CAT 2008: Estimated cut-offs

Ending the months of preparation and ragged nerves, the CAT 2008 was held on November 16. Nearly 2.5 lakh students took the test all vying for a seat at one of the 100+ prestigious B-schools that subscribe to the test scores. And understandably, given the fierce competition, the immeditae thought in most test-takers' minds post-CAT was the expected cut-offs.
While the actual results will only be declared in January, rediff.com in association with IMS Learning Resources brings you the estimated cut-offs of the various B-schools across the country.
Click here to view the estimated cut-offs.

CAT: Two-week countdown

With CAT only about two weeks away, it would be wise not to waste time working on anything new. In the next few weeks, just revise your fundamentals. Also, the basic process of revision should not be one where you check yourself on whether you remember the solution to questions or not.

While revising, see if there is a better way of doing a question. At this stage, your study hours should be down to a minimum of three to four hours a day and all that you do should be towards keeping a clear head and improving your concentration.

Here are some easy tips on how to spend your time preparing for CAT:

~ Don't experiment
There should be no fiddling with your strategy at this stage. The time for experimentation is over now. As long as you know that the strategy you are using is giving you rewards, don't change it.

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For example, you would know if your best bet is to scan a passage and then move onto to the questions, while another person could be more at ease scanning questions before going onto the passage. So just stick to whatever works best for you.

~ Taking the tests
Test-taking is the most important aspect of your preparation now. Take two or at the most three tests a week. Test-taking should be followed by an analysis of the complete paper.

~ Analyse
What mistakes you have committed and how you will rectify them. The mistake that is commonly committed is that we take a test as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end.

Remember, CAT is not about last-minute cramming and revising. It's about being alive and mentally alert, here and now.

~ Gauge yourself
The most objective analysis of your performance is to judge your performance with respect to that of other students. There cannot be any method more objective than that.

The second step is to go by the benchmarks you are expected to get in that test. Ideally, if you retain your old scores even if the test is getting tougher, it means that you are improving. At this stage, improvement can come not by knowing new things but by fine-tuning what you already know.

~ Finishing touches
Do away with your urge to cover the complete syllabus instead of revising or analysing the test. Besides spending time on why some answers went wrong, also concentrate on why some answers were correct or whether there is any better way of solving the question.

Furthermore, in any well-planned CAT paper, you will not be able to complete the whole section or paper. So go through the questions that you did not attempt and see if you made a mistake by leaving out those and attempting the ones you did.

Also remember than in every paper, there will be both difficult and easy questions. This is where the concept of revision comes in. With regular revision, you get better and better at questions and are able to do them in a short span of time.

~ For D-Day
One of the biggest pitfalls is that as students we always search for short cuts, asking 'which is the easiest way out and which are the easiest questions?' A critical issue here is the tremendous urge to skip questions.

We tend to lose concentration at different stages during the exam and tend to skip questions because of the pressures of time. But things get better if you follow a couple of golden rules. If you want to identify the questions to attend, it is imperative that you read all the questions.

~ Prioritise
Start with the shorter questions. The advantage with short questions is not that they are easier, but that it will take you less time to identify whether you can do them or not.

The short questions are not just one-liners or two-liners. So read all the questions and quickly decide which ones to attempt.

~ Be decisive
Decide in two readings whether you are going to attempt the question or not. This is perfectly normal and don't let it bother you. It will take not more than 15 seconds, at a very leisurely pace, to read a question. But if you read the question faster, you would have saved a few seconds. These can then be spent on understanding the question.

While reading the question, your attitude should be, 'let me give everything I have'. Concentrating for those two-and-a-half hours is not easy, but imperative.

Another good approach is to attempt questions that you are comfortable with. The second issue is about the maximum marks per page.

Ask yourself, "If there are five sheets, can I get three marks in every sheet?" If the quant paper is covered in five sheets, it forces you to remember that you have to get so many marks on each sheet and not get stuck on the first sheet. Realise that you need to move on.

~ Here and now
This is also the time when students have to appear for other MBA entrance exams. For IRMA, XLRI, IIFT and others, the one section that you need to work on is general awareness and business aptitude. Good reading habits help. But right now, focus on CAT till November 16 and nothing else.

In the last month, people are under a lot of stress. Reading the newspapers will not only give you that daily dose of news, but also help you relax.

~ The DI angle
Let's talk about the Data Interpretation (DI) section for a moment. If your basic fundas are clear you will immediately understand the question. And out of a set of five questions, at least three are bound to be easy.

Learn the art of skipping questions in DI. The misconception is that you have to solve the whole set before you move on to the next set.

~ Risk taking
If you do the question correctly, you get marks. If you do it wrong, you get penalised. The negative marking is broadly speaking one-third of a mark. Since you don't lose a mark if you leave the question, one should avoid really wild guesses. Which brings us to a controversial area: What should you do when you know that the two choices are wrong and that the correct answer is among the other two?

You could mark one of the two as the answer. But if you do not have the appetite to take that small risk, leave it. However, also remember that intelligent guessing is a part of the game. As long as it is an educated and intelligent guess, it will benefit you. Often by this stage we also know our effectiveness at intelligent guessing, this is where the regular test analysis comes in, especially checking questions that you got right and analysing what is it that helped get it right.

If you are a poor logical guesser even when down to two options -- invest time in seeing why you consistently go wrong. This could pay huge dividends in the long run.

~ Expect surprises
The surprise is more in terms of format than spirit. They will change the structure somehow. CAT is traditionally known to check how students deal with ambiguity because it is necessary to be a good manager in real life and the IIMs are very clear, they are looking for the best of the best of the best.

~ Ease up, learn to relax
Many a time, very high potential students have not made it to the IIMs because they could not handle the pressure. So unwind, go for movies, do things that help you relax, go for walks, meditate -- do all that it takes keep your head clear. Get back to those tougher sections after CAT, when you are ready for yet another lap for other management schools. People, who stick it out, hang in there and continue to peg away will make it.

CAT trends and what they mean

The Common Admission Test is the gateway to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management and no wonder it is considered to be one of the most difficult entrance tests anywhere in the world. Consider this little factoid: the world class Harvard, Stanford etc admit roughly 10 per cent of their applicants whereas in 2008 the number of students writing CAT numbered 230,000 of which only the top 1,600-odd made it to the IIMs! This represents less than 1 per cent of the total applicants -- this amply reflects the tough competition that one faces in getting an admission into these elite institutes.

The unpredictability of CAT is a very unique feature -- one that makes this test the 'mother of all tests'. The unpredictable nature of the CAT stems from the fact that the IIMs want to test the students' ability to deal with changing conditions and the surprise situations that one gets to encounter in the world of business in a regular manner.

