SNAP 2010 Analysis: (Pre Analysis)
The SNAP test conducted by the Symbiosis International University (SIU) is going to be conducted on Sunday, the 19th of December. A few tips on the test and an analysis of the previous editions of the test below.
The Overall Picture:
The SNAP Test as mentioned on the official website is reported to be consisting of 180 marks. How these marks will be distributed this time will be interesting. While the 2007 and 2009 versions of the test had 150 questions, SNAP 2008 managed to spring a surprise by including two-markers across all the sections thereby reducing the number of questions to 135.
The paper is traditionally easy and the overall cut-off used to hover around the 45% mark (81 out of 180) in the pre-2009 era. This could be attributed to a fewer number of serious aspirants taking the test and the presence of a General Awareness Section for which very few strong aspirants ‘prepare’. Last year saw a rise in the overall cut-off to an unlikely 107/180 which surpassed all the institutes’ predictions. This was probably due to an easier paper and also due to the CAT fiasco to a certain extent as students might have been interested in securing a few calls. What happens this year will be interesting to see.
Quantitative and Data Interpretation & Sufficiency Section:
This section is nowhere near the typically feared quantitative section of the various entrance tests. Full of sitters, the key here is to attempt as many questions as possible in around 25-30 minutes and then move over to the other sections. A good hold on the basics is the only thing required to crack this section. If one is comfortable with the basic formulae and concepts, one can easily sail through the quantitative part of the section.
The topics commonly focused on are:
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Ratio, proportion and variation
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Averages, mixtures and alligations
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Time, speed, distance
- Time and work
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Basic questions on probability and permutations and combinations
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Basic geometry
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Percentages
The Data Interpretation part, last year consisted of simple table and pie-chart based caselets which involved a few calculations. There was also a simple set on Venn diagrams. This part was also very do-able with a bit of application.
There were also a few puzzles/visual reasoning questions which made an appearance in this section. Again, easy-moderate difficulty level.
There wasn’t even a single data sufficiency question which made an appearance in SNAP 2009. But in the preceding years, there have been a couple of questions from this area.
Also, last year saw a couple of questions with incorrect options. Marks were awarded for these questions irrespective of the response and if one does encounter such errors in the paper, it would be advisable not to waste much time over such questions and move over to the next question.
General English Section:
This section consists of Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension. However, the weightage given to the Reading Comprehension part has gradually reduced over the past few years. In 2007 what contributed to 4 passages and 19 questions came down to 3 passages with 12 questions in 2008 and last year’s edition had a solitary RC passage with 3 accompanying questions. This year might see a rise in the number of questions dedicated to the RC part. But then, even when it had a significant weightage, the passages were easy to read and the questions, barring a few which focused on the central idea and interpretation, were quite straightforward.
The Verbal Ability part, again focuses on the basic rules of English usage and basic vocabulary. A good reader would be in a good position to answer all the questions from this area. Last year, there were a few questions which required one to know the spellings of commonly used words. The fill-in-the-blanks questions require a basic knowledge of conjunctions, pronouns and verbs. There were a couple of questions which required one to spot the missing punctuations in a sentence. Also, there were a couple of questions each on synonyms, idioms and phrases, antonyms and match-the-following. A significant part was devoted to the sentence correction questions which were again, easy-moderate in nature. A few questions required knowledge about the basic figures of speech and were again easy for a prepared candidate.
But in the years before that, the verbal ability section used to have a fair share of moderate-difficult questions which could be cracked only by a few candidates. Also, there were a couple of parajumbles which appeared in both 2007 and 2008 versions of the test.
General Awareness Section:
Supposedly a nightmarish section, this section used to be the make or break section for many when sectional cut-offs were considered. But with the sectional cut-offs scrapped this time, as will be described later, one need not worry about this section anymore. But still, picking a few sitters and doing them correctly will surely fetch a few bonus marks thus boosting the overall score. This section has always had a good mix of both static general knowledge questions and current affairs and a well read candidate can hope to score 10+ marks in this section in almost no time.
Few of the areas which have been focused on in the past few years are:
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Abbreviations and names of the various branches of science
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Brands
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Government Projects
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Sobriquets
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Sports events winners/record holders
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World Organizations
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Prizes
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World’s largest/smallest/tallest/shortest
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Popular inventors
Analytical & Logical Reasoning:
This section, which traditionally has had two-mark questions contributes to nearly half of the total score. The section does not vary much with respect to the difficulty levels as compared to the other sections but, the rewards definitely do. So, the most commonly used strategy is allocating a disproportionately high amount of time to this section and scoring heavily. Maybe due this reason, last year saw the sectional cut-off rising to a staggering 65% (39 out of 60).
The section had a few critical reasoning questions, a few questions on syllogisms, a few on alpha-numeric reasoning, a couple of visual reasoning questions, four DI sets and the rest being simple reasoning based questions. One of the sets was calculation intensive but the other questions were quite doable. One has to keep an eye on which blanks are missing in the syllogism questions. The options might be confusing and under pressure, one can go for the incorrect option. Also, for the critical reasoning questions, if the inference/conclusion of a paragraph is asked, it cannot be a sentence directly quoted from the paragraph.
Sectional Cut-offs:
The University has reportedly communicated to the associated institutes not to have any sectional cut-offs for their courses. Previously, SIBM-Pune used to have sectional cut-offs. But, this time they have made it clear that there won’t be any sectional cut-offs in the ‘Coffee with SIBM’ event, on their forum and as is evident from this query which is answered on the Directors’ Forum.
OMR marking:
Although a very negligible aspect of the test, it is very important to remember that the OMR sheet has to be marked with a ball-point pen and once marked, one cannot change the response, so one has to be a bit careful while marking the answers.
Also, in case one marks a wrong answer and becomes aware of it during the test, it is advised to mark another random option so that the response to the question is not considered and one doesn’t end up losing any marks.
Source: Pagalguy.com
Our Analysis Zone: Analysis Zone-TotalCAT
FMS 2010-What To Do
The FMS entrance test has gradually been evolving in the last few years. In 2008, sections were introduced for the first time (before that it was a single section paper), the sectional cut-offs were set at 50 percentile each and the scores were declared. For the FMS entrance test of 2009-10, the number of questions increased to 200. What next? We’ll know only on Sunday.
Based on the previous years, here is a brief preview of each section and the topics they focus on.
Quantitative Aptitude
This section had had mostly easy questions interspersed between a few very difficult ones. Spotting the easier questions in this section and then switching sections to do the sitters in other sections would be a good strategy. As there are more number of questions in the FMS test than in the CAT, one can always find at least some questions from topics they are more comfortable with. Sometimes FMS features higher math questions, so basic conceptual knowledge should be enough to get through such questions.
Some hot topics from past FMS papers are,
1. Percentages, profit and loss
2. Geometry
3. Coordinate geometry and graphs, linear equations
4. Time, speed and distance questions
5. Basic calculus and basic statistics
6. Algebra
7. Permutations and combinations
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning
The saviour for most FMS test takers, one can always find a few approachable questions in this section. Many use this section to boost their overall score. In FMS 2009-10, the focus wasn’t that much on the data interpretation part (only a set of 6 questions appeared) as it was on puzzle-type questions involving blood relations, alpha-numeric logic and reasoning caselets. A couple of questions required one to arrange jumbled letters and get the synonym or antonym of the formed word. All in all. this is the easier of all sections in FMS. One might want to spend more time with this section provided one feels comfortable with the question types. The DI caselet last year was relatively too time consuming and could have been left in the first round of attempting questions.
Reading Comprehension
One of the highlights of last year’s entrance season was the five-page long reading comprehension passage followed by 24 questions that appeared in the FMS test. The section had four passages and there was a good mix of factual and inferential questions. Those in the habit of reading a passage before attempting the questions would have been stumped by the sheer length of the passages. Thankfully, the questions were in the order in which their answers appeared in the passage. So, those who were comfortable reading the questions first and then searching for the answers in the passage would have found life easier. There were no surprise questions. Many questions were based on choosing the correct or incorrect statements from the passage. There were a few inferential questions which asked for a suitable title for the passage and the stance that the author had taken in the passage.
