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Verbal Volley on Personal Interviews for MBA Admissions
Ah…the CAT results are finally here. Hope most of you have been pleasantly surprised by your CAT result , and are now looking forward to tackle the GDs and the PIs . There is a selfish motive in it for me too, because otherwise this entire write-up will become a moot point. The calls that come in from various B-Schools bring with them a set of personal question, which one is expected to fill in and send before the GD/PI process. This set of answers is mainly helpful for the interview panel to get an insight into the candidate, thus setting the platform for the way the PI will progress. In other words, it provides the ammunition for the panel to shoot you down. Hence a great deal of thinking needs to go into answering these questions. These questions range from your standard " Why do you want to pursue an MBA ?" types to the offbeat " If not MBA, what would you do ?", or the more bizarre " Give 5 reasons not to select you ". ...
kudos(1) | visits(115) | Mar 11, 10
Verbal Volley on Group Discussions Part Two
The written is cleared, the Group discussion comes next. Now comes the big step – the Personal Interview . This will be the final and the most important hurdle in your quest for that MBA. And often, it is the toughest. Interview experiences vary vastly from one person to another, and it often very difficult to predict the outcome of an interview. Just because you walked out of an interview feeling totally down in the gutters does not mean that you will not get through the interview, nor does it work the other way around. But there is one thing I can definitely say about interviews – they are totally a game of confidence. Those 10 confident minutes spent with the interviewers is all it takes to get through. As simple as that. The Beginning: There is a saying in the English language that goes, "Well begun is half done". But when it comes to interviews, well begun is often the complete job. During one of the parties on campus, I was having an informal...
visits(376) | Feb 22, 10
Verbal Volley on Group Discussions
Now that most of the written exams are over, I am sure you guys are flooded with interview and Group Discussion calls. Let me tell you that you have only cleared the first and the easiest hurdle, things are about to get more interesting. Group discussions are the first step in your evaluation process for most B-Schools. Once the topic is announced you would be given some time to think before the GD begins. This time is to be used to recollect ideas and illustration for the topics given. You can even jot down these points so that they can be used as reference during the discussion. Beginning a GD : The person who speaks first in the GD has the responsibility to set the tone of the discussion and he determines the nature of the rest of the discussion. Hence, his role becomes very important. Also being the first person to speak, he/she will get noticed instantly, both by the group as well as the moderator sitting outside. So if you are clear about the topic and are confident...
visits(992) | comments(6) | Jan 27, 10
Practice Jumbled Sentences for CAT 2009 Verbal Ability Section
Unjumble Away One of the trickier questions in CAT this time in the verbal section is Jumbled sentences. Let us try and look at some of them so as to better understand the approach towards solving them. The set of 5 sentences will be followed by options for answers. Observe the subtleties in sets of 2 and 3 and try to form groups of consecutive sentences. You can then use the options to eliminate and arrive at the correct answer. The following examples will illustrate the same: 1. A. This is a fault. B. The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. C. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. D. The artist is the creator of beautiful things; to reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. E. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. 1. ABCDE 2. DCBEA 3. BAEDC 4. EBCDA 5. DEABC 2. A. To...
kudos(1) | visits(412) | Dec 01, 09
How CAT 2009 - CBT can help you in the Verbal Ability Section
Computers crashing, passwords being rejected, delayed starts... I guess these words sum up the experiences for most of the exam takers in the first couple of rounds during the first ever CBT version of the IIM's Common Admission Test - CAT 2009. This being the first time for the computer based format (CBT), certain teething problems were always to be expected. For those of you who had to go through the entire trauma, don’t worry... You will be given another chance. Consider yourself lucky, as you have already had a sneak-peek at what the actual CAT feels like, it will definitely hold you in good stead. For the majority of you, CAT was different only in the way it was administered and it lived up to its usual standards. I had the fortune of speaking to some of you just after your exams, and believe me; the reactions I received were no different from the ones I hear from people every year. English has maintained its high standards and is again the toughest part of the...
visits(247) | Dec 01, 09
Why to work on your English skills?
