What MBA aspirants want from coaching institutes? MBAUniverse.com research gives answers

What do they expect from their MBA coaching institutes? Are they happy with the academic inputs? How can coaching institutes improve their delivery? These are some of the questions that MBAUniverse.com research raised and sought answers from its MBA Test-Prep Institutes Ranking 09 held in Jan-Feb 2009.

As part of the research, over 400 students from India's top B-Schools comprising IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Kolkata, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, XLRI Jamshedpur, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, Management Development Institute Gurgaon, Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management - IIT Mumbai, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, Department of Management Studies - IIT Delhi, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research Mumbai, International Management Institute New Delhi participated in India’s first MBA Test-Prep Institutes Ranking 09, and came forward with their viewpoints.

MBAUniverse.com Test-Prep Survey recommends some very significant suggestions for MBA coaching institutes to add more value in their organizational framework and operations. Some of the value addition tips are:

Competitive Environment: It is very crucial to create a competitive environment in institutes to keep students motivated all the times. The foremost thing to be focused in this direction is forming batches of reasonable strength to ensure that every student gets ample time to interact with faculty. There should be some special sessions at institutes to address students’ queries regarding critical aspects other than exams like Group Discussions/Personal Interview.

Relevant Mock Test: MBA students participated in the survey are of the view that more and more mock test should be conducted for the students to make them habitual of real situation. After mock tests, there should be a regular comparative analysis of the student’s performance to assess the improvement.

Basics of MBA: Survey also stresses on the idea that the MBA coaching institutes should not make their teaching methodology unnecessarily complex, rather they should teach students while abiding by the basics of MBA. Institutes are advised to give students insight into the various disciplines offered in an MBA program. One more very important point to be taken care of by the MBA coaching institutes is that there should be separate classes for students with experience and without experience as it has been felt quite often that students without experience need more interaction with faculty.

MBAUniverse.com Test-Prep Survey 09 also suggests MBA coaching institutes to focus on three very important aspects of the personality of students when dealing with them on individual basis. These three aspects are: 1) personality development, 2) communication skill and 3) time management skill.

Personality Development: While focusing on personality development, institutes must impart lessons to students on facing Group Discussion/Personal Interview (GD/PI) as it is necessary for candidates to know how to behave and react in certain situations. The personality development also includes other soft skills like positive attitude and using right gestures.

Communication Skill: The second very important aspect is developing communication skills of students. Students need to have clarity of thoughts in their minds to succeed in any field. Test preparation institutes must pay attention to develop presentation techniques in students. All these qualities ultimately help students get through rigorous selection procedures at the time of admission.

Time Management skill: The third and most crucial factor is teaching students about the time management skills. One of the methods suggested is conducting mock exams and GD/PI sessions to help students to be close to the real situation they will face later.

While putting it concisely, the survey results suggest test preparation institutes to devise their strategies and planning after assessing their position on five critical parameters, namely 1) Quality of students admitted 2) Quality of faculty imparting training to students 3) Academic inputs available in the institute, 4) Physical infrastructure and 5) current MBA results of students to ascertain actual success rate.

All the above-mentioned suggestions will work as a tool for value additions for the betterment of the Test-Prep Institutes. It will ultimately help MBA aspirants in getting quality coaching at world-class institutes.