But, if we observe FMS 2000-09 RC section, the passages weren’t easy at all to read and comprehend and tougher than 2009-10. The relatively difficult questions made matters worse and so one had to find the relatively simpler questions and solve them accurately. Also, the fact that there were more number of questions in the RC section, that the level of the section was easy-to-moderate, plus some of the passages being directly lifted from previous year FMS papers resulted in increased sectional cut-off of this section.
Verbal Ability
This section is arguably paid the most attention when preparing for the FMS test. Indeed, it is the most unpredictable section in the entire paper. The general perception of people is to study vocabulary, mug up all the words and phrases humanly possible and finish off the section in 10-15 minutes. But although vocabulary is important, it isn’t and shouldn’t be the sole focus of preparing for this section. The composition of last year’s Verbal ability section was,
Synonyms – 10 questions
Antonyms -10 questions
Verbal General Knowledge (origins of words, forms of art, gender based, etc.) – 8 questions
Words/proverbs/metaphors related questions/syllogisms – 10 questions
“Fill in the blanks” – 2 questions
Sentence correction – 10 questions
Now, learning words will help if the words appearing in the paper were also present in your wordlists, which you cannot guarantee. The section is known to ask questions on some very novel and uncommon words. The verbal general knowledge questions are as unpredictable as they can get.
The point I’m making is, that one can focus on the non-vocabulary elements of this section and still get a good score. Often, some of the vocabulary-based questions can be solved easily even without any significant preparation (say, by eliminating options) and if one is not comfortable in this section, one can concentrate on the other sections to maximize their scores.
Does the hare always win and the tortoise always lose?
They say that speed is the key in FMS-type tests. But is that all? I disagree to an extent. Usually hailed as a speed-based test, there is more to the FMS test than just racing with the questions. Along with maintaining competitive speed, one should also be constantly vigilant to spot the ‘weak links’ in the paper and use them to their advantage. For example, last year had an easier Reading Comprehension section compared to the years before. So, all those who had originally planned to apportion less time for it and just clear the cut-off, would have gained by changing their strategy to spend more time on it and earn extra marks.
Yes, speed freaks do have an advantage at the FMS Entrance Test, but one can also clear the cut-off by focusing on the accuracy. Last year’s overall cut-off was 331 for MBA and 343 for MBA-MS which totals to around 85 absolutely correct answers which is manageable given the easy-to-moderate nature of the paper.
Also, remember that you do not have to clear the last year’s cut-offs. The cut-offs are something which should not be thought of beforehand. No one knows what it is going to be like. So, if one puts his/her head down and attempts the paper to the best of one’s ability, one will definitely do well.
Courtesy: Pagalguy.com
IIM-A students to start helpline on corruption
At a time when the country is being rocked by a number of scams, some students of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad have decided to launch a helpline on corruption to curb the menace.
A group of six IIM-A students proposed the idea of starting the helpline to former President A P J Abdul Kalam and IIM-A professor Anil Gupta, which was appreciated by them.
"When the students mooted the idea of starting a corruption helpline, I thought that the idea was excellent in present context when the situation in the country is such that common people think that their work cannot be done without giving bribes," Gupta said.
The country was recently rocked by 2G spectrum scam, Commonwealth Games scam and Adarsh society scam which have brought the issue of corruption in focus.
"At present, most people do not know where to complain against the corrupt officials and some of them even fear that if they complain their work will never be done. It is a very complex issue," Gupta said.
"Groups of six students have started the ground work to start of the helpline. They have conducted a small survey on corruption. They have also visited various state agencies like Anti-Corruption Bureau, Regional Transport Office and other state government agencies like police," he added.
"The helpline will assist those who just need counselling regarding their rights at various levels," Gupta said.
"A plan is also there to forward the complaints of corruption received by the helpline to the agencies concerned. However, for this we require the support of all the law-enforcing agencies. Talks are on with them and we will see how it works out," Gupta said.
"We also have to look into complaints coming to us, scrutinise them and sort out to detect whether they are real or fabricated ones, so that upright government officers are not harassed due to this initiative," he added.
Ravi Yadav, who is a part of the project, said, "In our proposed model, the complaints received shall be pre-screened by retired officials, before being fed into our online complaint database."
"We are looking at integrating our corruption helpline with an agency like ACB so that database generated through this model helps create pressure on departments regarding which complaints are being reported," Yadav said.
Apart from Yadav, five other students who have taken up the project are Udit Goyal, Saurabh Singh, Nikhil Bhaskar, Shantanu Sekhar and Daniel De Luna, a student from Italy.
Professor Gupta said, "I think this will be a first step in the right direction. It will build pressure on corrupt officials and also inspire people to come forward against the menace."
Source: Business Standard
Wharton/NMIMS grad and world’s first visually-impaired trader Ashish Goyal to receive President’s award
Years ago as an NMIMS Mumbai student, a corporate house told Ashish Goyal (during placements) to find himself a job in the government sector, since it has a quota system for the physically challenged. Having turned blind in his teens, Ashish did not take the advice lightly. He not only got himself placed at ING Vysya but also stood second in his batch at NMIMS. Later, Ashish went on to do an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Today, the Bombay boy has a plum job at JP Morgan’s London operations.
Over the years, Ashish has not only earned milestones in his professional space but also done plenty in his personal life — from learning to play Brazilian drums and learning the Argentine tango to boxing and performing on stage, besides many other things. He is currently in India to receive the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, 2010 from the President of India.
What does this award mean to you in real terms. Do awards make a difference at all?
This award means a lot to me, it’s special to be recognised and I am really humbled. Frankly it has not sunk in, meeting the President, meeting other award winners. I am really excited. The difference that this will make, well, the most important thing is that encouragement works wonders for everyone I would think.
We get lost in this race called life so much, that a special moment like this makes you take a step back, acknowledge the recognition and thank God for all that has happened. It’s reinvigorating to keep doing the best you can. Also, if this award helps spread awareness and helps change people’s attitudes towards people with disabilities… that will be the best outcome.
Describe what you do for a living and whether it has enriched your existence and vice-versa.
I work for JP Morgan’s Chief Investment Office and we help manage the bank’s exposure in various markets across different geographies. It’s a very significant and satisfying role at a bank like JP Morgan, which has a huge balance sheet and large exposures. Proper balance sheet management can make a tremendous impact to all stakeholders from depositors, clients to shareholders and employees.
Vice-versa, well all I can say is that I am happy that I have been able to live up to expectations and hope to keep doing the same going forward. Also being a student of macro-economics and geopolitics, my job keeps me sharp and interested in this ever changing dynamic world.
Do you think Indian b-schools are responsive to people with mental or physical challenges? There is this physically challenged boy fighting a long legal battle with the IIMs after being denied admission.
My answer will be a little dated, as I have not lived in India for 5 years now and I applied to Indian business schools back in 2000. The main difference in my two experiences (in India and in the US) is this: abroad, there is a clear process and system to deal with students and applicants with disabilities, of course helped by regulations. Internationally, as with Wharton, it was pretty easy when it came to following the process and providing a level playing ground. Where as in India, the process was not streamlined and a lot of adhoc decision making would need to happen on the basis of perceptions even though regulations existed.
This was not just the case in b-schools, I would say that was true of most institutes. What Wharton did, was it gave me a level playing field to compete and learn on merit… and that’s all we require I guess… the rest is up to ability.
Is there anything that you are doing or would like to do in the sphere of helping those visually challenged?
I have fleetingly been in touch with this organization called Enable India. It’s a great model, training disabled individuals to become independent and acquire the right skill sets for a job, then working with companies to get them to hire these people, and finally making sure that the first few months the transition goes smoothly.
I am also involved with 2 other issues, education through Pratham which reaches out to the poor and educating kids for free, and the Akshay Patra Foundation, which is Asia’s largest mid-day meal program.
Is there a better sense of concern for those ‘challenged’ abroad than in India? Here, even getting a ramp made in a housing society is a big hassle.