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The unpredictability is seen in the number of questions, the number of sections, the marking scheme, negative marking, duration of the test and most importantly in the composition of the test. Let us now look at these changes in a more detailed manner.

Number of Questions & Sections
CAT in the early nineties was a very lengthy paper with more than 180 questions in it and having four sections viz. Verbal Ability, Reading Comprehension, Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation. Thereafter the number of questions was reduced to 165 with students being tested across three sections namely Verbal Ability (which was a combination of the earlier Verbal and Reading Comprehension sections), Logic & Data Interpretation and Quantitative Ability.

In CAT 2004, the number of questions reduced to 123 and this came down further to 90 in 2005 and 75 in 2006. The implication of such a reduction was that students could no longer afford to leave any area out of their preparation nor could one find 'easy' questions to answer by searching through the paper. A paper with a lower number of questions obviously reduces choice that students have and would play into the hands of those who prepare really well and have left no stone unturned in their quest for excellence.

Time
Prior to 2006, CAT was always a 120-minute exam and students were free to allocate their time across different sections in any manner they deemed suitable for them. This changed in the mid-nineties when sectional time limits were imposed on individual sections which ensured that students spent a meaningful amount of time across all sections. For the first time ever, CAT gave 150 minutes for students to solve the paper in 2006. This was on account of the fact that there were fewer questions and the difficulty level was quite high as compared to the earlier years.

The implication of this is that if one has a good idea of concepts and the methodology to be adopted to solve all kinds of questions then it would be enough to get a high score -- brute speed is not an essential prerequisite anymore.

Number of choices & Marking Scheme
CAT has generally tended to give papers with 'equal weightage' for all questions. However in 2004 the paper came with 2, 1 and half-mark questions -- this meant that the paper setters had actually identified the easy and tough questions for the students! In 2006 and 2007 the marks per question was four and all questions carried the same marks.

The number of choices in CAT was four prior to 2006 but they were increased to five in 2006 and 2007. The implication of this is that students would find the Verbal Section getting tougher as one has to read an additional choice, evaluate it and then select the right answer. Whereas in Quant, Logic & Data Interpretation where students solve the question first, arrive at an answer and then look at the choices -- the number of choices wouldn't matter at all.

Negative marking
The IIMs have always maintained a closed approach as far as revealing any details of the cut-off scores or the negative marking scheme being used by them. A thorough analysis of the scorecards prior to 2006 revealed that the IIMs had a negative marking scheme of one-third for every wrong answer. With the IIMs embracing transparency in the era of RTI one saw history being made when the IIMs disclosed the negative marking in the year 2005.

In 2006 when the paper had five choices the negative marking was clearly specified as 1 mark ie 25 per cent of the weight of a correct answer. A negative marking in this range is meant to discourage those guessing and students would be well advised to avoid guessing if they have absolutely no clue to the answer.

CAT 2004 -- Shock & Awe
The IIMs lived up to their reputation of springing major surprises in CAT by giving a paper where each section had two sub-sections. Moreover there was a differential marking scheme in place with some question worth 2 marks, some worth 1 mark and some worth just half a mark!

While CAT had never before given different marks to different questions, this pattern worked in favour of the students because the test-setters themselves were identifying the difficult questions. A proper approach for this paper was to select the questions on merit and try and maximise the score in the one-mark questions as they were easier than the two-markers. But one should have certainly gone through the two-mark questions to see if they were familiar and solvable.

The cut-off for this paper was around 9-11 marks for the Quantitative and the Logic & Data Interpretation sections and around 17-18 for the Verbal section. A score of 53-54 would have enabled a student to get at least one call and any score in excess of 60 would have fetched all calls.
The writer is course director at TIME, an institute that imparts training and career guidance to student aspirants for competitive tests like CAT / MBA / MCA / BBA / GRE / TOEFL etc. TIME is run by a group of IIM alumni and has the largest network of 159 centres in 81 cities in India. TIME students achieved 885 selections into IIMs alone in CAT 2007.

CAT: 'Mock tests are not the answer'

