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What did you learn about yourself during the first week of lockdown?

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As soon as the lockdown began, the idea that I should do a piece on how to use the lockdown entered my mind and I began writing it as well but somehow I lost interest mid-way. Something inside me told me that I will be doing a post just for the sake of doing a post, I will not be solving any problem since as far as CAT Prep goes there is no problem.

If anything most CAT aspirants should have it better since you have at the least been saving the time it takes to commute. I can only hope the real problem — the loss of livelihood — which affects unorganized workers (who constitute 80% of our workforce of 470 million) —  is something the readers of this blog and other CAT aspirants have not had to face.

So I thought the best thing to do would be to stay silent and let everyone, including myself, respond to these ten days and in the process learn a bit about themselves.

Some of you might be working in firms or fields where you have been inundated with work since the lockdown (the tech team that worked on the launch of our live portal barely slept for the last ten days and so has my team) so the post does not apply to you.

What does the mirror show you?

The lockdown (for the fortunate few) is no different from being offered a suitcase full of money, how have you spent it the first third of that money?

You have a goal — to get into IIM-A — how did you respond during the lockdown so far towards achieving that goal?

I do not need to list out all the things that you might have done, suffice to say that by now you should know the distance between your stated goals and your actions and more importantly the futility of those actions in the face of your dreams for your life.

There is nothing to be gained from watching more videos of Federer and worshipping him, he has made the most out of his life.

The TV shows make the careers of those who work on them, not yours.

The food shows just keep putting the cart before the horse.

All of us tell ourselves we want to do XYZ but we do not have the time to do it, the problem is with the world not with you. The lockdown really asks you to face up to the truth — is the problem the world or is the problem you?

Deep down inside each of one us knows what we need to do, even how we need to do it, and how much leeway we are allowed to have some fun and relaxation.

If you cannot make a plan for your day and manage the same then you can forget managing firms in the future.

Those who have asked their maids to also stay at home to practice social distancing will by now know that running a house is also a question of non-stop end-to-end optimisation and your mom never needed YouTube videos to figure that out.

You have wasted a third does not mean that the next two weeks need to be wasted.

You have used the first week reasonably well, it does not mean that you have found the optimal solution, see if you want to reverse your schedule and see if that works.

If you have found your best schedule then stick to it, it takes 21 days for a habit to get fully formed and it takes longer for you to see any tangible change.

The first target is simple — be ready to take SimCAT 1 scheduled to be conducted from 24-29 April.

Being ready for SimCAT 1 means knowing all the concepts and approaches to well enough to solve all the easy problems across all areas.

You can do this just by watching all the videos on the LEARN Module of myIMS. Spending just 2 hours every day from today will be more than enough for you to finish being concept-ready.

If you have finished the concept videos, then there enough and more practice problems to get ready for SimCAT 1.

If you have more time on your hands then there is no better time than this to read the books outlined in this post — https://thecatwriter.com/2017/04/22/preparing-for-an-mba-and-not-just-the-cat/

You can either use these upcoming weeks to the fullest or find yourself exactly in the same spot one year from now and with less time on your hands and more guilt on your mind.

Do not forget — practice is theory.

Should I quit my job to prepare for CAT?

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One of the questions that I am often asked and is most relevant at this point in time given that some of you might be looking at re-taking the CAT after an underwhelming CAT last year and others might be desperate to crack this year’s CAT.

  • is it wise to quit my job to prepare for the CAT?
  • will quitting my job have a negative impact on my profile?
  • how can I prepare if I am working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week?

Read More

To re-take or not to re-take the CAT

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At this juncture, it doesn’t take a magician to see what kind of anxieties aspirants might be going through. A small fraction of you have got the calls you want and are all excited and nervous about the impending interviews or the results of the same, others have  GD-PI calls but are not sure whether the b-schools that have given them the calls are really worth it, and still others knowing that this year is done have hit snooze mode till June.
This post will primarily deal with the dilemma of those in between — to re-take or not to re-take the CAT. It is not an easy call to take but your task will become easy if you ask yourself the right questions and give the most honest answers you can to them.
Read More

How to approach the Indian B-School Personal Interview

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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. Read More

Work with us

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As most of my students would know, I have been with IMS for more than a decade now.

But I started teaching for aptitude tests way back in the past, right after my graduation while preparing for the CAT a second time around.