Yes, as mentioned, there is a difference in terms of infrastructure and facilities, but hopefully that is changing, as the government and a lot of non-profit organisations are working towards that change. But most importantly I feel individuals like you and I need to be more receptive and accepting.
One important thing that needs to be mentioned is that people with disabilities are individuals who have gone through various circumstances and are very different to each other. It’s not fair to club all of them as the same… and even less fair to club all kinds of disabilities as the same. I have no idea what I would do or how people in a wheelchair cope or what about people with not-so-obvious disabilities or challenges like learning or mental disabilities.
What kind of vocations would you advise physically challenged persons take up given the job market scenario? The Indian government has gone only as far as giving out PCO booths.
In India and abroad, I have met disabled individuals like me doing all kinds of jobs. I believe it comes down to ambition and practicality combined. When I was going through recruiting from NMIMS, I was shocked when one of the companies told me that I should begin my career in a government organization as they have quotas and that they would not interview me. I could have given up hope then and there, but I really don’t see a lot of issues for disabled people doing various things. There are lawyers, media professionals, bankers, IT professionals, teachers, you name it…
Have you thought of designing products, furniture or gadgets for those with disabilities and challenges?
I have offered to be a tester for a couple of products and whenever I have any idea, I speak to my friends who work in a similar field. There are people and companies across the world working on this.
Have you learnt cooking? That’s what you said you wanted to learn, the last time around.
Yes, but do I cook? No, I hate the entire cleaning process that follows.
Where do you see yourself five years down the line?
I want to definitely do something for the country (India). Don’t yet know in what shape or form. The way my life has evolved, I think 5 years is a long time, but hopefully I will have discovered my calling by then.
Is there something you’d like to say to those who think their lives are always on the downturn?
I don’t feel any issue is too small or too big. I think one can make it small or big. If there is an issue, finding a solution and working through it is the best approach because only we can affect that change instantly or attempt it. If we feel there is no hope and don’t see a solution it will be difficult for others to help. It’s most important not to run away from those issues, but work with them and take them head on.
What do you do when you get depressed?
Eat chocolates. Nope, kidding. I guess I call up my closest friends and talk about it… go change my mood… ponder… and sleep… its depressing being depressed, so I try and limit it 
.
You are one lucky guy to have your family with you? Not all physically-challenged people are as fortunate.
I can’t even imagine my life without my Guruji and my family. I feel very fortunate to have such an amazing support system, blessings and some great friends. I don’t know if I can advise anyone here, but I would say for others, when you see someone like this, please lend them your hand. Being nice to people doesn’t cost anything and your simple act could change someone else’s world. I can’t even enumerate the number of times living alone in a foreign land, absolute strangers, who I will probably never meet again, have helped me or made life easier for me.
What do you do in your free time?
I love meeting people. People are fascinating to me, amazing people all across the world. I also like writing and watching theatre, trying out different cuisines and traveling. I have been lucky to have travelled in four different continents, especially in the last four years… soaking in cultures and stories from different parts of the world. I enjoy learning different things and enjoy a lot of different things. Over the past 3-4 years have learnt Bateria (Brazilian drums) and performed on stage and in a club, learnt Argentine tango, am learning boxing, have taken a few writing workshop. I feel learning different things is very fulfilling… I also love sports, can watch sports and play sports forever… last year I represented London’s Metro Club in the domestic blind cricket league, and guess what, we won… and yes… last but not the least… am always up for a challenge on the Nintendo Wii – tennis is one game I can play without seeing.
Who is your ideal date?
Too personal a question (don’t wanna spill the beans actually… haha…). Well I enjoy the company of intelligent and interesting women in general.
Would you have achieved so much had fate not been cruel to you when you were in your teens and when you lost your vision to retinitis pigmentosa after being born with proper vision?
My guruji Dr Balaji Tambe has been my guiding force and I would have crumbled without him. I have pondered at length about this question and about the saying – everything happens for the best. If I had regular sight, I could easily see myself being a very average spoiled kid, doing nothing with my life and living an inconsequential existence. Well, that would be taking the worst case scenario for sure, but this disability made me focus and work hard for everything, and most importantly it made me believe in myself and gave me an attitude to keep trying , giving my best, and enjoying every experience.
Do you think your MBA degree has got you where you are today? Or do you believe you had it in you to circumvent every obstacle?
The people I met in my MBA years, the opportunities I got have been overwhelming. I would relive my MBA experience anytime. An MBA can make a major difference in your life if you know what you want out of it. There are so many things you could choose from and so many ways in which you can shape yourself… and improve your career and social life. It’s easy also to not do anything sometimes, but believe me that would be such a waste of opportunity.
Source: Pagalguy.com
FMS Delhi summer placements 2010-12: 41% in sales, marketing, FMCG and 33% in Finance
The Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi completed the Summer Internship Placements for its class of 2010-12 for both the MBA (Fulltime) and MBA (Management of Services) courses. Nearly three-fourths of the students of this batch will intern in either Sales and Marketing or Finance roles next April.
Of the total 91 companies that made offers, Citibank made the largest bulk. The other companies that recruited in large scale were Accenture Business Consulting, Tata Administrative Services, Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Mahindra & Mahindra.
The combined strength of the MBA (FT) and MBA (MS) batches was 236, of which one student returned to her previous company for the internship. That left 235 students, who landed internships across the 5-day-long process.
This is the last MBA (MS) batch at FMS, as starting 2011 the b-school will merge both courses into one single fulltime MBA offering.
Batch strength 236 Did not participate in summers / Opted out 1 Effective strength that appeared for summers 235 Number of companies that made offers 91 Total number of offers 235 Avg offers per student* 1
*According to FMS Media secretary Shankar Rao, the system followed at FMS requires students to exit the summer placements process once they receive an offer and hence cannot have multiple offers.
The average stipend offered for the two-month internship period was Rs 42,500 per month. The highest domestic stipend offered was Rs 125,000, offered by an investment bank for its Mumbai office posting.
41% of the offers were made in sales and marketing roles, half of which were in FMCG companies. 33% students will intern in Finance roles, one-third of whom will be in Investment Banking, Venture Capital or Private Equity companies.
Companies from the Consulting sector
Arthur D. Little offered international roles to two students while Accenture Business Consulting made 6 offers for their India locations. The other consulting companies that recruited FMS interns were Deloitte Strategy & Operations, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Functions, Avalon Consulting, Korn Ferry International and Wipro consulting.
Finance
Avendus Capital, Jacob Ballas PE, IDFC Private Equity, Helion Ventures, IDG Ventures, Deutsche GMC, Religare Global Asset Management, JP Morgan, Motilal Oswal Investment Banking, Nomura, SBI Capital, Langham Capital, Synergy Consulting, Singhi Advisors, Hinduja Global Solutions, Langham Capital and HDFC Investment Banking division.
Citibank, Standard Chartered, Bank of America (treasury roles), HSBC, American Express, Tata Capital, Axis Bank, Juniper Capital, Industrial Finance Corporation of India, Religare, ICRA, Fullerton Securities, Gensol, GrowX Ventures. National Commodities & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) offered its Commodities exchange profile, while Gensol offered its carbon trading role and American Express offered both its Risk Management as well as Sales & Marketing profile.
FMCG, Sales and Marketing
Hindustan Unilever and Procter & Gamble led the way with 5 offers each, while ITC made the highest number of sales and marketing offers at any campus this year. Other companies: Colgate Palmolive, HCCB, Marico, Kraft-Cadbury, Coca Cola India, Nestle, Colgate Palmolive, GSK Consumer Healthcare, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, Reckitt Benckiser, Johnson & Johnson, Wrigley, Pepsi, Britannia, Dabur, Godrej, Marico, Kimberly Clark, Heinz, SABMiller, Perfetti Van Melle, CavinKare.
In addition to the FMCG’s, a number of other companies offered their sales and marketing roles, such as Microsoft with 6 offers, Yum Foods, Vodafone, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Philips, Hewlett Packard, GSK Pharma, Amazon, DaimlerChrysler, Aviva, Madura, The Nielsen Company, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Titan, Jindal Steel, Eli Lilly, Genzyme, Lifestyle, Indus Towers, NIIT, Starcom MediaVest, HT Media, Adobe, Genzyme and Cinepolis.
