By Suhani Popli
It was nearly a
year and a half ago, when I was one of those many final year kids, juggling
with the different ‘options’ that would help them build a future – that I decided
to pursue the MBA degree. A dilemma that exists in most of our minds is that
between a management degree from abroad versus that from within India. There is
no end to this debate, but since I belong to the latter group, I would describe
the process of getting through that in this piece of writing.
There are
different exams held for the admission to a management institute in India, the
popular ones being the CAT, the XAT, the NMAT, IIFT, exams specific to
colleges, and so on. A gateway to the premier Business Schools of the country, the
CAT, as an exam, does not really need an introduction, so I’ll skip that part.
I’d rather use this space telling you what the different phases in the process
of doing this exam are.
1. The Initial Phase
As one would
expect, there are different ways to go about this. People can choose to do
absolutely nothing, or study on their own selves, or join a coaching institute.
If in the second category, I would suggest an aspirant to pick up study
material from online/reliable offline sources. Trust me there is no dearth of
either. However (and this opinion is strictly personal), I have always felt
that the CAT requires not only a basic and complete knowledge of the relevant
material for quantitative, logical and verbal ability, but also a grasp on the
tips & tricks that could help accelerate one’s speed to solve.
My guides, both
in terms of the preparation material and the teachers, came from the coaching
institute I was enrolled in. And I genuinely believe that someone teaching me a
particular concept would make it clearer to me, as compared to my reading it
from a book. However, one is his/her own judge of what works best for the
purpose of learning. Hence, the most important part in this phase is for an
aspirant to pick the category that suits best.
Incase one does
plan to join a coaching institute – honestly, there isn’t much of a difference
between the names that exist in the market today. All of them have material and
test series which are comprehensive. Thus, I would suggest to the aspirants to take
advice from their seniors who must have attended such classes. Based on what
they say (take views of students from at least two different places), make the
final decision.
2. The Preparation Phase
Personally, my
preparation was at the coaching institute I joined. However, for almost
everyone I know, it is actually during the summer vacations when people put in
their best effort to study. Personally, if I look back, I see that those two
months were quite intense, and it was my coaching faculty who guided me through
most of what I did. What is important in this phase is to identify the areas
where one needs work and hence polish those well. There is no key to this, but
to practise – regularly and efficiently.
As the end
approaches, it becomes extremely significant to practise as many mock tests as
possible. Also, practicing the CAT papers of the past five to ten years can be
extremely useful. This serves a dual purpose – one of making the aspirants
familiar to the exam pattern and the other of helping them learn how to manage
time. Taking a step forward, it is more important for one to analyze mistakes
post a mock test. Though this part is more time consuming than taking the exam
itself, it ensures the avoidance of the same mistakes in future.
3. The D-Day
First, different
myths float when one tries to choose a date – of the exam being easier on
weekdays than on weekends, of taking the exam on a particular day, etc. – all
of this, yes, ALL of it is absolute crap. Nothing such is true. The exam is
such that there is a large common pool of questions designed each year, and
questions are pulled out from this pool everyday in random combinations to form
a question paper. Hence, one can never predict the difficulty level of any
particular day or time slot.
Second, aspirants
should make sure they look at all the 30 questions in each section. At various
instances, the questions in the beginning tend to be difficult compared to the
ones later in sequence. Thus getting stuck at initial questions can lead to
very negative outcomes.
Third, keep calm
and get done with the exam.
4. After the declaration of the
results
Once the results
are declared, successful aspirants get calls from the different business
schools. The last step in the process entails preparation for the GD/WAT processes
and the PI – i.e. the Group Discussion, the Written Ability Test and the
Personal Interview rounds. The key to succeeding here would be to know two
things well – one’s own resume and the current affairs. Infact, reading the
newspaper is a habit that one should try and pick up early – since it also is
helpful in the preparation of the verbal section of the CAT.
Like
conventional CAT preparation pieces, I don’t want to end this article by
stating a list of which business schools are the best in the country. One can
easily Google and find that out. Rather, I would like to put forth the idea
that it is important to think through the direction in which life is taking
one. And whether it is a job, a master’s degree or an MBA – make an informed
choice, one that you really want to do! All the best :)
Suhani Popli graduated from St. Stephen's College in 2013. She scored 98.2 percentile in CAT 2012 and is currently a student at IIM Kozhikode.