With a little over a month to go for CAT 2008, the pressure on B-school aspirants is mounting. Strategising, mock CATs, time management -- each have their own importance and value when it comes to making your CAT attempt meaningful.
To help test-takers, we asked students who have taken the CAT to share their tips and tricks. Here, Nagendra S, a student at IIM Lucknow (Batch 2008-10), shares his experiences.
When you buy a travel ticket to a certain point, you are 99 per cent sure of reaching your destination. However, there are some journeys wherein the chances of reaching of reaching your destination is less than 1 per cent. The ticket sales for this journey have ended recently and hundreds of thousands of students are anxiously awaiting the magical train. The train is scheduled to arrive at different platforms in different parts of the country on November 16 at 10 AM. A major portion part of the journey will be covered in the ensuing 2.5 hours. Yes, the journey we are talking about is 'CAT'. I have attempted to complete this magical voyage thrice and managed to do so this year, albeit after a lot of struggle.
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For many young Indians, making it to the IITs is always a matter of pride. The JEE leading to an IIT admission has been classified as one of the toughest in the world. Unfazed by this, several students across the country religiously prepare for it. Many of them don't make it and it pretty much is the end of the road. There is too much pressure to take up a bachelor degree when you are 18 so that you can graduate at the "right age". So, apart from a few really focussed souls, the rest give up on this dream after one trial. And so did I.
This is not the case with CAT though. CAT gives you a fair chance to take it up again. CAT tantalises you when you realise that the elusive cut-off was only 1 correct answer away! CAT gives you hope when people around have been appearing for the past several years (like me!). In short, CAT is something that people hope to crack and back themselves.
Not being blessed with extra-ordinary intellect, let's say I was among the hopefuls rather than the achievers. I first gave CAT in 2005, during the last year of engineering. After attending coaching classes and taking up the de-rigueur mock tests, I was brimming with confidence. I got the shock of my life when I saw my results. I had not even touched the 90 percentile mark! It was a major wake-up call and more importantly a 'back on earth" feeling that left me numb and shattered.
Two years later, "after some work-ex", I took up CAT again. This time I acted with much more caution. I concentrated a lot more on the mock tests. Result: virtually unchanged. My percentile refused to move beyond the 90s. Thankfully, the sorrow was drowned by the news of an on-site visit which had me packing bags soon afterwards.
Back from my travel, and friends were already taking CAT 2007. It was then that I told myself (in typical dramatic fashion) "This is it. It's now or never. Give it one last shot. Give it all you got. If you can't do it this time, then just give up". The positive tones of the self-pledge overshadowed the negativity of the last part. I sincerely prepared for CAT 2007.
I sacrificed all my weekend pleasure and long sleeping hours for practising mock tests. Being a working IT professional, I was forced to stay awake late hours to better understand the solutions of the mock tests. I realised that answering more and more mock tests was not the solution. It was how effectively I could analyse the solutions and use them when I spotted a problem of similar nature sometime later on. This was the key difference in preparation in comparison to previous times. And then magically things started to fall in place.
My office work timings thankfully got better. I got more time to prepare. My scores which were nowhere near the 90s now started inching towards the cut-off scores. By the time I was half way through the mock test series, I was consistently clearing the cut-offs. I must say I was feeling good at this point. But the previous failures were always on the back of my mind. The positive frame of mind was better re-enforced when I was called for the "high achievers workshop" conducted by my coaching institute. It really felt like I was getting ready to hit the home run.
I approached D-day with much more confidence than any of my previous attempts. After a slow and cautious start, I gradually picked up momentum and along the way, spotted some crucial mistakes I had committed when I was rushing through the questions. With a "can't say how I performed" look, I returned home and did not look at the solutions that were being put up by the coaching institutes a couple of hours after the exam.
Back to work the next day and the now the agonising wait for the results. After about five weeks, they arrived. After a lot of heart-in-your-mouth moments in front of my PC, I got it. I finally managed to clear that magical barrier! The result sheet read 98.2 percentile with interview calls from IIM-B and IIM-L. Fists pumping in the air, I was literally acting like a man possessed. For a brief moment my family must have thought I had gone crazy. I hadn't. I was just letting out all the pent up energy from the previous year.
The rest of the process was much more methodical. I trusted my speaking skills to a far greater degree. I took up GD and PI classes from the same coaching institute that I chose for my mock tests. The GDs are initially very noisy and only the ones blessed with loud vocals were able to make an impact. Later, after many sessions, the volume levels were toned down and most of us were able to communicate well in about 2-3 weeks.
It is important to note here that it does not matter how many times you speak during the GD, it is about what you are contributing to the GD every time you speak. Keep this in mind and pretty soon you will catch the fancy of the group as well as the moderators'. Try to bring in points which will induce further debate. Do not get into the cliched and oft used methods like "Friends, let's come to a conclusion", when the group is not yet ready. It is not always necessary to conclude the GD. If the moderator wishes so, he / she will explicitly ask for it.
And now, lastly the interviews. After a good GD and a writing session, I was pretty confident in facing the panel. Confidence, or should I say "presence" is the most important part of the interview. In those 10-15 minutes when you have a one-on-one chance of making an impression, don't let go of it. Prepare for the stereotypical questions ("Tell me about yourself" for instance) no matter how confident you are of answering it well.
Putting down your thoughts on paper never does any harm. For as many questions as you can foresee, have answers in mind. I don't mean that you need to know them word-by-word. Just know the content well. Use the context of the question to put your prepared points in place and deliver with clarity. Try to present a pleasant face to the interviewers no matter how long you have been made to wait. A smile always induces a positive effect.
With all this done, keep in mind that the interviews and GD rounds are meant to "select" rather than "reject" people. Do not give the interviewers a reason for rejection. Avoid spelling errors in your forms, dress up well, reach the interview location on time and try to be pleasant to your fellow students. Never get overly emotional or personal either during the GD or interview. Present the truthful side of yourself always.
Well, anymore advice and I am sure you will close the browser and move on. So, I stop here. Here is wishing you all the very best and I hope that each of you finds the institute of your choice. You have the tickets in hand by now. Make the most of the journey. Enjoy the process and the outcome will naturally follow. Like a wise man once said: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes".

CAT: Overcoming barriers in Logical Reasoning

Logical Reasoning (LR) probably is the closest to the real life problems students would face as managers. In CAT, the emphasis on logical reasoning has increased over the past few years, which makes it an important topic from a test preparation point of view.

Here are some guidelines which you would find useful in the countdown to CAT.

~ Interpreting given information correctly, and precisely

A common mistake students make is interpreting the given information incorrectly. The precise meaning of a statement should be understood for it to be used in conjunction with other statements correctly. For example, when referring to averages, "the average of the group reduces to" is not the same as "the average of the group reduces by".

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Consider the following question from CAT 07 where quite a few students interpreted the question incorrectly.

This was the first question in a caselet on 'Low cost airline company connecting ten Indian cities A to J'. The question read as follows:

Q. What is the lowest price, in rupees, a passenger has to pay for travelling by the shortest route from A to J?
(1) 2275
(2) 2850
(3) 2890
(4) 2930
(5) 3340

Note that the question requires you to find the shortest route first and then the lowest cost route. It is not the same as the lowest cost route between A to J.

The correct answer for this question is option (4) 2930. Whereas the answer by the lowest cost route approach is option (1) 2275.

Those who are interested to know the complete solution can download the complete solution key for CAT 2007 here

~ Develop your own ways of representing the data by practice

Often the data given needs to be written in a summarised form so that you can refer to it or remember it while solving questions. Develop your own methods of summarising the data. For example, let us try to represent the condition 'if P and Q are in the team then R cannot be there in the team'.

You may represent this as 'P and Q => x R'. This is a one way condition. There can be a two way condition such as 'if M is in the team then Q has to be there in the team and vice versa'. This may be represented as 'M<=>Q'.

~ Practice to intuitively solve problems

LR questions need to be solved with a particular line of thinking. You might know all the conditions necessary to solve the problems, but it is important to know which condition to use when and arrive at the solution in the minimum time possible. This is what we mean by intuitive thinking or the sixth sense that you need to develop to solve the questions. This comes only by practice. You can still develop it with fewer days in hand.

~ Tackle LR differently

LR is quite different in nature compared to other sections. Hence one needs to highlight some general strategies specifically applicable to LR.

1. Accuracy is far more important in LR. There is no bigger mistake than getting the complete set wrong. Avoid making guesses or reading in a hurry as it would lead to decreased accuracy.

2. As far as possible do not attempt LR in the beginning. If you get the set wrong or if it is tough and takes more time, that would affect your performance subsequently.

3. Use the option substitution method judiciously. LR questions are typically not meant to be solved using substitution of options. The most effective way is to understand the logic behind the question and solve it. There are exceptions to this rule though and you should use them wisely.

