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The real reason why your QA scores are below par

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While the previous three posts on Accuracy, Selection, and Speed are more than comprehensive in terms of what is needed to push your score north, I still keep getting messages from students who are unable to come to terms with QA. They say they have done concepts and enough practice as well, but none of it seems to be pushing the scores up, and the confidence levels are pretty low.

It was only a few years ago, that I figured out the core issue with these students when I was sitting with one — he was preparing for the GMAT and had a decent amount of work-ex and by the time I had met him, he was already through with two attempts spread over two years with sub-par scores. He was willing to put in another attempt and a year more if required to get a par score.

I gave him some broad guidelines and assigned a personal mentor to him, and met with him regularly to discuss overall prep strategy, some specific pointers, and test-taking strategies. But at the end of another year, the score was the same.

I could not figure it out — the guy was very professional, super-committed (something you would have figured by now), doing reasonably well in his job, and super-positive despite everything.

It was when he came to meet me again that I threw a few questions at him, questions that I had solved in class and he had attended multiple times, and his reaction to them and the way he reacted when I told him the solution — Oh, ya, ya, ya, ya! — that I figured the core problem — he was mugging up Math!

Do you learn Math the same way you did for your X & XII exams?

This I realise, is a bigger problem than what is assumed. Students whose only interaction with Math has been for their X and XII exams, who have never prepared for an aptitude test before, and took extensive tuitions for their school exams, do not even know that the Math they did then and the Math they have to do now is the same, but the way it is tested cannot be more different.

Those papers needed parrots, parrots who could replicate things step by step and with good handwriting.

And nothing could be more different from that than a CAT paper.

So ask yourself that question, do you mug up concepts or do you actually understand why ax.ay = ax+y

If you do memorise and have always done so, then you need to really start from scratch, and it is not easy, and you will definitely need to approach it more holistically.

I suggest doing this free course by Barbara Oakley — she had a BA in literature and worked in the defence services before taking up engineering later than others — https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

Read this book by her as well — A Mind for Numbers

Another thing to keep in mind is that even if you somehow mug stuff up, get a bit lucky, and manage to get into an IIM, the first-year course will be as tough, if not tougher than CAT Math — you will be graded relative to others and the others is everybody who has cracked the CAT (the only reprieve is that time is not a constraint). A lot of the students who are unable to complete the MBA Program or finish it over a longer period would have failed in the first-year Math subjects.

Do you know basic concepts but have no clue how advanced concepts came about?

Do you know how the formula for the number of total factors of a number — am.bn — (m+1)(n+1) — came about?

Those who know how this came about will know how to solve this question discussed in Part-II of this series:

How many factors of 1080000 are not divisible by 40?

I am sure many know the formula, but yet do not know how to answer the question. If they happen to read the solution, they wonder why it did not strike them.

It need not be that you have this issue in the whole of QA. It can be that you have this problem only in some areas — Numbers and Geometry or Geometry and Modern Math. — or only on specific topics such as P&C and Logarithms.

If you are in this bucket, then you need to focus on understanding how formulas came about so that you develop the ability to solve such questions.

Do you try to memorise patterns?

The last category is test-takers who are good at Math but their approach to prep is to memorise as many different patterns and endless sub-formulas (formulas derived for an endless list of special cases) as possible.

The problem with this approach is that whenever they are faced with a problem, their first instinct is to try to map it to a formula or a pattern they have previously solved.

It is not that there are no patterns; there are patterns, and in recent years, CAT has become more pattern-based than before. But all that needs to happen is for 8-10 problems that do not fall into a pattern but are otherwise solvable to appear in the paper, and these test-takers will not be able to handle them. If a few of these problems turn up at the beginning of the section, then their confidence can take a major hit.

Another issue with mugging patterns is that you need to keep a lot of your brain space free for all of these patterns and sub-formulas. Those who have exceptional storage and memory between their ears can afford to follow this approach. I prefer to have only the bare minimum of formulas and patterns in my head and go by pure logic — the lower the fuel in the car, the faster it can go. I think the golden mean between the two where you know the patterns but are willing to look at a problem first up with fresh eyes, is crucial.

Always visualise yourself in front of a problem as a doctor faced with a patient. What does a great doctor do? Listen to you fully, ask the right questions, suggest the right tests, if required; figure out the exact problem; and suggest the least medication possible.

The different kinds of mugging listed above are reasons behind you truly not solving a problem.

