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FAQS (Frequently Asked Questions)
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| Why should one take up MBA as a profession? |
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The industry today is run mostly by the professionals, who are engineers, MBAs, MCAs, and people with other such technical backgrounds. Since an MBA controls the front end of the business, a career there is wonderfully defined and equally well remunerated. An MBA depending upon his interest specializes in Marketing/ Finance/ IT/ HRM, all of which have a wide range of takers in the corporate society. Therefore, for an MBA in today’s professional arena - there are ‘opportunities galore’. |
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| Which institutes should one look at for being a successful MBA? |
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There are several MBA Institutes in India, which offer world class Business education at reasonable fees. Among the most renowned are the four IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Lucknow, XLRI Jamshedpur, FMS Delhi, SPJain IMR and Jamna Lal Bajaj Mumbai. In the next rung, there are several upcoming institutes like IRMA Anand, MDI Gurgaon, IMT Ghaziabad, XIM Bhubaneshwar, Nirma Institute of Management (NIM) Ahmedabad, and many others from different parts of the country. These institutes have different domains of specialization and take in students from different backgrounds and streams. |
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What is CAT?
What is a good score in the practice written test? |
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It is difficult for anybody to prognosticate accurately. However, as a general thumb rule, with a consistent score of around 110 one has a decent chance of getting a call from some of the IIMs. |
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| Do the IIM’s have different weightage for the different sections? |
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Again nobody is aware of the exact answer whether institutes give weightages to various sections or look at a composite score. It is commonly understood that some IIMs focus on quantitative, and some on verbal scores. These are not validated. Ideally focus on doing reasonably well in every section. Follow the policy of scoring heavily in your strength and doing well in the rest. |
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| What is the relative weightage of written test, GD and interview? |
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The exact break up of marks between the three sections is not disclosed. However, written test has the maximum weightage, and a good written score can often see one through even if the performance in the interview and GD has not been exceptional. However, amongst Interview and GD , the interview seems to carry more weightage. |
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| How much advantage does a person with a job experience have over others? |
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It is clear that work experience has some weightage, though it is not clear exactly how much work experience is good. In standard terms, a work-ex of at least one and a half to two years stands one in good stead, while six months is not really known to make a difference to one's credentials. Since during placements, a lot of companies prefer students with some work experience, the IIMs take a larger share of students who have had some work experience before applying. |
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| Do Engineers have a better chance of getting into the IIMs? |
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This is not necessarily true. If you have seen a CAT paper you will realize it is not designed specifically for any particular educational background but has basic Math and English. Yet it is a fact that a larger percentage of students at the IIMs are Engineers. |
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| Which is more important, speed or accuracy? |
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Both are important. Try and aim for a strike of around 85-90%.Though speed and accuracy (s&a) are different ideas, vis-à-vis CAT, they are mutually enhancing skills. One without the other is a good way to mess up a potentially good performance. Speed deals with the progress you make in reading, understanding, and answering a particular question or section. For example, in a typical Reading Comprehension section, you could finish reading an entire passage in half a minute flat. Or you could finish reading a math problem in half a second. Yahoo! You have cut down drastically on the time taken, but wait a minute. Have you actually grasped all the information correctly?
Do you have to return to the passage or the question repeatedly to look for information? In that case, the time that you made up for by reading fast, is lost in re-reading the information to answer the questions correctly. Your speed is ultimately not really speed, and has also cost you your valuable accuracy, which may make you answer questions incorrectly, thereby incurring negative marks!!!. As far as RC is concerned, therefore, it is usually advisable to attempt minus one passage thoroughly, thereby making optimum use of both time and accuracy. However, those who are really fast and accurate can go for all the passages, (in other sections all the questions), if they can maintain the correct balance between s&a.
Conversely, the need to be accurate often makes us read slower than needed, and CAT is notorious for time-miserliness. The best way to combine the two, therefore, would be to underline as you read whether it is reading comprehension or a particularly confusing quantitative. or data sufficiency problem. It is also advisable to keep clues in the margins as you read, so that you don't have to search an entire passage while answering questions. As far as the Verbal Ability section is concerned, your ability to think on your feet is as important as accuracy, especially in the logical questions. Here, a process of elimination while tackling the questions, based on educated guesses, would definitely boost accuracy and speed.
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| What do the leading business schools look for? |
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This is an important question because it has a direct implication on how you will be assessed. I have seen aspirants worry endlessly about two specific factors: Academic record and Work experience. Critical elements no doubt. But how critical is the burning question.
Most MBA schools employ at least six criteria to assess applicants:The entrance exam score, performance in the group discussion, performance in the personal, interview, work experience, academic record, extracurricular/other achievements.
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| What is a MBA entrance exam all about? |
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Is the MBA entrance an aptitude test? What are the skills tested? How am I going to be assessed? It is important to understand what exactly an MBA entrance exam is all about just so that your preparation is focussed along the right lines. One of the most popular exams in the category is the CAT of the IIMs. Increasingly more and more MBA institutes are opting for the CAT as their entrance exam; for instance TAPMI, MICA etc. Also the CAT is more or less the benchmark or model for most MBA entrance exams in the country, with the possible exception of the XLRI test.
