Can you walk us through your preparation strategy?
In terms of my preparation strategy, the first thing I needed to understand was how I function, in what surroundings do I function better and the answer to that was when I understand concepts on my own at my own pace and hence I decided to self prepare.
I have always been decently confident about my skills with Verbal sections, what bugged me the most was Quants, and hence I spent proportionately more time with Quants, for example, 85 out of 100 hours of mine, I used to practice and understand quants, that was the difference between Quants and Verbal for me. I took it very slow when it came to quants, understood the concepts, solved easy questions, and then raised the level of difficulty slowly. Solving a lot of questions allowed me to get familiarized with questions and allowed me to approach them better.
For Verbal, I have always loved reading, so I read a lot of articles on the web, wikipedia pages, poems, opinion pieces and that helped me.
Decision Making, I have felt is very intuitive and one needs to sieve through business articles and develop that knack over time, which is what I did.
According to you, what is the most important aspect of preparation?
Belief. There will come so many times when you question yourself, on a micro and a macro level, questions like Why am I doing this? Is it even worth it? Do I have it in me? will arise, but what will help you overcome them is your belief in yourself. Having that belief system will be your source of strength, also because each individual's journey is uniquely different, and no one can possibly understand what you go through, it becomes very important for you to support, understand and care for yourself.
Which mock series did you enrol for?
TIME and IMS
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How many mock tests did you take, and how did they help you prepare for the actual test?
Over 60 mocks. I think they helped me get familiarized to questions in a timed way and what to solve and what not to. I think giving mocks allowed me to select questions better.
Which section was your Achilles heel? How did you overcome that?
Quantitative Aptitude, taking it slow worked for me. Understanding concepts, solving easy questions, raising the difficulty, and familiarizing myself with the questions helped me cope better.
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Coming to the last question in this segment, can you please share some DO's and DON'Ts of XAT preparation?
DO: Understand and listen to yourself
DONT: Doubt yourself
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Yash, XAT 2023 went really well for you. We'd like to know the interview calls that you received.
I had interview calls from XLRI HRM, XLRI BM, NMIMS-Core, NMIMS-HR, MICA, XIMB, SIIB, IRMA, IMT, IMI, FORE, and GIM. I converted all 12 of them.
Great! How did you prepare for the interviews?
I think an interview should be prepared first by understanding who you are better, explore the nooks and corners of what you are, why do you like a particular thing, why do you not, why an MBA, why not something else. This is a very fascinating journey, that helps you understand yourself better. I sat with myself with a pen and paper, and asked myself all these questions and wrote down my thoughts before structuring them. Also I did not mug up answers, because I thought it'll constrict me and not allow me to be dynamic and fluidic with my answers. Also answers wouldn't feel as natural as they should, hence just created a basic structure and then answered as I was asked.
Can you describe your XLRI interview experience?
Once the interview began, I was asked about myself, my under graduation and my work role. Then it moved to why an MBA. They asked me a few questions about HR policies that exist in the industry I work in. Then they moved on to my interests, which is where it was really fun, I told them about the interest I have in music and how I can play 8 musical instruments, they told me to get my tabla, and asked me to play it. So I got my tabla and played it for them. Then we went to languages and they were fascinated with how I knew 9 languages. After which they told me that hopefully they'll get to listen the Tabla in person too. Then they told me I could leave the room.
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