If you are truly honest with yourself about this part of your prep, then you will be able to make the changes necessary to achieve a good score on QA, and as I mentioned before, it is not just CAT QA that is on the line, but also Quant in the MBA Program.

You need to always start with the WHAT and move to the HOW

Some students have written saying that when they try to not copy-paste patterns, they find that their mind goes blank and they do not know what to do.

Imagine an F1 driver going to drive on relatively unknown tracks every time he goes out to drive — the key word is “relatively”, not completely unknown. He or she will draw upon the experience,s but still drive as if it were new.

It is exactly like sport, you practice in the nets, but every pitch, every match, every ball is different.

This is exactly what made the Big 3 matches in tennis so interesting; they have played each other a million times, but they know that every match can be won by either of them, despite knowing everything inside out.

And what is different?

Each and every time, the questions asked of them by their opponent will be different.

WHAT is being asked is different.

If Nadal is hitting the ball closer to the lines, Djoker knows he was being asked a different question, and he knows that he has to find a response in real time while drawing on the past.

If Federer is just creaming winners off the forehand, then Nadal knows he is being asked a different question.

The first task always is to figure out the WHAT and the move to the HOW instead of thinking about the HOW.

When students say nothing strikes them it is because they are thinking that the HOW will come and strike them. Nothing strikes you if you are not looking for it, except lightning!

Let us take a question to see what I mean by figuring out the WHAT and moving to the HOW.

Question 1

If all the factors of 5040 are arranged in descending order then which will be the fifth factor?

We know that the greatest factor of the number is the number itself — 5040.

WHAT — But we need to factorise this first since we need to find the top 5 factors.

HOW — 5040 – 24*32*5*7

WHAT — If this is the highest one then what is the one after this?

HOW — I need to remove the smallest possible factor from this.

What is the smallest possible factor that I can remove? 2

So, the next factor in descending order will be 23*32*5*7

For the third one, we remove a 3 — 24*31*5*7

For the fourth one, we remove a 4 — 22*32*5*7

For the fifth one, we remove a 5 — 24*32*7 — which is what the question is asking us for.

What if the question is tweaked?

Question 2

If all the factors of 5040 are arranged in ascending order then which one will be the 56th factor?

When I read this with fresh eyes, I know that this seems crazy, am I really supposed to write all the factors from 1 to 56? Surely, you must be joking, Mr.Question-man!

There must be another way — they won’t be paying an average salary of Rs.25 LPA at IIM-A for someone to do such donkey work!

WHAT — Before I go ahead I need to know how many factors are there and where does 56 stand?

HOW — To find out the number of factors I need to factorise the number

5040 – 24*32*5*7

The number of factors — what you will know from all your of previous practice — 5*3*3*2 — 60

There are 60 factors and they are asking me for the 55th, so, instead of going from 1 to 56 I can come down from 60 to 56.

From here the problem becomes the same as the previous one.

For some this might be a huge change since you have to undo all your previous mode of dealing with Math, for others it might turn on a switch that they never thought they had, but for everyone there is no other way.

The weird part is that even those who have made it to the IITs do not seem to get this. I had a student from IIT-Ropar in one of my GMAT classes and he was like — you must know all the patterns by now, so you can answer all questions!

It is like saying Kohli knows to play all shots, so every time he goes out he will make a 100! We know, it does not work that way!

Yes, teaching helps, but every teacher does not get a 100 every year in QA right?

On good exams, one gets rewarded for thinking nor regurgitating!

So, stop mugging, start solving!

How to improve your QA percentile – Part II

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In the first part of this post, we covered the first building block to achieve higher scores and percentiles on CAT QA — accuracy. In this post, we will take up the next one — selection.

QA is the section that gets the maximum attention of test-takers of all stripes, and there is always a litany of frustrations and queries that plague aspirants.

  • I am good at Math, I like Math, but my score just does not seem to go up!
  • Should one attempt the long Arithmetic questions?
  • I feel every problem is doable!
  • I get stuck for a long time with one problem without realising it
  • I realise there were many problems I could have solved when I analysed the test

The answer to all of these questions lies in the way you select questions and the way you navigate between them.

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How to improve your QA percentile – I

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Unlike the other two sections, QA is a section that has a direct link to what you have done in school and college. Most of the topics that are tested on the CAT have also been a part of the school curriculum. This I feel is the biggest roadblock in front of test-takers wanting to achieve higher scores on the CAT Quant because high Math scores during X and XII exams do not automatically imply doing well on CAT Quant.

