A Quick Look At MBA Before You Appear For CAT In November
The increase in the number of enrollments in MBA courses in India has seen a massive increase leading to the mushrooming of several new IIMs and private institutions clamming 100% placements with heavy packages for the young graduates. Annually lakhs of aspirants apply for the common admission test or CAT to get enrolled in the prestigious IIMs and various other management institutions. While there’s an oversupply of MBA graduates who seek for placement in major companies, the recruiters frequently raise the issue of lack of talent pool in the management domain. The problem severely lies in the quality of education and training provided which is required to be more industry oriented. After the completion of their course, a large chunk of students pass out without jobs in their hand owing to multiple factors including non-employability issue raised by recruiters and lack of industry linkage in tier 2 and tier 3 B – schools.. While a 100% placement scenario remains a myth even at the top IIMs, several graduates are left unemployed even after paying a heavy bulk of amount as course fee.
Unlike other academic felids, a lot is required to be done by the government. One such is that by constituting a separate regulatory council for policy framework shall be done to scrutinize and set minimum standards to run a PGDM course as per the global business school’s parameters. Further management schools shall not be limited to provide employment opportunities for the graduates but it should encourage research in the field to benefit the organizations as well as the domain to develop.
So before someone applies to these high fee demanding colleges one should try to analyze that whether seriously their interest lies in the field or they are seeking the course for high paying packages. Prior to joining these institutions one is required to prepare himself for the rigorous structure of a PGDM course. Not only academic qualifications, the course expects from a student to be well versed in almost every field required to be a good manager. Ranging from personality development where an aspirant is expected to well-versed in English, to possessing leadership qualities, having good writing and speaking skills, grooming and various other qualities. A guy with work experience is more likely to get a decent job offer than a fresher due to his understanding of the industry, but it’s always your CV and confidence that matters in the HR round of the placements. If you think you can manage rigorous classes, field trips, projects and assignments without any rush along with some physical activities all in a span of 24 hours a day, then MBA is the perfect course for you. But you should know well that you are not running for the high paying offers made in the placement season. Just do your bit of work perfectly and everything will gradually fall into their places.
It’s nearly 30 days left for the CAT entrance this year in which nearly 2 lakh aspirants may appear for the computer based exam examination to secure place in the approx. 5000 seats in the 20 IIMs and several other B-schools. The paper compromising three sections namely verbal ability & reading comprehension, data interpretation& logical reasoning and quantitative ability will have a total of 100 questions with MCQ in nature. It should be completed within the 3 hour duration. 3 marks will be awarded for every correct answer whereas; there will be a -1 for every incorrect attempt. The students are required to mug up the syllabus and mock paper thoroughly and practice it a numerous times. Apart from the key methods to solution, time management will play the major role in this exam.
To score well in CAT the aspirants must realise that CAT is not an examination to test the depth of your knowledge but rather it tests your management skills. You have to prioritise the questions to attempt and leave. You have to allocate time judiciously between all the sections. Moreover even during preparations, you have to identify the areas of strength and weakness even within each section. Regular mocks can help you in this.
Aspirants should analyse in what type of questions they are making mistakes regularly which are adding up as negatives in the overall score. Then brush up only those topics or leave them depending upon the severity. Post mock analysis is much more important that giving mock itself. After every mock one should analyse the paper for about 3-4 hrs the very same day and jot down areas of improvement. Try giving mocks in the time same slot when your CAT is scheduled. Read good newspaper like The Hindu or Hindustan Times, atleast the editorial page, major headlines and one good article of business page. This will definitely increase your comprehending skills and can help you to score well in Reading comprehension section of CAT. Follow different open forums on CAT preparation on internet like Pagal (crazy) guy. Read how the ex aspirants who made into IIMs and also other aspirants approach the question raised by you. One of the best books to prepare for CAT is by Arun Sharma specially for Data interpretation and Verbal.
Preparing for CAT is different from conventional preparation. Beside hard work it requires more of smart work to crack it.
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