BS

The one thing that students here talked most about last week is BS – Bull Shit. What is interesting about this is that it is not something that is totally unrelated to our studies. When I knew about the case methodology at AIM, I felt relieved . I had a doubt whether I will get the required grades through the exams and thought Class Participation(CP) would be my saviour here. Only after landing up here you realise that CP is the most difficult part. CP is just not speaking in class, it is about making sense too. In some cases it is even more than that. Apart from making sense you also have to add value. The marketing case opening in which I got busted would be a perfect example. From the professors point of view it is very important that they use the airtime well to involve as many as possible to get what they want out of the case discussion. But till now it has been taking time for each good point to come out. One reason may be because we are all very new to the subjects and still haven’t got to the right mode of analysing the cases. But the reason that concerns the professors the most is BS. They think many put their hands and speak bull shit just to earn their CP points. They want us to know that they are smart enough to see through BS. They have been teaching for so many years and handled hundreds of students like us. They also know that there will always be some air time that will go waste in useless discussion and humour. But when that crosses the line, they start acting. I think that is what has happened and that is also why we have a poll to vote for the “Bullshitter” of the class.
Personally, I feel this is unnecessary. My CP has been relatively low till now and I also feel this BS is wasting airtime in the classes. But I feel this poll a little harsh. The person who gets voted will obviously feel shattered and I don’t think he/she will get along with the classmates well after this. May be the results should not be made public and the professors should counsel the students who get voted privately. No one is so bad in the class to deserve a public verdict(we Asians are rash,aren’t we?). Atleast it should be postponed till the students are comfortable with the subjects and also to let them settle down from their initial enthusiasm of getting into a top MBA program and wanting to prove that in class.
But what about this? Why stop the bull shitters at all? I feel there are learnings from them too. If I cannot handle a few of these in class what am I going to do in the real world in a managerial post(whether I will get one is another issue…hehe ). There are going to be lots more of them out there. I need to learn to handle them or even outsmart them. There aren’t going to be any professors out there who are going to stop these people. I have to tackle them and even worse they may not be MBAs or educated even.(why the hell did i ever leave my job and come for an MBA).
Everything is a learning at a bschool, even bull shit. No wonder the fees are high :)))).