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How to manage work and prepare for the CAT

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With the mountain called the CAT now in sight, most working professionals will be wondering how to mount another challenge to get into the old IIMs.

The biggest obstacle in front working professionals will be juggling a job and prepping for CAT at the same time. Some of you in this situation will have decided to quit your job, hopefully only after having read my post on the same and having understood the implications of quitting.
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DI-LR: Improving your core strength

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DI-LR, as we know, has been the nemesis of many a CAT aspirant over the past few years, and every serious aspirant asks me that — how do I improve my DI-LR skills.

Over the last two years, I thought that it is primarily about two things — set selection and comfort with mathematical reasoning (many sets over the last few years have been based on Arithmetic and Modern Math concepts).

But even so, I knew that to select the right sets and then solve 4 sets, one needs to solve the two easiest sets quite fast, and this pace would come from the regular practice of DI-LR sets (irrespective of difficulty level) and Sudoku.

Even then I still felt that a lot was left to the “natural” capability of the student. There was nothing concrete I could communicate (apart from a 5-minute average for Medium Sudoku sets) like say a particular reading speed or a particular set of concepts.

What core strength does a student need to crack DI-LR and how can he or she develop those skills through a particular kind of targeted practice.

The reason I thought about core strength is that I have been doing yoga, strength training, and breathing exercises quite regularly and I realised that there is no point in trying to do a few asanas and kettlebell moves unless one had a certain amount of strength in the key areas — core, legs, lower back — and mobility — hips and back.

In this current season of training, the trainer that I am working with did not even make me do many of the asanas for close to 8 weeks or more, asanas that other instructors start from day one and one keeps doing for years hoping to get better. This guy spent months just working on strength and mobility so that when he finally made me do an asana, it just felt right — both the strength and the flexibility were there to go into and hold the pose (which never happened in years practice before)

And that is what led me to think about exercises to build core strength for DI-LR. Can there be a specific way to practice and specific sets to practice that can get impart the desired strength and speed to the LR muscle in the head?

And in the process, I jogged back to my first teaching assignment back when I had just finished my engineering (mechanically) – teaching Analytical Reasoning to GRE students.

I managed to download the ETS GRE Big Book (it is no longer in print) that has 27 full-length tests with two AR sections per test, each section had 25 questions to be answered in 30 minutes, with approximately 18-19 LR questions spread over 4 sets and 6 CR questions.

I started doing a few sections just to gauge their utility from a CAT Prep perspective. I felt that compared to the CAT LR sets they were way too easy, I could solve the questions within time and I made 2-3 silly mistakes every single time and every section had only 1 or 2 questions that were tricky (back in the day all of my peers got a perfect score, 800, on this section). But the sets felt like good practice since they are well-designed and needed you to think a bit.

I felt that these sets can be a good starting point to develop LR skills but to yield maximum benefit to the entire spectrum of students I needed to add one bit of complexity — solve it without putting pen on paper unless absolutely necessary.

What this meant was that on an A4 size paper I wrote down numbers 1 to 25 (to note down the answers) and had the rest of the space available for rough work, I would consider myself good only if I solved the entire section within the time limit with barely anything written on the paper and with no more than 1 mistake.

The moment I set this restriction I felt that a 30-question practice session could serve as a great LR core conditioning exercise since I never solved LR sets mentally. While in the Math posts on this blog, I have advocated reducing writing to a minimum, I myself never did the same for LR. I felt that these sets were at the right difficulty level to solve without putting pen to paper.

To solve these mentally I had to do strengthen four core skills

  • Remember the conditions and the set better
  • Decode the logical implications of the information provided in the set and the questions better
  • Always find the most optimum route to answer instead of random trial and error
  • Concentrate harder

Each of the above things is a core LR strength that is needed to solve any LR set and the first three also apply to QA as well and the last one for the entire test.

I realised that just by setting this simple constraint I was forcing myself to get better, I forced myself to sharpen that tip of the pencil to a finer point and sometimes that is the difference between a great sketch and a good sketch.

Let me take a set and demonstrate what I mean by solving a set mentally, this would mean that all of you would have to imagine things visually 🙂

Solve the set on your own first and then go ahead and read my solution.

