I’ve decided to post questions emailed to me, on this blog, so that everyone gets the information and I don’t have to repeat myself.
Q. How many hours a week are you in class? I can’t seem to find that on any website. Also, for every hour you’re in class, about how many hours does the average student spend on preparation?
A. For both questions, it depends. So far for P1 and P2 (where we only have core courses, not electives) we usually have 2-3 classes a day, each class lasting 1.5 hours, and in between we have a lunch break. However we also have other activities like career talks, club meetings and groupwork.
[Applying what I’ve learnt for microeconomics, there are fixed and variable times in the equation. We have a certain fixed time of 1.5*3=4.5 hours per day. However, lunch break is usually from 12-2pm which is an extra 2 hours. It doesn’t make sense to walk home to Dover or Heritage to prepare lunch then walk back, so most will have lunch in school. When you have lunch in school you tend to linger at the tables talking/networking, or dashing off for some other activities. These other activities are like ‘variable times’. Career talks will last a fixed period of time, but you might linger on to ask more questions. There may also be club meetings. Time spent during group work also depends on how efficient your group is. So if you have many activities and lots of time spent on groupwork, you could very well stay past dinnertime, which has happened to me several times already. ]
The time spent on preparation varies for everyone. Some already have quantitative backgrounds, so it’s faster for them to complete the readings and exercises, while others who have non-quantitative backgrounds will take a longer time. Some even go travelling almost every weekend.
Having said that, the readings are generally heavy and many of us think it is impossible to finish everything all the time. From what I see, even if we do the readings, not all of us complete the exercises for each session. However, given how fast-paced INSEAD’s MBA programme is, I’d strongly advice those weaker in a particular subject to prepare as much as possible for it before class starts. I am trying to do this myself as it really facilitates my understanding.
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