5. Read and understand the common data and questions thoroughly:

LR questions appear lengthy as compared to DI sets as they typically offer more information in text. While reading them, one might feel a lot of time is wasted. Yet, it helps to understand every condition thoroughly before attempting the questions. You may need to revisit the conditions while solving questions. Consider it time utilised not wasted. To illustrate these points, let's look at an LR caselet from CAT 2006, which is one of the more difficult caselets to have appeared in CAT. You could try the caselet on your own, before proceeding to the suggested solution method:

Erdos Number
Mathematicians are assigned a number called Erdos number (named after the famous mathematician, Paul Erdos). Only Paul Erdos himself has an Erdos number of zero. Any mathematician who has written a research paper with Erdos has an Erdos number of 1. For other mathematicians, the calculation of his/her Erdos number is illustrated below:

Suppose a mathematician X has co-authored papers with several other mathematicians. From among them, mathematician Y has the smallest Erdos number. Let the Erdos number of Y be y. Then X has an Erdos number of y+1. Hence any mathematician with no co-authorship chain connected to Erdos has an Erdos number of infinity.

In a seven day long mini conference organized in memory of Paul Erdos, a close group of eight mathematicians, call them A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H, discussed some research problems. At the beginning of the conference, A was the only participant who had an infinite Erdos number. Nobody had an Erdos number less than that of F.

• On the third day of the conference F co-authored a paper jointly with A and C. This reduced the average Erdos number of the group of eight mathematicians to 3. The Erdos numbers of B, D, E, G and H remained unchanged with the writing of this paper. Further, no other co-authorship among any three members would have reduced the average Erdos number of the group of eight to as low as 3.

• At the end of the third day, five members of this group had identical Erdos numbers while the other three had Erdos numbers distinct from each other.

• On the fifth day, E co-authored a paper with F which reduced the group's average Erdos number by 0.5. The Erdos numbers of the remaining six were unchanged with the writing of this paper.

• No other paper was written during the conference.

Q1. The person having the largest Erdos number at the end of the conference must have had Erdos number (at that time):

(1) 5
(2) 7
(3) 9
(4) 14
(5) 15

Q2. How many participants in the conference did not change their Erdos number during the conference?

(1) 2
(2) 3
(3) 4
(4) 5
(5) cannot be determined

Q3. The Erdos number of C at the end of the conference was:

(1) 1
(2) 2
(3) 3
(4) 4
(5) 5

Q4. The Erdos number of E at the beginning of the conference was:

(1) 2
(2) 5
(3) 6
(4) 7
(5) 8

Q5. How many participants had the same Erdos number at the beginning of the conference?

(1) 2
(2) 3
(3) 4
(4) 5
(5) cannot be determined

Methodology

This LR caselet is full of data and information. One must take care to go through the questions and understand them thoroughly. Let us summarize the important points of this caselet. For the sake of simplicity let's use the notation EN for Erdos Number.

General Information

• Only Paul Erdos has an EN of zero....1

• Any mathematician who has written a paper with Erdos has an EN of 1....2

• When a group of mathematicians co-author a paper, every mathematician except the one with the lowest EN gets an EN equal to the lowest EN in the group + 1....3

Specific Information

• Initially A had infinite EN and F has the lowest EN....4

• F co-authored a paper with A and C which reduced the average EN of the group to 3. No other combination of three members would have brought down the average to 3....5

• After this five members had the same EN and the remaining three ENs were distinct....6

• E co-authored a paper with F which reduced the group's average by 0.5....7

• No other paper was authored....8

We need to solve the caselet completely in order to answer the questions.

For the sake of simplicity let us refer to the ENs of the members by their names in small letters. For example, let us denote the EN of A as a.

a = Infinity

Since F has the lowest EN, after coauthoring the paper with F, the ENs of A and C would become f + 1 each.

Since this brings the average of the group to 3 it means that the total of all the ENs now is 24.

=> a + b + c + d + e + f + g + h = 24 ....9

From condition 6 we know that five of the ENs are same and the remaining ENs are distinct. Since A and C have the same EN, they cannot be the ones with distinct ENs and they are two of the five members with the same EN which is f + 1.

Therefore 5 members have the same EN as (f + 1) ....10

From condition 7, we know that E has co-authored a paper with F and that would make the EN of E as f + 1. Since it reduces the average EN of the group by 0.5 we can conclude

e - (f + 1) = 8 x 0.5 = 4

=> e = f + 5....11

So now we have five members with EN (f + 1) and three other members with distinct ENs. One of them is E with EN as (f + 5) and the other being F. Let the remaining distinct EN be x.

Therefore from condition 9 we can conclude,

5(f + 1) + f + 5 + f + x = 24

7f + 10 + x = 24

7f + x = 14 ....12

Since f cannot be zero, the only possible value for f is 1. From this we can see that x = 7.

Since we know the value of f, we can go on to solve the complete caselet. Keeping the length of the article in mind, it is unfeasible to give the complete solution here. Users interested to know the same can download the complete solution key for CAT 2006 here.

ALSO READ

• CAT 2008: 5 fundamental strategies for Quant
• 50 days to CAT: It's about speed and accuracy
• 40 days to CAT: Reducing ambiguity in Verbal Reasoning

TestFunda.com is a site for personalised online preparation for competitive entrance exams like CAT, FMS, XAT, etc. TestFunda.com also provides free Mock CATs, CAT question of the Day, Daily CAT word list, logical puzzles and Interactive Learning Games.