General Management
Tata Administrative Services (5 offers), Mahindra & Mahindra (6 offers), Bharti Group, Religare, Arcelor Mittal, HCL, DCM Shriram Group, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Vedanta, Cummins Group and Muruguppa Group. The Tata Group was the biggest consolidated recruiter on campus, with participation from a number of group companies such as Tata Capital, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Titan and TCS, in addition to Tata Administrative Services, while Aditya Birla Group recruited through its group companies. A number of PSUs also recruited from FMS.
IT
GE (IMLP), Hewlett Packard Consulting, Wipro Consulting, Lenovo, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Infosystems, Patni Computers, Birlasoft, Dassault Systems, InfoEdge, Spanco Tele and Aricent. Lenovo emerged as the biggest recruiter amongst these with 6 offers.
Source:Pagalguy.com
CAT 2012 may be a computer adaptive test held throughout the year
The Common Admissions Test (CAT) 2010 completed its 20-day run on November 24, 2010, paving the way for the results which shall be declared on January 12, 2011.
A total of 204,267 candidates had registered for the computer-based test which was held across 78 centers in 33 cities using 246 testing labs and 9,000+ computers. No technical snags or glitches were reported during the testing window that began on October 27 and ended November 24.
“All the testing sites were taken over by us on October 10, two weeks in advance of the test. This time we took care to include only those venues which met our stringent demands and specifications in terms of infrastructure quality and network capacity,” said CAT 2010 Convenor and IIM Lucknow Professor Himanshu Rai at a press conference organized by CAT’s testing agency Prometric in New Delhi.
Almost immediately, Prof Rai also announced that in the coming years candidates will be able to take the CAT any time of the year.
“We have to get to a stage where the CAT is available to candidates throughout the year. That is indeed the way forward. For this we will have to move away from the linear fixed form method of testing we are using now to linear on-the-fly testing based on item response theory,” he said.
The biggest implication of this change is that the CAT would turn into an adaptive test, just like the Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT). Each candidate will get a dynamically generated CAT question paper based on his or her real-time performance during the test. The second-biggest implication is that the results of the test will be available immediately after the candidate ends the exam, unlike the two-month wait for CAT results in the existing system.
“We need to gather a critical number of psychometrically tested questions before we go perennial,” he added.
“While this full change to the adaptive system may happen only by CAT 2012, CAT 2011 could be held as a partial linear on-the-fly test. Such a test would be something in between a fixed-paper test and a fully adaptive test. For the candidates, it will mean quicker results,” Prof Rai explained while adding the disclaimer that the final decision about the testing system of CAT 2011 lay in the hands of next year’s CAT Committee.
IIM Lucknow Director and member of the CAT 2010 Committee Prof Devi Singh hinted at the formation of an independent body under the tutelage of the IIMs that will look after the CAT fulltime.”We want to hand over the CAT to an independent organization which will be part of the IIM system, either as a separate company or a society. We dont want to burden the faculty with this responsibility (of looking after the CAT) throughout the year,” he said. The company thus formed will coordinate with Prometric to get the CAT executed. IIM Bangalore Director Prof Pankaj Chandra had already initiated the process to set up such a body, Prof Singh added.
Now that the computer-based CAT has had a successful run, the IIMs also plan to take the bold step of holding the exam in countries outside India and positioning the CAT as an alternative to the GMAT in countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, South East Asia and Middle East.
“CAT has to be taken across frontiers, we have to go offshore. Formal meetings with Sri Lankan b-schools have already started on this front. Apart from increasing the reach of the CAT, going abroad will also expose us to the best global practices,” Prof Rai said.
Apart from announcing these changes, The CAT Convenor also said that the CAT 2011 vouchers will be sold on the web through online payment systems next year. “The 90-minute waiting time before the beginning of the test will also be reduced considerably,” he added.
SNAP 2010 Analysis: (Pre Analysis)
The SNAP test conducted by the Symbiosis International University (SIU) is going to be conducted on Sunday, the 19th of December. A few tips on the test and an analysis of the previous editions of the test below.
The Overall Picture:
The SNAP Test as mentioned on the official website is reported to be consisting of 180 marks. How these marks will be distributed this time will be interesting. While the 2007 and 2009 versions of the test had 150 questions, SNAP 2008 managed to spring a surprise by including two-markers across all the sections thereby reducing the number of questions to 135.
The paper is traditionally easy and the overall cut-off used to hover around the 45% mark (81 out of 180) in the pre-2009 era. This could be attributed to a fewer number of serious aspirants taking the test and the presence of a General Awareness Section for which very few strong aspirants ‘prepare’. Last year saw a rise in the overall cut-off to an unlikely 107/180 which surpassed all the institutes’ predictions. This was probably due to an easier paper and also due to the CAT fiasco to a certain extent as students might have been interested in securing a few calls. What happens this year will be interesting to see.
Quantitative and Data Interpretation & Sufficiency Section:
This section is nowhere near the typically feared quantitative section of the various entrance tests. Full of sitters, the key here is to attempt as many questions as possible in around 25-30 minutes and then move over to the other sections. A good hold on the basics is the only thing required to crack this section. If one is comfortable with the basic formulae and concepts, one can easily sail through the quantitative part of the section.
The topics commonly focused on are:
-
Ratio, proportion and variation
-
Averages, mixtures and alligations
-
Time, speed, distance
- Time and work
-
Basic questions on probability and permutations and combinations
-
Basic geometry
-
Percentages
The Data Interpretation part, last year consisted of simple table and pie-chart based caselets which involved a few calculations. There was also a simple set on Venn diagrams. This part was also very do-able with a bit of application.
There were also a few puzzles/visual reasoning questions which made an appearance in this section. Again, easy-moderate difficulty level.
There wasn’t even a single data sufficiency question which made an appearance in SNAP 2009. But in the preceding years, there have been a couple of questions from this area.
Also, last year saw a couple of questions with incorrect options. Marks were awarded for these questions irrespective of the response and if one does encounter such errors in the paper, it would be advisable not to waste much time over such questions and move over to the next question.
General English Section:
This section consists of Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension. However, the weightage given to the Reading Comprehension part has gradually reduced over the past few years. In 2007 what contributed to 4 passages and 19 questions came down to 3 passages with 12 questions in 2008 and last year’s edition had a solitary RC passage with 3 accompanying questions. This year might see a rise in the number of questions dedicated to the RC part. But then, even when it had a significant weightage, the passages were easy to read and the questions, barring a few which focused on the central idea and interpretation, were quite straightforward.
The Verbal Ability part, again focuses on the basic rules of English usage and basic vocabulary. A good reader would be in a good position to answer all the questions from this area. Last year, there were a few questions which required one to know the spellings of commonly used words. The fill-in-the-blanks questions require a basic knowledge of conjunctions, pronouns and verbs. There were a couple of questions which required one to spot the missing punctuations in a sentence. Also, there were a couple of questions each on synonyms, idioms and phrases, antonyms and match-the-following. A significant part was devoted to the sentence correction questions which were again, easy-moderate in nature. A few questions required knowledge about the basic figures of speech and were again easy for a prepared candidate.
But in the years before that, the verbal ability section used to have a fair share of moderate-difficult questions which could be cracked only by a few candidates. Also, there were a couple of parajumbles which appeared in both 2007 and 2008 versions of the test.
General Awareness Section:
Supposedly a nightmarish section, this section used to be the make or break section for many when sectional cut-offs were considered. But with the sectional cut-offs scrapped this time, as will be described later, one need not worry about this section anymore. But still, picking a few sitters and doing them correctly will surely fetch a few bonus marks thus boosting the overall score. This section has always had a good mix of both static general knowledge questions and current affairs and a well read candidate can hope to score 10+ marks in this section in almost no time.
