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)
Friday, April 16, 2010
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 ....
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