CAT: A winning strategy

With less than two months to go for the Common Admission Test (CAT), look no further -- just practice and strategise. It would be an exercise in futility to experiment with new concepts at this point. All an MBA aspirant has to do right now is stay focused.
Since the CAT is a high voltage war of nerves, the best option at this stage would be to maintain your cool. A slight slip on your part and the game's up.
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As a CAT faculty with years of experience behind me, the winning strategy I would suggest is to adopt the mantra 'a mock test a day till the D-day'!
As a smart student your strategy should also be to supplement your classroom learning with online learning. For the uninitiated, thousands of free practice tests are available on the web-portal www.tcyonline.com. By doing these tests you would get a fair idea as to where you stand, because these tests give you analytics too.
1. StrategyAt this stage, you are supposed to be conversant with some basic concepts. I would suggest a game plan like:
One MOCK TEST a day -- with the same time constraints.
Benchmark your performance against that of others
Double up the effort and the time for analyzing the test
Analyse what went wrong and why
Try to find out how you could have done better
Analyse what questions you should have attempted and what not
Learn from your mistakes -- try out a different strategy for the next test by selecting different type of questions to be attempted, omitting question types that posed problem in the previous test.
Take doubt-clearing sessions not only with the concerned CAT experts but also with your peers.
2. PreparationBear in mind that fifty per cent verbal questions are based on Reading Comprehension. And, there is no better way to gain confidence here than reading as many 'diversified topics' as possible, preferably with corresponding questions. In this respect, several hundred passages on 'highly diversified' topics are available free on TCYonline.com which can be of immense use.
3. Picking up Vocabulary Vocabulary build up is very important for CAT. Now the question is how to improve on your vocabulary. Nobody can be a dictionary. There is a way to understand the flow of words. For example, try to link up the words with similar sounding words. Finding a 'common link' is important. At this stage, 15 minutes daily to do the root study of words would go a long way towards your goal.
4. Beef up your GrammarStrengthening grammar is based on the application of your skills of written expression. If you can write an easy of 300-400 words, without any grammatical flaws, it means your basic grammar is good. At this stage the basic grammar rules should be quite familiar to you.
5. Classroom - Self study balanceStop studying for new CAT concepts now. Stress more on doubt clearance. Never go to bed with doubts in your mind. That's another high-scoring secret.
6. Common mistakesStudents have misconceptions about options -- they go for the easy way out and ignore the process of elimination (POE). The right answer is never obvious -- the wrong one is on the platter. The student is tempted to catch the wrong one dished out. When you are on the look out for an easy way out, you fall into the trap. The best way is to predict the answer before going to the options. Try to practice the answers. Don't rush to answer the options. Look not for the right answer, but for the wrong answer to be eliminated.
7. Confidence boostThe time has come to boost your confidence levels. Up until now you were taking only the basic tests, below the CAT level. The Mock CATs bring you to the CAT level. From preliminary tests to mock tests, the score has to go down. To start with that may shake your confidence, but you should not worry. You ought to know that your score has only one way to go from here, and that is 'UP'. At this stage if you are disillusioned, you are gone.
So practice, revise, analyse and strategise.
Good luck!

CAT 2008: The best way to tackle RC?

Is the verbal section of CAT getting you down?
Are you unable to make any progress in Quant?
Do you find your DI performance deprassing?
To help you improve your skills and better you performance in the CAT, experts from Career Launcher hosted a chat with readers on September 19. For those of you who missed the chat, here's the unedited transcript:
shivakumar says, Welcome to this rediff chat session with Saugata, Gautam and Shivku
shivakumar says, Try to identify which are the problem areas in verbal section. Is it RC or Grammar or Logic-based questions.Try to focus on these areas and revise your fundamentals. Also try to spend more time on the sections that you are strong in and maximise scores there. But remembr to spend enough time on the areas of your strength.
HelpMe asked, Hey Could you please help me what are the main topics in the verbal to prepare..??? shivakumar answers, Reading comprehension, parajumbles, paracompletions, vocab-based questions
mayank asked, what should be my strategy for the preparation of cat 09??shivakumar answers, There could be three steps for the preparation. One: Spanning next six to seven months (October-May)work on your fundamentals, basics without worrying about the speed. Two: Practice mock tests (June-September/October) and gain speed at the same time Three: Fine -tuning your test-taking strategies and getting prepared mentally ofr the final day
niks asked, Hi, can u tell me some good sources to prepare for DI? any books etc? will Arun sharma for DI help?shivakumar answers, Generally there are not very good books avaialble for DI which is relevant to CAT.What you can do is to Pick Career Launcher LRDI books/MOCK CATS/ FLTS which will give you enough exposure to LRDI towards CAT.
HelpMe asked, Actually i appeared last year in CAT and scored 93 percentile the only thing where i got screwed is English....and although i am trying to improve and reading editorials and all but unable to see any improvement so please help me in english..???shivakumar answers, It is good to be focused in your preparation for English. Reading editorials and journal articles is a good habit. butalso try to revise grammar from your high school books. Try to solve actual CAT papers or mock tests and focus on the areas which actually come in CAT. The more questions you solve the more you will learn by trial and error method
VishalG asked, what should be my strategy for the preparation of cat 08??shivakumar answers, Take at least 1-2 mock test every week. spend a lot of time analysising the tests. Locate where are you commiting so called silly errors and rectify the same when you take the next Mock Test.
HelpMe1 asked, This is in continuation to My Last Question.. But when u never know why it is right or wrong then hw will it help to improve when u "r not logically convinced?"shivakumar answers, The important thing therefore is to keep on testing your mettle through taking more and more tests.The more you pracitse the more you learn through trial and error
Gaurav asked, What is the minimum percentage required at graduation level to apply for IIMs?shivakumar answers, 50%
ceg asked, wat s the best way to tackle rc?rc passages r very dry too? finding rc very difficult.. shivakumar answers, RC passsages in CAT are becoming increasingly complicated and it is important to be able to shift through the language and identify the main idea of the passage. Once you do that, tackling questions become easier.
sknjain asked, Hi. Can u suggest me some tips for Maths shivakumar answers, I assuming you are preparing for CAT-2008. To me quant section in is basic application of of your commensense. If you go through CAt-2007 or CAT-2006 papers , you will find 30-40% of qustions can be solved without any pripr knowledge. I feel if you have practice a good number of questions over the period of time and strategise well during the exam you can do well.
Charu asked, in RC is it better to read the passage first and then the questions or the questions first and then the passage to answer the questions?shivakumar answers, This depend not only indiviual but also the type of passage. But keepin in the mind last two years CAT pattern which contained RC passages with logic bias , it is suggested that one should go through the passages first than only the questions.
kk asked, How much should i get the GMAT score to get admission in ISb hyderabad. I have two years of full time exp. Please ADVISEshivakumar answers, Generally the consider the scores in the range of 690+.
aea asked, I have to go abroad on official purposes, is there a possibility to change/reschedule the GD/PI Dates of IIMs/MDI/SPJain to marchshivakumar answers, Generally these institutes don't entertain the change of dates. I suggest you send a mail diretcly to them.
afiful asked, DI is troubling me a lot.the marks are flactuating a lot..gimme some tips on it.mainly how to choose the question??shivakumar answers, It is very important to undersatnd that cut off in DI section can be cleared by just attempting 2 sets One: spent 3-5 minutes in the DI section scanning and then only decide which two Di sets you want to solve. Two: spend concentarted 12-15 minutes on each of the picked set Three: Dont get baffled if the set is taking time to get cracked at the time leave the set if you realize after few minutes that it is not my cup of Tea.

