1. General Questions
2. Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation
3. Questions related to Group Discussion / Group Exercise
4. Interview-related Questions
5. After Joining MBA

2. Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation

Q. What was your first step to start preparation for getting into the B-school of your choice?
A. My first step had been setting realistic goals. I remember myself scanning through the various B-school rankings, placement figures, and online communities trying to figure out the best fit for me. And then, analyzing what was required of me to get a seat in the college of my choice. In short, motivating myself was the first preparatory step.

Q. When did you start your preparation?
A. I had given CAT 2006 alright, but I can't say I made a sincere effort for it. I was more in the process of enjoying my engineering final year, than studying for CAT. But CAT 2007 was a different story altogether. I started my preparation around ten months prior to the vital November day. And if I am given a chance to travel back in time and change things, I would have actually started a few more months in advance. The earlier the better.

Q. How many months and how many hours daily did you devote for preparation to entrance procedures?
A. You mean preparations "for" the exams? Well, I didn't have a clear cut schedule chalked out. Thankfully, my motivation to get into a good B-school had enough fury in it to make myself sit down with pen and paper in any free time that I got. Anyways, broadly speaking, I guess my preparation time would have averaged around 2 hours a day, but like I said, it didn't go like clock-work.

Q. Did you take up some coaching institute or you believed in self-study?
A. I had registered for full-time coaching at TIME, Cochin, but didn't really continue with it as I had to move to Chennai to join Cognizant. Indeed, a lot of money went down the drain, but sill I wouldn't call it a waste, for I benefited most from their AimCAT Series, which I had made a point not to miss. I did the studying myself, and constantly tried to better myself in each AimCAT.

Q. What was your experience with coaching?
A. Time Cochin has some really good faculty. Not the most experienced people, but still they had stuff in their head. Too bad, I had to discontinue the course. Anyways, one good thing about TIME was that they transferred my registration to Chennai, and I was able to give my AimCATs there. Their materials are fair, not exceptional. But their AimCATs are a very good platform to learn.

Q. Can you tell us which are your favorite books, books that you used for preparing for entrance, books for self-development and books for pure relaxation?
A. I am not a voracious reader. Infact, I am not at all a reader. I haven't used books for pure relaxation, ever. The only extra reading that I used to do was The Hindu. My read-o-meter would show nil, or close to nil. Now, these are not the points to be emulated. I perceive reading as a wonderful quality, though am not in the league.

Q. What are the others books and tests that you used for your MBA preparation, besides the study material provided by you coaching institute?
A. I don't think I used any other books than the TIME's material. I spent most of my preparation time solving and analyzing past AimCAT papers. I never touched Quant books of TIME. But I had solved almost all of the English and DI material.

Q. What was your strongest and weakest area while preparing for MBA?
A. I was pretty good with Quants. I used to clear the AimCAT cut-offs with ease. And I never spent much time preparing Quants. My weak area was Verbal. I did a lot of the passage-exercises from TIME material, bucked-up my speed, and kept on practicing all along.

Q. Some tips which you used for mastering Quantitative Aptitude, Reading Comprehension, etc.
A. For Quants, I had a hand-written formula sheet with me, which I used to revise before every exam. Out of the two and a half hours, I generally spent around one hour for the Quants Section, as it was my strong area. Reading and DI were all about practice. 99 percent of my preparation efforts were diverted towards these two sections.

Q. How much time did you put for MBA preparation everyday? In case you were working, how did you manage this preparation while working full-time?
A. Thankfully, my job was not very intensive, and I used to reach home by 6:00 pm on an average. That gave me enough time to do justice to the preparation.

Q. Your present B-school and programme. What made you opt or this particular institute and programme?
A. International Management Institute, New Delhi.
My options had filtered down to IMT-Ghaziabad, TAPMI-Manipal, and IMI-Delhi. I chose IMI mainly because it is rated high amongst the private B-schools, and the placements are substantial. Besides that, it boasts of having the best faculty in all of India (which I fully agree with after experiencing two months in the college. Faculty at IMI is world-class indeed).

Q. What procedures your school has for admission to its MBA program?
A. In my year, the cut-off for PGDM was 96%ile. The Interview was held at IIM Bangalore. We were asked to write an Essay on "Jodha Akbar is Yet Another Example of How Movie-Makers Use Their Creativity to Distort History". A Group Discussion followed, the topic of which was, "Organ Transplant is an Example for How Rich Exploit Poor". Finally, there was the Interview. The panel consisted of an IMI professor and an alumnus. The interview was less about technical, and more about self.

Q. What is the range of score for students who are admitted?
A. With 96.2%ile, I would be one amongst the lowest entrants. And I have friends with 99.6%ile.

Q. What was your score?
A. As mentioned above, 96.2%ile.

Q. Give some handy tips regarding the MBA written tests that would be of great help to MBA aspirants.
A. Get yourself motivated first. Then study hard. Do not go by speculations. Plan your own moves and methods, and stick to them.

Contd.   3. Questions related to Group Discussion / Group Exercise