Last month I posted about having enrolled for Quantic’s Executive MBA. While only a couple of months have passed, my experience so far has been very positive. Just to share some background, I decided to pursue this degree as a way to get a good general grasp of the business skills which are required in running a company. My education so far has been skewed towards Finance (specifically the area of financial engineering and risk) and I felt that I lacked a broader understanding of how companies operate, something which I believe is important, especially for senior managerial positions. The second appeal was purely a desire to expand my network and to build up connections outside of my industry. As I wrote in my first post, I was initially apprehensive in enrolling and turned my offer down as I considered $9,600 to be too expensive on a relatively new course which is mostly based on an app. I eventually decided to take a gamble as the degree has been gaining more and more momentum and having not found a suitable alternative, I enrolled. I did not want to give up my day job for a full-time MBA and I did not want to commit in paying the fees charged by traditional business schools.

Slack Community

Quantic use Slack very effectively in communicating with students. Prior to the course I received an invitation to join their Slack workspace which has channels for coursework, events, networking and other relevant topics. These channels have been very active and overall a good way for engaging with other students. Channels are also looked after by what Quantic refer to as Engagement Coordinators who so far have been very professional and attentive in responding to student queries.

Networking Events

At the start of the course I attended a number of online networking events over ZOOM. After a warm welcome from our engagement coordinator, students were split into breakout rooms (around 5-6 students per room) and rooms were reshuffled a few times. It was nice getting to talk to other students from different industries and from across the world, I really did get the impression that we have a very international cohort with students from different backgrounds. As for how the events are organised, Quantic leverage a platform named Calendly which allows students to book suitable time slots for events that they want to attend. I liked how even for the same event, they organised multiple slots to cater towards different time zones. In taking other online courses, very often I have been disappointed because the events are usually hosted during timezones that are not suitable for APAC students. These events allowed me to meet a few students who are also based in Tokyo who I have connected with on LinkedIn.

Teaching Style & Content

Once the course starts, you will have full access to all the courses which I think is helpful for students who want to study ahead or who just want to take a peak at future modules. The first module that I am studying is Accounting  so most of my feedback will be limited to this course. As someone who already had prior knowledge of accounting (mostly gained from studying for the CFA exams) I must say that the content is well structured and I think Quantic have done a good job in picking the core topics to cover and explaining simply what is required (and nothing more). Although most of the financial accounting concepts were a refresher for me, I had less exposure to the book-keeping and managerial accounting concepts so it was a good way for me to test and evaluate the app as a learning tool. Overall I can say that a lot of the concepts have stuck with me; for those of you who are reading this post but have never tried the Quantic app, I recommend downloading and testing out their free courses. The teaching format of the paid MBA/EMBA courses is the same as the format  of the free portion of the app so you will know straight away whether you like or dislike this form of learning. In addition to going through the self-paced courses on the app, Quantic also offer office hours and refreshers which can be booked via Calendly. I am not able to comment on the quality of these sessions as I have not yet attended any but I will make sure to share some feedback in future posts.

Conclusion

These are just some of the points that I have noticed so far during my first month studying at Quantic. I have yet to take their first exam and try their group projects so I should be able to share my experience in tackling those assessments in a later post. So far, my overall experience with Quantic has been positive but I could see how some students could feel a bit isolated, the learning is centred around the app and is based on individual students autonomously going through the exercises and completing mini assessments. I am particularly interested in seeing/assessing the quality of future group work events and networking events to see how they impact my experience as a student. Thank you for reading and I look forward to updating you about Quantic in future posts.