Few of the areas which have been focused on in the past few years are:
-
Abbreviations and names of the various branches of science
-
Brands
-
Government Projects
-
Sobriquets
-
Sports events winners/record holders
-
World Organizations
-
Prizes
-
World’s largest/smallest/tallest/shortest
-
Popular inventors
Analytical & Logical Reasoning:
This section, which traditionally has had two-mark questions contributes to nearly half of the total score. The section does not vary much with respect to the difficulty levels as compared to the other sections but, the rewards definitely do. So, the most commonly used strategy is allocating a disproportionately high amount of time to this section and scoring heavily. Maybe due this reason, last year saw the sectional cut-off rising to a staggering 65% (39 out of 60).
The section had a few critical reasoning questions, a few questions on syllogisms, a few on alpha-numeric reasoning, a couple of visual reasoning questions, four DI sets and the rest being simple reasoning based questions. One of the sets was calculation intensive but the other questions were quite doable. One has to keep an eye on which blanks are missing in the syllogism questions. The options might be confusing and under pressure, one can go for the incorrect option. Also, for the critical reasoning questions, if the inference/conclusion of a paragraph is asked, it cannot be a sentence directly quoted from the paragraph.
Sectional Cut-offs:
The University has reportedly communicated to the associated institutes not to have any sectional cut-offs for their courses. Previously, SIBM-Pune used to have sectional cut-offs. But, this time they have made it clear that there won’t be any sectional cut-offs in the ‘Coffee with SIBM’ event, on their forum and as is evident from this query which is answered on the Directors’ Forum.
OMR marking:
Although a very negligible aspect of the test, it is very important to remember that the OMR sheet has to be marked with a ball-point pen and once marked, one cannot change the response, so one has to be a bit careful while marking the answers.
Also, in case one marks a wrong answer and becomes aware of it during the test, it is advised to mark another random option so that the response to the question is not considered and one doesn’t end up losing any marks.
Source: Pagalguy.com
Our Analysis Zone: Analysis Zone-TotalCAT
FMS 2010-What To Do
The FMS entrance test has gradually been evolving in the last few years. In 2008, sections were introduced for the first time (before that it was a single section paper), the sectional cut-offs were set at 50 percentile each and the scores were declared. For the FMS entrance test of 2009-10, the number of questions increased to 200. What next? We’ll know only on Sunday.
Based on the previous years, here is a brief preview of each section and the topics they focus on.
Quantitative Aptitude
This section had had mostly easy questions interspersed between a few very difficult ones. Spotting the easier questions in this section and then switching sections to do the sitters in other sections would be a good strategy. As there are more number of questions in the FMS test than in the CAT, one can always find at least some questions from topics they are more comfortable with. Sometimes FMS features higher math questions, so basic conceptual knowledge should be enough to get through such questions.
Some hot topics from past FMS papers are,
1. Percentages, profit and loss
2. Geometry
3. Coordinate geometry and graphs, linear equations
4. Time, speed and distance questions
5. Basic calculus and basic statistics
6. Algebra
7. Permutations and combinations
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning
The saviour for most FMS test takers, one can always find a few approachable questions in this section. Many use this section to boost their overall score. In FMS 2009-10, the focus wasn’t that much on the data interpretation part (only a set of 6 questions appeared) as it was on puzzle-type questions involving blood relations, alpha-numeric logic and reasoning caselets. A couple of questions required one to arrange jumbled letters and get the synonym or antonym of the formed word. All in all. this is the easier of all sections in FMS. One might want to spend more time with this section provided one feels comfortable with the question types. The DI caselet last year was relatively too time consuming and could have been left in the first round of attempting questions.
Reading Comprehension
One of the highlights of last year’s entrance season was the five-page long reading comprehension passage followed by 24 questions that appeared in the FMS test. The section had four passages and there was a good mix of factual and inferential questions. Those in the habit of reading a passage before attempting the questions would have been stumped by the sheer length of the passages. Thankfully, the questions were in the order in which their answers appeared in the passage. So, those who were comfortable reading the questions first and then searching for the answers in the passage would have found life easier. There were no surprise questions. Many questions were based on choosing the correct or incorrect statements from the passage. There were a few inferential questions which asked for a suitable title for the passage and the stance that the author had taken in the passage.
But, if we observe FMS 2000-09 RC section, the passages weren’t easy at all to read and comprehend and tougher than 2009-10. The relatively difficult questions made matters worse and so one had to find the relatively simpler questions and solve them accurately. Also, the fact that there were more number of questions in the RC section, that the level of the section was easy-to-moderate, plus some of the passages being directly lifted from previous year FMS papers resulted in increased sectional cut-off of this section.
Verbal Ability
This section is arguably paid the most attention when preparing for the FMS test. Indeed, it is the most unpredictable section in the entire paper. The general perception of people is to study vocabulary, mug up all the words and phrases humanly possible and finish off the section in 10-15 minutes. But although vocabulary is important, it isn’t and shouldn’t be the sole focus of preparing for this section. The composition of last year’s Verbal ability section was,
Synonyms – 10 questions
Antonyms -10 questions
Verbal General Knowledge (origins of words, forms of art, gender based, etc.) – 8 questions
Words/proverbs/metaphors related questions/syllogisms – 10 questions
“Fill in the blanks” – 2 questions
Sentence correction – 10 questions
Now, learning words will help if the words appearing in the paper were also present in your wordlists, which you cannot guarantee. The section is known to ask questions on some very novel and uncommon words. The verbal general knowledge questions are as unpredictable as they can get.
The point I’m making is, that one can focus on the non-vocabulary elements of this section and still get a good score. Often, some of the vocabulary-based questions can be solved easily even without any significant preparation (say, by eliminating options) and if one is not comfortable in this section, one can concentrate on the other sections to maximize their scores.
Does the hare always win and the tortoise always lose?
They say that speed is the key in FMS-type tests. But is that all? I disagree to an extent. Usually hailed as a speed-based test, there is more to the FMS test than just racing with the questions. Along with maintaining competitive speed, one should also be constantly vigilant to spot the ‘weak links’ in the paper and use them to their advantage. For example, last year had an easier Reading Comprehension section compared to the years before. So, all those who had originally planned to apportion less time for it and just clear the cut-off, would have gained by changing their strategy to spend more time on it and earn extra marks.
Yes, speed freaks do have an advantage at the FMS Entrance Test, but one can also clear the cut-off by focusing on the accuracy. Last year’s overall cut-off was 331 for MBA and 343 for MBA-MS which totals to around 85 absolutely correct answers which is manageable given the easy-to-moderate nature of the paper.
Also, remember that you do not have to clear the last year’s cut-offs. The cut-offs are something which should not be thought of beforehand. No one knows what it is going to be like. So, if one puts his/her head down and attempts the paper to the best of one’s ability, one will definitely do well.
Courtesy: Pagalguy.com
IIM-A students to start helpline on corruption
At a time when the country is being rocked by a number of scams, some students of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad have decided to launch a helpline on corruption to curb the menace.
A group of six IIM-A students proposed the idea of starting the helpline to former President A P J Abdul Kalam and IIM-A professor Anil Gupta, which was appreciated by them.
"When the students mooted the idea of starting a corruption helpline, I thought that the idea was excellent in present context when the situation in the country is such that common people think that their work cannot be done without giving bribes," Gupta said.
The country was recently rocked by 2G spectrum scam, Commonwealth Games scam and Adarsh society scam which have brought the issue of corruption in focus.
"At present, most people do not know where to complain against the corrupt officials and some of them even fear that if they complain their work will never be done. It is a very complex issue," Gupta said.
"Groups of six students have started the ground work to start of the helpline. They have conducted a small survey on corruption. They have also visited various state agencies like Anti-Corruption Bureau, Regional Transport Office and other state government agencies like police," he added.
"The helpline will assist those who just need counselling regarding their rights at various levels," Gupta said.
"A plan is also there to forward the complaints of corruption received by the helpline to the agencies concerned. However, for this we require the support of all the law-enforcing agencies. Talks are on with them and we will see how it works out," Gupta said.
"We also have to look into complaints coming to us, scrutinise them and sort out to detect whether they are real or fabricated ones, so that upright government officers are not harassed due to this initiative," he added.
