Evening & Weekend MBA Program
Waiver Guidelines for Core Courses
Waiver Exams
Waiver exams allow you to waive certain core courses and start taking electives in your area of interest early in your time at Berkeley-Haas. You should consider taking a waiver exam if you have academic experience in the subject matter.
Waiver exams for all courses offered in a given semester are given before the semester starts. A passing grade on a waiver exam exempts you from having to take the class, although you may choose to take it anyway. Waiving a core course does not reduce the number of units needed to graduate. You must take additional elective course(s) to complete the 42-unit graduation requirement. Only the core courses listed below are eligible to be waived:
EWMBA 201A - Economics for Business Decision Making
EWMBA 201B - Macroeconomics in the Global Economy
EWMBA 202 - Financial Reporting
EWMBA 203 - Introduction to Finance
EWMBA 204 - Operations
EWMBA 206 - Marketing Organization and Management
The core courses listed below are NOT eligible to be waived:
EWMBA 200C - Leadership Communications
EWMBA 205 - Leading People
EWMBA 207 - Ethics and Responsibility in Business
EWMBA 296 - Problem Finding, Problem Solving
EWMBA 299 - Strategy
Waiver Examination Guidelines - Fall 2012
EWMBA 201A - Economics for Business Decision Making
Course overview
Business success depends on the successful positioning of the firm and the management of its resources. The goal of this course is to think systematically about achieving competitve advantage through the management of the firm's resources. We will analyze management decisions concerning real options, cost determination, pricing, and market entry and exit. We will use readings and cases along with class discussion to develop practical insights into managing for competitive advantage.
Waiver Exam Overview
You should consider taking the waiver exam if you are exceptionally well prepared in microeconomics. Since even those with considerable economics coursework are likely to find many new applications presented in the course. Students are strongly encouraged to carefully review the course description and study the materials for the waiver exam to prepare for the exam. View last year's syllabus as a reference. Please note that this is only to serve as a reference.
For Additional Information
Professor Greg LaBlanc and Professor Shachar Kariv
EWMBA 202 - Financial Reporting
*Eligible for an automatic waiver*
Course overview
This course provides an introduction to the principles of financial accounting. The course objective is to help the student develop into an informed user of financial statements information. The textbook and materials provided will be used to present the concepts and mechanics associated with the accounting topics of interest. The theoretical material will be supplemented by demonstrating the effects and implications of the topics we studied in real-world settings. This is accomplished through study cases and analyses of financial statements of actual publicly-held corporations. The course topics include the Balance Sheet and Double Entry Accounting, the Income Statement, the Cash Flow Statement, Revenue Recognition, Receivables, Inventories and Cost of Goods Sold, Introduction to Financial Statement Analysis, Fair Value Accounting, Long Lived Assets and Intangible Assets, Liabilities, Marketable Securities and Investments, and Owners' Equity.
Waiver Exam Overview
If you have a solid foundation in the basics of financial accounting, including at least one course at the intermediate level, you should consider taking the waiver exam. The exam is a set of basic questions and problems that you must complete in three hours. You may bring a basic financial calculator. You may not use any books or notes. View last year's syllabus as a reference. Please note that this is only to serve as a reference.
For Additional Information
Professor Yaniv Konchitchki and Professor Xiao-Jun Zhang
EWMBA 206 - Marketing Organization and Management
Course overview
This course is designed for students who need to understand the basic concepts and techniques of marketing strategy as a foundation for more advanced study in the area. The course treats marketing from the perspective of strategic analysis and provides a framework for the decisions associated with the management of the marketing function in the modern organization focusing on customer analysis, competitive analysis and the analysis of marketing investments.
Waiver Exam Overview
You should consider taking the waiver exam only if you have a solid foundation in the basics of marketing, including at least one course at the intermediate level. The exam is in the form of a comprehensive marketing case analysis. View last year's syllabus as a reference. Please note that this is only to serve as a reference.
