Pre-Skills

"Pre-skills" summer coursework is required for many of the core courses to fully prepare students for the first fall semester. Pre-skills courses equip students with the fundamental quantitative concepts and skills necessary for mastery in these and future courses. Pre-skills coursework prepares students to perform at a "higher level," that is, focusing on managerial implications instead of quantitative details.

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

  

Summer Pre-Skills Assignments for BMGT 606: Data Driven Decision Making

BMGT 606: Data Driven Decision Making (DDDM) will focus on analytical principles that can guide complex decision-making. A strong understanding of statistics will be critical to successfully completing the semester. 

Recommended

To prepare for coursework, it is strongly recommended that students complete the following no later than August 18, 2024: 

Study Time Required: It is estimated that it will take 3 hours to complete these assignments. 

Required

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 DDDM.

Study Time Required: 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. Please 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 once 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 18, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. 

Academic Integrity: Students will complete this assignment under the University of Maryland's Code of Academic Integrity. Any violation of this code, such as receiving help from another individual in taking a Test, will result in an academic integrity sanction, including the possibility of an “XF” on your transcript with the notation “failure due to academic dishonesty”.

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:

Technical Difficulty? 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/.

Please direct questions about the BMGT 606 pre-skills assignment to Professor Ashish Kabra (akabra@umd.edu).

    

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 20, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. eastern time.  

Harvard Business School Publishing Online Course Registration Information 

Course Number and Name: Finance Online Course: Introductory Section

Cost: $35, to be paid individually by the student directly to HBSP

Login:

Technical Difficulty? 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 as it relates to course content can be directed to Professor Professor Seward (jseward@umd.edu).

  

Optional Additional Summer Work and Reading