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Interview with Debanjan Dey

1. General Background Questions
2. Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation
3. Questions related to Group Discussion
4. Questions related to Personal Interview
5. Questions related to CAT 2009 Paper
6. Questions related to Your Future Plans

Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation

Question: What was your first step in starting preparation for getting into the B-school of your choice?
Answer: I gave the GRE in April 2008, and the preparation I put in for that came in handy when I was studying for CAT later. I began with the word lists for the Verbal Section.

Question: When did you start your preparation?
Answer: I completed Barron's word lists and question sets over January-March 2008.

Question: How many months and how many hours daily did you devote for preparation of entrance exams? When did you start your preparation?
Answer: I could not prepare regularly for CAT due to campus placements at my college in summers.

Question: Did you take up some coaching institute or you believed in self-study?
Answer: No, I did not take class-room coaching for CAT. It was self preparation and plenty of reading (which is a hobby of mine). After clearing CAT, I realized the need for guidance for the GD/PI rounds and had joined week-end batch at PT Education, Delhi, in January 2009. It proved to be helpful.

Question: What was your experience with your coaching center?
Answer: My GD/PI sessions at PT Education were thorough and provided me with the inputs I required to build a strong base in MBA-related knowledge. Since I had a number of informal interactions with faculty, I was able to concentrate on the topics that I was lacking in.

Question: What was the best and strongest feature of your coaching institute?
Answer: I think all the faculty members I interacted with during my GD/PI classes and at the Boot-camp (SureShot) were very well-versed in their respective fields. The inputs I received from them after my mock interviews were comprehensive and of great help.

Question: Do you think there is scope for improvement in your coaching institute? What would be your suggestions?
Answer: I did not join any coaching for CAT 2008, so I can not comment on that. But still, I got the impression from my peers that most institutes advise MBA aspirants to rely a lot on short-cuts and formula-based thinking, especially in the Quantitative Section. I think cramming up rules makes one slower and proves detrimental. All the questions in CAT 2008 could be solved by elementary techniques.

Question: What are the others books and tests that you used for your MBA preparation, besides the study material provided by you coaching institute?
Answer: I took a few mock tests of various coaching institutes.

Question: Can you tell us which your favorite books were - books that you used for preparing for entrance, books for self-development, and books for pure relaxation?
Answer: I think Verbal Ability is a section which cannot be improved much by class-room coaching, especially in CAT which gives greater weightage to application of grammar rather than vocabulary. Reading more is the best way to prepare for it. Some authors I enjoyed reading include Ayn Rand, Arundhati Roy, O'Henry, Jane Austen, Alistair MacLean, due to their unconventional style of writing and story-telling.

Question: What were your strongest and your weakest areas while preparing for MBA?
Answer: My strongest area was Verbal Ability as I had a good grasp on the language since my school days. I was not too confident about the Algebra Section in Quant.

Question: Some tips which you used for mastering Quantitative Aptitude, Reading Comprehension, etc.
Answer: I feel that practice is of primary importance in the Quant Section. If you attempt enough questions, you can get an immediate idea of how to proceed even when faced with a different kind of problem. LRDI is generally the tough section but it can be attempted well as long as one has enough time to devote to this section. Reading Comprehension consumes a lot of time unless one can improve one's reading speed. I practiced by reading magazines and editorials.

Question: Which all Entrance Exams you appeared for and your score / percentile in each?
Answer: CAT only. I scored 246 (356), with a break-up of -
Quantitative: 59 (100)
LRDI: 62 (96)
Verbal: 125 (160)

Question: Give some handy tips regarding the MBA written tests that would be of great help to MBA aspirants.
Answer: I think one needs to find one's weak points and devote maximum time to improve on them. Since there are sectional cut-offs, it is not enough to score on one's strengths. A balanced preparation is required.

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