The road to a good MBA schools is through entrance tests like CAT, XAT, MAT, FMS, IIFT, SNAP and JMET. Of these, CAT is the hardest nut to crack. MBAUniverse.com spoke to CAT 2008 toppers on ‘How to prepare for cracking the CAT entrance exam’. In this four part series by Sreetama Datta of MBAUniverse.com, CAT toppers share their success mantras with MBAUniverse.com readers.
For most aspirants, the first step is to join a MBA Coaching Institute. With the sections like Quant, Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability, most of the MBA aspirants feel that guidance from a management test prep institute is the first step towards belling the CAT.
How do these MBA coaching institutes help?
Aspirants generally join a test prep institute for the following reasons:
Complete preparation: The test prep institutes give the students the entire preparation module. They train the students on the different sections, provide them with mock tests and if they make it till there, they prepare the students for the GDPI rounds also. 99.91 percentile scorer Sayali Kale, who enrolled into IMS Learning’s complete CAT preparation module, says “I had attended the IMS’s complete CAT preparation module”.
Coaching for a particular section: It is not always necessary to take the entire module in a test prep institute. If you are confident about some sections and not one, you can join a test prep institute to brush up your knowledge of that particular section only. As did Anurag Goyal (99.56) percentile for the Quantitative section. He chose Career Launcher just to work on Quant section. “I was quite comfortable with the other two sections, so did not undergo any preparation training for the same”, said Anurag.
Test series: Quality of Test series, or the ‘mock tests’ offered by the test prep institutes, is an important criteria for choosing an institute. They give the students a feel of the actual test as the pattern and marking system remains the same. For most of the CAT toppers, taking regular test series is the most important part of the preparation. Most of them also owe their success to the test series.
For Sahil Bansal (99.91 percentile), “Test series are able to simulate the CAT entance exam as well as give a very realistic feel of the competition.” He suggested the MBA aspirants to take a couple of test series and concentrate on doing well in them. Sahil took the test series of both T.I.M.E and Career Launcher. Vipul Goyal (99.87 percentile) chose the T.I.M.E test series. “In such entrance exams where percentile scores and not percentage scores matter, it is always beneficial to compare yourself to the maximum number of people”, he justified and suggested the same for the aspirants.
GD PI preparation: Not everyone took the entire CAT preparation module. Some of the toppers were confident enough to write the CAT entrance exam without the help of test prep institutes. They only took guidance for the GDPI preparations. Amey Mashilkar (99.14 percentile) joined T.I.M.E and IMS for GDPI coaching. “Both offer coaching for GD/PI at reasonable prices and it is good to join both for diverse insights”, he said.
How to choose the ‘right’ one?
But what are the factors which help choosing a particular test prep institute?
Faculty: Faculty is the most important criteria according to some toppers. They are the ones to teach and help the students through their problems. So you must enquire about the faculty before enrolling yourself to the institute. According to Anurag Goyal, “Faculty must be the deciding criterion and not the preparation material, which can be had from anywhere.” Glen D’Silva (99.83 percentile) owed his entire success to the faculty of IMS Learning, the test prep institute he joined. “The faculty was always ready to help out with any doubts we had and were always there for extra sessions. I am thankful to all the teachers over there”, he said.
Students or Peer-group: The people in the test prep institute with whom you interact can also be the deciding criterion. For Prashant Kumar (97.67 percentile), “Aspirants should make the decision on the basis of whichever institute provides a better group to interact with.”
Feedback from past-students: You can always join by taking feedback from past years students as which test prep institutes are the best in the business. According to Glen D’Silva, “CAT takers should take feedback from past students before joining a coaching institute.” Sayali Kale said, “I chose IMS on the recommendation of my seniors and batch mates”.
Some of the toppers feel that it depends on the student which test prep institute they will join and how much use they can make from the same. According to Amit Tandon, “I believe coaching institutes can only provide you the direction, rest is up to the student to capitalize on it.” Sitaram Agarwal shared the similar tone by saying that “The decision should be based on their judgement of the prep institute and the kind of enthusiasm and individual attention that the prep centres can provide. Just the prep course won’t be a lot of help without personal effort and hard work.”
The other factors include those like the location, money, provision of test series, additional workshops etc. The student must be comfortable with these factors otherwise joining the test prep institute won’t be of much help. A student must choose an institute that can be reached easily. No matter if the institute has a good brand name, if it drains out the students’ energy it will be hardly of any use. The institute must provide ample test series for the students for practice. Additional workshops help to brush up some specific areas of knowledge. They also provide some extra inputs to the aspirant knowledge bank.
MBAUniverse.com also conducted a nationwide research survey to help MBA aspirants in taking this decision. On the basis of the survey by MBAUniverse.com, T.I.M.E and PT Education have jointly held the first position. Career Launcher is in the second position followed by IMS Learning. Each city also had their local favorites. You can learn more about it by clicking on the following link: http://www.mbauniverse.com/campusinner.php?id=1950
Next: Road to CAT 2009 (Part 2) –Preparation Basics: Mastering fundamentals & managing time