CAT 2008: Tips to boost your vocab

Have you ever tried to assess your vocabulary? You may have come across such words as 'anarchy', 'autarchy', 'hierarchy', 'matriarchy', 'monarchy', and 'oligarchy'.
And now there's "kindergarchy".
Surprised?
Let's analyse. Does it sound similar to "kindergarten? Yes, it does. The first half of the given word is related to children and the second half is related to 'rule' or 'govern'. So, kindergarchy as a whole means 'rule of children'; that is, the needs and desires of children getting precedence over those of their parents or elders.
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Do you feel outdated when it comes to such new words?Language keeps assimilating, evolving and modifying words as per the needs of its users. With the furtherance of technology in modern day life, needs of language users change frequently and so does the language, albeit imperceptibly. We need clear and exact expressions to express our feelings. So we mould language accordingly.
Is expressing your ideas a daunting task?Do you sometimes get speechless when it comes to the commencement or continuation of a discussion? If yes, you need to have a good vocabulary in order to get the right word in at the right time. It is seen that the level of vocabulary, in a sense, projects your overall level of highbrow functioning.
All about WordsThink of certain newfangled words that can really surprise you. Many newspapers like The Washington Times, The Australian, and The New York Times are using such words like 'Baraknophobia' (remember arachnophobia!). It relates to skeptical and negative feelings about the US presidential candidate, Barak Obama. Another example can be of 'burqini' which is commonly used nowadays. It has evolved from two words -- 'burqa + bikini' -- which means a swimsuit which veils the full body. There are a lot of such words -- 'cyborg', 'glocalisation', 'murketing' etc -- that you won't be able to locate in a dictionary. I am sure you will be very keen to know the meanings of these words.
Ascertaining meaningsThe question is where do we find such words if they are not present in dictionaries? The answer is not as unfamiliar as the words are. To learn vocabulary which is currently in vogue, you have to read anything you can lay your hands upon, like recent novels, editorial sections of newspapers, journals etc. Learned authors often use such vocabulary. Remember, the more you are exposed to reading, the more new words you will learn. And never forget to frequently test your vocabulary.
Learning techniquesNow, grasping new vocabulary and retaining it are not such easy tasks. It is all about the right technique. There should be a system or modus operandi to learn such words as we cannot mug them up.
1. Being a voluntary readerIf you are a voluntary reader, mastering new vocabulary won't be a problem for you. As the same words are likely to figure again and again in your reading, you will get well acquainted with them.
2. Source citingAnother possible and interesting way out can be the method of source citing. Go to sites like dictionary.com. It is an online dictionary, frequently updated. Here you can easily find out the source from which the word has originated. This creates a background, and learning words becomes easy.
3. Learning prefixes, suffixes, rootsThis method is also very effective. If we know some roots, prefixes and suffixes, we can easily anticipate the meanings of words using those roots, prefixes or suffixes. Take for example, '-pathy' which means feeling. So, it becomes easy to comprehend meaning of a new word with this suffix. Like, 'sympathy' -- 'similar feeling', 'apathy' -- 'no feelings', antipathy' -- 'negative feelings' and so on. It's quite simple, isn't it? Think of certain roots and test yourself.
4. AssociatingIf you associate or relate a certain word with something or someone, like any of your companions, chums or relatives, the process becomes simple. For instance, the word 'irascible' is used for a person who is very 'irritable' and 'impatient'. Now, one of your acquaintances can be of this nature. Associate this word with this person. Whenever s/he comes before your eyes, this word will come to your mind and vice versa. So, the word won't go to the dark depths of forgetfulness.
5. SwappingThis is a technique to diversify your learning. You can learn in both ways, paradigmatic (by context) as well as syntagmatic (by meaning). Swap the word you have done, with the ones having the same meaning. Like, we can swap the word 'irascible' with words like cranky, grouchy, grumpy, petulant, peevish etc.
6. Flash cardsLearning certain difficult words amusingly is both a challenge as well as fun. You can make flash cards and use them for the twin purpose of building up your vocabulary and of playing cards. Writing the word on one side of the card and the meaning or hint on the other will do.
7. Creating storiesAnother entertaining method of learning new words is by creating stories while learning. It's an easy method. Take a word, 'assiduous'. It means 'to work diligently'. Now create a story. 'Ass' is donkey. Take it as 'dhobi ka gadha' which works day in and day out. So, a person who works diligently is 'assiduous'.
8. Effective speechEveryone wants to be a good orator. To become one, learning words is not enough. You have to use these words in your speech to make it rhetorical and impressive. So, keep learning, keep swapping, keep creating and keep using. The world will listen to you.

IIM-B opens admissions to Fellow Programme

What: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) invites applications for admission to the Fellow Programme in Management (FPM) (equivalent to PhD).

Areas of specialisation

• Corporate Strategy and Policy
• Economics and Social Sciences
• Marketing
• Organisational Behaviour & Human Resource Management
• Finance & Control
• Production & Operations Management
• Quantitative methods and information Systems
• Public Systems
• Public Policy

Eligibility
See the website (www.iimb.ernet.in) for details. We encourage candidates to submit scores from CAT, GMAT, GRE or GATE, but will also accept applications without any test score.

How to apply
FPM application forms are issued free of cost on request from August 1, 2008. Please write to FPM Office at the address given below, with a self-addressed envelope size (9" x 12") affixed with stamps for Rs 75/- and a self addressed slip. The application forms can also be downloaded from the website www.iimb.ernet.in from August 1, 2008.

Last dates

• For receipt of requested for application forms by post: January 30, 2009
• For receipt of completed application forms: February 13, 2009

For area-specific requirements, application form and other information visit the website: www.iimb.ernet.in

Contact
FPM Office
Indian Institute of management Bangalore
Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore - 560 076
Phone: (80) 2699 3056
Fax: (80) 2658 4050
Email: fpmadmn@iimb.ernet.in

CAT to go online from November 2009

The directors of the seven Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will meet later this month to discuss details of a proposal to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) online by 2009.
The CAT exams may also be formatted on the lines of the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) so that the scores are valid for two to three years.
An IIM Calcutta professor who is working on the proposal said the primary reason for taking the CAT online is the increasing number of aspirants.
"However, we are also considering other possibilities for conducting the CAT exams," he added.
The move could benefit thousands of students. In 2007, around 2,30,000 students took the exams. This year the number is expected to exceed 3,00,000.
For online CAT exams, the IIMs could outsource the project to an IT firm specialising in education and training services.
"The company will provide us with the infrastructure, but the control of setting the question paper will remain with the IIMs. The company will also be allowed to conduct exams at its franchisees," the professor said.
The IIMs may also conduct a preliminary test for students to be eligible to take the CAT. The format of group discussion and personal interviews will, however, be the same.
Taking CAT online stems from IIMs' concern over the chaos that occurs during declaration of results. Last year, for instance, heavy traffic caused the website to crash on January 8, when the results were declared.
Besides the seven IIMs, which conduct the exams, the CAT results are also used by 124 other management institutions to enroll students.

