Post made at Pagalguy about my GDPI's & my Profile

Hi everybody,

Finally the devil gets its dew.

Here's My profile and calls:

Acads:

Xth: 86.7 TN Matriculation
XIIth: 95.1 TN State Board
Grad: 8.17/10
College, Year: NIT Trichy, 2005
Discipline: Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Extra Currics:

Pretty decent: College Placement rep, Many quizzes, Dance, Drama etc

CAT Percentiles:

QA: 99.00
DI: 95.64
VA: 99.73

Overall: 99.81

Work Ex:

L&T Design -> 6 months
L&T Sales -> 16 months
Milagrow, A mgmt consulting start-up, directly reporting to CEO, amazing work -> 7 months

Total work ex: 29 months (My strongest point and my differentiating factor)

Calls: BLACKI + S

Attended: BLACKI

Converts: ABLIK (WL 31 at A which got converted)
Rejects: C

Joining: A

A:

Essay: Pretty shoddy work
PI: Very mediocre
Verdict: WL 31
Did I expect this? : No. I was expecting a reject
What would have attracted them: Probably my work profile

B:

GD+Essays: Good job done. SOP/Form was very good.
PI: I would say extremely good. Spoke very passionately and convincingly. They looked pretty impressed. I had clear thoughts on MBA's, Career paths etc
Verdict: Selected
Did I expect this: Yes

C:

GD: Good
PI: Pretty good and chill.
Verdict: Reject
Did I expect this?: No. I thought it will be a easy convert.
What would have bugged them: I asked about culture at C and asked the reason why its pretty chill etc. They became defensive. I felt it was a bad move from my side. But still feel an interview must not have been judged by that. Rest of my interview was chill. I could not figure out any other reason for reject.

L:

GD: Crappy topic. All spoke non sense
Essay: Again crappy topic and crappy essay
PI: Boring and uninteresting. Fully on economics. But did okayishly on a few topics.
Verdict: Selected
Did I expect this? : Not initially. I was initially expecting a reject. Then heard students with high percentiles usually convert L. Then became optimistic and thought will convert L.

I:

GD: Business case study. My strong area. Cracked it majorly.
PI: On my L&T technical work ex and Tamil Nadu history. Did decently here for sure.
Verdict: Selected
Did I expect this: Yes

K:

GD: Fishmarket. Told some 1-2 good points
PI: Clean sweep. I almost interviewed them for our start-up. Too chill. They treated me like a mature guy and gave due respect to my work exp etc.
Verdict: Selected
Did I expect this: 100%. I had no doubts. I told my friends that everyone may reject me, but not IIM K.

How things went for me:

My strength was the forms. I had clarity of thought on what I wanted to do and my work exp etc was very good. So, where ever I filled forms, and more importantly the panelists read it seriously, I had good chances. They formed a biased positive opinion about me before interview started and it made my job easy. It happened majorly at K, to some extent at B and I. A and C, surprisingly did not bother much about the form and that was disadvantageous for me. L form was pretty useless for me since no qns had to be answered.

My 3 strong points:

-work ex (job profile: start-up, mgmt consulting, reporting to CEO etc + L&T work ex)
-Can speak very well. No problem in conversing/communicating.
- Very good idea about all post MBA careers, MBA life, types of schools, how I want to achieve whatever I have set out for etc. So, typically they would not have heard any kiddish answers from me. (I had worked on preparing for an US MBA. That requires a person to have a good understanding of all this.)

Mail on CAT preparation

I received a mail from a close family friend as follows. Edited to protect privacy.

Dear Pradeep

X is doing his final year (2008 to 2009) in ECE, from PSG Kovai.

Kindly advise what he should do next and guide him to also to be successful.

Many thanks and kind regards,

Y

My reply. May be beneficial to few.

Dear Uncle,

It is the right time for him. He can do the following:

1. First is to get a feel whether he wants to do an MBA. There are many who are interested in MS from US/MTech from IISc. He would know better. MS must not be done just with the idea of entering into US. If he genuinely wants to work in the technical sector, he needs to do one. GATE is a good exam to join IISc in India for MTech. But he has to secure in the AIR top 10-200 (depending on the course) to secure a seat at IISc. Its not as tough as it seems. Dedicated efforts can get him there.

