Blonde MBADocumenting the life of a blonde MBA student in sunny California. Maybe some blondes DO have brains!

Phew, I just go out of my first test…not too bad, but if figured I’d wait to say anything about my study group experience until I saw if if paid off or not! On my previous post on study groups, I mentioned my fear of “groupthink” and collectively answering the question wrong…

I forgot something else…5 different people, 5 different study strategies. Alone, this is OK, to each their own device to learn the material. Collectively, however, it’s kind of hard for the person who memorized, yes, MEMORIZED the chapters to study with the person who reworded the concepts via acronyms, real world examples, and songs (j/k, sort of)! Personally, I think you want a little of all the study strategies - there is no one best way - but it does make for an interesting study group.

The results? Being the first test, none of us really knew what to expect… I think ROTE MEMORIZATION was overkill, but it was helpful for me to retype the chapter outlines for repetition, add in some acronyms for possible short answer lists (of which there were many options) and look at the cases we covered in class.

Honestly, the study group did help in a couple of ways. First, there were a couple of things I probably would have skipped over or forgotten to include if someone in the group didn’t bring it up. Second, where one person may not have understood a concept entirely, another was able to explain it in a different way that might have made more sense. As long as you keep a sense of the study strategies that work for you, this can be a helpful addition to your study time!