With opportunities galore, NMIMS is one of the best things that has happened to me and many others. This time, last year, I too was in the same psychological and emotional state, struggling through the mocks, learning and re-learning the basic concepts every now and then. A lot has changed since then, with life getting a lot tougher, making one hate to love the life at NMIMS so much.
A sign of a good manager is that he/she should be among the best at making and executing strategies. Writing the management entrance exams will be a stepping stone toward that persona of yours. Each of these exams has its own style with hard work being the common backdrop. Not getting into the nitty-gritty of each of those exams, let me discuss the one that I am experiencing now.
The primary key, which I personally feel as extremely important, is to treat each and every question with utmost seriousness and equanimity. It is important to overcome any preconceived notion in order to solve any problem irrespective of whether you have practised it forever or never. Overconfidence will force you to make mistakes that you will severely regret and under-confidence will take away your score even before you sit for the paper.
Skimming
It is very important to go through the entire paper than to miss the questions at the very end. Usually, the final questions are where the brownie points lie. While attempting QA, divide 60 minutes into 15-20 minutes of DI and 45-40 minutes of math. Be wary of attempting DI first since students tend to spend a lot more time on it than planned. Go through all DI questions and choose the easy sets first. Out of 4-6 sets, 2-3 are extremely easy and can be attempted accurately. Although NMAT’s interface is not as smooth as that of any other exam, skimming is definitely a must. Since time is too short for VA, it is necessary for the students to be able to skim through even the RC passages, to attempt the ones that are comparatively on the easier side.
Differentiation
What NMIMS, like any other top b-schools, search for in a candidate is his or her ability to know the strengths and weaknesses. It is almost impossible to attempt all questions with full accuracy in NMAT hence the candidate must know where to attack from at the very beginning. It is necessary to know, which section should be attempted first as per your requirement and even such minor decisions do make a lot of difference. Some questions in NMAT are elementary and it is important to have an eagle’s eye for them. Like any strategy, it is very important to keep your SWOT analysis handy. One should always be aware of his or her strengths, weaknesses, threat and opportunities to tackle NMAT in a smarter way. Attempt your strengths first and do not spend more than the required time on even the easiest problem. Better never than late.
Last but not the least, LR deserves a special mention and most aspirants fail to focus on NMAT’s LR. Although the purpose might be the same, the method of tackling NMAT’s LR is way different as that of CAT. It is extremely important for all aspirants to practise NMAT specific LRs, especially within the set time limit. They are easily available online or in any other book and practising it with due diligence will actually decide your final cut in the entrance exam.
Hope to see you in the 2020 batch of NMIMS, Mumbai. All the best.