Over the last couple of volleys, I have explained how to go about improving one’s understanding and familiarity with the English, both very essential components to do well in your verbal section of the CAT and other MBA exams. At this point, let me point out the key skills that you would be picking up while working on your English skills. Ability to interpret the meanings of the words based on the contexts in which they are used. Ability to recognise an incorrectly framed sentence. To understand the usage of different phrases, especially the ones that have multiple means and can mean completely different things when used is different contexts. As you can see, these skills will make it very comfortable for you to tackle all kinds of questions that the verbal section might throw at you. Once you know what are going to gain, making the effort will be much easier for you. Now that the countdown to CAT has reached its final stages,...
visits(352) | Nov 23, 09
Things to avoid during your CAT MBA Entrance Exam preparation
In this volley, I want to point some of the very commonly seen habits that people pick up during their CAT preparation with regards to preparing for the verbal section. The reason I want to pick them out is that these are the habits that believed to be very effective but generally tend to do more damage to your mindset than benefit your cause. Read on carefully about the pitfalls that you need to avoid during the course of your CAT preparation. 1) When people start reading with CAT preparation in mind, they tend to try and understand each and every word that they are reading. It is certainly not uncommon to see people sitting with pencils/pens in hand, underlining words which they don’t know the meaning of along with a dictionary or a computer nearby to look up these words. While this does help you pick up new words, the important thing to understand is that this is a very inefficient way to doing it. Stopping to underline while reading will only cause you to break...
kudos(5) | visits(1123) | comments(7) | Nov 09, 09
Reading Comprehension 5
" Recently I spent several hours sitting under a tree in my garden with the social anthropologist William Ury, a Harvard University professor who specializes in the art of negotiation and wrote the bestselling book, Getting to Yes. He captivated me with his theory that tribalism protects people from their fear of rapid change. He explained that the pillars of tribalism that humans rely on for security would always counter any significant cultural or social change. In this way, he said, change is never allowed to happen too fast. Technology, for example, is a pillar of society. Ury believes that every time technology moves in a new or radical direction, another pillar such as religion or nationalism will grow stronger - in effect, the traditional and familiar will assume greater importance to compensate for the new and untested. In this manner, human tribes avoid rapid change that leaves people insecure and frightened. But we have all heard that nothing is...
kudos(1) | visits(696) | comments(3) | Nov 09, 09
Vocabulary and Appropriate Usage of words 5
In each question, the word at the top of the table is used in four different ways, numbered 1 to 4. Choose the option in which the usage of the word is INCORRECT or INAPPROPRIATE. Please Note : When you look at questions like these, observe carefully all the choices. This will give you a very good understanding of the different contexts and meanings of these words. 1. FALLOUT 1. Nagasaki suffered from the fallout of nuclear radiation. 2. People believed that the political fallout of the scandal would be insignificant. 3. Who can predict the environmental fallout of the WTO agreements? 4. The headmaster could not understand the fallout of several of his good students at the Public examination. 2. PASSING 1. She did not have passing marks in mathematics. 2. The mad woman was cursing everybody passing her on the road. 3. At the birthday party all the children enjoyed a game of passing the parcel. 4. A passing taxi was stopped to rush the accident...
kudos(5) | visits(760) | comments(4) | Nov 09, 09
Apart from Reading
Lets now talk about the other important means of developing your English skills i.e. listening. While reading is always helpful in picking up any language, there is no substitute to continuous exposure to the same through listening. I am sure most of you would have learnt Sanskrit or French or some other similar language, which you would be very fine reading. But how comfortable are you talking in that language? The reason is not always the fact that you don’t know the language, its because you are not in an environment where the language is used a lot. The same can be applied to English. People living in cities like Mumbai and Delhi, or those who have studied in schools that encourage conversation in English find it much easier to deal with this section, simple because they have been exposed to it since childhood. It has been seen that this is often a very quick way of picking up the nuances of any language. Some of the more convenient and effective ways to achieving this...