Be Prepared for Computer Based CAT 2010 Exam

With CAT gone online since last year and many other national tests are expected to follow the trend, MBA aspirants need to prepare according to the changing needs. As of now, most of the Indian students are used to paper pen-pencil format. It is a part of our learning system since ages. But now that change is inevitable, you are expected to perform in front of the computer screen. You need to develop high concentration and ability to perform under pressure. It is not an easy transition from taking a test on paper to scoring well in an online format. Now you will need to get adept to reading passages on the screen, solving data interpretation case lets, and understand pie-charts etc on screen.

The new format calls for a new approach. Those who couldn’t develop this approach suffered badly in last year CAT exam. It is not just about taking few mock tests in the online format. It is not sufficient. You will also need to practice the basics, concept and chapters etc on computers. Remember, everything is in relation to everything else. Your preparation strategy should be based on not just last few years' test patterns but also according to the new medium.

Now that CAT is approaching fast, you need to practice your theory, chapter tests and section tests on the computer screen. It will demand concentration and perseverance but that’s the only way out. You must develop a habit of concentrating and practicing with a keyboard and mouse. Slowly but steadily, you will see a difference in your comfort and thereby scores and percentiles by the time you seriously get into the mock test taking mode.

CAT Preparation Strategies for Last Months

The D-Day is coming soon what with CAT is just about 2 months away. All the serious CAT aspirants must have started preparation with full sincerity and dedication. The exam will go on for a month and quite a number of candidates must be feeling anxious regarding completion of their preparations. It is the time when you should revise all that you have prepared. You also need to be selective from here on. Let’s have a look at what you can focus on during these last two months.

Many students face difficulty in RC section. So instead of bothering about that, start reading more for a period of say, 30 minutes to one hour daily. Read diverse subjects and cover as much ground as possible. Do keep a tab on your reading speed. Focus on learning new phrases, idioms and words each day. Revise them regularly and try to use them in a sentence so that they will last longer in your memory.

For DI, practice 3-5 sets daily. Allot one hour for logical reasoning questions. Don’t allow your mind to divert. You must attempt 25-40 questions daily covering algebra, arithmetic, geometry, mensuration, speed-time-distance questions, etc. It is always better to cover all the subjects regularly. Make a fixed routine and don’t deviate from it. Question sets of last year’s can give you great idea about the pattern of the papers. Try solving all those problems in a real exam environment using watch. There is no better preparation than mock tests/ practice tests. Do it on both paper as well as computer based tests. Finally, for a while take time out to relax and rejuvenate.

Improving English Communication for GD & PI

Many bright and intelligent students find it hard to crack the Group Discussion and Interview rounds in MBA entrance exams. The main reason is lack of effective communication skills, fear of failure and inability to speak fluent English. Only students from metropolitan cities are comfortable with spoken English because of the education and atmosphere they get but students from rural backgrounds who didn’t study at any convent schools are clearly at disadvantage. English language is often taught in their mother tongue and that doesn’t help the cause.

But we all know how important it is to have good command over English language. To learn English, one first needs to be passionate about English language. You do not need to bother over grammar, accuracy, pronunciation etc initially. Just focus on the main objective of understanding the language. Read newspapers and magazines religiously. Focus on English news channels, close your eyes and focus on the words. Similarly, many experts suggest listening to the commentary of your favorite sports.

Find a friend, family member or teacher you can talk English with. That person must be fluent in the language. Try having conversations with the person in English and ask for his feedback. Also tell him to correct your mistakes. You must do it on a daily basis.

Generate the self-confidence to speak whenever such opportunity comes to you. All you have to do is to stop paying any attention to the reactions of the audience. Not everyone will appreciate you. Some of them may laugh at you but don’t get disheartened. It is your job to make yourself mentally tough. Your confidence will pull you through this learning phase. Work on these aspects and you will able to master English communication and perform well in GD and Interview.

