When should one start preparing for CAT 2007?

In less than 3 hours from now, 2006 will come to a close. A new year brings with it new hopes and new aspirations. For those of you entering your final year of graduation, it's time you made the big decision - what after B.A /B.Com / B.Tech / BBA ?

Last year well over 4 lakh people wrote various MBA Entrance Tests in this country and they were fighting over less than 5000 quality B-School seats that India has to offer. Of course, doing an MBA abroad is a very good option and the competition there is relatively easier but either which ways you need to make a decision now - whether you want to join the MBA rat(read cat) race. More than 20,000 students have already begun their journey to Ahmedabad - the first batch for CAT 2007 started as early as June 2006 at IMS Learning Centres across the country. Going by past history, that number should more than double by the time the first month of the new year draws to a close.

If you have decided that you do want to go for the coveted MBA degree, then you need to answer the second question - when do you start? Is January too early? Is January already late? Should i first get over with my college exams in May/June? How will I combine the CAT preparation with college exams and the internships and summer training programmes? Each such question has to be answered and factored in to arrive at your final answer.

Take the following points into consideration:

#1 Pre-final year exam schedule

#2 Dedicated preparation time for the above

#3 Mid-term exams if any ( Delhi University students generally have this in Jan)

#4 Duration of your internship/summer training programme

#5 Semester exams in Nov/Dec 2007

and personal factors as well:

#6 Your current level of preparedness / level at day zero

( you can contact your nearest IMS Learning Centre and register for a Preliminary Test - this is based on CAT 2006 and it will give you a very good idea of where you stand vis-a-vis the Common Admission Test)

#7 Are you the kind who prepares for exams over a longer period of time/shorter but crunched study periods?

Some suggestive answers:

1. Start early if possible - January is perfect. But go slow - don't overdo things and space out your preparation programme.

2. Buy the correspondence pack, start preparing on your own for a while and then you may get a better idea of when you want to upgrade to the full classroom programme.

3. If you are not an Engineer/BBA and will not be doing a summer programme, then May or any time immediately after your 2nd year exam ends may also not be a bad time to start.

4. Ask your classmates who have already started.

All the best,

India's Best B-Schools - A Ranking (continued)

This post is in continuation to my earlier post where we had discussed the country's top ten b-schools. Let's now look at other good options for India's MBA aspirants. This list contains those management schools which may probably not fetch you the mind-boggling dollar salaries that the IIMs can. However, an MBA from these places will get you an assured placement at a reasonably great organisation of your choice and over a period of 3-5 years, if you can display your competitiveness at the workplace, you can reach at par with your contemporary IIM alumni or atleast very very close. From there it will be all upto you, as you compete with them for money, power and glory.

There are two distinct clusters in this second list:
1) b-schools offering the regular MBA degree / PG Diploma in Business Managment and
2) management schools offering specialised programmes. We will take up the second one first.

India's Best Specialised Management Programmes: ( not ranked )

1. Post Graduate Programme in Communications Management offered by the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA)

2. Post Graduate Programme in Agri Business Management offered by IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Lucknow

3. Master of Arts in Human Resource Management and Labour from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai

4. Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management at Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA)

5. MBA in International Business offered by Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi

6. P.G. Diploma in Computer Aided Management offered by IIM Calcuatta

7. Post Graduate Diploma in Forestry Management from Indian Institute of Foreign Management (IIFM), Bhopal

8. Masters programme in Social Work at TISS ( refer to 3 above)

9. XLRI's post graduate programme in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations.

10. Post Graduate Programme in Fashion Management offered by National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Delhi

Dark-horse:
2-yr Programme in the Business of Film & Television at Subhash Ghai's Whistling Woods International, Mumbai

( will update the post soon to discuss the general b-schools)

IMS Celebrates 30 Successful CATs

Click on the pictures to enlarge and see details. These pictures are from the ad we published in the Hindustan Times dated 6th December ( yesterday). This is easily the most expensive ad that we have ever done at IMS. A front-page jacket innovation, but a great deal. Also, the creatives took us more than 40-45 hours. We scrapped atleast 2 other ideas which we had at one stage thought were great. This one easily was the best. We knew it the moment it struck. Do check out the body copy.
So those of you preparing for the CAT 2007, don't miss on the fabulous offers at IMS Delhi/NCR as we Celebrate 30. All the very best.