Author: Tony Xavier

How to prepare for a CAT retake – Part I

Published by

Most of the institutes have given out their calls and many of you might be planning to retake the CAT. For some of you, it might be a case of almost getting there but missing out because of one poor section or just missing out on the overall percentile. For others, the CAT-day might have been a bad day at the office and you knew straight away that nothing much was going to happen.On my first attempt, I fell into the latter group — I knew I was out of my depth when I saw the Quant paper, there was no way I was going to clear the cut-offs. This despite consistently doing very well in the Sims leading up to the test. I decided to take another shot since I was very clear that it was not out of my league. This post, in three parts, is for all those re-takers who are NOT hoping to get lucky next time around but want to ensure that they leave no stone unturned to make the cut in …

My 2 cents from a lifetime experience called MBA

Published by

Over the past few years of mentoring there are always students who keep in touch even after they graduate from b-school. Some to express gratitude once they get their final placement, some to sort out their post MBA dilemmas and others just to have a nice chat about everything under the sun :-). Likewise this year a student of mine who graduated this March, wrote to me saying that he felt investing in an MBA was the best thing he did and over the course of a few mails I asked him to do a guest post about his MBA experience. Given that a lot of aspirants who made it to b-schools will be debating the pros and cons, thinking about the cost involved whether it is worth it, the better schools you missed out on and stuff, this post is timely. Two years back I remember this student also being in the same dilemma. He was wondering whether it was really worth leaving his job at Ford to do an MBA. I felt he should …

How to approach the Indian B-School Personal Interview

Published by

Over the past few weeks, I was travelling around taking sessions at the IMS NAW, which explains why the posts have become sporadic. Now that we are done with the Achievers Workshops there is more breathing space to do some writing that captures the essence of the closing session that I took at the NAW. The IIM interview season has already started and aspirants would be trying to get as many insights as they can right from how to dress for the interview to how to reduce India fiscal deficit without affecting our growth! Amidst all of this clutter, how does one go in with the right perspective? What is the state of mind with which one should approach an interview? How you approach an interview will make all the difference.

GD-PI 2018 – Articles of Note

Published by

I have put together a compilation of articles on various topics of interest that might turn up in this year’s WAT-GD-PI season. Don’t speed-read these articles and make notes solely from a point of view of WAT-GD, as if you were preparing essay type answers on topics for a test in school. The narrower you go, the deeper the hole you dig yourself into.

GD-PI Toolkit 2018

Published by

Now that the results are out, most students are scrambling to get every ounce of GK or Current Affairs they can into their system. I keep joking that if I could administer an injection, I would have. But since that is not possible, what I have done is put together a list of different articles that might make useful reading, as well as a compilation of institute-specific processes and topics from previous years. The articles I fully assure you will be super boring and fairly long, but then there is that saying — the harder you work, the luckier you get. I will keep updating the folder as well. Read away. GD-PI Toolkit 2018          

7 things to do on XAT day

Published by

By now all of you would have taken one major MBA entrance test at the least. This means that you are familiar with the biggest challenge of all — uncertainty on test day IIFT turning out to be easier than usual CAT throwing up a tough DI-LR SNAP coming up with the GK section that made every one question the meaning of the word “general” For most aspirants (apart form those pursuing an education in HR at TISS) this is the last big attempt to get into a b-school this year. So here is the last to-do list, on which ticking all boxes will ensure that you achieve your dream — an MBA from a premier institution, a launching pad for a great career.

How to crack XAT Decision Making – Part II

Published by

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 the last year’s XAT and discussed a structure to answer DM questions. In this post, we shall look at the remaining questions from last year’s paper.

How to crack XAT Decision Making – Part I

Published by

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.