Terms and Academics at ISB PGP

The academic year at ISB consists of 8 terms (1.5 months each term), out of which the first three are core terms while the fourth one is referred to as the ‘crossover’ term. During the first three terms, the students are to study common courses which are mandatory without any electives.

In order to gain an MBA from ISB, every student must complete 32 credits. Each term during the 3-month core term comprises of 4 courses offering 1 credit each, hence 12 credits. Thereafter, the crossover term offers 2 more mandatory courses. The rest of the courses are offered as electives through the bidding system. A maximum of 5 courses may be taken in any term.

Students at ISB can choose from five functional specializations (called Majors), in Finance, Operations, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Strategy & Leadership. ISB also offers industry specializations, such as Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Information Technology. One must take up at least one functional Major and a maximum of two functional specializations. The industry specializations are optional.

In the core terms, students have to sit for both mid-semester exams and end semester exams. They must appear for written tests for all the initial terms. When the students pick the courses, it depends on the structure the professors follow. Certain courses might not have mid-terms and end semesters and be evaluated on the basis of assignments but it all depends on the discretion of the professor. This is one of the parameters that the students take into account while choosing their electives in a course. Students receive relative grades for their performance.

There is a mandatory elective for each specialization which may be distributed across terms or they may be operating in one term. So, two or three courses are designated as mandatory electives and anyone who is planning to pursue a particular Major has to opt for one of the mandatory electives.

The core courses have been devised to give the students a brief knowledge of all the subjects while the main focus of the fourth crossover term is specialization. In case of the latter, the students have to pick two core courses and one to three electives.

Assignments are part of the course at ISB and we have to deal with lots of them in any term. Each section is divided into subgroups for the core terms by the official body ASA. Students need to complete both group assignments as well as individual assignments.

Terms and academics, therefore, constitute an essential part of the course at ISB and students must take course decisions carefully in order to complete their MBA in a rewarding manner.

* All the Student Diaries have been written by ISB Alumni. ISBmantra holds no responsibility on the completeness and accuracy of this information. However, we endeavour to obtain all the content from reliable sources and keep the information up-to-date.