Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Harvard Business School pre-course (MBA)

Note: You may only start on the HBS Pre-course AFTER being successfully matriculated as an SMU Student because you will need to create an account using your SMU email account. 

Module Information

Completing the pre-study modules is required for all students who will be starting the MBA journey with us in Jan 2025. The office will be following up with you on a regular basis on your progress in the pre-study courses. The MBA Office has evaluated and chosen the online pre-course material prepared by Harvard Business School. There are a total of four modules and the completion timeline is as indicated below.

Module Titles and Completion Timeline: 

  1. Finance: An Introductory Online Course – 12 Jan 2025
  2. Quantitative Methods: An Introductory Online Course – 12 Jan 2025
  3. Mathematics for Management Online Course: Statistics Section – 12 Jan 2025
  4. Financial Accounting* – 23 Mar 2025 (FT), 1 Jun 2025 (PT)

* The access to Financial Accounting pre-course will be given to the respective cohort approximately 4 weeks prior to the completion timeline. 

Important Notes

  • You are expected to complete and pass a total of 5 exams for all 3 modules (#1 - #3). Students who did not complete the pre-course before the start of the term will be deferred to the next intake. 
  • Professors will assume familiarity with the material for the pre-study when classes begin.  
  • Please note that the pre-course study for Financial Accounting accounts for 10% of the component grades for the Financial Accounting module that you will be taking in Term 2.  
  • Students are required to obtain a minimum of 75% for all the exams in the pre-course study.  
  • Students can reset their exams in the system (if need be).  

Estimated Time to Complete

The length of time required to complete each module will vary depending on your prior experience with these concepts.  Based on experience with other MBA students, we do recommend that you plan for the following time commitments listed.

The estimated minimum and maximum times include test taking and recommended exploration of the data sets which are included. The large range reflects the frequently large differences observed between students already familiar with the material and those to whom the concepts may be less familiar.  We anticipate that most of you will fall somewhere in the middle of this range.

  1. Finance Online Course: 4-15 hours 
  2. Quantitative Methods Online Course: 20-50 hours 
  3. Mathematics for Management Online Course: Statistics Section: 2.5 hours
  4. Financial Accounting: 3-10 hours 

Accessing your Pre–Study Materials 

You need to register on the HBS website to create a username if you do not already have one. You are required to register using your SMU email account (which you will have access to after completing your online matriculation. Once you have registered, you can log in to see the course materials. 

The MBA Programme Office will purchase sufficient copies of the pre-study courses for the class. Thus, kindly ensure that you only create one user account.  Students will be billed accordingly if he/she creates more than one user account for the pre-course study.  

Kindly note that there is no need to send screenshots of your exam results to the office, as we can track them on our side.  

Course Details

Course Name: Pre-Study Jan 2025 Intakes
Course Start Date: 18 Nov 2024
Course pack Link: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/1232080 

Please note that some course materials are in PDF documents, and you will need Adobe Reader to open them.

Technical Assistance 

For technical assistance, students will need to contact the Harvard Business Publishing Tech Helpline directly at:
Tel: +1-617-783-7700; 
or email techhelp@hbsp.harvard.edu

Their business hours are 8pm - 8am, Monday-Thursday, and 8pm -7am on Friday, local Singapore time.  

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