Tips from the Topper

There are not many students who score 100 Percentile in CAT. However, there are few bright students who manage to achieve this rare distinction on the sheer basis of hard work and determination. One such student was Rahul Singh who scored 100-percentile in CAT 2010. He shared the secrets of his success and advised MBA aspirants regarding the perfect preparation.

Rahul talks about paying attention to fundamentals and not to tips, tricks and secrets. The right time to start CAT preparation is now. Talking about each subject, he advises students to revise basic class X mathematics for Quantitative Ability. Accuracy is an important part of this subject. One should aim to solve all the problems ignoring the time consumed by particular questions. Concepts must be clear in the aspirants’ minds. Once the concepts are clear, students can focus on the speed factor.

Moving on to next subject of Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation, aspirants need to start from scratch. This section demands consistent hard work. Rahul suggests candidates to pay special attention on analyzing the solutions. Speed is of paramount importance in this segment hence students need to master this time factor.

Talking about Verbal Ability, Rahul finds this segment quite challenging for many students. Candidates should start from the scratch and should acquire proficiency in vocabulary, grammar and reading. One should try to be an avid reader. This can be done by regularly reading newspapers, light fiction, magazines etc. This will help in increasing the reading speed and will also make you aware of contemporary language and affairs.

Rahul sums up the tips by advising students to remain patient and the success will come sooner than later.

TOEFL Preparation

More than 7,300 institutions in approximately 130 countries accept TOEFL test. It is the most widely used English assessment test. There are four major components of TOEFL test; Reading, writing, speaking and listening. It is important to score well in TOEFL test if you want to pursue your higher studies. The most important thing is to develop the habit of reading. The process is actually well defined. It goes like reading something interesting, writing about it, practice listening to it and finally speak whatever you have listened to. There are plenty of resources for all these important tasks. You can listen to recorded lectures or podcasts to improve your listening skills.

About reading content, there is no dearth of wonderful reading materials spread all across the net. Many students preparing for TOEFL prefer to work with a speaking partner. If the partner is well versed in spoken English, so well so good for the preparing candidate. You should also use vocabulary flash cards. Use them as often as possible. Keep checking your knowledge.

Some popular online video sites have preparation material for TOEFL students. These videos provide very handy resources and tips from instructors and students with previous experience of the test. It is important to learn paraphrasing texts. Speed reading techniques play a major role in scoring well in TOEFL test. Start speaking loudly from a magazine or newspaper. Try to summarize the article in your words. Put it into writing. Speak in slow motion and work on your pronunciation. Finally, combine all your skills and conquer the TOEFL test.

MBA Updates

• The upcoming Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Rohtak in Haryana is going to be functional this year. Recently, the institute has tied up with US-based Indiana University's Kelley School of Business for the overall growth and development of students and course curriculum. The partnership is more of strategic nature and will involve faculty exchange, joint curriculum designing and research. IIM-R is being mentored by IIM Lucknow (IIM-L). The first semester classes will begin from July or September end. The first batch will have student intake of 140 students. Initially, the classes will be held in Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak. However, the construction of the 170-acre IIM-R campus is going on.

• IIM-C has started admissions to IIM Ranchi using CAT 2009 Scores. More than 15000 applications have already thronged to IIM Ranchi where classes will commence from June/July this year. The institute has lowered the cut-offs to encourage reserved category students.

• The placement season is going real good for the management students this year. The number of offers has registered substantial increase over previous year and students are being offered multiple choices by the recruiters. IIMs and other top management institutes of the country have expressed their delight and satisfaction at offers being made by the recruiters. The highest offer received by IIM-A has reportedly been around a record Rs 1.44 crore plus package from Deutsche Bank. IIM Lucknow has bagged the highest offer of Rs 75 lakh from Olam International. Some of the top-notch companies have participated in recruitment season this year. This is definitely encouraging news for management students who were feeling despondent just a year ago. The tide has really turned.

Foreign Education Bill

Recently, the Indian government gave its nod to the much-debated Foreign Educational Institutional Bill. The debate on this issue was going on since a long time and finally got approved in favor of foreign universities establishing their campuses in the India. This also means, top class foreign institutions like Harvard and Yale can establish their shops on Indian soil. No wonder, Indian students are delighted.

