One of the things about preparing for a b-school personal interview, especially that of an old IIM, is that one struggles to find a structure to prepare for what can potentially be the most random 20 minutes of one’s life. I am sure my previous post, despite my intentions, would have scared readers rather than reassured them. So let us see how you can bring some structure into your PI Prep. Read More
In the previous post, we discussed how to start your prep for WATs and GDs. In this post, we will tackle the big fish — The B-School Personal Interview. The Indian b-school interview is maybe the most random of all interview processes that you will ever face in your life. Going by student testimonials and transcripts over the last few years, barring IIM-B, none of the schools seems to have a fixed yardstick for asking questions.
If panels have one thing in common it seems to be their mistrust of candidates and the claims they make. Most panels start with the premise that the only thing the candidate wants is to make more money and hence it might be useless to start asking them The Big 5 Standard Questions —
They would instead test out your mettle by grilling you on the things you mention in the form or on current affairs. They will use the standard questions as a surprise element when you are least prepared for it or they might not use it at all.
So do you go about preparing for this randomness apart from the Current Affairs prep outlined in the last post?
The PI is primarily a test of the stuff you are made of. So right at the centre of it — a lamb to the slaughter or a gladiator in the Colosseum (though it is best you don’t think of yourself as either the latter or the former) — is you.
So draw a circle with you as the centre and divide it into four quadrants.
Quadrant 1 — Your Personal Background
This quadrant contains all the information that is relevant to you as a person
Quadrant 2 — Your Educational Background
This quadrant, as the name suggests, deals with all questions that can be relevant to your educational background — yes, your engineering subjects will haunt you for one last time.
Usually, the questions can fall into two types.
Quadrant 3 — Your Professional Background
Working professionals will be expected to know more than the projects they are working on. So everything ranging from the turnover of your firm to those of your major competitors, the CEOs of the big firms in your industry, the recent controversies or happenings in your field (for example, if you work in banking then you might be asked about Deutsche Bank, if you work in the auto sector, you might be asked about electric cars and Tesla and Musk) and the major trends shaping your industry.
Quadrant 4 — Your Hobbies and Interests
Whatever you mention as your hobbies and interests you need to have an in-depth idea about the same. What do I mean by in-depth?
If you say you love football, then you need to know everything from the weight of the football, circumference of the football, dimensions of a football field, dimensions of the goal-post and everything about your favorite team.
If you say you love trekking, then you need to know what the highest mountains in the world are, what the highest motorable road in the world is etc.
This would technically be the largest circle you can draw around yourself that you need to fill with every GK or CA question that can be asked within this circle.
It goes without saying that you might not be able to learn everything about football. For example, a panellist might ask you, do you remember Zidane’s Champions League volley? You might say yes, very much, it is one of the great goals in football; the panellist might say, which team was Real playing against in that Final. Some of you might know, and some of you might not. So do not freak out thinking about the most random things that can be asked.
On any topic, there is a circle that denotes your knowledge and a circle that denotes the panellists’ knowledge. Your job is to maximize the chances of overlap.
And remember, the harder you work, the luckier you will get.
Now that the calls have started coming out, the time to prepare for WAT-GD-PI has come. But how does one go about it? It all seems like a vast sea with no beginning and no end. A single post covering all three — WAT, GD & PI — will be unwieldy, to say the least, so I will do a series of posts that will help you kick-start your prep for the second stage.
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In the previous post ,we discussed how Decision Making can be the undoing of XAT aspirants and tried to understand the nature of questions that come up on the section.
We took up two sets from the Decision Making section of a past XAT and discussed a structure to answer DM questions. In this post, we shall look at the remaining questions from that paper.
