In these last two days, the best you can do is take a chill pill, go through simple mathematical formulas, if u have done vocab then revise it and see a few LR sets (just to maintain familiarity).
Some last minute tips:
* Get a watch (yes again).
* Unless RC is your forte, solve 2 RCs and move on, u can always come back if time permits.
* Don't I repeat DON'T leave all the circles to be filled at the end. preferably solve questions in a bunch of say 20-40 and then fill OMR and so on ... nothing can be worse than solving 160 questions and marking only 120.
* Give extra precaution to marking OMR, a lot of people lose a lot of marks just because they marked the questions wrongly.
* Don't waste time in counting how many questions u did or thinking on is it enough to clear cut-off etc etc. In FMS its best if u leave theses worries for after the exam, at the time of exam concentrate on the questions on hand.
* Don't assume that u had seen this question somewhere and the answer was option c(or for that matter a) !!!
* Don't attempt questions for the heck of it(blind guesses) but if u are able to reject even one(or more) option then u can go for a blind guess...
* Don't bother too much about sectional and overall cut-offs, physics and higher mathematics, just go with a cool head and all other things will take care of themselves, FMS is comparatively an easier exam, if u keep ur head cool u can surely tame it ...
One personal suggestion.
Don't rush into the paper as soon as u get it. take 2 minutes, see the paper zero-in on how u want to a attempt the paper and then start. Last year, many a people got frustrated in the beginning itself as they saw the 5 page RC.
Ranjeet Pratap Singh
FMS,Batch of 2012.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Some Tips for FMS Aspirants ...
* you might read a little about vadic mathematics etc.
* No number of words you know is enough, bole to vocab gives u an edge here (doesn't mean u can't make it to FMS if u are weak at vocab, I did )
* Realize your strengths and play on them e.g RC are either a scoring haven or a bottleneck, if you have good reading speed make sure you attempt as many questions in RC as possible, perhaps attempting the section at the beginning.
* Take approximations, particularly in DI.
* If you have lesser time at your hand, try solving LR by checking the options to see if one of them fits all the criteria mentioned in the question instead of solving the whole set.
* Always wear a watch but make sure that you don't spend too much time looking at it and getting tensed, don't waste time in counting how many you have attempted etc.
* Either don't leave marking the OMR for the last, or leave sufficient (atleast 15 minutes) for it. You can do it in this way, solve 10-40 questions and then mark them ....
* Don't mark the answer for a question on memory thinking that u had solved this question just a few days back, there is a good possibility that the question is a bit twisted and hence the answer has changed.
* Don't go into the paper with too many assumptions about the difficulty level etc. It might vary by a huge deal, just trust yourself, if the paper is difficult its difficult for everyone (e.g. FMS, 2008) if its easy don't be over-confident (like FMS 2009).
* Sectional cut-offs are 50 percentile (and not percentage) which means two things.
You can play on your strengths, that is giving more time to the section you are strong at and hence getting a higher overall score.
There is still a 50 percentile barrier to be crossed and you can't completely ignore a section.
Now go rock the paper, and hopefully join us here this summer :)
* No number of words you know is enough, bole to vocab gives u an edge here (doesn't mean u can't make it to FMS if u are weak at vocab, I did )
* Realize your strengths and play on them e.g RC are either a scoring haven or a bottleneck, if you have good reading speed make sure you attempt as many questions in RC as possible, perhaps attempting the section at the beginning.
* Take approximations, particularly in DI.
* If you have lesser time at your hand, try solving LR by checking the options to see if one of them fits all the criteria mentioned in the question instead of solving the whole set.
* Always wear a watch but make sure that you don't spend too much time looking at it and getting tensed, don't waste time in counting how many you have attempted etc.
* Either don't leave marking the OMR for the last, or leave sufficient (atleast 15 minutes) for it. You can do it in this way, solve 10-40 questions and then mark them ....
* Don't mark the answer for a question on memory thinking that u had solved this question just a few days back, there is a good possibility that the question is a bit twisted and hence the answer has changed.
* Don't go into the paper with too many assumptions about the difficulty level etc. It might vary by a huge deal, just trust yourself, if the paper is difficult its difficult for everyone (e.g. FMS, 2008) if its easy don't be over-confident (like FMS 2009).
* Sectional cut-offs are 50 percentile (and not percentage) which means two things.
You can play on your strengths, that is giving more time to the section you are strong at and hence getting a higher overall score.
There is still a 50 percentile barrier to be crossed and you can't completely ignore a section.
Now go rock the paper, and hopefully join us here this summer :)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Some awesome posts: Courtsey: www.pagalguy.com
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-32.html#post1681746
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/25575-the-pg-dream-team-07-a-21.html#post860342
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-15.html#post1672926
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-15.html#post1672954
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-15.html#post1672926
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-18.html#post1674122
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-20.html#post1675058
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-22.html#post1675491
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43764-2009-ncr-dream-team-13.html#post1675269
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-22.html#post1675580
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/25575-the-pg-dream-team-07-a-21.html#post860342
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-15.html#post1672926
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-15.html#post1672954
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-15.html#post1672926
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-18.html#post1674122
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-20.html#post1675058
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-22.html#post1675491
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43764-2009-ncr-dream-team-13.html#post1675269
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/43726-the-pg-dream-team-09-a-22.html#post1675580
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Road to FMS: post 2
Okay so after all the gyan here comes some tangible stuff :)
How to prepare for FMS.
