Mark and Jie's Journey to B-School

We took our strategy final today, thus ending the third of six courses for this term. Strategy was my biggest challenge this time, as marketing was last semester. I didn't have any exposure to strategic thinking before the class, and our professor was really on top of his game and was very impressive. It took a lot of mental work just to stay focused on what was going on, much less make the intuitive leaps to grasp whatever intricate point he was making using seemingly useless data. This is one of those classes that really makes me glad I came to b-school, and HBS in particular. And to be honest, you can't say that for every class.

Anyway, I spent a whopping four hours on the final, which is the longest I have ever spent on one test in my life, SAT's included. I really wanted to put the effort in and write a good exam, as a sign of respect as much as anything else. It also represented to me just how far I came in this particular subject this semester, as I don't think I would have seen things as deeply or as clearly three months ago.