This course will equip students with the quantitative skills needed to begin any Masters of Business Administration program. The goal is not to build foundational skills or expert mastery but rather, to provide some middle ground to “shake the rust off” skills that a typical MBA student probably knows, but may not have thought about for quite some time. The course provides a quick refresher on top level math and statistics concepts that will be used throughout the MBA curriculum at any school. All of the concepts will be reinforced with practical real-world examples. All calculations, formulas, and data analysis will be performed in Excel, with many detailed demonstrations. For those unfamiliar or less comfortable with spreadsheets, the course will also prepare students with a basic facility for using spreadsheets to solve quantitative business problems. This course has no prerequisites and is intended for any audience.
Overview
Syllabus
- Welcome to the Course
- Week 1: Getting Started with Basic Math
- This module sets up the basic foundations in mathematics. We cover negative numbers, functional analysis, and logarithms.
- Week 2: A Little More Math and Getting Started with Data
- This module continues to build on mathematical skills including systems of equations and limits. We also introduce basic data descriptions and visualizations using a spreadsheet program.
- Week 3: Getting Started with Basic Statistics
- This module covers the basics concepts of statistics, we touch on bell curves, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, and linear regression. All examples are done with a practical approach and using a spreadsheet program to do all the math.
- Week 4: Putting it all Together with Some Practical Examples
- This module includes a series of practical cases studies. No new material is introduced, the focus is on putting into practice what we've learned!
Taught by
James Weston
