IIM Lucknow Alumni tips for MBA Aspirants
| February 19,2013 09:36 am IST
email
print
pdfGeneral Questions
Q. Can you tell something about yourself and your pre-MBA qualifications?
A.
An Electronics Engineer with a Post Graduation in Software Systems, I worked in the IT industry for nearly a decade with some of the leading IT companies in different positions including Account Management and Business Development, before I joined IIM Lucknow.
Q. Tell us something about your life before and beyond MBA.
A. As I mentioned, before going for an MBA, I was involved in account management and business development activities. Life was extremely hectic and I was working closely with onsite sales team to understand client requirements, designing solutions to meet the requirements, and presenting the solutions to all key stake-holders. Besides business development, I also managed an account for a mid-sized Canadian client for whom we had established a dedicated offshore development centre in India.
Q. So when did you decide to go for MBA?
A. I started thinking about doing an MBA around 2 years back. I noticed that for many leadership positions, an MBA was becoming kind of a pre-requisite because of the different perspectives that it added to management. The availability of the one-year MBA option also helped me in my decision to go for an MBA at this stage of my career.
Q. Will an MBA degree add on to your existing career plan or did you decide to switch/start a career in management?
A. I am already in management role and an MBA would add on to my existing career plan.
Q. Which MBA institutes and programs you identified for your MBA?
A. I only applied to the 1-year MBA programmes by the IIMs. The main reason for this was the relatively higher average work-experience and profile of the candidates applying to these programmes. Given my work experience of around 10 years, I felt that the 1-year programmes of IIMs suited well.
Q. Your present B-school and programme. Also specify your Batch.
A. International Programme in Management for Executives (IPMX), Batch of 2008-09 at IIM Lucknow.
Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation
Q. What was your first step to start preparation for getting into the B-school of your choice?
A. Since one of the main pre-requisites in applying to the 1-year MBA programmes of IIMs is the GMAT Score, working towards a decent GMAT Score was the first step in my preparation.
Q. When did you start your preparation?
A. Overall, I spent about 8-10 months in my preparation towards applying for an MBA. This included 4-5 months for the GMAT preparation.
Q. How many months and how many hours daily did you devote for preparation to entrance procedures?
A. As mentioned earlier, I spent about 4-5 months in my GMAT preparations. My work related responsibilities were keeping me extremely busy and I could spend only about 1.5 hours on week-days. On week-ends, however, I spent around 5-6 hours daily.
Q. Did you take up some coaching institute or you believed in self-study?
A. I relied entirely on self-study.
Q. What are the others books and tests that you used for your MBA preparation, besides the study material provided by your coaching institute?
A. In order to prepare for GMAT, I mainly relied on Kaplan and Manhattan books. I found them extremely value-adding. Besides these books, I also found useful information especially for areas such as sentence correction on the web.
Q. Can you tell us which are your favorite books, books that you used for preparing for entrance, books for self-development and books for pure relaxation?
A. As I indicated, for GMAT I mainly relied on Kaplan and Manhattan books. I was not an avid reader; however, I did try and read books about which I heard good things. For instance, some of the books that I read while preparing included 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People', 'The Toyota Way' and 'Made in India'. For pure relaxation, I generally relied upon news magazines and periodicals.
Q. What were your strongest and weakest areas while preparing for MBA coaching?
A. My strongest area was Quants and the weakest area was Verbal section.
Q. Some tips which you used for mastering Quantitative Aptitude, Reading Comprehension, etc.
A. Practice, practice and practice.
Q. Which all Exams and B-schools you applied to?
A. I applied to the 1-year MBA programmes conducted by IIMs.
Q. Your present B-school and programme. What made you opt for this particular institute and programme?
A. My present B-school and programme: IIM Lucknow, International Programme in Management for Executives (IPMX).
Some of the key factors that made me opt for IPMX from IIM Lucknow included the programme's strong global and leadership focus, IIML's brand value as the premier business school in India, the distinct locational advantage of Noida - being the hub of industrial activity, and the programme's one year duration.
Q. What procedures your school has for admission to its MBA program?
A. The selection process for IPMX is based on: -
Duly filled-in Application Form along with Statement of Purpose
Two Letters of Recommendation
GMAT Score
Professional Experience
Personal Interview
Q. What is the range of score for students who are admitted?
A. The GMAT Score range for IPMX is from 660 to 770.
.
.jpg)