My TBSC story, featuring the two-time champion — UCC
The Tertiary Business Sense Challenge (TBSC) is an initiative of the Graphic Business, organized in partnership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG).
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TBSC is a high-level academic quiz competition among Ghanaian tertiary institutions running the Business Programme.
The programme seeks to promote competition among students and schools running business programmes, whiles providing a platform for scholarship and interaction among business lecturers and students.
The 2021 edition of the TBSC (Ver 3.0) featured 21 of the seasoned tertiary institutions offering business programmes in the country. The University Cape Coast emerged champions, for the second time!
As we build up to the 2024 edition (Ver 6.0), we want to engage with past winners of the TBSC to gauge their moments of pride and joy and the journey after that in “My TBSC Story”.
In this second part, the Quiz Master (QM), Alhassan Yusif Trawule, has a one-on-one interaction with the three members of the UCC winning team of 2021. Let’s find out what they have to say:
QM: What is your name?
I have always been delighted to be an alumnus of TBSC and to share my experience before and after participating in the Graphic Business Sense Challenge.
My name is Boakye Richard, a graduate from the University of Cape Coast.
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QM: Tell me about your TBSC journey with UCC
The goal of most students in various universities is to be among the best students by getting good grades and a befitting class.
However, being among the excellent students to represent an entire school in a university in an inter-university quiz ( i.e., the Tertiary Business Sense Challenge), like any other student, was one of the self-fulfilling but a huge responsibility bestowed on me.
It all began with when a few excellent students in the School of Business in the university were solicited after which 6 students only were selected to represent the university.
QM: How was the feeling like on winning the competition in 2021?
Next, for University of Cape Coast as a previous winner of the TBSC V1, the goal of my year group was to secure the bragging right from V2 winners.
As a result, the team started with an intensive training months before the preliminary stages of the competition. The team started with random various training sessions which comprised of various forms of question types.
This was meant to discover the distinct strengths of the chosen students.
In addition to this, it was also meant to prepare and help the students to recover most of what we had studied years ago. Furthermore, the next step was when we were randomly paired to compete among ourselves.
This form of training was purported to identify the best pairs during the act of real dealings such as quizzes and to ensure compatibility among us.
Additionally, the last step was to determine the main contestants to be on the ‘hot seat’. We were not foes to each other but at this point were trained to be enemies during training sessions only.
This was very significant to bring the best out of us. Again, we used to teach, explained among ourselves and practiced similar problems among ourselves especially during our camping period.
Finally, the main contestants were decided and the extra 2 students among us were known as what we described as the ‘accelerators’ of the group because they trained, looked for additional study materials, formulate similar quiz questions and motivated the main contestants to push further in their preparations.
QM: What were some of the challenges faced, lessons learnt, and key takeaways from the TBSC platform?
Team UCC felt very prepared at the start of the competition but deep within us we were afraid, felt pressured and were very anxious.
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Moreover, team UCC endured sleepless nights, endless cramming of new knowledge (texts) within a short period of time, endless practice of questions and the fear of thinking of not preparing enough were unbearable.
However, the recognition across the country and the crown to be won kept us on our toes to push through all these hindrances.
Although, we had an average performance in our first contest but our subsequent contests were ‘a must watch’. For example, we (UCC) hold the record points in a single contest with the Accra Technical University.
This outrageous performance prepared us mentally to beat every university until we finally won the TBSC V3 2021.
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The feeling of winning with this amazing team was just extraordinary and a huge height that was achieved.
As a result, I am cognizant of the need of self-discipline as a student of the University of Cape Coast, TBSC gifted me the attitude of self-awareness and further developed a stronger act (spirit) of perseverance, focus and hardworking.
QM: What do you currently do and how has the TBSC shaped you afterward (Impact of TBSC, if any)?
Like any other alumni TBSC have had a greater influence on my life such that these impacts were immediate as I ever imagined.
To begin with, coming from a humble background I never imagined of having my national service with one of the reputable institutions in the country.
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However, I had the opportunity to have my national service with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Ghana where I worked as an assistant to the Access to Finance manager in one of the institution’s project (i.e., the then Competitive Cashew Initiative project) in Accra.
Furthermore, I am currently in the Republic of South Korea having my second-degree program in Finance.
Although, I went for an exchange program in 2019 in South Korea but I decided to go for my master’s degree in the same country.
As a result, during my applications to secure the Global Korean Scholarship from the South Korean government, after the help of God and like other factors, the mention of TBSC highly influenced my acceptance rate.
For example, during an interview at the Korean embassy to be selected as a beneficiary of the said scholarship, the interviewers were very astonished about me as winner ofTTBSC.
Moreover, the interviewers were forced to find and watch videos of the V3 final to confirm my image.
This only ensured my outright acceptance to the scholarship. There are many benefits to mention but the above are a few.
QM: What advise do you have for schools and students who may want to participate in the TBSC?
TBSC participants must be aware of themselves and the quiz. Students should first agree to sit for the quiz and accept the responsibilities that comes with it.
In addition, the best way to prepare for the quiz is to be smart with what, where, when, how and who to study. Your choice of study materials, ways of answering questions and how to produce answers are very significant.
Next, students should acknowledge and be humble towards their fellow partners. You should try as much as possible to accept individual differences and aim at the common goal of winning the quiz.
Students may also put up their best to explain or teach their partners concepts they know so that they themselves understand them better and even identify their mistakes together.
Lastly, after preparing well enough for the next contest, students must always be cognizant of their opponents; that is the weakness and the strengths of the opponents.
Students should know how to communicate on the hot seat among themselves and be aware of their body posture to build confidence whilst on the hot seat.
This also include your response to when your team had a question wrong, correct or when a bonus question is earned. These simple but detailed aspects of the quiz determine your awareness and your ability to compete in the TBSC.
QM: Any final comments for Version 6.0 schools?
Finally, the TBSC is gradually gaining the national recognition it deserves. To the schools participating in the TBSC V6, there are benefits for participating in this reputable quiz.
There include economic and reputational benefits. Students from the schools that participated earn long life such as other greater opportunities, connections, et cetera.
