“This is the beginning of a new day. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. I want to gain, not lose; want good not evil; success not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it”.
If you are an MBA aspirant often thinking on the same lines almost every morning about your day, then you must surely be wondering of how your day would be at a B-School. Let us take a sneak preview of a day at IBS, one of the prestigious B-Schools of the country. Being an alumnus of IBS Hyderabad, I will take you through what was my typical day at the campus.
6:45 AM: “Good Morning”!!
I usually used to get up at 6:45 AM which was quite a task considering the time at which I went to bed each night. You will find out the reason for the late nights as you go on reading this article.
7:00 AM: “Wake up and be awesome”!!
There is nothing better than early morning workouts. There are many fitness regimes that one can follow at IBS, such as a morning walk, jogging round the vast campus, playing any kind of sport, swimming or working out in the gym. I personally preferred hitting the gym for about 45 minutes to an hour.
8:00 AM: “Breakfast time”!!
“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper”. After a rigorous workout I used to go to the mess and enjoy a healthy breakfast. At IBS the menu keeps changing every day for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner and it is usually fixed as per the day of the week, so that one can enjoy a variety of food.
8:30 AM: “Get set go”!!
After a healthy breakfast I went back to the hostel to get ready for the classes. They used to start at 9.10 AM and 10.20 AM on alternate days from Monday to Friday, and end by 4:20 PM and 5:30 PM respectively.
9:10 AM: “Its study time”!!
Since it was the first classroom session of the day, everyone used to be fully charged including me and reached the classroom early to catch up with friends for sometime before the session began. The classroom session at IBS is a case study model. The case based teaching method is a unique way of learning things, by applying the theoretical concepts to various scenarios and business problems faced by giant corporations in reality.
To know more about IBS case studies use the following link
10:20 AM: “Reading Room”!!
Typically the duration of a classroom session spanned over 70 minutes which was followed by a 70 minutes break in between each session. This time was utilized by going to reading rooms. In IBS small study groups are formed comprising of 4-5 students each to utilize the time between the sessions. All the students of the group gather in a special place meant for group study called the reading room.
11:30 AM: “Back to the class”!!
After the group study session, it used to be the time for the second classroom session of the day.
12:40 PM: “Lunch Hour”!!
By this time I used to get very hungry. Studying continuously is not an easy task after all. The next class was scheduled at 1.50 PM so we grabbed a quick bite and recharged ourselves for the rest of the day. The lunch usually was a quick one, as I usually needed sometime to go through the case for the next class once again.
1:50 PM: “Session after lunch”!!
I’m sure you might be wondering what it must be like to be in a classroom straight after lunch and how can one possibly be awake in the class? But as I said, IBS has got a very interesting pedagogy “Case study Methodology”, and not the boring traditional lecture based teaching, hence students are always active irrespective of which hour of the day the session is conducted.
3:10 PM: “Phew…last classroom session of the day”!!
The session after lunch used to get over at 3:00 PM. We used to have a 10 minutes break before the next session, which used to begin at 3:10 PM and end at 4:20 PM.
4:20 PM: “Tea Time”!!
This was the time of the day when I used to feel very relaxed, as all the sessions were done for the day. It was the time to go to the mess, have tea along with freshly prepared snacks, and have fun with friends.
5:00 PM: “Power Nap”!!
I used to come back to my room in the hostel and take a nap for about an hour, begin the second half of the day feeling refreshed.
6:00 PM: “Splash in the pool”!!
I love swimming, and thanks to IBS I could swim daily. Its campus has a very well maintained Olympic sized swimming pool.
IBS has got excellent sports facilities, and hence one has many options in terms of which sport he/she would like to play. There is a separate block called as sports complex, where facilities for many indoor games like Badminton, Squash, Table Tennis, Chess, and Caroms etc. are available. There are also separate fields and grounds for outdoor games like Cricket, Football, Volleyball, Basket Ball, Lawn Tennis etc.
To know more about the campus use the following link
http://www.ibsindia.org/ibs_hyderabad/
7:00 PM: “Fun n Frolic”!!
After swimming for about an hour, I used to go to canteen with friends and have lots of fun there sitting at leisure having long conversations over juice or pastry or any delicacy for that matter.
8:00 PM: “Project meeting”!!
At IBS, projects are one important part of the academics. We used to have different project groups for different subjects, where each group comprised of 4-6 students; and have meetings at any place in the campus almost daily, based on the priority of the projects as per the submission deadlines.
8:30 PM: “Club meeting”!!
There are numerous clubs at IBS, which are very active and organize events. Clubs are a great way to pursue hobbies or take up activities of personal interest. Just to name a few, there are clubs for acting, movies, sports, adventures, photography, fitness, languages, social activities and entrepreneurship etc.
9:00 PM: “What’s on the menu?? Its dinner time”!!
After winding up all the meetings I used to go to the mess for the dinner along with my friends, and we all took a walk till the main gate after dinner to have ice cream.
10:00 PM: “Study Time”!!
After dinner I used to come back to the hostel and study. Sometimes I studied alone, other times with friends. The study involved preparing for the cases to be discussed the next day.
12:00 AM: “Birthday Celebrations”!!
At IBS there is a custom of celebrating birthday at 12:00 AM, where all the friends gather at a place in the campus to celebrate the birthday by cutting cake and giving birthday bumps to the lucky one.
12:30 AM: “Some more studies”!!
With so many projects, cases and tests going on it is very important to devote time to studies. I usually studied till 2:00 AM.
2:00 AM: “Time to sleep?? Not, yet”!!
Studying continuously is not an easy task after all. The study stretches were interrupted by some sandwiches and maggi, with lemon tea at the hostel canteen called Bingers, which stays open till 3:00AM.
2:30 AM: “Now you know”!!
Yes, finally it was time to sleep. Now you know, why getting up at 6:45 AM in the morning was quite a task!
This is how a typical day at IBS looks like, am sure you must be thinking that it’s very hectic and how is it possible to take time out for so many activities in a single day. But, believe me; one the most important things that you learn at IBS is “Time Management”.
Contributed By : Rohan Jain, Class of 2009-2011, IBS Hyderabad
Linkedin Profile of Rohan Jain: http://in.linkedin.com/in/rohanjain88/
Well that’s a typical MBA lifestyle. But hey, IBS is not only about MBA. It has a Faculty of law as well as Faculty of science and technology. All the facilities in IBS and even the shops nearby are MBA oriented. Only working due to them . Its not fair on the part of the management. They have closed the night canteen as soon as MBA went and now we usually have to sleep empty stomach. I am a law student and there’s not even a cafeteria in FOL. which is a shame as there are cafeteria’s in every other department. Its like we dont exist at all , and we are the ones who have to spend the most time in the campus. 5 years is a long stretch of time. Hope in these 5yrs i can bring some development for the undergraduates. we are humans too, you know.