Interview with Vamsee Krishna, IIM-A, CAT 2006 topper

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Insects served on platter in Bangkok, one litre beer glasses at Oktoberfest, 2 hrs of Aamir Khan on film industry & the Aurora Borleas - This pasta-loving, cricket-crazy, globe-trotting soon-to-be-consultant has seen it all during his two years at IIM-A. Long time avid reader and quizzer, his recent passions include fooseball, Ultimate Frisbee and scrabble.

Team minglebox caught up with Mr. T Vamsee Krishna, IIM-A, CAT 2006 topper for a volley of words on How to crack CAT, Changes that can be expected in CAT 2009 due to its Online format and other such queries.




Here is what this topper has to say about CAT 2009.
1.    Please tell us something about yourself.
My first attempt at CAT was in 2005 during the final year of my graduation. While CAT did not go as well as expected (blame it on one moment of madness), I managed to clear most of the other B-school entrance exams. So I rejected the admission offers received that year and decided to give CAT another try. Meanwhile, I finished my graduation and worked at IBM India for a period of one year. It was during this phase that my second attempt at CAT bore the required results and I got into IIM-A.
Apart from academics, I was actively involved in most events happening on campus. I worked with a lot of committees in college such as ISTE, SPIC MACAY, the college cultural fest and technical fest, even went on to head some of them. I am an avid quizzer and have won a number of quizzes at both college as well as national level. I also enjoy reading a lot, while cricket and Formula 1 are my two big passions in life. I find travelling and exploring new areas quite invigorating; over the last 15 months, I have travelled in more than 23 countries across the world.

2.    What did you do your undergraduate degree in and in which institute was it?
I completed my graduation in Mechanical Engineering from the Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat.

3.    What made you choose IIM A? What were the other institutes that you were considering?
I was considering IIMs A, B, C & L along with XLRI and FMS. I had to appear for three different exams (CAT, XAT and FMS entrance). I got final offers from all IIMs and XLRI. IIM-A was the obvious choice for me because of its reputation as the being best B-school in the country. Excellent faculty, unique curriculum and most of all, the high quality of fellow students were the factors that clinched it.

4.    How did you prepare for CAT? How much time did you allocate for your preparation?
CAT 2006 was my second attempt at CAT, so most of the ground work was already in place. This time, I just wrote the mock CATs every weekend, and spent hours after that analyzing my performance and working on perceived weaknesses.

5.    Did you go to a coaching institute to prepare? If yes, which one and what were your reasons for choosing it?
Yes, I went to a coaching institute for my first attempt at CAT. PT and IMS were the only two choices we had at that time in Surat. I chose PT based on the feedback from my seniors.

6.    What were your strong and weak areas?
English was a strength area for me, probably due to my regular reading habits. There were certain topics in mathematics that I was not very comfortable with such as functions and mensuration that required me to work a lot on them.

7.    Tell us in detail how you prepared for each section.
English section did not require much preparation, most of it came instinctively to me. I only practiced doing passages at higher speeds. For the Quantitative section, first I tried to understand which formulae work under which circumstances. Secondly, I was always on the lookout for a faster and easier way to solve the problems that I was already comfortable with. For Data interpretation, I found out that practice is the only way to get good at it.

8.    How would you advice CAT 2009 aspirants to prepare for each section?
English unfortunately is a very unscientific knowledge, so one can’t apply too much logic to it. But the thing to remember is that CAT is not a test of one’s knowledge of the English language, it merely tests one’s ability to use it. Regular reading and wide exposure to language in all forms (written as well as verbal) go a long way in preparing one for this section.
For the Quantitative section, aspirants need to identify their strong areas. A lot depends on the person’s ability to select the right questions to attempt since quantitative questions can be quite time consuming. Familiarity with formula and the ability to eliminate options are the other essential traits one can pick up over time.
For the Data interpretation section, one should practice working with approximations, there is no advantage gained by obtaining the exact answer. For the logical reasoning questions, one should first read the whole data very carefully. Reading the data twice or even thrice is always worth the time spent. While reading one needs to come up with some sort of pictorial representation (trees, charts etc) for the data, the questions become quite easy to answer after that. With practice, these things can be done pretty fast.

9.    As CAT 2009 will be a computer-based test, do you think the exam format will change?
Logic says the format has to change. However, the changes will only be cosmetic in nature and candidates need not worry about them. The fundamentals will remain the same; the B-schools are still testing you for the same skills.

10.    Do you feel that the pen and paper test was better or wish that you could have appeared for the CBT format?
I still prefer the pen and paper format, at least everyone is on a level playing field.

11.    Do you think the individual sections would vary this year considering it’s a CBT? If so, how do you see them varying?
Difficult to say anything about this cause I am not aware of the exact format.

12.    Can you tell us what are the mistakes commonly made by CAT candidates while preparing and while actually taking the test?
While preparing, one common mistake that people often tend to make is that they attempt to sit through a lot of mock tests which they feel is a very good preparation. But one needs to understand the writing the test in itself will never help. One needs to go back and analyze all the choices made over those two and half hours. The purpose should be to figure out the best way to solve such a paper and learn from mistakes made from earlier papers.
When it comes to taking the actual test, it is very important to remain calm. People tend to first go for questions they find the easiest often forgetting the time aspect. They should instead aim for question that they can solve the fastest.

13.    What would you advice a CAT 2009 aspirant to focus on while preparing for the exam?
Keep the points mentioned above (Q 8) in your mind all the time. One needs to understand that to clear CAT, it is not necessary that you know the answers to each and every question. So understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses & picking the right questions to answer is very important.

14.    Now that you have made it to a B-School, how do you find it? Has MBA turned out the way you thought it will be?
B-school turned out to be much tougher than what I had expected. But at the same time, it was a thoroughly enriching experience. CAT is the first and probably the easiest step in the long journey that continues even years after one’s graduation. The things you learn, both academic and non-academic, equip you quite well to face whatever the professional career throws at you.

15.    In your opinion what is the right time to do an MBA? Should economic climate drive an individual’s MBA plans?
I strongly feel that MBA needs to be done as early as possible in one’s career. Work experience of a year or two might give you a slight edge, but what happens is people find it difficult to switch back to the learning mode.
Doing MBA is a personal choice and should be done irrespective of economic climate. Economy will always have its ebbs and flows, but if you are not doing MBA for the right reasons, you will never derive the right benefits out of it.

Team minglebox Thanks you - Vamsee and wishes you Good luck in all your endeavors.


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