MAH CET 2016: Topper & JBIMS student Ajit shares success mantra learn from mistakes & devise your own strategy

Updated on March 8, 2016

Ajit Singh who scored 99.98 percentile in MAH CET and got into JBIMS focused his preparation aiming for only one B-school and devised his own success strategy

Do as many mistakes as you want in your mocks but learn from them and find a strategy in which you are very much comfortable Ajit Singh MAH CET topper and JBIMS student

High scorer in MAH CET with 99.98 percentile, Ajit Singh, an electronics and telecommunications engineer from KC College of Engineering, Thane has worked with IBM India Pvt. Ltd. for 10 months before appearing in MAH CET for MBA/MMS admission and getting into JBIMS. Ajit has been following the Mantra ‘Aim big and strive hard to achieve it’ and kept his goal clear to pursue MBA after Engineering from one of the top ranked B-schools in India.

Despite all the academic achievements, Ajit is not a book-worm. Ajit Singh is a professional hockey player and has represented his school at the state level 6 times and has also represented Maharashtra at the National level in Hockey.

Ajit had his schooling from Bhonsala Military School, Nashik and during his engineering, his final year project was published in the IJERT journal. He got his Engineering degree with distinction in 2014 and scored 99.98 percentile in MBA MAH CET that enabled him to get into JBIMS.

A versatile personality Ajit has always got time for extracurricular activities. He has won various debate, elocution, acting and painting competitions at the school as well as at the state level. Ajit has also completed NCC certification during his school. An inspiration to JBIMS aspirants, Ajit had cleared the UPSC NDA exam in 2010 for becoming a pilot in the Indian Air Force.

Ajit loves playing cricket, tennis and hockey, travelling and adventure sports and makes it a point to devote time out of his busy study schedule to pursue his hobbies.

MBAUniverse.com:What was your preparation strategy? Please share some key do’s and don’ts
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): My strategy was very simple - just to try and cover as many topics as possible. This was one thing that helped me in maximizing the score.

From November I started my preparation. I initiated my study by referring few sample papers to get an idea about the key topics that are generally asked in the exams. I could manage only 2 hours daily as I was working also. In these 2 hours, I used to allocate sufficient time for learning new concepts, solving questions and then revising earlier days’ topics. From December end I started with taking mocks on weekends. The mocks are the key to any exams as they make you familiar to what you are going to face on the main day of exam. I just tried to keep scoring 150+ consistently in all my mocks. Also, analyzing mocks is what I invested much of my time. Whatever questions I got wrong I used to study the whole concept from basic.

Do’s:

-- Keep practicing as much as you can
-- practice visual reasoning as much as possible to become more comfortable with the variety of questions being asked; make use of free resources on the net to practice as much as possible
-- Take at least 20-30 mocks to get idea of wide variety of question types covered
-- Focus mainly on the basics before going in for the mocks
-- Analyse each mocks thoroughly and change your strategy accordingly

Don’ts:

-- Don’t assume MAH CET is an easy test, in fact it is a speed test and it is not easy to maintain concentration and the speed consistently for 2 and half hours and you don’t know the fact that what will be a safe score for you;
-- Don’t think that for MAH CET you can study in last 1-2 months;
-- Don’t keep on solving problems from a particular topic- like trains questions asked are of medium level, no need to solve very complex questions;
-- Don’t assume that visual reasoning is hard, a lot of weightage is given to it and without that you can’t get a very high score.

MBAUniverse.com: Please share your strategy in testing room to attempt the questions from different sections: Reasoning, Quantitative Ability & DI, Verbal Ability & Reading comprehension?
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): The only aim in my mind was to attempt as many questions as possible because there was no negative marking. I always targeted the LR section first as I find that as my strength. This followed by quants and DI. Verbal ability I generally keep it for the last hour. Initially I tried maintaining as high accuracy as possible. But during the paper I found that few verbal questions were easy so I targeted them and left few logic sets for the end. Till the end I was able to attempt almost all the questions. This aim of attempting almost all the questions was achieved so I was definitely confident of getting a very high score.

MBAUniverse.com: Which all exams did you write? Please share your preparation strategy for them and the scores that you were awarded
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): I appeared only for MH-CET as I couldn’t manage my time well between job and studies so didn’t apply for the rest, though I had thought of appearing in a few more. I started preparing well in advance as it was the only exam which I was targeting.

In the initial months I just kept on practicing the basic concepts. I started the original exam preparation from November. Taking mocks was a habit on which I was very strict. Normally every weekend I would just give mocks. I scored 99.98%le in MAH CET.