General Gyan: FMS is an exam where you can play on your pure strengths, so its important to recognize your strengths early on and work more on them.
QA: QA in FMS is usually a mixed bag, with some questions pretty straight forward and some others requiring some application and thought process.
Now the key to note here is that some of the QA questions are very easy to solve but they are 3-5 sentences long and hence need a lot of time to just read them, while some others are very small but need more time to solve. So you need to be good with question selection, you need to make sure that once you pick a question you are able to solve it and that in optimal time.
Recommendation for people not comfortable with Quants: Learn number system, chose any 2-3 other topics you are comfortable with and solve as many questions on them as possible. Don't solve questions which take more than 2 minutes to be solved. Try to solve as many questions as possible without using a pen, by option elimination etc. Appear in at-least 2 mock FMS exams and analyze them properly.
Recommendation for people who feel comfortable with Quants: Try speed methods (like vadic methods) may or may not work for you(I was never impressed by them) but no harm in trying, try attempting max qestions from a mock FMS or previous paper in 35 minutes or so while maintaining accuracy, if a qestion isn't solved it one go bookmark it and move ahead, later on if time permits can always come back.
People not comfortable with LR: Solve some good puzzle books like George smmers. Chose some sets which seem to be familiar and try solving them completely, a set of 3 qestions not to be given more than 6 mintes. Have a look at all the sets, some sets have one-two sitter questions which can be easily solved.
People comfortable with LR: Solve aimcat LR sets, total types of LR sets seems to be limited so many a times you will get a set on a concept u have seen. Use bookmark extensively, many sets have one-two tougher questions leave them. Solve maximum questions, not necessarily maximum sets.
People not comfortable with RC: Search for passages which are more fact based(and have fact based question) e.g. when did the XYZ event happen. Now solve RCs depending on your own strength, you might go for reading questions then reading the passage or reading the passage then reading questions or anything else.
People comfortable with RC: Try to do as many RCs as possible, this is one section which gives very good ROI if you are real good in it.
For everyone: Don't stop at a word if you don't know its meaning, don't stop at a line if doesn't seem to make sense just go and read ahead it will be clear as you read along. Going back to a word or a line wastes a lot of time and for FMS time is very precious.
People comfortable with VA: Work hard on VA, mug Vocab if u can, learn grammer rules if u can do whatever u can since this section gives max marks in minimum time.
People not so comfortable with VA (like me): decide on some areas you are good and work hard on them. If you can, mug up vocab( I couldn't). If you can't practice everything else.
Abhi ke liye itna hi.....
For any particular doubt/suggestion/requirement post a comment :)
How to prepare for FMS.
General Gyan: FMS is an exam where you can play on your pure strengths, so its important to recognize your strengths early on and work more on them.
QA: QA in FMS is usually a mixed bag, with some questions pretty straight forward and some others requiring some application and thought process.
Now the key to note here is that some of the QA questions are very easy to solve but they are 3-5 sentences long and hence need a lot of time to just read them, while some others are very small but need more time to solve. So you need to be good with question selection, you need to make sure that once you pick a question you are able to solve it and that in optimal time.
Recommendation for people not comfortable with Quants: Learn number system, chose any 2-3 other topics you are comfortable with and solve as many questions on them as possible. Don't solve questions which take more than 2 minutes to be solved. Try to solve as many questions as possible without using a pen, by option elimination etc. Appear in at-least 2 mock FMS exams and analyze them properly.
Recommendation for people who feel comfortable with Quants: Try speed methods (like vadic methods) may or may not work for you(I was never impressed by them) but no harm in trying, try attempting max qestions from a mock FMS or previous paper in 35 minutes or so while maintaining accuracy, if a qestion isn't solved it one go bookmark it and move ahead, later on if time permits can always come back.
People not comfortable with LR: Solve some good puzzle books like George smmers. Chose some sets which seem to be familiar and try solving them completely, a set of 3 qestions not to be given more than 6 mintes. Have a look at all the sets, some sets have one-two sitter questions which can be easily solved.
People comfortable with LR: Solve aimcat LR sets, total types of LR sets seems to be limited so many a times you will get a set on a concept u have seen. Use bookmark extensively, many sets have one-two tougher questions leave them. Solve maximum questions, not necessarily maximum sets.
People not comfortable with RC: Search for passages which are more fact based(and have fact based question) e.g. when did the XYZ event happen. Now solve RCs depending on your own strength, you might go for reading questions then reading the passage or reading the passage then reading questions or anything else.
People comfortable with RC: Try to do as many RCs as possible, this is one section which gives very good ROI if you are real good in it.
For everyone: Don't stop at a word if you don't know its meaning, don't stop at a line if doesn't seem to make sense just go and read ahead it will be clear as you read along. Going back to a word or a line wastes a lot of time and for FMS time is very precious.
People comfortable with VA: Work hard on VA, mug Vocab if u can, learn grammer rules if u can do whatever u can since this section gives max marks in minimum time.