Content of interview and GD

The written stage over, you would all be bracing up for the personality assessment round. More than the written stage, this stage helps an institute determine whether you possess the managerial mettle or not. Whether an MBA qualification is really in sync with your career goals, whether you have the willingness to pursue what you have set out to achieve, and whether you have the ability to withstand corporate pressures or not, can to a certain extent be assessed with the help of the tools that B-schools have evolved. It's another matter that each B-school has its own way of assessing you. The focus of interview could differ from one institute to another. Therefore it helps to understand how B-schools conduct their interviews and GDs.

Interview

In a B School interview, the panel, comprising two to three members, will probe into every aspect. So even if a student is not forthcoming the panel members would keep talking about different areas and would try to identify his/her strengths and weaknesses.
Another thing you have to be particular about is academics. We usually tend to downplay academics. But in an interview, the panel usually checks academic knowledge. By academics, we don't mean how many marks you got in college. It means your knowledge of the subject. So even if you managed to secure only 55 per cent, you can make it. But you cannot say that academics are not my strong areas so let me talk of something else. You should use this time to brush up at least one or two subjects for sure. What's more, even if you have worked for two years, don't be under the impression that your experience is more important than your theoretical knowledge.
Also don't be under the impression that if you are a history or a home science or Sanskrit student, there won't be a subject expert to judge you. To ask you questions on basic stuff, one doesn't need a subject expert. And that is the most surprising thing, that when students are asked basic questions, they are not able to answer those.


The first question itself is an opportunity — 'introduce yourself' or 'tell us something about yourself'. Students give very short answers to a lot of questions. One such question is 'how has your performance been in exams?' One would just answer by saying 'good', 'average' or so on. But here's an opportunity to explain why your performance has been what it is. You can mention extracurricular activities in that case. The panel doesn't take low marks positively. However, they are open to the idea of your justifying your low marks. They are looking at some value in the student. One thing that's at the back of the panel's mind is — can the low marks be substituted by some other quality that the student has. But if you come out as just average student, without knowing why you have got low marks, or not improved over the period of time then you would be viewed very negatively.



Group discussion
IN GD, the variation is usually in terms of number of participants, the duration of the GD, the kind of topics given and the chaos level. But broadly the GD follows the set pattern of about 10-12 people seated almost in a semi-circle. They are given a topic and the panel is not involved then onwards. So it is left up to the group as to how to discuss the entire topic. Usually one person takes the initiative. After the first or the second speaker it is a chaotic situation. Panel members are not able to listen to each and everything in such a chaotic situation. So as an outsider, they will see where is the value addition happening and who can handle the situation in spite of the chaos.
The panel decides the sitting arrangement. You are not free to choose your seat. This might have implications on how you will perform, because when you are communicating you need to involve the entire group. You need to maintain a good eye contact with everyone. Otherwise you are going to be interrupted and someone else will take forward. The person sitting in the centre has more responsibility of not dividing the gathering into two groups and speaking to just one side so that the other side is neglected. The person seated in the end can look at everyone.

The topic could be anything under the sun. In terms of areas, the topic could range from business and economics to sports any activism that is present at that point of time.
Students wonder whether polarized views will be accepted. I might have a polarized view but if my process of putting across is fine, that's acceptable … there is a difference between a polarized view and an obstinate one. You can have polarized view but you should be open to the idea that the others are entitled to their views.
Students are also worried about the process of the GD that whether he/she will get a chance to speak; whether his/her communication is weak; or how to enter into discussion. But content is as important as process. If you are good on the content part and if you are an asset to the group, the group will hear you out. Get a good databank of reasons for any topic. Spend time analyzing issues. It could be any issue, like 'Should Ganguly be brought back into the team or not' or 'Is the US a bully'. Introduce reasons for it. Not your passions.
A number of institutes do give abstract topics. In such cases group dynamics become insignificant because a lot of people just wait for someone to speak. So there is a lot of opportunity to speak out. Hence content becomes all the more important. You need the flexibility of taking the topic to any area. Don't take the literal meaning of such topics. In topics like 'East is East and West is West' or 'Black and White' they judge whether you can associate the color to any sphere that you can think of. You need to be creative and liberal in defining the boundaries. If you are a movie buff you can talk about movies. If you are a photography buff you can talk about photography. This will add value to the discussion. Value addition is the name of the game. There are instances when the entire group has been asked to leave in the middle of GD. This happens when the panel realizes that none is doing value addition and is adding to the nuisance value. On the other hand there are instances where all of the candidates in a group have been selected.

IIM job placements touch Rs 60-lakh mark

It's raining offers for the experienced students at the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). The first two weeks into lateral placements at the IIMs have seen more than 170 offers being made at the campuses.

Most of the IIMs have received offers ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 60 lakh, with many more companies slotted to visit the campuses by the second week of February.

Over 50 offers have already been made at IIM-Calcutta, which had kicked off its lateral placements last week. Close to 100 students would be eligible for lateral placements from the institute.

ArcelorMittal, Wipro [Get Quote], Microsoft and Verizon have been the early visitors, some of whom have visited other IIMs as well.

The first week has seen students bagging foreign offers in the Middle East, Europe and the US. Companies have offered middle-management roles as well as top management roles. Senior management roles have also been offered in the corporate finance and capital markets divisions.

At IIM-Indore, around 20 companies have come to the campus so far and close to 48 offers have been made. The higher offers have crossed the Rs 40 lakh-mark.

Placement officials say infrastructure companies are expected to come in droves this year. IIM-Lucknow has had 15 companies so far who have made 30 offers.

Ten companies have come to IIM-Bangalore which include Wipro, IBM, Verizon and other IT companies. Five to seven companies have come to IIM-Ahmedabad.

Lateral placements are open to students with a minimum of 10 to 20 months work experience and this year could see the number of lateral offers take a steep rise considering most of the Post Graduate Programme (PGP) batches across all IIMs have a work experience of over 45 months.

At IIM-Bangalore, over 100 students will be eligible for lateral placements out of the total batch of 260, whereas 120 students from the PGP batch at IIM-Lucknow have the required work experience.

Also, while most of the IIM officials are confident of the sub-prime crisis not being an issue during placements this year, a student from one of the IIMs confirmed that there was some degree of concern as to whether the number of students hired by investment banks could see some decline this year, although that would only be known by March, since investment banks prefer to hire from the final placement week.