Ravi Yadav, who is a part of the project, said, "In our proposed model, the complaints received shall be pre-screened by retired officials, before being fed into our online complaint database."
"We are looking at integrating our corruption helpline with an agency like ACB so that database generated through this model helps create pressure on departments regarding which complaints are being reported," Yadav said.
Apart from Yadav, five other students who have taken up the project are Udit Goyal, Saurabh Singh, Nikhil Bhaskar, Shantanu Sekhar and Daniel De Luna, a student from Italy.
Professor Gupta said, "I think this will be a first step in the right direction. It will build pressure on corrupt officials and also inspire people to come forward against the menace."
Source: Business Standard
Wharton/NMIMS grad and world’s first visually-impaired trader Ashish Goyal to receive President’s award
Years ago as an NMIMS Mumbai student, a corporate house told Ashish Goyal (during placements) to find himself a job in the government sector, since it has a quota system for the physically challenged. Having turned blind in his teens, Ashish did not take the advice lightly. He not only got himself placed at ING Vysya but also stood second in his batch at NMIMS. Later, Ashish went on to do an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Today, the Bombay boy has a plum job at JP Morgan’s London operations.
Over the years, Ashish has not only earned milestones in his professional space but also done plenty in his personal life — from learning to play Brazilian drums and learning the Argentine tango to boxing and performing on stage, besides many other things. He is currently in India to receive the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, 2010 from the President of India.
What does this award mean to you in real terms. Do awards make a difference at all?
This award means a lot to me, it’s special to be recognised and I am really humbled. Frankly it has not sunk in, meeting the President, meeting other award winners. I am really excited. The difference that this will make, well, the most important thing is that encouragement works wonders for everyone I would think.
We get lost in this race called life so much, that a special moment like this makes you take a step back, acknowledge the recognition and thank God for all that has happened. It’s reinvigorating to keep doing the best you can. Also, if this award helps spread awareness and helps change people’s attitudes towards people with disabilities… that will be the best outcome.
Describe what you do for a living and whether it has enriched your existence and vice-versa.
I work for JP Morgan’s Chief Investment Office and we help manage the bank’s exposure in various markets across different geographies. It’s a very significant and satisfying role at a bank like JP Morgan, which has a huge balance sheet and large exposures. Proper balance sheet management can make a tremendous impact to all stakeholders from depositors, clients to shareholders and employees.
Vice-versa, well all I can say is that I am happy that I have been able to live up to expectations and hope to keep doing the same going forward. Also being a student of macro-economics and geopolitics, my job keeps me sharp and interested in this ever changing dynamic world.
Do you think Indian b-schools are responsive to people with mental or physical challenges? There is this physically challenged boy fighting a long legal battle with the IIMs after being denied admission.
My answer will be a little dated, as I have not lived in India for 5 years now and I applied to Indian business schools back in 2000. The main difference in my two experiences (in India and in the US) is this: abroad, there is a clear process and system to deal with students and applicants with disabilities, of course helped by regulations. Internationally, as with Wharton, it was pretty easy when it came to following the process and providing a level playing ground. Where as in India, the process was not streamlined and a lot of adhoc decision making would need to happen on the basis of perceptions even though regulations existed.
This was not just the case in b-schools, I would say that was true of most institutes. What Wharton did, was it gave me a level playing field to compete and learn on merit… and that’s all we require I guess… the rest is up to ability.
Is there anything that you are doing or would like to do in the sphere of helping those visually challenged?
I have fleetingly been in touch with this organization called Enable India. It’s a great model, training disabled individuals to become independent and acquire the right skill sets for a job, then working with companies to get them to hire these people, and finally making sure that the first few months the transition goes smoothly.
I am also involved with 2 other issues, education through Pratham which reaches out to the poor and educating kids for free, and the Akshay Patra Foundation, which is Asia’s largest mid-day meal program.
Is there a better sense of concern for those ‘challenged’ abroad than in India? Here, even getting a ramp made in a housing society is a big hassle.
Yes, as mentioned, there is a difference in terms of infrastructure and facilities, but hopefully that is changing, as the government and a lot of non-profit organisations are working towards that change. But most importantly I feel individuals like you and I need to be more receptive and accepting.
One important thing that needs to be mentioned is that people with disabilities are individuals who have gone through various circumstances and are very different to each other. It’s not fair to club all of them as the same… and even less fair to club all kinds of disabilities as the same. I have no idea what I would do or how people in a wheelchair cope or what about people with not-so-obvious disabilities or challenges like learning or mental disabilities.
What kind of vocations would you advise physically challenged persons take up given the job market scenario? The Indian government has gone only as far as giving out PCO booths.
In India and abroad, I have met disabled individuals like me doing all kinds of jobs. I believe it comes down to ambition and practicality combined. When I was going through recruiting from NMIMS, I was shocked when one of the companies told me that I should begin my career in a government organization as they have quotas and that they would not interview me. I could have given up hope then and there, but I really don’t see a lot of issues for disabled people doing various things. There are lawyers, media professionals, bankers, IT professionals, teachers, you name it…
Have you thought of designing products, furniture or gadgets for those with disabilities and challenges?
I have offered to be a tester for a couple of products and whenever I have any idea, I speak to my friends who work in a similar field. There are people and companies across the world working on this.
Have you learnt cooking? That’s what you said you wanted to learn, the last time around.
Yes, but do I cook? No, I hate the entire cleaning process that follows.
Where do you see yourself five years down the line?
I want to definitely do something for the country (India). Don’t yet know in what shape or form. The way my life has evolved, I think 5 years is a long time, but hopefully I will have discovered my calling by then.
Is there something you’d like to say to those who think their lives are always on the downturn?
I don’t feel any issue is too small or too big. I think one can make it small or big. If there is an issue, finding a solution and working through it is the best approach because only we can affect that change instantly or attempt it. If we feel there is no hope and don’t see a solution it will be difficult for others to help. It’s most important not to run away from those issues, but work with them and take them head on.
What do you do when you get depressed?
Eat chocolates. Nope, kidding. I guess I call up my closest friends and talk about it… go change my mood… ponder… and sleep… its depressing being depressed, so I try and limit it .
You are one lucky guy to have your family with you? Not all physically-challenged people are as fortunate.
I can’t even imagine my life without my Guruji and my family. I feel very fortunate to have such an amazing support system, blessings and some great friends. I don’t know if I can advise anyone here, but I would say for others, when you see someone like this, please lend them your hand. Being nice to people doesn’t cost anything and your simple act could change someone else’s world. I can’t even enumerate the number of times living alone in a foreign land, absolute strangers, who I will probably never meet again, have helped me or made life easier for me.
What do you do in your free time?
I love meeting people. People are fascinating to me, amazing people all across the world. I also like writing and watching theatre, trying out different cuisines and traveling. I have been lucky to have travelled in four different continents, especially in the last four years… soaking in cultures and stories from different parts of the world. I enjoy learning different things and enjoy a lot of different things. Over the past 3-4 years have learnt Bateria (Brazilian drums) and performed on stage and in a club, learnt Argentine tango, am learning boxing, have taken a few writing workshop. I feel learning different things is very fulfilling… I also love sports, can watch sports and play sports forever… last year I represented London’s Metro Club in the domestic blind cricket league, and guess what, we won… and yes… last but not the least… am always up for a challenge on the Nintendo Wii – tennis is one game I can play without seeing.
Who is your ideal date?
Too personal a question (don’t wanna spill the beans actually… haha…). Well I enjoy the company of intelligent and interesting women in general.
Would you have achieved so much had fate not been cruel to you when you were in your teens and when you lost your vision to retinitis pigmentosa after being born with proper vision?
My guruji Dr Balaji Tambe has been my guiding force and I would have crumbled without him. I have pondered at length about this question and about the saying – everything happens for the best. If I had regular sight, I could easily see myself being a very average spoiled kid, doing nothing with my life and living an inconsequential existence. Well, that would be taking the worst case scenario for sure, but this disability made me focus and work hard for everything, and most importantly it made me believe in myself and gave me an attitude to keep trying , giving my best, and enjoying every experience.