At that time I felt that the teaching stint had a great role to play in my cracking the CAT; I felt the teaching made my thought process very clear when faced with a problem since one has to have utmost clarity of thought to explain a problem in such a way as many students understand the solution right away. Also one is always looking to find better, cleaner or to put it simply more elegant solutions to problems.

Over the past year, I have met a lot of students across the country who are readers of the blog, so I was wondering if any you might be interested in working with Amit Sir, Hemang Sir, and me (who IMS students will be familiar with from all the videos and Masterclasses).

We have openings three Openings — Studio Manager, Academic Specialist (Quant) Academic Specialist (Verbal).

All roles are based out of Mumbai. The remuneration will be depending on your profile, we pay at least as much if not higher than IT firms.

 

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER
We are looking for a Video Production Manager who can manage, oversee video pre-production planning, post-production and ensure projects are on schedule. You need to coordinate with the internal team and cross-functional team, keep a record of the data of the daily production, review of all the videos, and scheduling of the shoots.

For this, we would need you to be someone capable of managing multiple stakeholders. We would need you to be well conversant with Excel, Word, Power-Point, Spreadsheets. We expect you to have excellent organisation, planning, and communication skills. You should have taken management entrance exams in the past 2-3 years (CAT, XAT, SNAP, CET, IIFT and/or others) with a respectable overall percentile. We would prefer people with at least 18 months of work experience.

ACADEMIC SPECIALIST
We are looking for an Academic Specialist to help the senior faculty members to create e-learning content for the management entrance examinations. You should be able to think creatively for the video lesson plans. You will assist the faculty in taking the live sessions and doubt solving.
For this, you can be a fresher with strong aptitude skills. You may still have some work experience but not mandatory for this role. Of course, we would need you to be well conversant with Excel, Word, Power-Point and excellent organisation, planning and communication skills.
You should have taken the CAT/XAT/SNAP/IIFT/CET/GMAT/GRE in the past 1-3 years and should have scored well in any one of the sections — QA, DI-LR, or VA-RC

It goes without saying that the biggest perks of this job will be that you have direct everyday access to the best mentors in case you are taking another shot at the CAT.

If any of you are interested then drop in a mail to tony@imsindia.com with the following:

  1. A resume or CV and scorecards
  2. A short answer to the following question: Why do you feel you have the skill sets to take up this role? Feel free to include anything that you feel will let us know why you feel you have the potential to take up the role — exam/test scores (SimCAT scores, if you have a tendency to bomb on test day), reading habits, prior informal teaching, love for the section, communication skills — anything that you feel captures your suitability.

Why every WAT-GD-PI call-getter should write the IIM-B SOP

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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 re-assured them. So let us see how you can bring some structure into your PI Prep. Read More

How to prepare for WAT-GD-PI – II

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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 —

  • Tell us something about yourself
  • Describe your work experience
  • Why do want to do an MBA
  • What are your long-term and short-term goals
  • List your strengths and weaknesses

They would rather 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?

Draw the largest circle with yourself as the center

The PI is primarily a test of the stuff of you are made of. So right at the center 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

  • the meaning of your name,
  • the number of districts, rivers, Lok Sabha Seats, the recent events, the future elections, famous personalities, anything and everything to do with the state you are from or the state you were born and raised in
  • your parent’s profession in case there are questions there, for example, a defense kid might get asked about the services

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

  • Lowest Hanging Theoretical Concepts in your discipline — The panelists might not be from your discipline but they will have enough top-level knowledge about a wide range of subjects to ask you basic questions from any are. For example, students with a commerce background might be asked the difference between single-entry and double-entry accounting, a mechanical engineer might be asked questions on thermodynamics and an electrical engineer might be asked about Kirchoff’s laws. So you need to revise the basic concepts across the most important subjects in your graduation.
  • Practical applications of your discipline — This applies more to engineering and science graduates. Panelists may ask an electronics and telecommunications engineer the difference between 3G, 4G & 5G or how Bluetooth works or what is iOT, a mechanical engineer about how CVT or automatic transmission works etc. IMS students will get a book with all the previous year’s questions, scouring through that is the best way to find out the kind of questions that have been asked in the past.

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 panelist 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 panelist might say, which team was Real playing against in that Final. Some of you might know, 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 panelists’ knowledge. Your job is to maximize the chances of overlap.

And remember, the harder you work, the luckier you will get.