At IIM-Ahmedabad, the final placement week is to be held from March 6 to March 11, from March 7 to 11 at IIM-Bangalore, from February 27 to March 2 at IIM-Indore, and during the first week of March at IIM-Lucknow.

This year, recruiters at various IIMs include ArcelorMittal, Trident, Pepsi, ICICI Bank [Get Quote], Tesco, Feedback Ventures, Tata Group companies, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Dr Reddy's, Pfizer [Get Quote], Ranbaxy [Get Quote] among others.

Railways, municipal corporations may come to IIM-A
For the first time, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is seeing recruiters from diverse entities such as the Indian Railways, municipal corporations and other public sector companies for lateral placements that are on in all the IIMs.

Sources at IIM-A have confirmed that close to 100 public and private sector units have been in touch with the institute, which include PSUs like Gujarat State Fertiliser Corporation (GSFC), Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd (GPCL), Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd (GACL), municipal corporations and other government departments.

Twenty-two students would be available for placements from the batch of PGP-PMP which caters to civil servants, managers of government, NGOs and executives of private sector firms engaged in public management

Post-CAT GD and interviews: The last hurdle

It's that time of the year again. CAT results are out and IIMs will soon send out their call letters.
Students who have slogged their brains out for the last year or so can stop biting their nails and maybe get a manicure. Soon, many other B-schools will announce their results. While some celebration is certainly called for, it is not yet the time to pop the champagne corks. There are still battles to be fought, victories to be won.
Of course, when the final admission offer is made from IIM-A and you regretfully inform other IIMs and sundry B-schools that you will not be joining them, you can tell the fat lady to sing her guts out.
First let me tell you the odds are much better at the GD and Interview stage than they were at the CAT stage. IIM-A is giving out roughly 3x calls for every x. And if you have more calls the chances are even better. However, GD and Interview is not a walk in the park, however confident you may be of your gift of the gab. There is more to it than just English speaking.
By now the B-schools have tested you on your aptitude skills (sic) and have selected you for further consideration. Let's look at what their interest would be in selecting you.
~ Ability to do justice to the course (read 'will s/he pass the course?').
~ Employability after the MBA program.
~ Career prospects (will s/he rise to her/his level of incompetence and become the second assistant vice president at Novella Nail Varnishes Amalgamated?).
Group Discussions
Group Discussions involve putting 8-12 students together in a group and giving them a topic and getting them to yell at each other for about 10-15 minutes. Alternately, these students may be given a situation, a one-page story (called a case study) and asked to discuss the same. But let's look at what the B schools expect to test in such a scenario. The following are the parameters of selection:
Content: General awareness, the ability to convert knowledge into logical arguments. It is relatively easy to memorise facts; students have been doing it over years of schooling and college. Memory is compulsory, comprehension is optional. But, to participate meaningfully in a Group Discussion you need to have a clear understanding of what the facts mean.
So spend your time reading up newspapers, magazines and browsing the net catching up on important topics. You could try to acquire a list of past topics from any of the CAT training centres.
Communication: The next step is to communicate the arguments built with clarity. It is the ability to make yourself understood. Students worried about fluency in English and/or accents need not worry. You are aiming at a 'She makes sense' kinda response, not a 'He speaks so well, but what exactly does he mean.' Use simple language and short sweet sentences. Do understand that GDs tend to be extremely chaotic with 6 word average sentences. So come to the point directly before you get interrupted.
However, certain tactics are important. For one, getting a chance to speak is critical. Don't wait for complete silence for you to start speaking. You have to interrupt somebody and grab your chances, but how and when you do it is very important
Time your interruption towards the end of someone's point.
Speak loud and clear (but don't speak fast). Make sure you start with some power behind your voice.
Make eye contact with different students; don't speak only to one person.
Group Dynamics: Remember that a GD is a formal occasion and make sure your behaviour is appropriate. The B-schools are testing your attitude, maturity etc. The way you handle pressure in a chaotic situations, handling disagreements, listening skills are all tested. Take a balanced view of the topic and be willing to look at different points of view.
Wild allegations (all politicians are corrupt), impractical suggestions (a war on Pakistan will settle all issues), personal attacks (if your brother was killed by terrorists you would know) etc clearly highlight your lack of maturity.
Leadership: Leadership in GDs is about intellectual leadership. Can you guide the GD towards a meaningful discussion of the topic? It's about introducing new ways of looking at the topic, and leading a group towards a consensus. Remember, GDs, rarely, if ever, reach a consensus. However, the process of going towards a consensus is all important. Remember Leadership is a not a choice that you make. You become a leader, if the group voluntarily chooses to follow you.
Interviews
Interviews bring about a fear of being brutalised by an essentially hostile panel looking to rip you apart, proverbial lambs to slaughter. Nothing could be further from the truth. Except for a relatively rare case of 'stress interview' where the student is deliberately put under stress, most interviews are friendly affairs where the panel seeks to put the student at ease. This is done to ensure that they are able to elicit natural responses and best evaluate the student. The questioning and evaluation is done on these parameters:
Work Exp/Subject Knowledge -- The focus is on the whether you have a holistic view of the organisation that you worked for or of the field of study that you have chosen (do you see the BIG Picture?). Also, whether you have attention to detail and can understand and explain the various issues related to your area of specialisation.
Career Planning -- Despite enormous evidence to the contrary, the B-schools still believe that students plan their careers. So they are looking at things like short term and long term career goals. A simple question like "Why management?" can cause a lot of headaches if pursued over a few minutes.
General Awareness -- The focus is on concept level understanding whether the question is on Pakistan or NALCO privatisation. It is how you use information to create credible arguments.
Personality and Self awareness -- How well do you know yourself? Awareness of your personality traits, strengths weaknesses can help you use them to best advantage in your career.
Extra Curricular activities and hobbies -- B schools like to believe that they select candidates with all round ability rather than plain 'muggu's'. Little do they know that 'muggu's' are very resourceful and a muggu with a net connection can create hobbies out of thin air. Seriously though, you might need to identify your areas of special interest, review your knowledge of these areas.
Let me end this article with a few tips on how to prepare:
~ An Interview is about 'YOU'. So don't look at ready made answers to questions. Please remember that the panel wishes to know you better, so start with knowing yourself better.
~ Understand the fact that preparation is required and that it will take time. So don't leave it for the last minute. Most importantly question yourself. Understand that any answer looks good unless it is tested. Most trouble is caused by supplementary questions. For example let's look at a possible scenario.
Q. Mr. Rohit, as a software engineer with some experience, why would you like to study management?
A. Sir, while I have a strong background as a technical person, I feel that my career prospects would be better if can add management skills and be a techno MBA. (applause; good answer).