People not so comfortable with VA (like me): decide on some areas you are good and work hard on them. If you can, mug up vocab( I couldn't). If you can't practice everything else.
Abhi ke liye itna hi.....
For any particular doubt/suggestion/requirement post a comment :)
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Road To FMS: Post 1.
Its quite ironic that a guy in FMS writes at a blog titled "iimiswhereibelongto" :P anyways, as mentioned in the introduction of this blog, the purpose of this blog was to help readers to get into their dream institutes and I'm getting a lot many queries from people who say that FMS is where they want to be.
So this post and a few more to follow will help those people who want to be in FMS this year.
First of all, some general info:
FMS is one of the most highly regarded Indian B-School with tution fee less than 21 K for two years.
Location of FMS in the capital of the country and that too in Delhi University, gives it a unique advantage.
FMS provides a unique advantage as it doesn't restrict one's choice to chose a major/minor but it gives you freedom to actually customize your course by chosing your favorite elective subjects in second year (for more details visit the official website)
FMS is primarily a student driven college, where most of the activities are organized by the students.
FMS Enjoys a well established brand name and has a very broad and helping alumni base.
FMS Entrance Procedure:
Admission is facilitated through an written entrance exam followed by a GD-PI-Extempore process. The exact format of written entrance exam is told in advance. Going by last year it had 200 questions, divided into 4 sections to be attempted in 120 minutes.
4 sections are: QA, LR, VA, RC. to qualify one has to get a sectional percentile of 50 in each section, so effectively FMS is one exam wherein once can play purely on his strength.
Its very difficult to predict the cut-off before-hand so one should try to do his best, instead of worrying that whether he has cleared the cut-off.
GD-PI-Extempore is organized in college campus at Delhi University.
FAQ
* Is FMS so cheap that we can do MBA in 20k only
FMS isn't cheap, its highly economical :) honestly speaking you won't be able to do an MBA in 20 K at fms, one needs anywhere between 1.5 L to 3 L to live here ...
* Is FMS the right college for me.
The answer is "it depends". FMS is a part of the Delhi University, it provides probably the best Return of Invetement among its peers, has decent placements, wonderful (and some not so wonderful :P) faculty and its almost entirely student driven, giving you more exposure than probably any other institute. On the other hand there are some reasons why it might not be the right college for you, being a part of a university means that change progresses a little slowly here. Smaller batch sizes mean total alumni strength is low, not everyone gets a hostel here... etc so one needs to make an informed choice ....
* How to prepare for FMS
this point will be covered in the forthcoming posts :)
So this post and a few more to follow will help those people who want to be in FMS this year.
First of all, some general info:
FMS is one of the most highly regarded Indian B-School with tution fee less than 21 K for two years.
Location of FMS in the capital of the country and that too in Delhi University, gives it a unique advantage.
FMS provides a unique advantage as it doesn't restrict one's choice to chose a major/minor but it gives you freedom to actually customize your course by chosing your favorite elective subjects in second year (for more details visit the official website)
FMS is primarily a student driven college, where most of the activities are organized by the students.
FMS Enjoys a well established brand name and has a very broad and helping alumni base.
FMS Entrance Procedure:
Admission is facilitated through an written entrance exam followed by a GD-PI-Extempore process. The exact format of written entrance exam is told in advance. Going by last year it had 200 questions, divided into 4 sections to be attempted in 120 minutes.
4 sections are: QA, LR, VA, RC. to qualify one has to get a sectional percentile of 50 in each section, so effectively FMS is one exam wherein once can play purely on his strength.
Its very difficult to predict the cut-off before-hand so one should try to do his best, instead of worrying that whether he has cleared the cut-off.
GD-PI-Extempore is organized in college campus at Delhi University.
FAQ
* Is FMS so cheap that we can do MBA in 20k only
FMS isn't cheap, its highly economical :) honestly speaking you won't be able to do an MBA in 20 K at fms, one needs anywhere between 1.5 L to 3 L to live here ...
* Is FMS the right college for me.
The answer is "it depends". FMS is a part of the Delhi University, it provides probably the best Return of Invetement among its peers, has decent placements, wonderful (and some not so wonderful :P) faculty and its almost entirely student driven, giving you more exposure than probably any other institute. On the other hand there are some reasons why it might not be the right college for you, being a part of a university means that change progresses a little slowly here. Smaller batch sizes mean total alumni strength is low, not everyone gets a hostel here... etc so one needs to make an informed choice ....
* How to prepare for FMS
this point will be covered in the forthcoming posts :)
Friday, April 16, 2010
Welcome To The New Season .....
Now that I've some experience to talk from, and a little credential to show let me use this post to welcome those of you who are aspiring for the forthcoming season of MBA Entrance exams.
A year back, at almost the same time, I had some opinions about MBA, various MBA entrance exams and various MBA colleges; and now, with some experience (of my own and of some friends) I think I've gained some more insights into it. With time and experience I realize that not all I knew and thought was true(though a big chunk was).
