It might seem like an unlikely choice to consider in the aftermath of an unsatisfactory CAT but the GRE and the MS is possibly the one of the most under-rated career choices. One of the reasons for this is the false dichotomy that we buy into — MS or MBA, Techie or Manager. Let delve a bit more into the GRE and MS as a career option and what it means after your Plan A — an MBA.
Over the past four weeks I have been extremely tied-up doing WAT-GD-PI sessions for our students here in Chennai, which explains why the posts have become sporadic. Now that we are done with the Achievers Workshop here in Chennai there is more breathing space to do some writing. The IIM interview season has already started and aspirants would be trying to get as much 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 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.
All b-schools seem to be falling over each other in trying to pose questions or set tasks for call-getters or potential call-getters via their forms that are really unique. Gone are the simple what are your career goals or one incident where you demonstrated leadership skills; the new breed of questions are taking it to a different level altogether. A case in point is the latest set of questions that XLRI call-getters are supposed to fill.
In the previous post we discussed the rationale you should apply to decide whether you should retake the CAT and also look at options. So if you arrived at the decision that you should retake the CAT and explore other options such as GMAT or even the GRE, read on. As I had written in an earlier post, after the announcement of CAT results many aspirants go into a shell. I some cases test-takers have prepared so well that it is impossible for them to come terms with a particular sectional percentiles. It is almost impossible to believe that one could have scored that percentile. I think it is fully justified to feel so since the test itself is not something that is foolproof.
CAT 2015 results were out yesterday and once they were released the anxiety about how you performed has been replaced by the anxiety about what calls you will get. So we decided to compile the percentiles at which you can expect a cut-off from the premier b-schools in the country.
It is a different world altogether when one moves from a CBT with sectional time-limits such as the CAT to a PBT with no sectional time-limits such as the XAT. While on the face of it both with test concepts (not necessarily the same) at a fundamental level they end up testing something very different. A test of competence versus a test of strategy A test with sectional time-limits is primarily a test of competence — how many questions can you answer in 60 minutes? It does not matter if can you solve the section under the given time-limit or if given 10 minutes more you can clear the cut-offs. The moment it becomes a PBT test-takers have to perform more like managers — maximise the return they get from their resources. Many test-takers prefer sectional time-limits since they feel the stress of time and resource management goes out of the window. But the really good ones would know that a PBT with no sectional time-limits gives them more control of the test. For example, …
Well, once you were done with school you would have never imagined having to write an essay ever again. But here you are a few weeks away from the WAT-GD-PI rounds and are not exactly looking forward to writing essays on topics that vary from the political, social, ecological to the outright esoteric.
Now that the CAT scorecard is out, the time to start preparing 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 the 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.
Back online after the floods here in Chennai! Am not sure how many of my students here are back online. Some of you would have rightly left the city. Hope all of you are safe. Power is back since last night in some areas, while there is still no network. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon and we should be able to start the sessions by next weekend.
A lot of students have now rightly trained their sights on XAT and are looking for a prep plan for the same. So let’s take the first step by knowing the test inside out. XAT Demystified – Part I
The CAT Writer 