One of the most tedious and inscrutable sections that you will find across all management entrance tests, Decision Making has been the nemesis of many a XAT aspirant. A lot of factors contribute towards DM possibly being the biggest stumbling block on the XAT. But none is bigger than the fact the amount of time any test-taker would have spent preparing for DM when compared to any other section is minuscule. This coupled with the dislike and unease most aspirants have towards reading, and the extremely subjective nature of questions ensures that DM ends up becoming the deal-breaker as far as the XAT is concerned. Read More
A curious phenomenon repeats itself year after year when the results of the CAT and the XAT come out – there is little overlap between the students who crack CAT and those who crack XAT. In other words, a largely different set of test-takers ends up cracking each test.
Why is this so? It is almost like one of the GMAT CR question types – which of the following provides the best explanation for the phenomenon described above?
The answer(s) to this question will also hold the key to know how to prepare to ace the XAT! Read More
I never thought I will be doing a timing strategy post since the CAT has gone with fixed sectional time-limits for a long time now. But a since IIFT does not have one I thought it might not be a bad idea to do a short post on the same.
I have always preferred a test without sectional time-limits since it tests a crucial quality required for management — optimizing resources to achieve maximum return on investment. In this case, the resources are your own skills and the investment is your time.
So how does one go about using the 120 minutes on the IIFT?
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Be it the day of the CAT or be it when the final admits results come out it is not easy to be a mentor — on one hand you are happy for students who crack the exam and get an admit and on the other hand you are also tinged with sadness for those who have a bad test day or fail to convert. The toughest thing was always to meet a student who is happy, knowing that the one waiting outside is sad. So with the years one develops a certain equanimity since one cannot be so happy that one is not able to empathise with the ones who are having a hard time and one also cannot get so bogged down by sadness that one cannot partake in the joy of the successful.
In some cases students just disappear, somehow they take it very personally, that they have failed, they have failed even after reading all the blogs and all attending all the sessions, they feel almost as if they have let me down. And I am left wondering, whatever happened to that guy. The others thankfully come down to meet me or reach to me through the blog comments even if it is just to feel lighter instead of heavy and burdened.
There are two things about cliches — they are dead boring since they have been repeated so often but at the same time, they are also true, so are all the cliches about failure, I won’t repeat them but I will attest that they are true.
In one of the recent posts, I spoke about how every one has to face a test and how heroes in myths are defined by overcoming obstacles. The thing about myths is that they rarely show heroes failing at a task spectacularly — they only show heroes’ failings or weaknesses (Rama in the way he treated Sita post his rescuing of her).
But if we look at real life successes, almost every spectacular success has had a a big failure or inability as well. I am not linking failure to success or calling it a pre-requisite.
All I am saying is, everyone fails, so do not go beating yourself about it.
The first reaction understandably is to hit oneself with an emotional sledgehammer and of these the worst one is — I am useless, I am not smart enough, I suck, I do not have the skills to crack this exam, no matter what I do it will not change a thing.
Firstly, I will be happy if you are telling yourself all of these in anger rather than through a bucket of tears since anger with oneself can be a very good motivator.
But whether you are telling yourself these things through anger or through tears you need to quickly move from “I suck” to I suck at this particular aspect of CAT, from being emotional to being strategic.
My favourite story when it comes to dealing with doubts about one’s ability is Brian Lara’s answer when questioned about being McGrath’s bunny (he has got him quite a few times), Lara did not talk about the number of centuries he scored against Australia or the single-handed manhandling of a peak Australian team over an entire series, all he said was — someone from the opposition has to get me out sometime, right?
The right lens to view things should not be through your success or failure at CAT but in terms of your prospects of doing an MBA from a premier b-school.
Just like the extent of damage in a war varies across the various battlefronts, the damage, if any, to your MBA dreams, varies across different profiles.
Who are the aspirants who are worst hit?
Those who already have 4 years of work-experience and had a horrible CAT are the worst hit since another shot at the CAT and the 2-year MBA is effectively ruled out; they only have the rest of the exams in this season to make it count. (It is not that you will get rejected, you can still get an admit into a 2-year program but the number of recruiters looking at a 5-year profile will be fewer; you will still be able to get the career growth you are looking for in your domain)
Those who have three years of work-ex will still have a marginal shot at the CAT next year but to stay close to the average profile in a b-school (having 4 or more years of work-ex will make the profile a bit of an outlier) they should crack one of the remaining exams in this season.