For Additional Information
Professor Wasim Azhar and Professor Peter Wilton
Waiver Examination Guidelines - Spring 2013
EWMBA 201B - Macroeconomics in the Global Economy
Course overview
This course develops and applies models of the world's economies to explain long-run trends and short-run fluctuations in key macroeconomic variables, such as GDP, wage and profit rates, inflation, interest rates, employment and unemployment, budget deficits, exchange rates, and trade balances.
Waiver Exam Overview
The waiver exam will ask questions about both theories and applications of the concepts that are usful for understanding the macroeconomics of consumer spending, business investment, fiscal and monetary policies, imports and exports, and rates of interest, inflation, exchange, and economic growth. To prepare, be sure that you are comfortable with the concepts and applications above at the level of conventional intermediate-level macroeconomics textbooks and that you can apply the concepts to discuss current events. View last year's syllabus as a reference. Please note that this is only to serve as a reference.
For Additional Information
Professor Andrew Rose and Professor Steven Wood
EWMBA 203 - Introduction to Finance
*Eligible for an automatic waiver*
Course overview
This is an introductory MBA course in investments. Students learn how to value assets given forecasts of future cash flows and about the risk characteristics of different asset classes. The first part of the course focuses on the time value of money. The second part of the course deals with measuring and pricing risk. Finally, the course touches on derivative-basics and capital market efficiency. An effort will be made to tie the theoretical underpinnings of finance to real-world examples.
Waiver Exam Overview
If you have a solid foundation in the basics of financial markets and asset pricing theory, you should consider taking the waiver exam. The exam is a set of questions and problems that you must complete in three hours. You should bring a financial calculator. You may not use any books or notes. View last year's syllabus as a reference. Please note that this is only to serve as a reference.
For Additional Information
Professor Brett Green and Professor Johan Walden
EWMBA 204 - Operations
*Eligible for an automatic waiver*
Course overview
This course introduces you to concepts and techniques related to matching supply with demand in manufacturing and service operations. The goals are to make you conversant in the language of operations management; provide you with quantitative and qualitative tools to analyze basic operations issues; and allow you to see the role of operations management in the overall strategy of the firm. The course covers topics in process and capacity analysis, inventory management, demand uncertainty, supply chain management, and service operations. In each module, you are introduced to tools for analyzing operations problems and methods of managing that aspect of operations. You will prepare cases for class discussion, analyze cases and problem sets, participate in simulations/exercises, and take mid-term and final exams. Our objective is to create as much interaction with operations issues as possible, allowing you to examine how they affect an organization’s overall performance.
Waiver Exam Overview
If you have a background in industrial engineering or very strong analytical experience in manufacturing or operations management, you should consider taking the waiver exam. If you have questions about the format of the waiver exam, please direct them to the EWMBA Program Office (not the instructor).
Exam Preparation
The Cachon and Terwiesch text (on reserve at Haas’ Long Library) provides a good review of basic operations principles. Many other operations management textbooks would serve equally well. You should be familiar with process and capacity analysis, service operations (including queueing phenomena), inventory control, demand uncertainty, and supply chain management. If you plan to take the exam, here's a copy of the sylabus used in the course last year. The syllabus includes references to sections of the Cachon and Terwiesch text that are relevant; the text also includes practice problems.
For Additional Information
Professor Pnina Feldman (for both evening and weekend sections)
Automatic Waivers
Automatic waivers are available for three courses if you can provide a copy of your certificate or transcript demonstrating completion of the requirements listed below:
Alternatives for Waived Courses
To make up the units for a waived course, you may select an EWMBA elective for which you have the necessary prerequisite(s). The EWMBA Program Office mantains a list of courses that have open seats and will work with you to identify an appropriate course. You should attend at least one class session before you request to register to ensure the course is a good fit for your interests and your level of academic preparation.
Since the core courses are taught in seven to nine-week modules and the electives are mostly taught over the 15-week semester, you face a small dilemma if you waive only one course or waive more than one in the same module. You also may delay making up the units until a later semester. Contact the EWMBA Program Office for scheduling assistance.