Do you think your MBA degree has got you where you are today? Or do you believe you had it in you to circumvent every obstacle?
The people I met in my MBA years, the opportunities I got have been overwhelming. I would relive my MBA experience anytime. An MBA can make a major difference in your life if you know what you want out of it. There are so many things you could choose from and so many ways in which you can shape yourself… and improve your career and social life. It’s easy also to not do anything sometimes, but believe me that would be such a waste of opportunity.
Source: Pagalguy.com
SNAP 2010 Analysis: (Pre Analysis)
The SNAP test conducted by the Symbiosis International University (SIU) is going to be conducted on Sunday, the 19th of December. A few tips on the test and an analysis of the previous editions of the test below.
The Overall Picture:
The SNAP Test as mentioned on the official website is reported to be consisting of 180 marks. How these marks will be distributed this time will be interesting. While the 2007 and 2009 versions of the test had 150 questions, SNAP 2008 managed to spring a surprise by including two-markers across all the sections thereby reducing the number of questions to 135.
The paper is traditionally easy and the overall cut-off used to hover around the 45% mark (81 out of 180) in the pre-2009 era. This could be attributed to a fewer number of serious aspirants taking the test and the presence of a General Awareness Section for which very few strong aspirants ‘prepare’. Last year saw a rise in the overall cut-off to an unlikely 107/180 which surpassed all the institutes’ predictions. This was probably due to an easier paper and also due to the CAT fiasco to a certain extent as students might have been interested in securing a few calls. What happens this year will be interesting to see.
Quantitative and Data Interpretation & Sufficiency Section:
This section is nowhere near the typically feared quantitative section of the various entrance tests. Full of sitters, the key here is to attempt as many questions as possible in around 25-30 minutes and then move over to the other sections. A good hold on the basics is the only thing required to crack this section. If one is comfortable with the basic formulae and concepts, one can easily sail through the quantitative part of the section.
The topics commonly focused on are:
-
Ratio, proportion and variation
-
Averages, mixtures and alligations
-
Time, speed, distance
- Time and work
-
Basic questions on probability and permutations and combinations
-
Basic geometry
-
Percentages
The Data Interpretation part, last year consisted of simple table and pie-chart based caselets which involved a few calculations. There was also a simple set on Venn diagrams. This part was also very do-able with a bit of application.
There were also a few puzzles/visual reasoning questions which made an appearance in this section. Again, easy-moderate difficulty level.
There wasn’t even a single data sufficiency question which made an appearance in SNAP 2009. But in the preceding years, there have been a couple of questions from this area.
Also, last year saw a couple of questions with incorrect options. Marks were awarded for these questions irrespective of the response and if one does encounter such errors in the paper, it would be advisable not to waste much time over such questions and move over to the next question.
General English Section:
This section consists of Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension. However, the weightage given to the Reading Comprehension part has gradually reduced over the past few years. In 2007 what contributed to 4 passages and 19 questions came down to 3 passages with 12 questions in 2008 and last year’s edition had a solitary RC passage with 3 accompanying questions. This year might see a rise in the number of questions dedicated to the RC part. But then, even when it had a significant weightage, the passages were easy to read and the questions, barring a few which focused on the central idea and interpretation, were quite straightforward.
The Verbal Ability part, again focuses on the basic rules of English usage and basic vocabulary. A good reader would be in a good position to answer all the questions from this area. Last year, there were a few questions which required one to know the spellings of commonly used words. The fill-in-the-blanks questions require a basic knowledge of conjunctions, pronouns and verbs. There were a couple of questions which required one to spot the missing punctuations in a sentence. Also, there were a couple of questions each on synonyms, idioms and phrases, antonyms and match-the-following. A significant part was devoted to the sentence correction questions which were again, easy-moderate in nature. A few questions required knowledge about the basic figures of speech and were again easy for a prepared candidate.
But in the years before that, the verbal ability section used to have a fair share of moderate-difficult questions which could be cracked only by a few candidates. Also, there were a couple of parajumbles which appeared in both 2007 and 2008 versions of the test.
General Awareness Section:
Supposedly a nightmarish section, this section used to be the make or break section for many when sectional cut-offs were considered. But with the sectional cut-offs scrapped this time, as will be described later, one need not worry about this section anymore. But still, picking a few sitters and doing them correctly will surely fetch a few bonus marks thus boosting the overall score. This section has always had a good mix of both static general knowledge questions and current affairs and a well read candidate can hope to score 10+ marks in this section in almost no time.
Few of the areas which have been focused on in the past few years are:
-
Abbreviations and names of the various branches of science
-
Brands
-
Government Projects
-
Sobriquets
-
Sports events winners/record holders
-
World Organizations
-
Prizes
-
World’s largest/smallest/tallest/shortest
-
Popular inventors
Analytical & Logical Reasoning:
This section, which traditionally has had two-mark questions contributes to nearly half of the total score. The section does not vary much with respect to the difficulty levels as compared to the other sections but, the rewards definitely do. So, the most commonly used strategy is allocating a disproportionately high amount of time to this section and scoring heavily. Maybe due this reason, last year saw the sectional cut-off rising to a staggering 65% (39 out of 60).
The section had a few critical reasoning questions, a few questions on syllogisms, a few on alpha-numeric reasoning, a couple of visual reasoning questions, four DI sets and the rest being simple reasoning based questions. One of the sets was calculation intensive but the other questions were quite doable. One has to keep an eye on which blanks are missing in the syllogism questions. The options might be confusing and under pressure, one can go for the incorrect option. Also, for the critical reasoning questions, if the inference/conclusion of a paragraph is asked, it cannot be a sentence directly quoted from the paragraph.
Sectional Cut-offs:
The University has reportedly communicated to the associated institutes not to have any sectional cut-offs for their courses. Previously, SIBM-Pune used to have sectional cut-offs. But, this time they have made it clear that there won’t be any sectional cut-offs in the ‘Coffee with SIBM’ event, on their forum and as is evident from this query which is answered on the Directors’ Forum.
OMR marking:
Although a very negligible aspect of the test, it is very important to remember that the OMR sheet has to be marked with a ball-point pen and once marked, one cannot change the response, so one has to be a bit careful while marking the answers.
Also, in case one marks a wrong answer and becomes aware of it during the test, it is advised to mark another random option so that the response to the question is not considered and one doesn’t end up losing any marks.
Source: Pagalguy.com
Our Analysis Zone: Analysis Zone-TotalCAT
SNAP 2010 Analysis: (Pre Analysis)
Ratio, proportion and variation
Averages, mixtures and alligations
Time, speed, distance
Basic questions on probability and permutations and combinations
Basic geometry
Percentages
Abbreviations and names of the various branches of science
Brands
Government Projects
Sobriquets
Sports events winners/record holders
World Organizations
Prizes
World’s largest/smallest/tallest/shortest
Popular inventors
Our Analysis Zone: Analysis Zone-TotalCAT
FMS 2010-What To Do
IIM-A students to start helpline on corruption
At a time when the country is being rocked by a number of scams, some students of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad have decided to launch a helpline on corruption to curb the menace.
A group of six IIM-A students proposed the idea of starting the helpline to former President A P J Abdul Kalam and IIM-A professor Anil Gupta, which was appreciated by them.
"When the students mooted the idea of starting a corruption helpline, I thought that the idea was excellent in present context when the situation in the country is such that common people think that their work cannot be done without giving bribes," Gupta said.
The country was recently rocked by 2G spectrum scam, Commonwealth Games scam and Adarsh society scam which have brought the issue of corruption in focus.
"At present, most people do not know where to complain against the corrupt officials and some of them even fear that if they complain their work will never be done. It is a very complex issue," Gupta said.
"Groups of six students have started the ground work to start of the helpline. They have conducted a small survey on corruption. They have also visited various state agencies like Anti-Corruption Bureau, Regional Transport Office and other state government agencies like police," he added.
"The helpline will assist those who just need counselling regarding their rights at various levels," Gupta said.
"A plan is also there to forward the complaints of corruption received by the helpline to the agencies concerned. However, for this we require the support of all the law-enforcing agencies. Talks are on with them and we will see how it works out," Gupta said.
