Cometh the Call, Cometh the Man
CAT is considered as one of the most competitive exams across the world. And aspirants get a real taste of it in this season, post the exam results, when they have to display their softer skills in order to bag the coveted admission! One must compete, not with those outside but within, in order to win this round-II of the MBA admission process. Many top percentilers in CAT exam were in limelight last few days. It is not always the top percentilers but those who put up an all-round show who have the final laugh.
The way one should prepare for GE & PI is remarkably different from the way one prepares for the entrance exams. The process also helps understanding oneself better. Aspirants should focus on following three major areas to be successful in the GE & PI phase.
1. Self Awareness – Aspirants should spend good amount of time introspecting their career and identify achievements, failures, strengths and weaknesses. This helps them to plan their introduction as well as spot areas that could be broached further. While one can’t anticipate all the questions they could encounter, it is a huge plus for one to mind-map areas like work experience, projects, hobbies and one’s background (like location) so that they are well prepared for questions from these areas. One must also be ready to answer conceptual questions from their academics.
This is one area where an aspirant shouldn’t be drawing blank or say I don’t know as the questions are all from one’s background. This means it is actually an area of high risk and one should spend quite a bit of time researching and revisiting their past. You could access a good compilation of questions to be ready for, fromAbhyaas.
2. Process Readiness – Aspirants should know the various processes the B School is expected to test you on and practise the same. While every B school follows its own pro
cess, few processes like personal interview, essay writing, group discussion, extempore/micro presentation and case studies are encountered commonly and one should be better prepared for these.
This is an area where an aspirant could seek out external help. One should know the process followed at the B School they got a call from. Understand the Dos & Don’ts of these processes. Do practice these processes multiple times and take feedback from mentors to improve one self. Check out theAbhyaas GE-PI programme details here.
3. General Awareness – Most aspirants spend lot of time in these few weeks to prepare on this area. Understand that sky is the limit here. This area is reflective of one’s curiosity and knowledge gathered over the years. One shouldn’t look at this area as knowing some GK trivia or facts. If one starts reading in this manner, it could look insurmountable. One should rather focus on fundamentals in business, economy and policy making. One could make notes on concepts and keep referring the same but don’t indulge in memorising.
This is an area where an aspirant should spend time reading a lot and understand the underlying concepts like GDP, Fiscal Deficit, Fiscal cliff etc. You could access a compendium of Abhyaas business bulletins with fundamental concepts one needs to get hold of, follow our blog.
Get started on this beautiful journey of self exploration and reap rich dividends ahead.
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(The above note is authored by Naresh Dubbudu, IIMB Alumnus and Ex McKinsey Consultant. He is the founder of Abhyaas. Write to us for any queries or comments info@abhyaas.in)