Some of the things worth mentioning here (particularly for the first timers) will be :
1.) When you prepare for one exam (say CAT) you are infact preparing for all of them, but then to do your best in them, a little specific prep can help you big time. (More on exam specific prep in subsequent posts)
2.) Mock-Cats are a good place to check where you stand, to check new strategies, to check how you cope under pressure and to check how you take the results; but do realize that in the real exams there are a lot of factors at play including the all so famous luck (or as they say Muprhy's factor) so keep your fingers crossed untill the results are out.
3.) Don't believe too much on the various key's in the market, they do give you and idea but that's it about them; the actual key may have significant variations particularly in VA and RC.
4.) Have fun with your preps, and don't take too much stress on you....
and example in case being my friend shashank prabhu (doc mod at PG) who scored a never-before-seen score in MHCET, an exam for which he was little bothered and didn't really prepare and though he scored good in all the exams he appeared in MHCET stands tall.
5.) Play on your strengths, don't run too much after what other's are saying or doing. If you can mug-up the word-lists and formulas pretty good, but even if you can't all is not lost; you can cover it up being strong in say reading speed and/or LR -it doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to work on your weaknesses, but just that don't do it on the cost of loosing out on your strengths.
6.) Believe in yourself. One / a few bad scores in some section or some mocks (or some actual exams) don't define how good / bad you are in that particular field; try to analyze your strengths and weaknesses and work according to them; have faith on yourself and your capabilities.
7.) Last -and a cliche- but not the least ask yourself the all so important question "why MBA". Is it worth to invest 2 years and some 10-18 Lacks of money (except for some colleges like FMS / IIT D / TISS).
*************** XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX *************
Let the season begin.....
best of luck to you all ......
Ranjeet Pratap Singh
(FMS 2012 batch)
A year back, at almost the same time, I had some opinions about MBA, various MBA entrance exams and various MBA colleges; and now, with some experience (of my own and of some friends) I think I've gained some more insights into it. With time and experience I realize that not all I knew and thought was true(though a big chunk was).
Some of the things worth mentioning here (particularly for the first timers) will be :
1.) When you prepare for one exam (say CAT) you are infact preparing for all of them, but then to do your best in them, a little specific prep can help you big time. (More on exam specific prep in subsequent posts)
2.) Mock-Cats are a good place to check where you stand, to check new strategies, to check how you cope under pressure and to check how you take the results; but do realize that in the real exams there are a lot of factors at play including the all so famous luck (or as they say Muprhy's factor) so keep your fingers crossed untill the results are out.
3.) Don't believe too much on the various key's in the market, they do give you and idea but that's it about them; the actual key may have significant variations particularly in VA and RC.
4.) Have fun with your preps, and don't take too much stress on you....
and example in case being my friend shashank prabhu (doc mod at PG) who scored a never-before-seen score in MHCET, an exam for which he was little bothered and didn't really prepare and though he scored good in all the exams he appeared in MHCET stands tall.
5.) Play on your strengths, don't run too much after what other's are saying or doing. If you can mug-up the word-lists and formulas pretty good, but even if you can't all is not lost; you can cover it up being strong in say reading speed and/or LR -it doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to work on your weaknesses, but just that don't do it on the cost of loosing out on your strengths.
6.) Believe in yourself. One / a few bad scores in some section or some mocks (or some actual exams) don't define how good / bad you are in that particular field; try to analyze your strengths and weaknesses and work according to them; have faith on yourself and your capabilities.
7.) Last -and a cliche- but not the least ask yourself the all so important question "why MBA". Is it worth to invest 2 years and some 10-18 Lacks of money (except for some colleges like FMS / IIT D / TISS).
*************** XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX *************
Let the season begin.....
best of luck to you all ......
Ranjeet Pratap Singh
(FMS 2012 batch)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Journey of a boy !!!
Once upon a time, there was a young boy, who like most other boys in their early teens thought that there is nothing in this world that he can’t do; he tried his hands at playing cricket, cricket commentary, poetry, debate and he wanted to be an engineer, a cricketer, a writer, a farmer, a politician and god knows what not.
Then the boy learned about a certain thing called NDA, he being a son of an army-man, always knew the pride that only an Indian army-man can afford; as all his friend were appearing for the written exam he did the same, when the results came the boy was one of the very few who got calls for the Interview or as they say SSB Interview, the boy was glittering with confidence, flying high on the clouds of hope but then some-how he couldn’t clear the interview; the dreams shattered, the hopes devastated, this was the first taste of real life for the young boy.
The journey continued for 4 more times, and every-time the results were the same, SSB not cleared; somehow the boy never thought that may be he is not made for this job, or that may be lacks something needed for the job, he just went back more determined to come back harder and failed again, while among these failures the boy managed to get between 80-85 percentage in 10’th and 12’th which were supposedly good enough for his parents et al, and though he couldn’t clear IIT JEE, he did get an okeyish rank in AIEEE and a decent rank in UPTU. To have some time for living alone, and to run from the constant expectations of doing good, the boy decided to chuck UPTU colleges and join an almost unknown engineering college in Bhubaneswar.
This boy was never really very talented, nor very hard-working; rather he was, one of the laziest and careless person you will ever come across. But he had a few good qualities, the ability to think smart and the ability to back himself no matter what.