Once the Indian parliament approves the bill, foreign universities will be able to offer a variety of degrees to the education seeking Indian students. Indian education fraternity is excited on this news. The nod means that now Indian students will be able to pursue an international education without leaving their country. This not only makes the process of education a comfortable one but also eases visas and issues pertaining to living expenses.

This historic decision can also result in improving standards of Indian educational institutions because of stiff competition from the foreign universities. The fact that foreign universities will bring its best staffs and faculties along with top notch infrastructure facilities, will naturally push Indian education institutions to improve their standards across the spheres.

Considering India’s huge population and increasing number of youngsters willing to complete their studies, this move can surely bring a smile on all these students’ faces. In Indian institutions, seats and courses are limited. Arrival of world famous colleges will bring respite to Indian students.

Once the foreign education bill gets the approval in the parliament, it has got every opportunity to revolutionize the Indian educational system.

Student Exchange Program between IIM-B and Paris-based HEC

In a recent development, IIM (Bangalore) has started a student exchange with Paris-based HEC School of Management. The program will be known as HEC-IIMB (Hiep). According to the schedule, 20 students each from both of the institutes will visit India and France. The group of students will also work jointly on projects of mutual interest. According to IIMB Director Pankaj Chandra, this type of programs will help the institution in becoming a truly international school. The vision is to increase the size of the institute in terms of number of programs. IIMB also has its eyes on becoming a top research school with a consistent focus on India as well as other emerging economies.

According to the program, batch of 14 students of IIM-B will make a visit to France. This will help them in getting familiar with business environment in Europe. It must be noted that earlier students of HEC visited IIM-B and companies like Infosys and Biocon.

7 New IIMs

There is no dearth of eligible and quality students who miss the prestigious IIMs just by a whisker. IIMs have fixed number of seats and they can take only so much. But now, students have better chances of getting admission into their dream institutions. Last year on August 27, the Union Cabinet approved 7 new IIMs to become operational in two phases. The privileged states are,

Haryana

Tamil Nadu

Rajasthan

Jharkhand

Chhattisgarh

Jammu & Kashmir

Uttarakhand

New IIMs will become operational in two phases. In phase I, four IIMs will commence operations 2010-11 and the initial intake will be 140. These four IIMs are;

Raipur (Chhattisgarh)

Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu)

Rohtak (Haryana)

Ranchi (Jharkhand)

Rest of the three IIMs will be set up during 2010-2011 in the phase II and the intake will be a whopping 560 per year. So, all the IIM aspirants, you can rejoice now.

MBA News

In our last post, we talked about how new CAT exam format went haywire for a number of reasons. The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 for admission to the IIMs and other premier Indian B-schools took place in December 2009. The test was conducted in a new method and that was computer-based test instead of earlier paper exam. The exam period was over eleven day. The appearing candidates had to encounter a number of problems during the exam. Some of the common problems faced by students were, frozen monitor scenes, automatic shutdown of computers during the test and even last minute rescheduling of test slots etc.

Many eligible students couldn’t even take the exams and to handle their situations, IIMs have decided to hold the second phase of CAT exam on January 30 and 31, 2010. Students are hoping that, this time things will be far more efficient.

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Another piece of news for MBA aspirants comes from MET Institute. Students willing to join diploma programmes in business management through distance learning mode can look into course offered by MET. The available areas of specializations will include marketing, HR, finance, operations and systems.

To obtain the admission form and prospectus, one can visit

MET Institute of Distance Learning,

MET complex,

Bandra Reclamation (West), Mumbai-50 or

Can log onto www.met.edu. Final year students, working professionals and diploma/degree holders can apply for the course.

The last date for form submission is March 15, 2010.

For further details, one can visit, Website: www.met.edu or www.met/askMET.asp or email at communications@met.edu

The contact number is 1800 22 0234 or (022) 26440096/ 57