2. In case he feels MBA is something he wants to do, for e.g. he gets interested reading Economic Times or news related to business etc, then he can look at an MBA. He need not close GRE/GATE as options. But its better to decide earlier whether he wants to pursue a technical career or pursue a career in business related fields.

3. There is again the question of whether he actually is interested in higher studies. But then, I wont attack it here. He is in final year and will have an idea about these.

4. I am now assuming he is interested in an Indian MBA from one of the top 10 institutes and proceeding further.

5. The CAT'08 exam would be held in Nov 2nd week sunday. This has been the norm.

6. IIMs, SPJAIN, NITIE, FMS, XLRI, MDI Gurgaon, IIFT, IIT Bombay are some of the good colleges (in no particular order.)

7. He first has to get some books from some of his class mates/college mates at PSG. There will always be a bunch of people preparing for CAT seriously in the final year and who would have joined come classes

8. He has to join a Mock CAT series from one of the leading instis. 3 of the famous coaching centres conducting these are TIME, IMS, Career Launcher. I would advice to join TIME test series. If possible, better to join 2 test series if the time does not overlap.

9. Its important to understand where he stands in these tests based on his natural intelligence. There is no need that everyone from PSG/NITT/Anna will do well in these tests. But the chances are definitely higher since the students supposedly belong to better colleges.

10. He must average out in 4-5 tests and understand where he stands. That is judged thru percentiles. Percentile means what percentage of students did you beat. If one secures 99 %ile, then he belongs to the top 1%age of the test takers.

General guidelines (consistent performance is assumed) -

a. 98%ile and above in TIME test series with 95%ile + in each section (there are usually 3 sections) : Good score and student is already ready to get into IIMs. He has to just work harder and work on his strategy to perfect it

b. 95-98%ile or 98%ile+ but problems with 1 section -> Potential definitely there to get into IIMs. Hardwork is necessary and if he works hard can start touching 98+ scores. Identification of weak areas is crucial.

c. 90-95%ile -> Okayish scores. Definitely needs to work very hard for IIMs. More hardwork and dedication needed to crack it. Must improve on weak areas.

d. Less than 90%iles -> Less scores. Not easy. Though many have done it through hardwork. A lot of hardwork and genuine introspection needed whether he is capable of scoring a 98+. Else, need to apply to many other colleges if MBA is needed. IIMs are tough, but definitely nothing is impossible.

11. When starting to prepare, its normal for people to be in class 'd' as above and move on slowly to class 'a' with preparation and hardwork. Class 'a' means chances of conversion are very high. But luck plays a crucial role too. Its a 150 min test and every mark counts.

12. Not to get de motivated by low scores initially. It happens to everyone.

13. Read newspapers daily and keep track of whats happening around. Better to be smart and well read. Not to crack CAT, generally its high time one develops those qualities before entering corporate world. It will keep him in good stead.

14. For getting calls from all 6 IIMs, I think a score of 99.5%ile overall and a 96%ile+ in each section would be appropriate. Though people with lesser scores also get calls from fewer IIMs. Very few get calls for less than 98.5%ile. Sectional cut-offs are "extremely important". No point in scoring 99.90%ile overall with a less than 90%ile in one section. Probably no IIM will call him.

15. He would know what the 3 sections are etc from his class mates.

Once he gets IIM calls, we can discuss about Group Discussion/Personal Interviews etc. Good reading habits will help him there.

I hope it was helpful. Everyone will give many advices and "paths to get into IIMs" and all. Over a period of time, I guess he will become intelligent enough to develop his own methodology for this test.

Finally, many have a bad day in these tests. His intelligence need not be judged by this test. Its not a perfect test to measure that. There is too much of randomness involved in it.

All the best for him. He can contact me when any help is needed. Its important to give CAT'08 to understand where he stands.