3 Tips for CAT/ MBA / B-School Aspirants

This is a list of tips/advise/suggestions I have drawn up based on my own experience - both while I was a student preparing for the CAT as well as the years at IMS where my job brought me into direct interaction with hundreds of MBA aspirants. Some of these might not apply to you directly, and if that is so, ignore them - please don't try to find convoluted ways to connect them with yourself or your experiences.

1. "I am not IIM Material" - Thousands of students, every year, for one reason or the other manage to convince themselves and more unfortunately, many others that they are not "IIM material". For god's sake, please understand that there is no such thing as "IIM material". The worst thing which happens when you make this decision is not that you don't make it to one of the IIMs but that you will end up in a B-School not even remotely as good. Leo Burnett, the famous ad man once said that "When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get there, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either". So aim for the IIMs - even if you don't make it to India's best Business School, at least you will not end up in one of those fake b-shops.

2. "I am not good at Maths" - The CAT, MAT and most of the other Business School Admission Tests are designed to test your aptitude for a career in management, not your maths acumen. Yes, if you are good at Mathematics it will help. But the vice-versa is not necessarily true. A few of the questions in the CAT might require a high level of mathematical acumen, but then you need to get less than half the answers right to make it through, don't you? With sufficient preparation, you can crack enough of the questions in the Quantitative Aptitude (QA) section that can help you sail through. Remember that not every IITian who writes the CAT makes it to the IIM - they do better than others because these guys are good, diligent students - else they would not have been at the IIT. So please don't let the 'maths' thing discourage you.

3. "I shouldn't waste another year preparing for the CAT" - Didn't make it to a top B-School in CAT 2008, gave up, and joined a mediocre B-School because he/she didn't want to waste another year preparing for CAT 2009.

I don't have any empirical data handy to substantiate what I am about to say so I would recommend you cross-check this fact with a few veterans.

"Students rewriting the CAT have a higher chance of making it to an IIM than those writing the CAT for the first time." We are all human beings, and we make mistakes, more when we are trying to do something for the first time. We make fewer mistakes the next time because we have learnt our lessons. Even a maestro like Tendulkar took a few years to sort himself out before he reached the peak performance level. There are a few lessons that you will learn while writing the actual CAT that you will never learn no matter how many mock CATs you write.

And as for the idea of "wasting a year", it's the most stupid thought that should have ever occurred to you. Please understand that the kind of B-School you will graduate from will very likely decide the quality of the rest of your life. If by "wasting a year" you can greatly enhance how you are going to spend the next 40-60 years, then it's not wasting but "investing a year".

Create a secure campus

For a parent, nothing is more important than the security of his child. If you are running a school or any other educational institution, it is imperative that you put the best security system in place to ensure the safety of your students, and give parents the peace of mind with the feeling that his child is not just getting the quality education that he seeks for it,but is doing so in a safe environment.

ADT is America's no.1 security company and it has been the leader in education security solutions for over a hundred years now, and today, protects thousands of educational institutes - ranging from schools to whole universities. Schools, Universities and educational institutes face a unique security challenge and need to provide a safe environment to its students within the budgetary constraints. ADT understands the specific challenges and risks that educational institutes face in this regard, and therefore is in the best position to provide these solutions. For over 131 years, ADT has been the most respected name in the business of security. Using ADT's security products, you can be assured that the parents will be reassured that their wards are getting quality security and safety.

Learn A New Language

It's the age of global placements - you might be studying at IIM Ahmedabad but may end up taking up a job with a Spanish MNC. In such a scenario, if you can learn Spanish beforehand, itre can truly add vital value to your resume making it that much more attractive for potential recruiters.

Transparent Language is one of the world's leading providers of language learning softwares for individual learners as well as instiutions. More than 12,000 schools and colleges (USA) already use products from Transparent. And for good reason - while English has been and is still the world's dominant language of business, a good number of students are finding out that the knowledge of an additional language helps. Chinese, for example is fast gaining popularity because of the rise of China and its increasing clout over the world economy. If you want to do business with the Chinese, it makes a lot of sense then, to learn Chinese . You would stand a much better chance of effectively communicating with the business heads in Beijing, and which corporate house would not like to recruit an executive who can speak fluent Mandarin, or even understand it.

Check out the Transparent website and start with exploring their free resources - maybe you can get initiated by playing 'language games'. For instance, if your objective is to learn Italian, you can begin by checking out the 'Italian Games and Learning' section. Word Seek, for example, is a fun way to build up your Italian vocabulary.

There is lots more - if you are keen, head out to the Transparent site - spend a few minutes exploring the various offerings and features, and take it further from there.