continued.