You are now over one year into the software "industry". You have crossed over from being "enthusiastic" to "complaining" around 4 months back. The words that describe your job now are "boring" and "monotonous". You are still here because you earn a little more than your "core engineer" friend, there is a possibility of you going "onsite" and the IT sector is hot right now. Most of your friends are already stamping their visas for US for their MS degree. But you think that it is just a passport for earning in dollars doing pretty much what you would have done in India anyways. Now the situation is of a "saturation point". You now want to "get out of it". Suddenly working as a boss rather than a subordinate fills your fantasies. You have been hearing about the 3 letter entrance examinations that test only high school level aptitude since college. You have also been hearing about the 7 digit annual salary figures that the passouts from these 3 letter "institutes" are paid, from your colleagues. So you decide, it is time to enter the race. Welcome to the world of lakhs of aspiring MBAs across India.
Now even though the beginning of the paragraph starts with my story, the motivation does not quite relate to me completely. But I can claim it as a fact that it is the story of 3/4th of the candidates fighting for a seat in a good B school in India. I have already validated it during the "personality development" sessions of my class, where blatant honesty of the entire class comes in. I have also experienced it while interacting with fellow aspirants during my "calls" so far. Among the 8 of my group mates in SCMHRD, 6 were from Software industry, where 4 were from my last company. My purpose here is not to beat around the bush. My purpose here is to share with you a few observations and trends gathered over 1.5 years of my "endeavour". Not only for the "aspiring candidates'" benefits, but also as an opportunity for the "already aspired" candidates to reflect. Let me begin with a few stats through a visual element. The figures are rough but collected from very reliable sources.
| Name of the test | No of applicants (2006) | No of applicants (2007) | Percentage increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAT | 1,91,000 | 2,30,000 | 20.4 |
| SNAP | 97,000 | 1,39,000 | 43.3 |
| MH-CET | 52,211 | 74,622 | 42.9 |
| JMET | 21,000 | 28,000 | 33.3 |
| IIFT | 42,500 | 47,500 | 11.8 |
| NMAT | 32,000 | 37,000 | 15.6 |
Observations:
1) The success story of India Inc is inspiring more and more educated/employed youth to take up the B path.
2) People are not shy of taking an exam multiple times. "Creme-de-la-creme" prize motivates even the highest paid "labour". The concept of one exam, one path, one job career has long gone now.
3) Tests that offer multiple application opportunity (more than one college) grew far more rapidly than single college tests. Everyone wants to pick and choose rather than relying on only one aim.
4) The seat to applicant ratio for well known colleges will keep on decreasing insanely as long as there is no upper limit for the age/attempts. We saw a fall in the no of applicants of JEE last year only after the IITs established a "maximum 2 attempts" limit.
Advice:
If you are waiting for 1 or 2 years to start the race, I suggest you to jump in right away. The selection ratios of colleges like FMS, JB, SIBM are already in the 1:500 mark. So out of the 500 people applying, only one makes the cut.
Observation of exam and entrance trends:
1) GK is a thing of the past
No not all tests have done away with GK. But almost all tests seem to follow suit. FMS did it away after 2003, XAT in 2006, and it was NM's turn to do it this year. Reason? Colleges don't want the GK section to skew results. They can test the general awareness of a candidate during further rounds, GD, PI. Besides, the ultimate focus of a B school is its placement, and lately the role of GK as a deciding factor for the companies has gone down.
Advice:
Read newspapers regularly. But don't waste your time mugging up the who's who of orgns/govt bodies that you are not even remotely interested in.
2)Reasoning is the "in" thing
It is an open secret. B schools don't want philosophers or mathematicians, they want candidates who can think effectively under pressure. So all the traditionally compartmentalised sections have got mixed profusely with reasoning. Verbal has shifted from knowing the meanings of a word and knowing where to apply them to critical reasoning. Quant has moved to caselets (cat, jmet, xat), an effective way for "integration" of a problem.
Advice:
Instead of preparing for specific type of questions focus on the "why" everywhere possible. Even during the interviews the "whys" are the most frequent and the most impostant ones.
3) B schools want half made managers
Thanks to the RTI and the curiousity of a challenged lady candidate, IIM B has opened its weightage for selection to the public. Is it a surprise that a CA gets 5% more marks than a candidate from another stream (She/he has already done many subjects that form a part of the curriculum)? Again, is it a surprise that most B schools give more preference to the work-ex people (They already know the "corporate culture" and the nuances of how to make a mickey out of people for the benefit of the orgn, at least they know what their bosses did)? How can the B schools make their exams, the so called "Aptitude tests" separate the half baked "managers" from the rest? By introducing Business decision making in their paper of course. IIFT did it in 2007, XAT followed suit in 2008. Actually XAT just increased those "subjective" type of questions introduced in 2007 from a set to half a section.
The group discussions are moving from the "creative/abstract" to general and Case studies. All 3 of SIBM, SCMHRD and SIIB used case studies for group discussions this time as opposed to "creative topics" and "visual presentation" based GDs last time around. They are utilising their priveleges to separate out the potential manager material from the bookish candidates.
Advice:
Now even the non-elite B schools have 60,000 to 85,000 students to choose from (for their 120-180 seats) instead of the 4,000 they had before. E.g., SIMC received 67,000 applications this year. To make their training job easier, to increase their placement figures, they want people who are coming with a pre-wired mind ready to transform to a manager. So right from the beginning of preparing for these tests, keep a "managerial" attitude. As the cliche goes, try to see the "bigger picture" instead of preparing for tests. Be sure of your goals, problem solving methodology etc even while preparing for your mocks. Read up simple case studies with the point of view of an organisation even before exams.
4) It is becoming more and more "open"
Just 3 years back it was only the CAT paper (among all MBA tests) that was open for scrutiny, analysis and post mortem. I am talking about the right to take the question paper home. They threw it open to the public. Almost as a challenge. They have twisted and modified the paper beyond recognition every year since then. So even if it is open, no one can actually use it to ensure success in the following year.
IIFT and JMET went public in 2006. XAT followed step in 2008. I think that the dynamics of the game are changing so much that the paper setters are sending out a clear message. "We want people who are prepared for any surprise. We will change the paper next year. You can analyze our paper as much as you want, but you will get in only if you have it in you".
Advice:
Don't make your mindset fixed on a "pattern" of an exam. Try to practice as many variations as possible. Try to maximise your score in an exam instead of speculating about the cut offs.A score of 60 in JMET 2006 resulted in rank 1300, the same score got one a rank 300 in 2007. I have personally seen all the papers change from 2006 to 2007; in terms of no of questions (SNAP, NMAT, XAT), difficulty (CAT-enough said, JMET, XAT, IIFT), sections (XAT-always stumps the junta, FMS, IIFT), type of questions (CET, XAT, IIFT, FMS)
Enough gyaan for now. Awaiting comments and your 2 cents
