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Introduction

Every year, lakhs of bright Indian students compete for the few thousands of seats in good business schools. The successful students enjoy highly-subsidized education at the Indian Institute of Managements and pass out with huge salaries. The students at good private
business schools end up paying much more fees; however, they do come out with a recognized master's degree and bright prospects for the future. A Master's in Business Administration (MBA) is a good degree to enhance your career prospects. In addition, MBAs get a perspective on marketing, finance, law, and thus, gain all round knowledge of business operations.

Why Coaching is Important?

Coaching is important for MBA entrance exams due to the stiff competition for a limited number of seats. An MBA is a once-in-a-lifetime degree, people rarely get the chance to do two MBAs. The business school that you graduate out of remains part of your resume for all of your life. Accordingly, MBAs from better schools get access to better facilities , better jobs, but also better alumni networks (or Business School seniors) that help them in getting a sustained advantage throughout their life. A small change in the percentage marks of individual sections can lead to huge differences in rank or the stature of school that you will get admission into. Thus, coaching is needed to maintain a competitive edge over your fellow students and to help improve your own preparation and skills.

Choosing a Target Business School

Choose only schools that you believe you can clear and are interested in joining. Many people apply to the top twenty business school even though they are actually aiming to join the Tier-B business schools. This not only leads to un-necessary expenses, but also leads to delays at crucial times during the exam season. Unlike GMAT, which can be given all around the year, the CAT and other admission tests are given during certain days.

Preparing for them requires a different frame of mind and different steps.

For example, in CAT the biggest advantage is accuracy and speed of answering as it is done over two hours. In XLRI Admission Test (XAT), General Knowledge helps, while for GMAT accuracy is important because it is spread over four hours. More importantly, group discussions and interviews take up a large amount of time.

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* Ajay Ohri is an alumnus of IIM Lucknow, and has worked with some of the largest BPOs in India (including two BPOs listed on NYSE).
Currently, he is running his own database consulting firm, and is the founder of his website business
http://decisionstats.com.
The views expressed in the article are his personal views.