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CoolAvenues' Interview with:
Varun Jindal
Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (SIOM), Nashik.

1. General Questions
2. Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation
3. Questions related to Group Discussion / Group Exercise
4. Interview-related Questions
5. After Joining MBA

2. Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation

Q. When did you start your preparation?
A. I started my preparation about 6 months before I wrote my first MBA entrance exam, i.e., around May.

Q. How many months and how many hours daily did you devote for preparation to entrance procedures?
A. I prepared for around 6 months with an average of around 2 hours daily.

Q. Did you take up some coaching institute or you believed in self-study?
A. Since I was a working professional and it was difficult for me to take the time-out daily for preparation and coaching, I didn't join any coaching institute for preparation. However, I joined the Career Launcher Test Series to write the simulated tests.

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. I didn't buy any book for preparation. I only studied from the material available online. For self-development and pure relaxation, I read a few books such as 'Rules of Life' by Mark Twain, 'Five Point Someone' by Chetan Bhagat, etc. I also used to devote time to read the news-papers to get myself acquainted with the latest happenings.

Q. What was your experience with coaching? Some feedback about faculty, coaching material and your overall experience with particular center?
A. Since I didn't join the coaching institute, I can't comment on it. However, I would recommend every MBA aspirant to join at least the test series. Along with it, it's also important to analyze the mock exams so that similar kind of mistakes don't happen again. This would enable the aspirants to take stock of their preparation, and hence, give them the feedback and provide them scope for improvement.

Q. What are the others books & tests which you used for your MBA preparation?
A. I referred to the previous CAT and other entrance exam papers to have a feel of the actual question paper. Usually, coaching institutes provide the previous actual tests and mock tests to the candidates who join them for preparation / test-series.

Q. What was your strongest and weakest area while preparing for MBA coaching?
A. My strongest area was Quant and the weakest one was RC. As an Engineer, my analytical power was stronger than the average aspirant. I tried to spend more time on my weak points.

Q. Some tips which you used for mastering Quant, RC, etc.
A. In Quant, it's better to arrive at the correct option by eliminating the incorrect choices by intelligent reasoning. However, a lot of practice is required to use this technique effectively in exams. Also, it's very important to select the right question. Some questions are complex and can not be solved in the stipulated time. Such questions should be avoided.

Q. How much time did you put for MBA preparation everyday ? How did you manage this while working full time?
A. Being a working professional, I couldn't put in much effort for MBA preparation. On an average, I studied for around 2 hours a day.

Q. Which all Exams and B-schools you applied to?
A. I appeared in CAT, XAT, SNAP, JMET, FMS, IIFT Entrance Exams.

Q. Your present B-school and course.
A. I am presently pursuing 2-year full-time MBA (Operations Management) from Symbiosis institute of Operations Management (SIOM), Nashik.

Q. What procedures your school has for admission to its MBA program?
A. Only Engineering Graduates from recognized university with minimum 50% (45% for SC/ST) aggregate marks (all years put together) or equivalent grades, are eligible to apply. The candidates are short-listed on the basis of SNAP Score and their profiles. A high SNAP Score doesn't guarantee GD/PI Call to a candidate. Candidates with prior work-experience and consistently excellent academic record are usually given preference.

There are presently three GD/PI stages of evaluating a candidate (subject to revision): -