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Are you appearing for more than one entrance examination this year?
Don't let the stressful study schedule affect your performance.
Find out how Ansy Varghese cracked the CAT, XAT, SNAP and NMAT with impressive scores. Read on
Ancy Varghese cracked the Xavier Aptitude Test 2014 and the Common Admission Test 2013 with impressive scores to get final admission offers from top b-schools.
She however chose the XLRI Jamshedpur over the IIM Kozhikode, 6 new IIMs, MDI Gurgaon and SIBM-Pune to pursue her MBA dreams.
In the following interview, Varghese who had 99.38 percentile in XAT 2014 describes the importance of knowing all about the exam first and later developing a strategy accordingly.
She also shares her techniques of improvising General Knowledge and how besides reading newspapers and books, one can excel in the General Awareness section of XAT.
What motivated you to pursue MBA? What do you aspire for?
The nitty-gritties of the corporate world, the management and the entire flow had caught my interest.
As I try to understand it more, the more I want to delve in.
The interest has come too far from its nascent stages to let go.
Having obtained reasonably adequate technical skills from my graduation period, I found myself with two choices -- one which was to join the company I was placed in and understand the intricacies of management through that job over the period of time and the second was the route to an MBA programme that meets my requirements in a concentrated, focussed and time bound fashion.
I decided to pursue an MBA programme where not only will I be exposed to different aspects and functions of business and management but I will also be having the opportunities to explore the practical aspect.
Apart from XAT 2014, which other MBA entrance exams did you take?
I appeared for the CAT, SNAP and NMAT, and scored 98.86, 99.92 percentile and 212 respectively.
Why did you select XLRI Jamshedpur?
I had got final admission offers from the IIM Kozhikode, 6 New IIMs, MDI-Gurgaon and the SIBM-Pune.
Selecting the best among all for my MBA programme was easy.
I zeroed down to XLRI because of its reputation, pedagogy and the small batch size.
What was your preparation strategy for XAT 2014?
My focus mainly was to improve my General Awareness and for that I began to prepare from the month of November.
This helped me with the GDs and the PIs at the latter stage.
Do you think coaching or mentoring is important to crack XAT or any other MBA entrance tests?
For an aspirant who is not aware of these exams, coaching classes do help in getting the person accustomed to the format and the other approaches required.
It is important to understand what the exam is about, the exam pattern and scoring areas so that you can develop a successful strategy and prepare for it accordingly.
How did you manage your XAT preparation schedule along with your graduation?
I enjoyed studying Quantitative Ability because I was a BTech student and was very much familiar with the pattern and questions.
General Awareness was an area which required much attention in my case.
So I made sure I was updated with the recent happenings around the globe through newspapers, blogs, and discussions with the peers.
What was your preparation strategy for various sections?
Being an engineer, I did not have to work much on Quant though I solved few questions from books. But Verbal Ability was a main concern again for which I used Barron's books religiously.
Consciously looking for words, associating them with what I had learnt or prepared and revisiting them again and again helped me tackle Verbal Ability.
I used to play games on Vocabulary.com which was both fun and educative.
How did you plan and work for the General Awareness section of the paper?
I used to follow the General Awareness threads available on various websites.
Apart from that, I used to read blogs and articles on the internet and had subscribed to Civil Services Chronicles to keep myself updated.
Reading yearbooks also helped me in the last month.
Besides just reading newspapers and books, following what's going around the world is the best source of information.
What were your strong and weak areas? What special efforts did you put in to improve your weak areas?
Verbal Ability was both my strength and weakness.
Practice and continuous exposure through reading helped me with VA.
Following information available on various websites like Vocabulary.com helped in understanding the application aspect of VA and made it a strong section of the XAT exam.
What is your advice for MBA aspirants who will take XAT 2015?
Along with preparing for the written examination, it is equally important to start preparing for the GD-PI component of the admission process.
This should ideally start around the month of November.
The least you can do is try and be aware of the happenings of the past one year along with the future projects in and around the world.
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