Those who have 2 years or fewer have work-ex have nothing to worry about as far their MBA dreams go, they are well and truly alive, you can still get there, not when you wanted to and in the way you wanted to but you can still get there.
Some of you might wonder whether you have it in you to take another shot. We you do not have another option.
Roger Federer played from 2012 Wimbledon to 2017 Australian Open, 17 Slams, without winning a single slam, being stuck at 17, losing to players who were not in the same league as him. At every single slam during those five years my friend and I would talk, just before the semis or finals, about how well Fed was playing, the new things that he was inventing — the SABR (Sneak Attack By Roger) — and as usual the crazy points in the matches until then, only for him to lose again.
There were articles asking why he was still playing. I was supporting him saying that it need not be #1 or nothing, as long as he is easily making finals and semis and believes he can win he should play since he is still ranked in the top 4 and since unlike in a team sport, he is not delaying a transition or eating into the prime years of a youngster. In effect, even I had ruled out the chance of him winning again, I was happy that he was competing well.
Federer is great not because he has won 20 Slams but because he believed in himself so much, believed in himself through four years of heart-breaking failures, four years of aging and his body breaking down in 2016, while others were catching up with him.
I am sure no victory tasted sweeter to him than the 2017 Australian Open when he finally won a Slam again. (I have never felt more elation at the end of a sports match than while watching him win the 2017 Australian Open)
All of you are so young, this exam season is still young, you have enough time to acquire the skills your skills to crack the CAT at another shot (if required).
Cut all the negative voices out of your head, your own voice, that of your parents as well, if necessary (since all most Indian parents seem to care about is the timing of your wedding and how another shot affects that).
They will release the paper with your response soon and based on that we will release a tool to calculate your score — this can cause another meltdown, it is never easy to actually see the marks if you know you did not do well do not try to find out, let the results come out when they come out.
Some of you might be raring to smash the other tests to smithereens, and others might be feeling out of gas and motivation to pick yourself up.
The latter, please give yourself a break, do the things you like to do, eat the things you like to eat, and relax for the rest of the week, restart next Monday.
There is little you can do right by pushing yourself without a break or good rest and being a bunch of ragged nerves.
It is not easy to crack the test on your first or second attempt unless you are on the top of your game for at least 10 to 15 mocks with additional reserves to handle a tougher-than-usual paper. I cleared the test on my second attempt.
Even those who have set their sights firmly on the old IIMs will be taking a few more tests, at least the IIFT exam and the XAT. Now that you have the CAT monkey off your back go ahead full-throttle on these other tests.
Even if you have decided on another shot at the CAT and IIM-A, give the other tests you have registered for seriously, crack a final admit to IIFT, NMIMS, SIBM, or even XL and then reject it. — achieve something this season and set yourself higher goals for next year.
Some of the comments to this post are very good and some of you might find an echo of your performance, current state, and questions in them.
P.S: The picture with this post is not of Federer but of Marin Cilic (crying) after he lost the 2017 Final to Federer.
“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
You have around a week or so left and some of you might still be awaiting answers to some questions such as — should I listen to what happened in the earlier slots, what should I do if I know I might not get sleep Saturday night etc.
Last year I made an audio clip that answered all of these queries, queries that deal specifically with the three days leading up to the test and all the pending questions.
As promised I am also taking a stress buster session — Anything But CAT — along with my colleagues on Friday.
We will host five rooms where we will discuss specific non-CAT topics of interest: Cricket & Tennis, Football and other sports, Harry Potter & Fantasy Books, Music Room, Quizzing.
I’ll be handling the Cricket & Tennis room along with Amit Sir and Param sir (and all of our other stalwarts will also be there in each of the other rooms).
I am looking forward to evening sessions and interacting with all the cricket, tennis and sports fans among you.
All IMS students will receive a link for the same.
The CAT Writer 