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.