Pre-Skills

Students join the Smith School with a variety of technical skills and educational and professional backgrounds. The resources below have been compiled to assist incoming students with preparing for their master's coursework.

UMD students have unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning, an online library of instructional videos covering the latest software, creative, and business skills.

View Recording of June 30, 2025 MiM Academic Pre-skills Student Chat with Academic Director


   

Required Pre-Skills for BMGT 606: Data Driven Decision Making

All students are required to complete "Spreadsheet Modeling: Introductory Section (SM)," an online course from Harvard Business Publishing. This online course focuses on fundamental skills in spreadsheet analysis that will be used in DDDM. This assignment accounts for 5% of the grade for this course. 

Study Time Required: Students should go through the various units making sure to constructively use the active learning method that is the basis of this online course. The faculty instructor for DDDM will be able to monitor your progress through the various parts of this online course. Harvard Business Publishing estimates that it will take 6 hours to complete this course. Students should assume this as a minimum to be safe and plan accordingly. Students are urged to register for SM and begin studying the course material as soon as possible.

Performance and Due Date: SM includes a Final Exam with only one chance. Performance in this online exam will account towards the 5% of the grade for BMGT 606. The deadline for taking the SM final exam is Sunday, August 25, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. 

Academic Integrity: Students will complete this assignment under the University of Maryland's Code of Academic Integrity. 

Harvard Business School Publishing Online Course Registration:

Course Number and Name: Spreadsheet Modeling Online Course, Excel 2013: Introductory Section
Cost: $45, to be paid individually by the student directly to HBSP
Login Information: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/1306210

Technical Difficulty? See step by step instructions. Contact the Harvard Business School Publishing Technical Support at custserv@hbsp.harvard.edu or 800-810-8858 or see https://hbsp.harvard.edu/contact-us/.

Questions about the BMGT 606 pre-skills assignment or course content can be directed to Professor Eaman Jahani (eaman@umd.edu). 

 

Required Pre-Semester Asynchronous Courses 

First semester courses will focus on analytical principles to guide complex decision-making. A strong understanding of basic business math, basis statistics, and spreadsheet skills will be critical to successfully completing the semester. Students who do not already have a strong familiarity with these topics should complete the following no later than August 17, 2025:


Required Pre-Skills Assignment for BMGT 610: Financial Management 

BMGT 610: Financial Management offers an introduction to corporate financial management and is a core courses all MS in Management Studies students complete in Term B. The objective of the course is to learn how to model the monetary implications of a firm’s strategic initiatives by outlining the financial concepts and techniques used to evaluate those corporate decisions. Topics include the time value of money, valuation of common securities, construction of discounted cash flow models, capital structure, and the weighted average cost of capital.

“Finance Online Course: Introductory Section” offered by Harvard Business School Publishing (product number 6000-HTM-ENG) is required for all students to prepare for BMGT 610. This online course introduces some of the material that will be covered in BMGT 610, including time value of money, financial ratios, financial forecasting. This online course is estimated to take 8 to 10 hours, depending upon prior familiarity with the material. For students who have never been exposed to finance coursework, the online course could take as long as 20 to 30 hours.

Finance is a topic that most people master through repetition. There is a limited amount of time together in the classroom during the semester and the course covers a significant amount of material. For incoming students new to the topic of corporate finance, it will be especially important to be exposed to some of the material prior to the start of the course.

Grading: To encourage students to complete the course, 10% of the grade for BMGT 610 will come from whether or not students have obtained a score of at least 75% on Final Exam 1 by the deadline. There is no need to take Post-Test 2. A score of 75% score is sufficient because students are not expected to have mastered these concepts before entering the course -- all students should be familiar with the concepts so that the course can focus on mastery of the material. Students who already have significant experience with the course material, may able to successfully take the Final Exam without going through the various lessons in detail first. Since students only have one chance to take the Final Exam, students should test their mastery by first taking the Pre-test. Students are encouraged to take the Pre-test only if they have significant prior experience with the course material. Students who score 75% or more on the Pre-test can consider taking the Final Exam without going through the various lessons in detail.

Due Date: The deadline for completing the course and uploading the Certificate of Completion to the BMGT 610 course in Canvas is Sunday, October 19, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. eastern time.  

Harvard Business School Publishing Online Course Registration: 

Course Number and Name: Finance Online Course: Introductory Section
Cost: $35, to be paid individually by the student directly to HBSP
Login: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/1305709 

Technical Difficulty? See step by step instructions. Contact the Harvard Business School Publishing Technical Support at custserv@hbsp.harvard.edu or 800-810-8858 or see https://hbsp.harvard.edu/contact-us/.

Questions about the BMGT 610 pre-skills assignment or course content can be directed to Professor James Seward (jseward@umd.edu).

 

Optional Asynchronous Assignments and Reading

Incoming students do not need to be proficient with all of these tools prior to the start of classes, however, having some prior experience could help them learn more effectively.