Road to CAT 2008: MBAUniverse.com Aspirant Zone special series for MBA aspirants

Who better to answer these questions than the CAT toppers themselves, who are now studying at top B-school!

Indias leading management portal MBAUniverse.com presents a new series Road to CAT 2008 which will guide and inspire CAT aspirants at every stage. In this series, begin with a chat with students from top B-schools on their journey, and life at B-school.

The B-school students that we interviewed for this series are from institutes like IIM-B, IIM-I, IIM-K, JBIMS, FMS Delhi and IIT Bombays SJMSOM.

After presenting the chats with students of IIM B, IIM I, IIM K and SJMSOM (IIT-B), MBAUniverse.com present a chat with Darshan, student of Jamnalal Bajaj Institue of Management Studies. Darshan is a student of Master in Management Studies (MMS) who is an engine and having two years of work experience in TCS. Read below the chat with Darshan where he shares with MBAUniverse.com his experience while into SJMSOM, and campus life.

Q- What is the importance of preparation for a candidate wanting to crack management entrance exams like CAT, XAT and others? How important was preparation in your personal journey to your campus?
A- Preparation is definitely important for any activity and for such competitive exams such as the CAT and CET, it is the differentiating factor.Practice prepares you for the actual challenge. Practicedefinitely played an important part in my success and more importantly incorporating the learnings from the practice helped me.

Q- How did you prepare for management entrance exams like CAT, XAT and other exams? Please elaborate. (Kindly share a detailed answer for this question).
A- Being an engineer, preparation wasnt much of an issue. I just had to review the concepts and yes obviously revise them every week. Practice, mock tests and analysis formed a major part of my preparation. As far as group discussions and Personal interviews are concerned it was a question of being abreast with current affairs and generaltopics.

Q- Did you enroll into a coaching or test-prep institute? How did it help?
A- Yes I did. It brings a lot of discipline in ones preparation and these institutes ensure that a student doesnt go astray in his preparation.

Q- How should an aspirant choose the right test-prep institute? What should be the parameters for making this choice?
A- It depends from person from person.What I considered was batch size and quality of faculty. Advice of seniors at college definitely helped.

Q- How is life in a top B-school from a students point of view? What are the highs and lows!
A- Life is certainly much more hectic than my graduation days but the best part is that I dont complain about it. There were days when I spent hours in college but didnt realise thanks to the quality of work we do. But that doesnt mean we dont have fun. Movies, parties and walks along Marine drive are as much a part of life as long lectures, case studies, quizzes and assignments. Peer learning also plays a very important role in our development.

Road to CAT 08 special series will continue on Indias leading management portal MBAUniverse.com.Stay tuned to read more Chats with MBAs, expert admission advice from B-school Directors and from top test-prep experts.
To read old chats, click below links:

http://www.mbauniverse.com/aspirantNews.php?id=1203
http://www.mbauniverse.com/innerPage.php?id=ne&pageId=1226
http://www.mbauniverse.com/newsFortnight.php?id=ne&pageId=1232
http://www.mbauniverse.com/newsFortnight.php?id=ne&pageId=1238