A museum curator must group nine paintings — F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, and O-in twelve spaces numbered consecutively from 1-12. The paintings must be in three groups, each group representing a different century. The groups must be separated from each other by at least one unused wall space. Three of the paintings are from the eighteenth century, two from the nineteenth century, and four from the twentieth century.

Unused wall spaces cannot occur within groups.
G and J are paintings from different centuries.
J, K, and L are all paintings from the same century.
Space number 5 is always empty.
F and M are eighteenth-century paintings.
N is a nineteenth-century painting.

1.If space 4 is to remain empty, which of the following is true?

(A) Space number 10 must be empty.
(B) The groups of paintings must be hung in chronological order by century.
(C) An eighteenth-century painting must be hung in space 3.
(D) A nineteenth-century painting must be hung in space 1.
(E) A twentieth-century painting must be hung in space 12.

2. If the paintings are hung in reverse chronological order by century, the unused wall spaces could be

(A) 1,5, and 10
(B) 1,6, and 10
(C) 4,7, and 8
(D) 5, 8, and 12
(E) 5, 9, and 10

3. Which of the following is a space that CANNOT be occupied by a nineteenth-century painting?

(A) Space 1
(B) Space 6
(C) Space 8
(D) Space 11
(E) Space 12

4. If J hangs in space 11, which of the following is a possible arrangement for spaces 8 and 9?

(A) F in 8 and M in 9
(B) K in 8 and G in 9
(C) N in 8 and G in 9
(D) 8 unused and H in 9
(E) 8 unused and F in9

5. If the twentieth-century paintings are hung in spaces 1- 4, which of the following CANNOT be true?

(A) Space 8 is ·unused
(B) Space 9 is unused
(C) F is hung in space 6
(D) M is hung in space 12
(E) N is hung in space 9

6. If the first five paintings, in numerical order of spaces, are F, 0, M, N, G, which of the following must be true?

(A) Either space 1 or space 4 is unused.

(B) Either space 7 or space 12 is unused.
(C) H hangs in space 11.
(D) Two unused spaces separate the eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century paintings.
(E) Two unused spaces separate the nineteenth-century and twentieth-century paintings

A museum curator must group nine paintings — F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, and O-in twelve spaces numbered consecutively from 1-12. The paintings must be in three groups, each group representing a different century. The groups must be separated from each other by at least one unused wall space. Three of the paintings are from the eighteenth century, two from the nineteenth century, and four from the twentieth century.

Unused wall spaces cannot occur within groups.
G and J are paintings from different centuries.
J, K, and L are all paintings from the same century.
Space number 5 is always empty.
F and M are eighteenth-century paintings.
N is a nineteenth-century painting.

Things to make it a point to remember:

  • 20th-4, 19th-2, 18th-3
  • JKL – 20th,  N – 19th, F&M -18th

INFERENCES from the information as I am reading the conditions first one to the last one

  • J, K & L have to be from 18th or 20th (since 19th has only 2)
  • F, M are from the 18th, so J, K & L have to be from the 20th (else total of 18th will be 5)
  • G is 18th or 19th (since it is from a group other than J)
  • H and O can from any century

1. If space 4 is to remain empty, which of the following is true?

This is a must-be-true question and hence I can derive the answer before going to the options.

  • If 4 is empty and 5 has to be empty as per the conditions then the spaces 1,2, and 3
    • cannot have 20th century since there are 4 paintings
    • cannot have 19th-century paintings since there are 2 paintings, which means that from 6 to 12, 7 places the rest of the 7 paintings from the other two sets have to be placed without a gap, but a gap has to be there between two sets of paintings.
    • must have the 18th-century paintings

Now I will go to the options and search for an option that says 18th must be in 1-2-3

(A) Space number 10 must be empty.
(B) The groups of paintings must be hung in chronological order by century.
(C) An eighteenth-century painting must be hung in space 3.
(D) A nineteenth-century painting must be hung in space 1.
(E) A twentieth-century painting must be hung in space 12.

2. If the paintings are hung in reverse chronological order by century, the unused wall spaces could be

This is not a MUST-be-true but a could be true so, after drawing a basic inference and I can go to the options.

Reverse chronological order means 20th, 19th, 18th.

Space 5 is empty, and after that, there are 7 places, so the four 20th-century paintings have to be in places 1-2-3-4. Now I will go to the options to check which one can be the set of unused spaces.

