You may have already realized that there are a number of online options to choose from if you wish to complete some preparation work for your MBA. Below are some details about those which we have determined are most helpful. Ultimately the final choice of what you use is yours, but rest assured that any time spent reviewing concepts that you're not totally comfortable with and working through problems will benefit you no matter which option you utilize.
McGraw Hill ALEKS
This option is favored by our current students and staff, as it is adaptive and adjusts material to focus on only those areas where you need more work. You can take a free tour of how their product functions to see if it's right for you. We recommend the "Essential Math Skills for Business" module. Pricing is very economical, costing only $19.95 a month for access.
Kahn Academy is also popular with students because of its reliance on instructional videos that you can watch many times with no cost. However, there is a great deal of information to sift through. We recommend that you work your way through the videos in the Algebra section, but stop after you finish the Functions section. There is no need to do Conic Sections, Complex Numbers and Matrices. If you're not sure if you really need to start at the beginning of the Algebra section, head to the Practice map and try taking the quiz for one of the topics in the Algebra list (e.g., solving linear equations). This will give you a good gauge of your skills and help you with where to start. NOTE: Kahn Academy does not include material on Excel, so if you need to boost skills in this area you will need to look elsewhere.
This is also a good choice, used by students at many top business schools and professionals at Fortune 2,000 companies. However, the price point is higher than the options above, varying from $16 to $130 per module. If you decide on this option, our recommendation is to focus on the Spreadsheet Modeling and Mathematics for Management sections. The other sections focus on content that you will cover in your MBA classes.
Recommended free option if you only need to brush up on Excel skills. UCLA offers all students access to various technology resources via its technology training portal at www.learnit.ucla.edu. Once you have created your UCLA logon, you will be able to access Lynda.com (see button on right side of page), which is a full range of online software training videos and materials. They offer a number of modules for business-related functions in Excel 2010. Go to the following link and select "Excel 2010 Essential Training": http://www.lynda.com/Excel-training-tutorials/192-0.html.