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 and IIM K, MBAUniverse.com present a chat with Atul Saeksaria, student of Shailesh J Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM), Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbais Post Graduate Programme, 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- My personal experience is that preparation is of utmost importance. It does not imply that aspirants cannot make it to their dream campuses without preparation but preparation helps in making the dream more realistic and realizable.
I have a work experience of two years, so a methodical preparation was the key which made me realize my dream ,otherwise managing a full time work and preparing for management examinations like JMET ,CAT ,XAT becomes a distinct possibility and this applies to everyone even to fresher , otherwise they might end up doing injustice to their academics. Preparation alsohelps as it keeps oneaware of the competition. After all these entrance examinations do not judge an individual absolutely but alwayson a relative scale. Taking mock tests, studying in group, preparing systematicallykeepsoneon toes regarding their performance and peer competition.

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- I started my preparation in March 07 for my JMET and CAT exams .I had bought IMS study material and in addition to it was solving quant ??? from Arun Sharma . I used to get up early and study beforeleaving for office and used to come back and study from 10 -12 at night .Thus the mantra was to be regular and consistent with the effort I put in my preparation .Though I had pressure in office I used to never carry work to home. Some of my friends had joined coaching classes like IMS and Time I used to continuously stay in touch with them, discuss and study together on weekends. Thus I made sure I was up to date and was never cut off with my environment .It is very important to stay in touch with the competition as one cannot afford to remain in seclusion. I had also joined the mock cat series of IMS that helped in brushing up my concepts and developing skills. I made sure I practiced as many mock papers as possible and made notes of important conceptual problems on errors in my mock tests.

I later used here notes to revise in the last month before entrance examination .I also improved upon my comprehension and reading speed by reading editorials of Times of India regularly and Hindu ( not regularly). After clearing written exams I joined Time education for my GD PI .

Q- Did you enroll into a coaching or test-prep institute? How did it help?
A-As I already mentioned I had joined Time for GD and PI. It was very helpful as it made me realize where I stood in middle of the competition and helped me evaluatemy strength and weaknesses.

Q- How should an aspirant choose the right test-prep institute? What should be the parameters for making this choice?
A-I believe that institute plays a very minor role in ones success .If you compare the material of different institutes you will find that each has its own strength and weakness. So the key to success is practicing as muchas possible from as many institutes as possible .Apart from that the institute should be joined keeping in mind the convenience form home and time spent, the institute just provides the right peer group and an environment to compete, depending on the seriousness of people who are in and the time spent in traveling, an institute should be chosen.

Q- How is life in a top B-school from a students point of view? What are the highs and lows?
A-In short it is all about time management .The more one develops an expertise over it ,the more is ones take away from this 2 years of life. A top B school for example SJMSOM offers infinite opportunities to learn in addition to an being in the commercial capital of India the avenues are multiplied several multifold so ones learning is only limited by how one manages his/her time and not by opportunities to learn.

Highs are lows are not particularly distinguishable and more often same, there are times when things are out of control, when the pressure is huge and there are multiple things to do and one is aware that time available is not sufficient to do justice to everything, this is the time when one has low and also high if he or she accepts it as a challenge.

Highs are alsothe kick which comes from getting responsibilities and exposure to totally new domains and industries, getting to see an industry which you had never been exposed. Some of the instances being when I was the P.O.C(point of contact ) for Mr JM Lyngdoh ( former chief election commissioner of India ) in our international B school fest Avenues ,and also when I was POC for Mr Dheeraj Gupta ( CEO of Jumbo King ,vada pav ) during Entrepreneurship week organized by our e cell.