(A) 1,5, and 10
(B) 1,6, and 10
(C) 4,7, and 8
(D) 5, 8, and 12
(E) 5, 9, and 10

The first three options can be eliminated since spaces 1 to 4 cannot be unused, the 20th-century paintings hang there.

I try out option D, — 5 unused, reverse chronological order so next set has to be the two 19th-century paintings in 6 and 7, 8 is unused, three 18th-century paintings in 9, 10, 11, and 12 is unused; no rule is broken and hence this could be true. I will not try to substitute option E unless I want to double-check

Which of the following is a space that CANNOT be occupied by a nineteenth-century painting?

Since it is CANNOT-be-true question, in a way the opposite of the must-be-true question, and since there is no additional information, I have to jump to the options and proceed.

(A) Space 1

If a 19th is in Space 1 it has to be in Space 2 as well, and since there has to be a gap between one group and the other 3 has to be empty, 5 is anyway empty, and nothing can be kept in space 4, so all the 7 paintings from 20th and 18th have to go into the 7 spaces from 6 to 12 without a space between the two periods, which is not possible and hence this is the answer. I do not even need to check the rest.

If J hangs in space 11, which of the following is a possible arrangement for spaces 8 and 9?

It is a could-be-true question, so I should deduce whatever I can before I jump to the options.

J is a 20th century painting and it is in 11 so the other three have to be in a group along with J, so the 20th century paintings can be

  • in 8,9,10,11 (with J being the last) and unused spaces in 7 and 12
  • 9,10,11,12 (with J being the third) and unused space in 8
  • Both cases put together, 8 has to be filled with a 20th century painting or unused  and 9 has to be filled with a 20th-century painting

Now to the options.

(A) F in 8 and M in 9
(B) K in 8 and G in 9
(C) N in 8 and G in 9
(D) 8 unused and H in 9
(E) 8 unused and F in9

A, B, C, and E can be eliminated since they all have paintings that are definitely not from the 20th century. Hence, option D.

5. If the twentieth-century paintings are hung in spaces 1- 4, which of the following CANNOT be true?

As I mentioned before a CANNOT-be-true is another version of must-be-true and since they have given some additional information in the question I can make deductions before I go to the options.

20th-century paintings are hung from 1-4, means that from 6 to 12 there are 7 places and 5 paintings to be hung, the two blanks, can both be between the two groups, or one between the two groups and one at 6 or 12.

I can now jump to the options.

(A)  Space 8 is unused

8 is unused, means the free spaces are 6&7 and 9-10-11-12, where the 19th and 18th century paintings can go respectively, so this can be true

(B)  Space 9 is unused

If 9 is unused, then the free spaces are 6-7-8 and 10-11-12 where 18th and 19th century paintings can hung

(C) F is hung in space 6

F and M along with another painting form the three 18th century paintings and can occupy 6-7-8, 9 has to be unused and then the two 19th century paintings can follow.

(D) M is hung in space 12

If M is in 12 the other two 18th-century paintings have to be in 10 and 11, 9 has to be empty and the two 19th-century paintings can be hung in spaces 6 to 8.

(E) N is hung in space 9

Since all the above options are possibe this has to be the answer.

6. If the first five paintings, in numerical order of spaces, are F, 0, M, N, G, which of the following must be true?

All of these paintings are not from the 20th century so they cannot be the first five in this order after Space 5, since there will not be any space for all 9 paintings including the 20th-century ones.

So at least a few have to be before space 5. F & M are 18th-century so F-O-M have to be together —  1-2-3 (with 4 & 5 unused), or 2-3-4 (with 1 & 5 unused). I can now jump to the options.

(A) Either space 1 or space 4 is unused.

All of this reasoning was done and has to be eventually done mentally without putting pen on paper. If you think about it, the reasoning is always a mental process, all you need to do it is to de-couple it from writing.

Practising with a plan and purpose

There are only 54 section tests in the book so you have to make the most out of each session.

  1. Keep a separate notebook to practice these sets.
  2. One page to note down the answers and the following ones to solve.
  3. Your first goal should be to solve the questions in the desired time-limit (with writing)
  4. Only if you are able to solve the 25 questions within 30 minutes comfortably should you try to solve without putting pen to paper
  5. Do not try to go the whole hog mentally, start by decreasing the writing while increasing the thinking.
  6. After every set, do a proper analysis of the wasted effort or moves during each set and the reasons for the mistakes, if any
    1. Did not remember information
    2. Did not draw deductions and directly jumped to the options
  7. Consciously make changes while solving the next set.
  8. Do not ever do two sets in a row without analysing the first one and setting goals for the next.
  9. Do not solve more than 2 sets in a day, since you will just run through them without getting any better.
  10. Ideally, you should dedicate 27 (2 sections a day) or 54 (1 section a day) straight days of practice to see a substantial improvement (Do not practice if you are low on mental energy just because I said you have to)

When I started I used one page for the answers and maybe scribbled on a page and a half, and made 2-4 mistakes.