MBAUniverse.com: Since JBIMS became an autonomous B-school and conducted its own GD-PI, and did not participate in DTE-CAP, did you appear in CAP round of DTE Maharashtra also to get admission in other B-schools?
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): I just applied for JBIMS and was not interested in other B-school. JBIMS started with a new admission process from this year. There was no GD. We had case studies. The case study which I had was ‘People today are becoming more and more health conscious, come up with a business model that you would adopt to target these health conscious customers’.

MBAUniverse.com: Few questions that were asked to you during PI round?
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): My PI was based on questions from various fields. Few questions are: Tell us something which you have not mentioned in the form; Do you know Duckworth - Lewis method, if yes explain in detail.

An example on D/L method was given, how would that method be applicable here; Why JBIMS; Compare JBIMS with IIM-A; Tell us something about your work-ex; Which colleges have you applied; What you will do if we reject you; Tell us how in hockey you have to take many quick decisions; Few incidences in life where you have shown leadership skills; tell us something about yourself (this was the last question asked to me in my interview).

MBAUniverse.com: How do you feel after getting admission to your dream B-school? Why did you decide in favour of JBIMS only
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): I can say that I was very lucky to get into the only institute in which I had applied. Only JBIMS is what I wanted and they offered me admission also.
I was targeting only JBIMS so I gave only CET. For me the legacy of JBIMS is incomparable. It has the location advantage of being in Mumbai. It has a very small batch size of 120. The past record of the institute speaks for itself. It has excellent visiting faculty. Large amount of industry interaction is focused upon. It has a very good and large alumni base. It is among the top colleges for Finance specialization. Being a Mumbaikar, from childhood I have heard about this college from large number of people. All these reasons were more than sufficient for me to target only JBIMS.

MBAUniverse.com: What advice and tips you would like to share with the candidates preparing for CAT 2015?
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): My advice would be to just prepare hard. At this time of preparation we don’t understand what a prestigious B-school means. But once you get into it you can feel the change in you. The hard work that you are putting in daily is worth. Your life after this would be such which you will definitely cherish. If I can do this then anybody can achieve this. Keep practicing as much as you can. Take variety of mocks. Feel confident about your preparation and never ever get demotivated because of few low scores in mocks. Remember that you can do as many mistakes as you want in your mocks but learn from them and find a strategy in which you are very much comfortable.

MBAUniverse.com: Your message to future MBA aspirants.
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): My message would be just study hard and score as high as you can, as this will definitely give you immense confidence and an excellent opportunity to be a part of one among the top MBA colleges in the country. Also always dream big. There is no harm in dreaming but along with that put in all your energy to achieve what you want because the feeling that you get after achievement is incomparable.

The preparation phase is very tough but keep yourself motivated and never consider that you can’t achieve a very high score or you can’t top. Just keep identifying your strengths and work continuously upon your weak areas. Don’t enter the exam hall with any pre designed strategy. Spend starting 1-2 mins on the paper and make strategy on the spot.

MBAUniverse.com: Why did you want to do MBA?
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): I always had MBA as a part of my career plan. After my work exp. with IBM for 1 year I definitely understood its importance. MBA not only provides an excellent platform for your career, it also enriches you with a wide variety of skill sets which no other course does. After doing MBA you are responsible for a big role, for big decisions, for big strategies which even few years of work experience won’t give. As I was working on a banking project I got inclined to this sector. I want to pursue MBA in Finance and be an industry expert in the years to come. In the future I would definitely want to lead one of the fortune 500 companies. To achieve all this I wanted to MBA.

MBAUniverse.com: Would you like to share any special story experienced by you in your journey from being a JBIMS aspirant to a successful topper
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): When I was an aspirant I had subscribed on large number of websites for information regarding MBA. At that time I read a lot about toppers from various exams, their methods, their strategies, etc. I just had the feeling that one day I should also become a part of this elite group. This was always on the back of my mind. Honestly speaking, the feeling that I have today while answering all these questions is just incomparable. I can remember all those days of mine when I used to think to do this and today I am actually able to do so. This is really what had inspired me and the fact that you make your family, friends, teachers and everybody proud is also much satisfying. Also, I would like to say if I am able to achieve this then anybody can. Just believe in your hard work. Don’t get carried away by your success and always be grounded.

MBAUniverse.com: Thanks for sharing such a valuable guidance for MAH CET 2016 aspirants
Ajit Singh (MAH CET topper): Thank you