I started preparing for CAT in early 2019. Few months into the preparation rigour, I realised that getting selected by any decent B-school is like going through a double-layered sieve. The first part - giving the CAT and OMETs - is the sieve with the bigger filters. No doubt scoring a high percentile in these exams requires a lot of hard work, but the real challenge begins after obtaining a good score. Because one might be in the top 1 percentile, but if you don't convert the call from that coveted B-school, then all that effort goes down the drain and you either drop a year or settle for another B-school.
Both options take a toll on your resume, because either you have to justify to recruiters during summer and final placements as to why you have a gap year(s); or you don't get the tag of your dream B-school. And like it or not, the tag of the B-school you finally join will stay with you for life.
Keeping all these factors in mind, I understood that the WAT-GD-PI process is the second layer of the sieve - the one with the smaller filters and it does not give one much buffer for mistakes. Since this was a critical step for getting admission in a good MBA program and the very thought of giving interviews scared me to no end, it was evident that I needed personal guidance for preparing for the WAT-GD-PI process.
Hence I joined Breakspace for my WAT-GD-PI preparation. It is the flagship program of Backspace Consulting for mentoring students for admission processes of B-schools, both in India and abroad. Breakspace conducted weekly classes for GD and WAT; and then during the other days of the week, personal interviews were conducted along with feedback after each interview wherein pointers for improvement were given.
The mentors at Breakspace - Partha Sir, Shahrukh Sir and Srinath Sir - would tailor the interview as per the requirement of the B-school from which I had a call. There being no upper cap on the number of mock PIs one can take, I ended up giving 30+ mock interviews which ensured that I had enough practice to face the actual interviews. Moreover, because of all this practice, I was not caught off-guard by random out-of-the-blue question in the actual interviews.
The weekly classes at Breakspace not only taught me the dos and don'ts of a GD. They were also filled with exercises and activities focussing on critical thinking, analytical skills, interpersonal skills and developing the right attitude. The aim here was two-fold - to prepare one for group activities that are often a criterion on which B-schools assess candidates; and also to encourage one to look at life from a broader perspective instead of just getting stuck in the rat race. Not only this, but I also got guidance regarding my SOPs and essentially, every other aspect regarding the admission processes.
Overall, I would say that the mentorship I received at Breakspace equipped me adequately as a result of which I was able to convert my best call.
I am happy I joined Breakspace as I got very professional and committed mentors, who helped me to make it to SCMHRD