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| What is negative marking in CAT? |
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This has been a regular feature of the CAT. Many test takers assume that the extent of negative marking is a quarter i.e. one-fourth mark deducted for every wrong answer. This is not necessarily true. While the IIMs have always maintained that wrong answers carry negative marks, the extent of negative marking has never been disclosed. It could be half or even 1 full mark for every wrong answer! Only the XLRI publishes the extent of negative marking every year and even that is not a constant. XLRI has used 0.25 and 0.33 as negative marking in recent administrations. So remember that you will be penalised for inaccurate work. As long as that motivates you to work more efficiently and accurately, the purpose has been achieved.
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| What are the sections and the structure of CAT? |
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The CAT tests you on four skill areas: Verbal ability, Problem solving, Reading Comprehension and Analytical/Data Interpretation. This feature has not changed over the years. A recent article in a business magazine suggests that the IIMs are reviewing the CAT and are likely to introduce a system which could add an element of subjectivity. This is expected to be an additional essay. While most other MBA entrance exams are similar to the CAT in structure and skills tested (most are easier than the CAT), some exams incorporate an extra section on General awareness and /or Business awareness.
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| What is CAT about "Work Hard" or "Work Smart"? |
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The CAT and other MBA entrance exams are not about grueling work and burning midnight oil.Some students spend 4 - 5 hours a day for months on end and don't get through. Others spend maybe an hour or two a day for a few months and sail through. Why is that?
The exam is not about working hard but working smart. All MBA entrance exams are objective in nature. This means that the bottom line is getting the correct answer, not how you get the answer. You could work systematically and arrive at the correct answer in a minute; good. You could also work smartly by elimination and substitution of answer choices and arrive at two correct answers in the same time; excellent.
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| What do I do if I don't get through CAT? |
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Paradoxically, unless an MBA aspirant works with the attitude that 'It’s got to be an MBA or nothing', things rarely work out. Try your best and put in hard work and don't get negative. Positive state of mind helps.In spite all your hard work, incase you still do not succeed, try again.
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| What will I learn from a MBA course? |
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Simply put, an MBA program exposes you to concepts, provides you with insights and practical orientation and equips you with tools that will aid you in making effective management decisions. A good MBA program streamlines your thought process, provokes your creativity and gives you the discipline to handle complexissues.
An MBA is a passport to a lucrative and rewarding career. It’s a degree that can put you on the fast track and provide you with a single window opportunity to working with some of the best organizations in the world. An MBA can change lives.
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| Is an MBA worth the time and money? |
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This question is very pertinent, particularly for candidates who are employed. I believe that this is a perfectly legitimate concern. Obviously, if you are doing well at work, the monetary trade-off alone could be Rs. 2.5 lakhs plus (salary for two years) plus the cost of an MBA program (they don't come cheap; around Rs. 2 lakhs for 2 years). Add to this the cost of not having a continuous work record and possible loss of seniority due to this and the total cost of investing two years into an MBA program appears to be quite steep.
You would be doing injustice to an MBA program if you benchmarked it in terms of short-term monetary gains or losses alone. There's definitely more to it. Perhaps a more appropriate way to examine your returns on time and money invested would be view the accruals over the rest of your working life - typically 30 to 40 years. In tangible terms alone, gains in finances and in career advancement post-MBA easily outrun the gains you would have otherwise had over the first 3 to 5 years. This is because a good MBA program not only provides you with a launching pad for your career but also acts as a catalyst in your career advancement. Besides this, the rewards that you reap in terms of richness of job content, opportunities for making significant contributions and the changes in your overall perspective are truly priceless.
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| Do preparatory courses for MBA entrance exams help? |
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Rephrased, this is the same as asking, "Can I really be coached for an 'aptitude' test?" Aptitude tests are essentially tests of skills that have been acquired over a long period of time. A view was held, quite strongly and for quite some time, that scores on such tests are not influenced by preparation. However research and authorities for these tests have proved that coaching helps.
The question then is what kind of training can be most effective and why? Most MBA entrance exams include testing of skills that are normally associated with aptitude testing-verbal, problem solving, reading and reasoning. What sets these exams apart is the ability to manage time and chose questions judiciously. Every year thousands of hopefuls appear for the MBA entrance exams. Unfortunately, several bright, otherwise eligible students are unfairly penalised for being under prepared, for not knowing critical test taking skills or for freezing up during the all important entrance test, thus concealing their true aptitude. Understanding what the exams call for, a clear sense of purpose, knowing what kinds of questions to expect and a systematic preparatory schedule can help overcome these problems. Preparatory course can aid your preparation immensely by reorienting you with the subject content in the tests, providing you with a simulated and competitive environment to prepare in, ensuring that your preparation progresses in a structured, systematic manner, sensitising you to exam patters and recent changes, if any, training you on test strategy and orienting your performances towards the desired levels of speed and accuracy, most importantly, providing you with a benchmark of your relative standing, preferably on a national scale, at regular intervals to ensure focused preparation.
And finally remember, joining a good MBA preparatory course is only half the story. The other half is how well you use it.
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