By Callum Charman, MFA Recruitment Associate
Collaborative working through study groups is an integral part of the MFA programme. Study groups consist of 6-7 students per group who work together on core group assignments. Each study group comprises of a mix of educational background, nationality, age and gender to give students the experience of working in a diverse team in a multi-cultural environment. Study groups are rotated halfway through the school year, to give students the opportunity to collaborate with different members of their cohort.
In the final installment of this blog series, we spoke to MFA2021 graduate Azmi Dzulkarnain about his study group experience!
Hi Azmi! To start, can you give a brief overview of your study group?
It was a little bit different for me because I spent most of my time with LBS, studying from Singapore. My study group was my only real interaction with people from LBS for actual active participation. I was lucky because my study group was not only people who were really capable, but people who I could really enjoy my time with. Without the study group I could’ve felt a little detached from LBS.
One of the only good things about being so isolated because of Covid is that we were able to become really close with our study groups, whether you like them or not! They were the main interaction for a couple of hours every day, which was a good experience.
I had a few close friends from the second study group. Even now that I’m in London, my closest friends are from my study groups, which is great. I met Nona yesterday for dinner. She’d never tried hotpot before, not a good one anyway!
What projects did you do?
We had a lot of projects but the biggest was for Data Analytics. For that course we had tutorials for two hours a week, where we had to sit and work together in our study groups.
The biggest challenge was coordinating meetings across different time zones. With everyone busy with recruitment and job searching, especially in the first term, getting five individuals on one schedule wasn’t easy! Sometimes I had to stay up a little later than I would’ve liked, which could be a challenge! At least I didn’t have to get up early. No one likes getting up early, right?
What were your key takeaways from the study group experience?
The main difference between LBS and undergrad was with the study groups. These are the people you work with for all your classes. You can’t chose them and you work with the same 5-7 people for 5 or 6 classes in a row. For better or worse, you have to work together, which is a good proxy for real life. Your team are assigned to you, similar to colleagues within a workplace. It’s a good introduction to working life.
Click here to read more about the study group experience from other MFA2021 students!
To find out more about the MFA programme, please visit our website.