Based on these qualities, the boy managed to clear his semesters with okeyish grades, somehow in the mind the boy realized that somehow he actually enjoyed that burden of expectations and hence he started searching for avenues where he can show his mettle, and as luck would have it, it was just around the corner; in the form of CAT and other management entrance exams, when he came to know that there is some place where in even the so-called-talented IITians strive to enter, he only became more determined to do it, or as they say make it to one of those coveted colleges.
He appeared in the mock-Cat cum scholarship tests of various institutes and with-out exception secured a city rank 1 in all, decided to join the class-room coaching of TIME - because it gave maximum discount and because he didn’t like the attitude of another coaching’s director. Somewhere in the mean-time he heard about a few forums for CAT aspirants with crazy but captivating names forums like Totalgadha, pagalguy, crazyustad, testfunda and a lot more he joined all of them, stayed there for some time and finally decided to settle on the most active of them all (yes this is PG – a no brainer -).
The mocks (aimcats) started, the boy started doing fair enough, scoring mostly in 99.xx percentile range with all cut-offs cleared, the not so talented, lazy and dreamy eyed the boy was, he always thought this “ I am doing good as of now, so no need to think about strategy or time allocation, with time I will read everything I need - as I’ve enough time for that – and then I will score better than what I am scoring now without preparation; that the mentioned preparation thing never came is a different story.
In the mean-while there came an e-book called “ ALL I wanted to say about CAT” by PG, the guy read it and thought that may be even my story will be published like this (you see, I’ve told you the boy dreamed a lot :P). Among all the all-so-tough AIMCATs, there came an AIMCAT which was very simple and high-scoring, so confident and arrogant this boy was that he decided to give the paper a ditch 27 mintues before the finish time and went ahead to criticize the paper on PG; a newbie that he was, quite expectedly he was thrashed by people – this boy always tried to help people, just because he loved doing so, as long as they recognized and appreciated his efforts – and the boy, unable to take all this thrashing decided to call “I quit” to the forum.
Then as the boy thought more on it, and as his friends told him (special mention to Abhishek Sharma) he came to realize that he was at some fault in the whole and that quitting is not the solution, meanwhile in came a call from estranged_gnrs, out went the ego and there was a return of the boy, this time more active, more cautious and more mature.
Meanwhile the boy was nominated for the dream team of PG by many people, and the boy felt he finally achieved the thing he loved to have, the burden of expectations but then this perhaps was just one sweet part of an otherwise bitter and testing year including a long, bad and hurting cold-war with the roomies and best friends(at one time, the boy actually considered either committing a murder or a suicide), demise of first his bhabhi(she was very young with just a girl of 2 years) and then his father followed by a sine die in the college and subsequent college suspension for 1 month and many more incidents which would have broken his young heart had it not been strengthened by the earlier blows.
Then came the news which gave a ray of hope in the dark night, the selection into PGDT and into KDT. The zeal had returned and it showed in various forms, with more aimcats and a few other mocks following that boy heard a lot about why and how he was wrong, he heard a lot of advice on emphasizing more on accuracy than on speed, mug up the vocab lists and formulae and the tables and what not.
The boy did give them a serious thought –though he never showed so –but he somehow realized that they were all complicating the things too much, the boy read the books on vedic maths and the likes but never applied them in exam as he found that he could do well without them and hence thought the best way to do things is “to keep things simple and have fun”. The idea basically never changed, except for a short time when he decided to do like others, thinking and implementing various time allocation strategies etc and attained the new lows in his percentiles ranging from lower 99s to 96.xx; soon he realized that this isn’t what he loves doing and came back to his philosophy -“to keep things simple and have fun”.- and started getting the same upper 99 percentiles.
The dreams once again started growing, so much so that the boy started hoping to join only one of the two institutes WIMWI (IIM A) or FMS (DU, New Delhi) –for reasons PM me –the boy first decided to appear only for two exams CAT and FMS (with no affiliate colleges) –what arrogance, eh –but then filled XAT(for XLRI, Jamshedpur).
Soon the mock phase ended, and the second phase “the real game” started, as the all so famous Mr. Murphy would have it, the XAT paper started 15 mintues late at the poor boy’s center, the boy was still hope-full for a good enough overall percentile and was only worried a little for his sectional in LR –rest two he was sure to clear – in FMS exam the boy decided to go all out and attempt all the 200 questions –this ended up with the boy being known for his 200 attempts in his college and on PG for some days to come –the papers ended and the wait for results started. Every-one told the boy, he is gonna rock but then the fate had slightly different plans, he scored a 99.7x in XAT but missed out on VA cut-off (at 83.xx). When the phase of written results ended the boy had two calls in his hand, both from his second favorite institute –FMS.
The end of the story –for now –is the boy is joining FMS, New Delhi.
Some more Gyan :
1.) For people like me(neither very talented, nor hard-working still aspiring to make it big) the key is to keep things simple and have fun.
2.) Try to learn; whatever people suggest you, think about them –if possible try them –but accept them only when you are convinced with them.
3.) Life is long –one college, one exam, one degree, one accident or one misfortune can’t define it –one always gets a chance to prove his worth, provided he carries on.
4.) Fate may delay one’s success but it can’t deter it.