By the 7th set, I barely wrote anything, and even that little I felt was not necessary, I could have reasoned my way through. My mistakes had come to 1.

All the mistakes boiled down to not remembering information from the set or misremembering it.

This can be useful for test-takers at all levels

  • Those who are weak at LR need to develop the ability to solve a section of this difficulty in 30 minutes; if you cannot solve 4 sets this level in 30 then you cannot solve 4 sets of CAT level in 60.
  • Those who are good can use this to solve cleaner and faster
  • Those who are very good (are gunning for a 99.50 plus) can use this as an ideal warm-up
  • And at any level, if you have a silly-mistake problem this is the practice to fix it

Keep a track of how your book is looking as you are progressing, it should keep getting cleaner and cleaner with only the numbers and the answers remain.

One of my favourite athletes is Kohei Uchimura, who is considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. Gymnastics is a discipline where the first goal is to become as close to a machine as you can, and once you can do that you can bring complexity and creativity into your routine. All routines are thus rated on complexity and execution. Every time the landing is not perfect one drops points.

One of the commentators during the last Olympics said that you can take a picture of him at any point during his routine and it will be beautiful, at no point will his legs not be absolutely together and toes pointing out like an arrow. Uchimura said the secret to his success is the way he approaches practice, he puts in a lot of thought both during and into his practice.

Uchimura 5

Uchimura 2

Uchimura 4

I watched the replay of his all-round gold at the Rio Olympics and I have to say that I have not seen a demeanour like his on the face of any sportsman absolute control before, during, and after his routine.

One eventually needs to develop that sort of calmness, precision, and accuracy every single time one steps out to solve.

Uchimura

I feel that if you can dedicate the month towards this, you will be better off for the rest of the season.

My MBA Journey: IIM L – PGPSM

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It was back in the 2015-16 season, if I remember correctly, that Sachin first managed to track me down by leaving a comment on my blog. I was handling the IMS business in Chennai, he was a student of IMS based out of Kolkata and he wanted some advice on quitting his job and taking another shot at the CAT. The thing with really mature students is that they need guidance only at a  really broad level, the rest they customize themselves (and there is the blog, anyway) and Sachin is one such individual.

He went on to secure admission into the relatively new Sustainability Management Program launched by IIM-L. Since then he has been doing quite well and has even played a part in helping an administration out during the pandemic. If you read his post you will find he had all the ingredients that a student joining a new or baby IIM or a new program needs —  this post.

Here is his journey in his own words.

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My MBA Journey: IIM-Udaipur

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Give the number of queries I get about the new and the baby IIMs, I thought the best way to shed a bit more light on them is to get my students who have gone there to write about their experience.

This one is by Siddharth, who is not a student, but was part of the IMS Team in Kochi. I met him whenever I went down there to take a session, which was usually once a year. Siddharth graduated recently from IIM-U and this is his take about the same.

Some of the parts were new to me as well, especially the part about why he chose IIM-U —  I think knowing why you want something, being clear about it, and not trying to invent ten other reasons apart from the sole reason is not a common trait (a great lesson in no FOMO)

So here are his two cents on this experience at IIM-U.

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How to choose between an HR program and a regular MBA

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I think I have said this in another post — India is probably the only country where people will be willing to shell out more than 20-30 lakhs for a product and at the same time be willing to accept whatever variant the seller decides to give them. What am I referring to here? When I ask students who have both BM and HR calls from XLRI, what their preference is, or what they would prefer between XL-HR/TISS and IIM-K/MDI, most are very clear — the specialisation does not matter, all that matters is the brand; others start bringing ROI into the picture.

I feel people put in more thought when choosing between a diesel and a petrol car! We are so crazy after elite institutions that we fail to even consider whether we will succeed/fail in or like/dislike a particular field. The objective of this post will be to give you enough information to choose the right program when faced with a choice between a premier HR program and other programs.

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