“One would normally expect to be thrilled upon getting an admission offer from an esteemed B-School, but the choice became a conundrum for me. When I was initially offered a seat at IIM Indore, I decided to refuse the offer because it came with a huge trade-off.”
This is the story of Sonalee Shriya Dubey, a first-year student at the Indian Institute of Management, Indore. She completed her graduation in the field of Business Management in the year 2019. Currently, she is interning at Edelweiss Financial Services. She is a voracious reader and an eloquent debator.
While Sonalee managed to bell the CAT in her first attempt, she was interviewed at IIM Indore, not once, but thrice. In this account, she takes you through her journey of making it to Planet-I and everything in between. Read on:
IPM-AT IIM-Indore.01
IPM Aptitude Test after class 12th - Not Selected - The only entrance exam that I could not clear after 12th sent me on a guilt/ego/starting-again-full-throttled trip. (Meanwhile, I joined a State University College)
IIM-Indore.02
IPM Aptitude Test while pursuing undergraduation - Selected - To rid myself of the massive mental pressure that had built up since last year, I retook the IPMAT and was among the top rankers. What had begun as a challenge one year ago was now fulfilled, but this is when the conundrum began. Joining IIM Indore now meant losing an entire year of my career, which was not a small amount to pay. Ergo, I decided, much to my teachers’ and parents' dismay, to refuse the offer.
The Hiatus
There was a long time to take the CAT exam. In the interim years, I worked with an Ed-Tech start-up that helped me gain insight into the marketing domain and gave me many opportunities to create content. I started learning about Financial Markets and traded actively in the stock market.
As enriching and intriguing these endeavours were, they lent me first-hand experience of different domains and helped me build a diverse profile.
IIM-Indore.03
Comes the year of CAT – Though I would often sift through the topics of different sections of CAT, it wasn’t until late July-August that I started studying, full-throttle. There is a deluge of content on the web, ensure to filter the ones best suited to your area of strength and weakness. Mock tests were the biggest contributor to my performance improvement. They simulated the actual exam and made the final test day infinitely manageable.
Getting the interview call is a mysterious process and no one can bet the PI calls they would get, so hold on tight once the CAT score is out. An even restless phase is the one while you are waiting for your final call, but all's well that ends well.
Truth be told, CAT prep is only the tip of the iceberg, the actual journey begins in B-School, which is absolutely eventful and exhilarating.
CAT Preparation
One size doesn’t fit all, and the same goes for CAT prep. How one devises their preparation strategy is a function of their strengths and weaknesses and time availability. Although there are no hacks to CAT, this is what worked for me:
The Entrance Test
The Initiation - Begin with a 3-hour mock test, analyse it and spot your strength and weakness.
The Slogging - Practice in your area of weakness. (Trust me, your marks change from those ugly single-digit figures to whopping 60 in a few weeks’ practice - so was my case in DILR)
The Ritual - also known as ‘Test Series’. It is one piece of advice that reigns supreme in the entire CAT prep. Take as many mock tests as possible, followed by religious test analysis.
The Interview
I have always found PI-WAT (Personal Interview-Written Aptitude Test) the most exciting part of the selection process. It is dominantly because PI is that one stage that is about me and driven by me. As whimsical as the panel would be, believe me, you are the one deciding your selection - of all the things in the world, they want to know you!! Be your most fantastic (and original) self and take the trophy home. There is an ever-rising trend of rise in weightage of PI in the selection process, ensure to play the trump card well.
A typical B-School PI has the following 3 contours-
HRQ- Why MBA? (Start thinking about this one in advance, or you might end up praising your event management skills in the UG college fest), Strengths and Weaknesses, Interests, 5/10/15 year goals, etc.
Academics - Find out one bearable subject and master the art of being in love with it. Additionally, know the basic terms of the subjects in your result transcript.
General/Business Awareness - Know about your city of residence/hometown/interview, basic economics. The Big Picture by RSTV will take care of contemporary topics for you.
There are no other factors at work, it is only your hard work and a well-planned and practised strategy for the exam.
So, get up and get started to experience an enriching B-School prep (soon, life). Godspeed!
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