Introduction:
Quick question.. What will I do once I have a stable business and I am making PROFITS?
I’ll want to go GLOBAL obviously duh!
But how can I go GLOBAL?
I’ll EXPORT my stuff to countries where I feel people will buy it.
But how exactly can I EXPORT my stuff? I mean I can’t just travel to NYC with a suitcase full of saris and stand in the middle of ‘Times Square’ to sell them can I?
Nope, that is slightly bizarre but what isn’t bizarre is the idea of EXPORT AND IMPORTS, and this subject helps you out by showing you exactly how you can go about it, so that you don’t have to explain yourself to NYPD why you were standing in the middle of Times Square and screaming ‘5 saris for 25$!’
‘Export Import Procedure And Documentation’ or EXIM is exactly what the name says, it teaches us about Exports-Imports- its Procedures and the Documentation needed! This subject teaches you to learn how the market can be located, enter it, what different documents are required by our government and the government in other countries for the different procedures. It familiarizes you with a lot of different terms and concepts related to this field which ordinary people are really clueless about.
As a course on management education, BMS ensures that we are well aware of the many aspects of business which is why subjects like these are introduced. Not all of us might actually put them to use in our future lives, but their presence is what makes us aware of the possibilities that we have in future and can obviously work as an asset to our knowledge bank forever.
Rare students can relate with EXIM because there is a lot of theory and documentation that is taught and as a result of which most of us find this subject to be a huge bore! But love it or hate it, you need to learn it so let’s try and focus on making this subject interesting, so that it comes handy in future. Take up any one thing that you love the most and can’t live without, new clothes, designer shoes, novels, cell phone, laptop, food; whatever comes to your mind and imagine that you have a huge chain of stores selling these things across Mumbai. Like me I super love shoes and have a huge chain of shoe shops across Mumbai city and now I wish to extend my brand of shoes to Australia.
Keeping this little perspective in mind when you will study this subject you will understand the why’s and the what’s of EXIM. Those documents may seem boring but they are quite vital to me if I want to become a Global Leader in the footwear market. It’s as simple as that, a little imagination, audacious and big dreams and you can see how well your perspective can change over anything that seems possibly boring and way to drowsy to understand.
It may sound childish but try it once, we all have dreams within us a lot of aspirations too; we just shy away from them for countless reasons, why not just take what you love and use it as inspiration to help you score good marks.
When I compare difficulty levels yes, EXIM borders on the Moderate because of the high dosage of totally new concepts and the lengthy documentation, but you do not need a coaching class because BMS theory is something you can manage via ‘self-study’ and attending lectures regularly. Not that I aim to save you from the defaulter’s list but the point is that attending lectures is quite beneficial to students as you don’t need to go through a lot of stress while studying and in order to know what is important from exam point of view you need to attend lectures and understand on what aspect and sections of a particular subject does your faculty stress the most on, because unless they find it important they are not going to include it in their question paper.
The Syllabus for EXIM is as follows:
Unit I : Preliminaries for Exports and Imports
Unit II : Export Import Documentation
Unit III : Export-Import Procedure
Unit IV : Policy and Institutional Framework for Exports and Imports
You can find the complete list of reference books for EXIM and the detailed syllabus HERE!
How Can I Study This Subject?
For starters don’t ‘write it off’ because it is completely theory based, dumping the boring stuff for the week before exam is not something that will save you from a KT. No one will be able to compensate and save you from the embarrassment of a KT and all the reduction in grade it brings in your T.Y result is really heart breaking, so take a ‘NO KT’ vow and start working on these boring subjects in advance.
The easiest way to deal with any overtly lengthy subject is the ‘Novel Approach’ and to memorize stuff is the ‘Mind Maps’ approach for a subject like EXIM, take a combination of both. Now the novel method isn’t as novel as it sounds it simply means that you read each chapter of your book like a novel, don’t attempt to learn just understand what has been said and make notes of points you feel important simultaneously. Once you have read the entire book the jargon and the concepts are bit familiar so you actually understand what you are learning and that makes it a whole lot easier to retain in your memory.
A mind map on the other hand is like a flow chart made in attractive colours and using bold geometric figures to help you memorize the dates or important definitions of a particular act of law or parts of a famous theory. What you need to do for EXIM is a combination of both which is why you need to start preparing well in advance. Read your stuff and make notes and while you are at it, prepare mind maps for the difficult documentation and procedures given. It is a lot of effort, a lot more than you would have thought of putting in but for those who wish to score extraordinary marks making extra ordinary efforts is also a necessity. Follow the same schedule for your internal exam preparation as well. If you have been allocated about 2-3 chapters, then 2 weeks should be enough to get them out of the way using a combination of the novel and mind map technique.
If you are practical enough to accept that you are working part-time or can’t put in so much time over this subject because you have other subjects where you are weak and they need to be managed then EXIM is one subject that you can learn via the ‘Skim and Scan’ method. It can’t guarantee you very good marks but if done sincerely it can help you avert a KT. Skim and Scan is exactly what it’s named, you need to take up the questions given at the back of the chapter; hunt the answers and skim through them so you know what the chapter eventually talks about. Then take up the important questions given in college/ coaching class/ other colleges/ BMS.co.in and scan through them so that you retain it well. It’s not very difficult as a technique to follow and consumes far lesser amount of time and efforts then the methods mentioned above. During times of internal exams an hour of study for a week of the important answers of the scheduled chapter should help you clear the exams.
The EXIM Story:
Every exam has something to learn from it and by saying that I do not at all intend to talk about the subject knowledge gained or showcased in the paper. What I am talking about is the experience based learning and EXIM has shared with me a amazing lesson. One of my college seniors shared this story with me; “My college faculty for the subject of EXIM was someone I would never like to remember.. he was one of those people who give you the creeps, anyways not getting into the details the fact remains that his ‘creepy’ nature ensured that all the girls avoided his lectures and hence my class room knowledge of EXIM was close to ‘NIL.’ Also being in the extracurricular type I never really had the time to study as much as I would have wanted landing me in ‘Skim and Scan’ category of students.
This creepy fellow had promised us that he will ensure that we do get our paper from a set of 50 questions that he had passed on to us as the ‘important questions’ but since all the girls had complained against him and the boys had supported us he was very angry. So out of the blue he set up the most difficult question paper and none of those 50 questions appeared there. No one wants a KT but Mr. Creepy left us with no choice, we complained and went to the management but all we managed was an extra hour for the time lost, the paper was going to remain the same! People left the paper blank and walked away disheartened, some cried, some cursed but a majority of them walked away. A few of us decided that something had to be done so instead of walking away we wrote whatever answers we had learnt and connected them to the questions, provided examples and did whatever we could but filled up the entire paper.
This made sure that didn’t fail us! We scored much less than we had hoped for, of course the matter was taken up by the management and grace marks were awarded to ensure that those who had written something logical were given grace marks and passed but that’s not the point I am trying to make here, the point is that no fear of failure is bigger than ‘Common Sense’! We had the brains to keep writing and writing stuff that was logical and related to the syllabus which is why we could stand up to the management and ask them to give us the necessary grace marks. We made the effort instead of losing hope and walking away and that is something that everyone needs to learn.”
This story never fails to make me smile because it shows how in times of distress a little common sense and a calm mind helps us sail through disaster with minimum damage!
Study hard and score well, All the Best for your EXIM paper 🙂
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