Most students enter a business school with the elation of having qualified through the rigorous procedure. They are ready to take on whatever is thrown at them and are confident of sailing through because they think and many around them tell them that the difficult part is over now.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. The first semester in a B-School is the hardest and most students are likely to have never encountered such a time in their life. Almost all students start counting the days till the finish of the term and are looking for a break. This is because of a number of reasons.
First the educations system elsewhere is such that student slog out in the end of the year and just take it easy all other time. In a B-School however one is continuously evaluated and the end of term examination carries weightage, which can be as low as 30%. The rest takes the form of mid terms, assignments group and individual, projects, surprise quizzes and even class participation! Life in a b-school can be deadline se deadline tak. So there is constant pressure to perform and even one let up affects your grades.
Class participation or CP also becomes a pain for some students. Faculty evaluates you on the basis of the CP or how much you speak in every class. Now the reason this becomes a dread is well sometimes you really don't have much to say but even then you have to conjure up something. Then sometimes in the beginning when you are sizing up your classmates and they you, you really don't want to say or ask something stupid so you decide to let on a few things that are on your mind pass but at the same time you are losing out on grades if you do so. Sometimes if the weightage for CP is high in that course you would find it difficult to get airtime as you see everyone wants to speak at any possible moment. But really once you get the knack of it its really not that bad.
Then comes group work. Working in teams is one of the most important things one learns in a b-school and sometimes I think it's the most difficult thing to learn as well. You would constantly find that something that would take you 15 minutes to do on your own takes a whole hour in a group. This happens because of the diverse viewpoints and everyone sticking to their own views. In a situation where every minute is precious this can get really frustrating. Then there is the free-rider problem. With a few guys not doing any work and still getting grades because the other members in the group don't have the stomach to approach the faculty and say that this guy has a problem. Conversely one person can be too dominating and would want his way all the time making it difficult to perform in the group. Group work can be a real killer.
Another thing in a b-school is those students who regularly meet up with the faculty and talk to them outside class seem to score slightly more than the ones who do not. It can get frustrating but there is not much you can do but follow them or learn to live with it.
The workload is such that two or three in the night becomes the regular time to sleep and people not used to this find it difficult to cope with this time cycle.
Then there are the small problems that every hosteller has of food; laundry, getting something to eat in the night and seeing it vanish before having a single bite, if you don't have a bike then arranging one to go out and small stuff like that.
All these factors contribute to make the first term really difficult and seem like hell for most. The advantage of that is even hell would be a breeze if you go through this successfully which you would do provided you learn this new way of life quickly and adjust accordingly and once you do the remaining terms are a cake walk and you will have a great time.