Hope it helps to some ....
Then the boy learned about a certain thing called NDA, he being a son of an army-man, always knew the pride that only an Indian army-man can afford; as all his friend were appearing for the written exam he did the same, when the results came the boy was one of the very few who got calls for the Interview or as they say SSB Interview, the boy was glittering with confidence, flying high on the clouds of hope but then some-how he couldn’t clear the interview; the dreams shattered, the hopes devastated, this was the first taste of real life for the young boy.
The journey continued for 4 more times, and every-time the results were the same, SSB not cleared; somehow the boy never thought that may be he is not made for this job, or that may be lacks something needed for the job, he just went back more determined to come back harder and failed again, while among these failures the boy managed to get between 80-85 percentage in 10’th and 12’th which were supposedly good enough for his parents et al, and though he couldn’t clear IIT JEE, he did get an okeyish rank in AIEEE and a decent rank in UPTU. To have some time for living alone, and to run from the constant expectations of doing good, the boy decided to chuck UPTU colleges and join an almost unknown engineering college in Bhubaneswar.
This boy was never really very talented, nor very hard-working; rather he was, one of the laziest and careless person you will ever come across. But he had a few good qualities, the ability to think smart and the ability to back himself no matter what.
Based on these qualities, the boy managed to clear his semesters with okeyish grades, somehow in the mind the boy realized that somehow he actually enjoyed that burden of expectations and hence he started searching for avenues where he can show his mettle, and as luck would have it, it was just around the corner; in the form of CAT and other management entrance exams, when he came to know that there is some place where in even the so-called-talented IITians strive to enter, he only became more determined to do it, or as they say make it to one of those coveted colleges.
He appeared in the mock-Cat cum scholarship tests of various institutes and with-out exception secured a city rank 1 in all, decided to join the class-room coaching of TIME - because it gave maximum discount and because he didn’t like the attitude of another coaching’s director. Somewhere in the mean-time he heard about a few forums for CAT aspirants with crazy but captivating names forums like Totalgadha, pagalguy, crazyustad, testfunda and a lot more he joined all of them, stayed there for some time and finally decided to settle on the most active of them all (yes this is PG – a no brainer -).
The mocks (aimcats) started, the boy started doing fair enough, scoring mostly in 99.xx percentile range with all cut-offs cleared, the not so talented, lazy and dreamy eyed the boy was, he always thought this “ I am doing good as of now, so no need to think about strategy or time allocation, with time I will read everything I need - as I’ve enough time for that – and then I will score better than what I am scoring now without preparation; that the mentioned preparation thing never came is a different story.
In the mean-while there came an e-book called “ ALL I wanted to say about CAT” by PG, the guy read it and thought that may be even my story will be published like this (you see, I’ve told you the boy dreamed a lot :P). Among all the all-so-tough AIMCATs, there came an AIMCAT which was very simple and high-scoring, so confident and arrogant this boy was that he decided to give the paper a ditch 27 mintues before the finish time and went ahead to criticize the paper on PG; a newbie that he was, quite expectedly he was thrashed by people – this boy always tried to help people, just because he loved doing so, as long as they recognized and appreciated his efforts – and the boy, unable to take all this thrashing decided to call “I quit” to the forum.
Then as the boy thought more on it, and as his friends told him (special mention to Abhishek Sharma) he came to realize that he was at some fault in the whole and that quitting is not the solution, meanwhile in came a call from estranged_gnrs, out went the ego and there was a return of the boy, this time more active, more cautious and more mature.
Meanwhile the boy was nominated for the dream team of PG by many people, and the boy felt he finally achieved the thing he loved to have, the burden of expectations but then this perhaps was just one sweet part of an otherwise bitter and testing year including a long, bad and hurting cold-war with the roomies and best friends(at one time, the boy actually considered either committing a murder or a suicide), demise of first his bhabhi(she was very young with just a girl of 2 years) and then his father followed by a sine die in the college and subsequent college suspension for 1 month and many more incidents which would have broken his young heart had it not been strengthened by the earlier blows.
Then came the news which gave a ray of hope in the dark night, the selection into PGDT and into KDT. The zeal had returned and it showed in various forms, with more aimcats and a few other mocks following that boy heard a lot about why and how he was wrong, he heard a lot of advice on emphasizing more on accuracy than on speed, mug up the vocab lists and formulae and the tables and what not.
The boy did give them a serious thought –though he never showed so –but he somehow realized that they were all complicating the things too much, the boy read the books on vedic maths and the likes but never applied them in exam as he found that he could do well without them and hence thought the best way to do things is “to keep things simple and have fun”. The idea basically never changed, except for a short time when he decided to do like others, thinking and implementing various time allocation strategies etc and attained the new lows in his percentiles ranging from lower 99s to 96.xx; soon he realized that this isn’t what he loves doing and came back to his philosophy -“to keep things simple and have fun”.- and started getting the same upper 99 percentiles.
The dreams once again started growing, so much so that the boy started hoping to join only one of the two institutes WIMWI (IIM A) or FMS (DU, New Delhi) –for reasons PM me –the boy first decided to appear only for two exams CAT and FMS (with no affiliate colleges) –what arrogance, eh –but then filled XAT(for XLRI, Jamshedpur).
