With just a few days to go for MAH - CET, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) first year student and CET Topper Kachnad Banka shared with MBAUniverse.com how MBA Aspirants can excel in this exam.
Kachnar Bankar secured 200 marks last year in MAH - CET with a Percentile of 99.99. She got first rank in final CET. She is currently pursuing MBA at JBIMS, and is in the first year.
Q&A with Kachnar Banka:
Q: Tell us something about your background...
A: I am a chemical engineer from D.J.Sanghvi College of Engineering, with a year's work experience in a Dyes & Intermediates manufacturing firm.
Q: What is your goal in life and why do you want to pursue Management?
A: My goal in life is to establish a business of my own someday and inching towards this goal I thought it was the right time to get some management skills to complement the strong technical background.
Q: How did you prepare for CET?
A: According to me, CET is all about doing your basics right. It might sound all too simplistic but it is only when you start preparing that most of us realise that it is far too easier said than done. Most of us lack the basic skills required for the quant and verbal sections. With all the prior exams some amount of preparation is in place but what is required for CET is focusing on the specifics. For example, a person can do himself a lot of good if he has invested time in preparing the vocabulary that can earn him crucial points over his competitors and all of them in a matter of few seconds.
Similarly it is important to know your grammar basics which can earn you the key marks but can scar your performance if you neglect it. It is also simultaneously important to get out of CAT mode and quickly get into CET groove which requires command over the basic Maths formulae and quick problem solving techniques. And all of this has to be backed up by a lot of practice through mock exams in order to boost the number of attempts and the accuracy at the same time so as to maximize the score. These are precisely some of the action items that I kept in mind and implemented when preparing for CET.
Q: Please enumerate the difference between CET and other exams management exams
A: CET as an exam is unique in its own way. Unlike most other exams it has a vast pool of questions from diverse areas like quantitative ability, verbal reasoning, English grammar, data interpretation, visual reasoning and a host of different types of questions testing the logical reasoning ability. The main emphasis of the exam is to test the student for consistency across these diverse question sets and all of this under extreme time pressure. So while it is generally thought to be as one of the easier papers to crack, students very easily overlook the fact that it is not being able to answer the question that gets you the admission but the ability to beat your competitors in the race against time that wins you the seat. It is true that CET is more predictable than some of the other exams, but it is the very fine nuances in the level of difficulty each year that becomes the most vital element of surprise and deals a blow to the best of the strategies. This is at most times difficult to deal with as opposed to exams where unpredictability itself is predictable. This is what makes CET challenging.
Q: What is the difficulty level of CET as compared to CAT?
A: CET might not be the most difficult exam paper as CAT is always perceived to be. There are essential differences between the two but they both converge on one issue. Firstly, about the differences - CAT year after year has been placing increasing emphasis on the aptitude of the candidate as opposed to the emphasis laid on the speed as evident by the fewer number of questions being asked in the last 3 yrs or so.
While quant and DI sections have had the typical uncertainties associated with them, there has been a paradigm shift in the Verbal Ability section which is now modeled more on the lines of GMAT. It has been an uncomfortable shift for most and obviously in line with what CAT sets out to achieve. CET on the other hand is more predictable in nature but in no manner subdued in comparison to CAT. It tests a different set of skills and more importantly a diverse one at that like the Analytical Ability, Verbal Reasoning, Vocabulary, Visual Alertness, Logical Reasoning, etc and all of that under severe time pressure that students are subjected to with having to clock more than one question a minute. This is where it differs from CAT; so when CET has relatively less difficult questions it would only be a dream if this could it make it any less difficult an exam. What defines the difficulty is not the paper per se but the competition because at the end of the day, easy or difficult – it's the same for one and all. And when it comes to JBIMS, with applicants -to- seats ratio of more than 600:1 last yr, it is for everyone to see that it makes CET one of the toughest exams to crack.
Q: What were the salient features of your CET preparations during the last 30 days to CET?
A: As I have said before, I spend the last few weeks before the exam focusing on doing some of the basic things and on doing them right. Talking specifically, I had focused on some elementary stuff like school grammar. I spent time reading up stuff from the book authored by Wren and Martin, especially the Correct Usage section of the book. I had also devoted time to revise the word list which I had prepared as a part of my preparation for general MBA entrance exams. Quant demands you to have all the possible formulae right on the tip of your tongue as also doing lot of calculations mentally. Above all, what is the most important part of preparation is taking mock tests which I did all through the two months before CET on a weekly basis and then increasing the frequency to taking a test almost everyday during the last 2 weeks.
