IIM K student tells how to prepare for MBA entrance

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IIM K student tells how to prepare for MBA entrance

Dec 27,2011

Saurabh Sheela Vasant Chambhare, a PGPM student at IIM Kozhikode, tells how he prepared for CAT to make it to his dream institute.

Q.

How did you kick start your preparations for getting into the B-school of your choice?
Before starting, I talked to my seniors who earlier cracked CAT and got into IIMs. It helped me to understand what it all takes to be there. A series of Mocks, regular newspaper readings, lot of confidence and high hopes – that was the starting point.

Q. When did you start your preparation?
I started in June- precisely the time when the first mocks of CL and TIME were out. There was no planning as such- the coaching institutes had planned enough in advance for all of us. I just decided to be with the mocks and analyze each mock performance religiously for improvement. That was my plan.

Q. How many hours daily did you devote for preparation?
As I was working I could not devote much time initially. However, in the last month of preparation, I made it a point to solve atleast a mock daily followed by thorough analysis.

Q. Did you take up some coaching or self-study?
During the job, it wasn’t possible for me to go for coaching. Therefore, I joined TIME and CL test series. Both the institutes provided me with enough material for analysis.

Q. What books and tests you used for your MBA preparation?
For verbal - ‘Word Power Made Easy’ and for quant - Quantitative Aptitude by Abhijeet Guha. But I used these books for reference only. Mostly I relied on the study material I had.

Q. Which books are your favorite— for preparing for entrance, for self-development and books for pure relaxation?
‘Word Power Made Easy’ is generally also useful. For preparation or otherwise, Gurcharan Das's India Unbound is one of my favorites.

Q. What were your strongest and your weakest areas?
Quant was my strength whereas my VA scores had always seen a lot of fluctuations. So I had to put in extra efforts there.

Q. What helped you master Quant and RC?
I can’t claim that I mastered reading comprehension, but yes, solving RCs from various sources/topics helped me a lot. Philosophy, Science, religion, abstract, history, geography, literature - I tried to cover variety of topics in RC. For quant, I emphasized on getting my concepts clear if I happened to stuck at any problem.

Q. How did you manage to prepare while working full time?
It was difficult initially so I studied more on weekends. During the final days of preparation, I had taken leave from office. My company and my teammates co-operated a lot in my endeavor. I really thank them for their full support and co-operation.

Q. What procedures your school has for admission to its MBA program?
Essay writing and Personal Interview

Q. What is the range of score your B-school accepts?
IIMK has set a certain minimum cut-off for each section and overall score. Above that score, the main differentiating factor is the overall profile of the candidate and his performance in essay writing and interview. So we have students with scores ranging above min cutoff to max (close to 100 %lers)

Q. Any tips regarding MBA written tests for aspirants.
Shed your ego outside the exam hall- don’t waste too much time on a question – most of the times, though we know that its leading nowhere, we keep on trying, just to satisfy our ego. It’s a trap, don’t fall into it.

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