Soon the mock phase ended, and the second phase “the real game” started, as the all so famous Mr. Murphy would have it, the XAT paper started 15 mintues late at the poor boy’s center, the boy was still hope-full for a good enough overall percentile and was only worried a little for his sectional in LR –rest two he was sure to clear – in FMS exam the boy decided to go all out and attempt all the 200 questions –this ended up with the boy being known for his 200 attempts in his college and on PG for some days to come –the papers ended and the wait for results started. Every-one told the boy, he is gonna rock but then the fate had slightly different plans, he scored a 99.7x in XAT but missed out on VA cut-off (at 83.xx). When the phase of written results ended the boy had two calls in his hand, both from his second favorite institute –FMS.
The end of the story –for now –is the boy is joining FMS, New Delhi.
Some more Gyan :
1.) For people like me(neither very talented, nor hard-working still aspiring to make it big) the key is to keep things simple and have fun.
2.) Try to learn; whatever people suggest you, think about them –if possible try them –but accept them only when you are convinced with them.
3.) Life is long –one college, one exam, one degree, one accident or one misfortune can’t define it –one always gets a chance to prove his worth, provided he carries on.
4.) Fate may delay one’s success but it can’t deter it.
Hope it helps to some ....
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
CAT '09 and Beyond ....
Let me start by quoting a paragraph about CAT '09 from the wikipedia entry for Common Admission Test, more commonly known as CAT.
Being honest, a lot of people had expected that the first ever online CAT might not go very smooth, but even the most pessimistic ones won't have have thought that it could go as it did.
Right from the word GO, CAT 2009 proved to be a disaster. In the initial stages the form filling interface posed a lot of difficulties to many students but it proved to be just a tip of the iceberg when the process reached its subsequent stages.
Prometric, a U.S. Company was awarded the contract for organizing
And then the doom started, starting from the first day, first slot. The process of "CAT going Global" and the world renowned testing company Prometric seemed to be a part of joke which was played with the fates of some 2.5 lakh students. A point to note here is although one of the reasons IIMs gave in favor of CBT was that its user friendly but even in times of recession the number of aspirants applying for CAT went down something never heard of and never been imagined.
Varying difficulty level across different slots, repeated questions from previous year CAT papers and initial slots and canceled tests because of so called virus attacks which some-how the globally renowned TESTING agency failed to catch are some of the points which amused the students, and though there was a huge demand for retest from almost all sections of society, autonomous CAT authorities decided against it.
In response to the repeated questions a un-resolved logic of some kind of psychometric equivalence was provided, nobody has/had any idea about the marking scheme or the negative marks or about what would follow next.
What followed this is was a seemingly endless wait for results with a website which was seldom updated, a help-line where no-one knew the dates of results and a result which few people could trust, people who had scored in 99s in other entrance examinations and previous year CATs suddenly landed up with percentiles in 90s; people who were full-time faculty of VA in prestigious coaching Institutes for CAT preparation landed up 60 odd percentile in VA, people who had left the lower ranked IIMs to read in the upper ranked ones landed up fighting for calls from the IIMs they had converted and left, people in the dream team of pagalguy.com the largest MBA forum, whose DT has a record of 3 hundred percentilers with a lot of BLACKIS previous year,landed up with no-one in 99.9x and a lot of guys with no calls at all.
A lot of doubts and questions follow this, does all of preparation and pain for studying in the prestigious Indian Institutes of Managements really worth it. Is it really worthwhile to study management from people who can't manage their own entrance exam, from people who have less confidence on their own methodologies than on the so called globally accepted ones disregarding the fact that whether or not they are appropriate in Indian context.
And the biggest doubt as a cat 2010 aspirant asked on a public forum .
" If CAT is really going to be like this, why am I even preparing for it?".
Hope that CAT is not going to be like this, and that people start realizing that just because something is global, doesn't mean its beyond debate or that it can't have any faults or that it can't be further improved or that its valid in all contexts.
Amen ....
The first ever computer based CAT conducted by Prometric during 28'th nov-7'th dec created a lot news, mostly for the wrong reasons. On the one hand, technical glitches attributed to hardware problems and virus attacks made sure that around 8,000 students were not able to appear in CAT in their allotted slots, on the other hand a lot of controversy around depreciated standards, repeated questions and different difficulty level for different slots ensured that people started demanding to have a paper based retest.
CAT organizing committee didn't agree to this demand and instead allotted extra slots on 8'th dec and later on 30'th and 31'st jan for those who couldn't appear in the tests due to glitches.
The controversy didn't end here but followed a long delay in declaration of results, which was deferred many a times and finally announced on 28'th feb, with IIM A and IIM S declaring the list of shortlisted candidates while the result website maintains that lists for other IIMs is awaited. While the website mentions that the scores reported are the scaled scores arrived at by establishing psychometric equivalences to adjust for any variation in difficulty levels across the tests, but it lacks any information as in how it is done. Owing to this and other reasons it is likely to attract a plethora of applications filed under RTI.
Being honest, a lot of people had expected that the first ever online CAT might not go very smooth, but even the most pessimistic ones won't have have thought that it could go as it did.