Q: What was your strategy for the CET exam day?
A: On the day of the exam the most important key is to be able to hold your nerves. I had a good sleep in the night prior to D-day which allowed me to focus and maintain highest concentration levels during the exam. There is no strategy on the day of the exam - all of the strategizing needs to be done on prior occasions during the mock tests. On the final day, focus is just on the implementation of the strategy that has worked best for you in the past. I took one question at a time, treating it on its merit (deciding whether to attempt it or how much time to allocate) and move on to the next question. All this has to be done in the fastest possible time. This was the consistent strategy I used for the entire paper. Things sometimes don't work as planned and that is when one needs to be calm and not panicky which could be disastrous in an exam like CET. All in all, target should not be to crack the exam but to realize your potential.
Q: CET also involves lot of Speed. Any special strategies for that aspect?
A: CET is certainly one exam that tests your speed. To understand the "Need for Speed", it is not just the ability to solve "X" number of questions but to do so with great amount of accuracy. The strategy that I adopted was simple - practice with the help of lots of mock tests. In each test the target should be to solve more questions and with greater accuracy than the previous paper of similar difficulty. To do so, analysis of each mock test is as important as the mock tests themselves because it allows you to identify areas where you lack and then focus on those particular areas to improve your speed. Your strengths will always be your strengths but you need to work on your weaknesses to improve your performance. So my advice would be to work on this aspect in an incremental manner by taking tests after tests. Also the strategy of scanning through the questions at the start of the paper and then choosing which ones to attempt never worked for me. After all there are 200 questions to choose from. I made it a point to go bang as soon as the bell rang. All the decisions about choices of questions to be attempted happened on the fly. But again a word of caution - choose a strategy that best suits you.
Q: Any change in preparation strategy in hindsight?
A: I do not think that my strategy should have been any different because it was one that was tried and tested many times over and one which had a lot of thought being put behind it.
Q: List the 5 most important preparation points with a few days remaining and some mistakes to avoid.
- Focus on the grammar basics and vocabulary. Though, it is not advisable to someone to do the word list if one has never done it before especially if the time left for exam is under 3 weeks. Doing it gives an edge over your competitors to some extent but there is a good possibility of getting away without having done the word-list. In short it is not a must-do. But grammar certainly is.
- Go through all the quant concepts and formulae and solve questions on each of the chapters.
- Practice visual reasoning questions as those are something that no other exam tests. For someone who gets a hang of them can score in this area. Same applies to other unique types of questions.
- Write as many mock tests as possible and work towards bettering your performance each time. Importance of mock tests cannot be overstated.
- Form a routine and stick to it religiously. Don't neglect any one type of question.
Mistakes to avoid:
- Do not target any particular number of questions to be attempted as many people always do. Level of difficulty of the questions changes each yr and what will be a good attempt/score can't be presumed. Focus on utilizing each minute in the best possible way and that will take care of the required number of attempts to crack the exam.
- Do not panic even if things go slightly wrong. There is always a good chance to make a come back as long as you maintain your cool.
Q: How is life at JBIMS?
A: Life at JBIMS is a hectic one which includes a rigorous curriculum, innumerable guest lectures and the best of visiting faculty teaching us. The focus is on practical learning by industrial exposure rather than sticking to text books. Apart from this there are a host of events round the year for an overall personality development.
Q: Among its contemporaries, where do you place JBIMS
A: JBIMS is right up there with the best of the B-Schools in India including the top IIMs, XLRI and FMS. Apart from the top 3 IIMs- A, B & C, not many B-Schools can boast of a legacy that JBIMS has enjoyed over past 4 decades. Its esteemed and distinguished alumni serve as ample evidence of its quality as one of the top B-Schools over the years. CEOs, MDs and leaders of a vast galore of organisations including HUL, McKinsey, ICICI bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Nicholas Piramal, Britannia and many more belong to this tall institution.
Q: How was your experience in the CET Group Discussion and Personal Interview (GD-PI)?
A: GD: There were about 12 people in a group. 2 topics were given out of which we had to choose 1 by consensus. It was roughly an 18 minute discussion. Thankfully it wasn't chaotic. I made points at regular intervals but wasn't able to introduce or conclude which could have earned me more marks.
My interview lasted for about 30 minutes. The questions were based on the form that we had to fill prior to the GDPI, my work details and general awareness.
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