Are you starting your first year of business school soon? You’ll find yourself going at a new pace, learning in a new way and living a new life on campus. This is not always an easy adjustment. To support you in this intense change, ten NEOMA professors, under the editorial guidance of Anne Prévost-Bucchianeri and François Pottier, have incorporated all the courses into a single book: Succeeding in My First Year of Business School. Its authors offer their advice so you can best adapt to this transition.

Consolidate the fundamentals

The academic year generally starts off swiftly. The courses are intense, with many new concepts to learn, and campus activity sometimes gets the upper hand. Anne Prévost-Bucchianeri and François Pottier, two professors from the Accounting, Control and Legal Affairs Department, say that you should be careful to not let this first wave overwhelm you. “When students arrive, they can feel a bit lost. Different subjects that are often new to them pile up and time seems to fly by.

But academic progress is like building with Legos. You need to consolidate the fundamental concepts of the first year so you can then start the second year.” The two NEOMA professors recommend that you “immediately dive in, establish a routine studying pace and review your course material as you go along.” And for those who have missed a step, “the book provides support and guides them back to the important components of the first year. There are eight subjects collected in a single book.”

Get further ahead with the NEOMA book

The book Succeeding in My First Year of Business School focuses on all the courses: economic science, law, marketing strategy, quantitative methods, general accounting, management accounting, financial analysis and strategy and organisational behaviour. All the subjects are explored in detail. “There is twice as much as what is usually covered in the courses themselves,

” the two NEOMA professors said. “We have laid out in black and white the ideal course, a form of the course that we would like to teach if we did not have time constraints. We expanded the important and peripheral subjects for students. But you must understand that nothing can replace in-class learning and direct discussions with professors and fellow students.”

Develop a multi-disciplinary outlook on the subjects

Looking back on their many years of experience, the two NEOMA professors have observed that students more often than not conceptualise and organise information by discipline (accounting, law, marketing, etc.) and they do not always see where these disciplines intersect. “They do not think that a marketing decision can have a legal or financial impact. Sometimes the concepts in two different subjects can be the same, but the terminology used or the way professors present them makes it hard for students to make the connection.

” This is the shortcoming that Succeeding in My First Year of Business School aims to make up for. Starting with the case study of a business start-up, the book goes over not only the problems from the perspective of each subject, but it also offers a completely multi-disciplinary outlook through a thorough review and analysis of the case.

​“Succeeding in My First Year of Business School”

Edited by Anne Prevost-Bucchianeri and François Pottier, this book is the result of the collaborative efforts of ten NEOMA professors: Marc de Bourmont, François Courtheroux, Ilyess El Karouni, François Facchini, Nathalie Janson, Emmanouela Mandalaki, Marie-Claire Niort and Marie-Michèle Vassiliou.