Right from the word GO, CAT 2009 proved to be a disaster. In the initial stages the form filling interface posed a lot of difficulties to many students but it proved to be just a tip of the iceberg when the process reached its subsequent stages.
Prometric, a U.S. Company was awarded the contract for organizing
And then the doom started, starting from the first day, first slot. The process of "CAT going Global" and the world renowned testing company Prometric seemed to be a part of joke which was played with the fates of some 2.5 lakh students. A point to note here is although one of the reasons IIMs gave in favor of CBT was that its user friendly but even in times of recession the number of aspirants applying for CAT went down something never heard of and never been imagined.
Varying difficulty level across different slots, repeated questions from previous year CAT papers and initial slots and canceled tests because of so called virus attacks which some-how the globally renowned TESTING agency failed to catch are some of the points which amused the students, and though there was a huge demand for retest from almost all sections of society, autonomous CAT authorities decided against it.
In response to the repeated questions a un-resolved logic of some kind of psychometric equivalence was provided, nobody has/had any idea about the marking scheme or the negative marks or about what would follow next.
What followed this is was a seemingly endless wait for results with a website which was seldom updated, a help-line where no-one knew the dates of results and a result which few people could trust, people who had scored in 99s in other entrance examinations and previous year CATs suddenly landed up with percentiles in 90s; people who were full-time faculty of VA in prestigious coaching Institutes for CAT preparation landed up 60 odd percentile in VA, people who had left the lower ranked IIMs to read in the upper ranked ones landed up fighting for calls from the IIMs they had converted and left, people in the dream team of pagalguy.com the largest MBA forum, whose DT has a record of 3 hundred percentilers with a lot of BLACKIS previous year,landed up with no-one in 99.9x and a lot of guys with no calls at all.
A lot of doubts and questions follow this, does all of preparation and pain for studying in the prestigious Indian Institutes of Managements really worth it. Is it really worthwhile to study management from people who can't manage their own entrance exam, from people who have less confidence on their own methodologies than on the so called globally accepted ones disregarding the fact that whether or not they are appropriate in Indian context.
And the biggest doubt as a cat 2010 aspirant asked on a public forum .
" If CAT is really going to be like this, why am I even preparing for it?".
Hope that CAT is not going to be like this, and that people start realizing that just because something is global, doesn't mean its beyond debate or that it can't have any faults or that it can't be further improved or that its valid in all contexts.
Amen ....
Friday, February 26, 2010
the best of pg ...
Pagalguy.com or Pg as we puys(people at pg) call it, is one of the places where one can find some of the most helpful people around, this includes students and alumni of best management Institutes around the world and some others who like Ramakant Achrekar are helping people be the next Sachin Tendulkar with-out an MBA.
Now, these people are really good in all that they do but they have extra-ordinary command over some aspects of MBA prep and beyond; So I thought to make a list of people you may contact if you want to clarify your doubts and you can be sure to get the best possible guidance from the best in business.
The list is just indicative and is in no way exhaustive, PG is a big place and there are a lot of people who are equally or may be even more capable and helpful I've just written down the names of people I could remember as of now.
But this list should suffice in clearing more than 99% of the doubts one may have ....
I will keep on editing this list as and when a change will be felt needed and you all are welcome to suggest any addition or modification via a comment.
DI doubts : Vipul88
Quant doubts : ShashankMishra and Naga25french divishth
VA doutbs : r11gupta, silent_assassin
Exam taking strategies etc : writetotanveer, shashank3012
Organizing a pg meet : Estraged_gnrs
Features on PG : Puri.Pallavi, shashank3012.
Statement of Purpose (SOP) : The Raven
Help for newbies : Avinav
Appropriate Link required : pagalguy, nikozi_999, amodh.
Institute Specific Queries.
FMS : rainbowz
MICA : Admissions@mica
IIM C : rik_12
IIM S : Diablorulez
IIM L : made_for_iims
IMI : avinav
XLRI : Gurdit
Now, these people are really good in all that they do but they have extra-ordinary command over some aspects of MBA prep and beyond; So I thought to make a list of people you may contact if you want to clarify your doubts and you can be sure to get the best possible guidance from the best in business.
The list is just indicative and is in no way exhaustive, PG is a big place and there are a lot of people who are equally or may be even more capable and helpful I've just written down the names of people I could remember as of now.
But this list should suffice in clearing more than 99% of the doubts one may have ....
I will keep on editing this list as and when a change will be felt needed and you all are welcome to suggest any addition or modification via a comment.
DI doubts : Vipul88
Quant doubts : ShashankMishra and Naga25french divishth
VA doutbs : r11gupta, silent_assassin
Exam taking strategies etc : writetotanveer, shashank3012
Organizing a pg meet : Estraged_gnrs
Features on PG : Puri.Pallavi, shashank3012.
Statement of Purpose (SOP) : The Raven
Help for newbies : Avinav
Appropriate Link required : pagalguy, nikozi_999, amodh.
Institute Specific Queries.
FMS : rainbowz
MICA : Admissions@mica
IIM C : rik_12
IIM S : Diablorulez
IIM L : made_for_iims
IMI : avinav
XLRI : Gurdit
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