"We also have to look into complaints coming to us, scrutinise them and sort out to detect whether they are real or fabricated ones, so that upright government officers are not harassed due to this initiative," he added.
Ravi Yadav, who is a part of the project, said, "In our proposed model, the complaints received shall be pre-screened by retired officials, before being fed into our online complaint database."
"We are looking at integrating our corruption helpline with an agency like ACB so that database generated through this model helps create pressure on departments regarding which complaints are being reported," Yadav said.
Apart from Yadav, five other students who have taken up the project are Udit Goyal, Saurabh Singh, Nikhil Bhaskar, Shantanu Sekhar and Daniel De Luna, a student from Italy.
Professor Gupta said, "I think this will be a first step in the right direction. It will build pressure on corrupt officials and also inspire people to come forward against the menace."
Source: Business Standard
Wharton/NMIMS grad and world’s first visually-impaired trader Ashish Goyal to receive President’s award
Years ago as an NMIMS Mumbai student, a corporate house told Ashish Goyal (during placements) to find himself a job in the government sector, since it has a quota system for the physically challenged. Having turned blind in his teens, Ashish did not take the advice lightly. He not only got himself placed at ING Vysya but also stood second in his batch at NMIMS. Later, Ashish went on to do an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Today, the Bombay boy has a plum job at JP Morgan’s London operations.
Over the years, Ashish has not only earned milestones in his professional space but also done plenty in his personal life — from learning to play Brazilian drums and learning the Argentine tango to boxing and performing on stage, besides many other things. He is currently in India to receive the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, 2010 from the President of India.
What does this award mean to you in real terms. Do awards make a difference at all?
This award means a lot to me, it’s special to be recognised and I am really humbled. Frankly it has not sunk in, meeting the President, meeting other award winners. I am really excited. The difference that this will make, well, the most important thing is that encouragement works wonders for everyone I would think.
We get lost in this race called life so much, that a special moment like this makes you take a step back, acknowledge the recognition and thank God for all that has happened. It’s reinvigorating to keep doing the best you can. Also, if this award helps spread awareness and helps change people’s attitudes towards people with disabilities… that will be the best outcome.
Describe what you do for a living and whether it has enriched your existence and vice-versa.
I work for JP Morgan’s Chief Investment Office and we help manage the bank’s exposure in various markets across different geographies. It’s a very significant and satisfying role at a bank like JP Morgan, which has a huge balance sheet and large exposures. Proper balance sheet management can make a tremendous impact to all stakeholders from depositors, clients to shareholders and employees.
Vice-versa, well all I can say is that I am happy that I have been able to live up to expectations and hope to keep doing the same going forward. Also being a student of macro-economics and geopolitics, my job keeps me sharp and interested in this ever changing dynamic world.
Do you think Indian b-schools are responsive to people with mental or physical challenges? There is this physically challenged boy fighting a long legal battle with the IIMs after being denied admission.
My answer will be a little dated, as I have not lived in India for 5 years now and I applied to Indian business schools back in 2000. The main difference in my two experiences (in India and in the US) is this: abroad, there is a clear process and system to deal with students and applicants with disabilities, of course helped by regulations. Internationally, as with Wharton, it was pretty easy when it came to following the process and providing a level playing ground. Where as in India, the process was not streamlined and a lot of adhoc decision making would need to happen on the basis of perceptions even though regulations existed.
This was not just the case in b-schools, I would say that was true of most institutes. What Wharton did, was it gave me a level playing field to compete and learn on merit… and that’s all we require I guess… the rest is up to ability.
Is there anything that you are doing or would like to do in the sphere of helping those visually challenged?
I have fleetingly been in touch with this organization called Enable India. It’s a great model, training disabled individuals to become independent and acquire the right skill sets for a job, then working with companies to get them to hire these people, and finally making sure that the first few months the transition goes smoothly.
I am also involved with 2 other issues, education through Pratham which reaches out to the poor and educating kids for free, and the Akshay Patra Foundation, which is Asia’s largest mid-day meal program.
Is there a better sense of concern for those ‘challenged’ abroad than in India? Here, even getting a ramp made in a housing society is a big hassle.
Yes, as mentioned, there is a difference in terms of infrastructure and facilities, but hopefully that is changing, as the government and a lot of non-profit organisations are working towards that change. But most importantly I feel individuals like you and I need to be more receptive and accepting.
One important thing that needs to be mentioned is that people with disabilities are individuals who have gone through various circumstances and are very different to each other. It’s not fair to club all of them as the same… and even less fair to club all kinds of disabilities as the same. I have no idea what I would do or how people in a wheelchair cope or what about people with not-so-obvious disabilities or challenges like learning or mental disabilities.
What kind of vocations would you advise physically challenged persons take up given the job market scenario? The Indian government has gone only as far as giving out PCO booths.
In India and abroad, I have met disabled individuals like me doing all kinds of jobs. I believe it comes down to ambition and practicality combined. When I was going through recruiting from NMIMS, I was shocked when one of the companies told me that I should begin my career in a government organization as they have quotas and that they would not interview me. I could have given up hope then and there, but I really don’t see a lot of issues for disabled people doing various things. There are lawyers, media professionals, bankers, IT professionals, teachers, you name it…
Have you thought of designing products, furniture or gadgets for those with disabilities and challenges?
I have offered to be a tester for a couple of products and whenever I have any idea, I speak to my friends who work in a similar field. There are people and companies across the world working on this.
Have you learnt cooking? That’s what you said you wanted to learn, the last time around.
Yes, but do I cook? No, I hate the entire cleaning process that follows.
Where do you see yourself five years down the line?
I want to definitely do something for the country (India). Don’t yet know in what shape or form. The way my life has evolved, I think 5 years is a long time, but hopefully I will have discovered my calling by then.
Is there something you’d like to say to those who think their lives are always on the downturn?
I don’t feel any issue is too small or too big. I think one can make it small or big. If there is an issue, finding a solution and working through it is the best approach because only we can affect that change instantly or attempt it. If we feel there is no hope and don’t see a solution it will be difficult for others to help. It’s most important not to run away from those issues, but work with them and take them head on.
What do you do when you get depressed?
Eat chocolates. Nope, kidding. I guess I call up my closest friends and talk about it… go change my mood… ponder… and sleep… its depressing being depressed, so I try and limit it .
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You are one lucky guy to have your family with you? Not all physically-challenged people are as fortunate.
I can’t even imagine my life without my Guruji and my family. I feel very fortunate to have such an amazing support system, blessings and some great friends. I don’t know if I can advise anyone here, but I would say for others, when you see someone like this, please lend them your hand. Being nice to people doesn’t cost anything and your simple act could change someone else’s world. I can’t even enumerate the number of times living alone in a foreign land, absolute strangers, who I will probably never meet again, have helped me or made life easier for me.
What do you do in your free time?
I love meeting people. People are fascinating to me, amazing people all across the world. I also like writing and watching theatre, trying out different cuisines and traveling. I have been lucky to have travelled in four different continents, especially in the last four years… soaking in cultures and stories from different parts of the world. I enjoy learning different things and enjoy a lot of different things. Over the past 3-4 years have learnt Bateria (Brazilian drums) and performed on stage and in a club, learnt Argentine tango, am learning boxing, have taken a few writing workshop. I feel learning different things is very fulfilling… I also love sports, can watch sports and play sports forever… last year I represented London’s Metro Club in the domestic blind cricket league, and guess what, we won… and yes… last but not the least… am always up for a challenge on the Nintendo Wii – tennis is one game I can play without seeing.
Who is your ideal date?
Too personal a question (don’t wanna spill the beans actually… haha…). Well I enjoy the company of intelligent and interesting women in general.
Would you have achieved so much had fate not been cruel to you when you were in your teens and when you lost your vision to retinitis pigmentosa after being born with proper vision?
My guruji Dr Balaji Tambe has been my guiding force and I would have crumbled without him. I have pondered at length about this question and about the saying – everything happens for the best. If I had regular sight, I could easily see myself being a very average spoiled kid, doing nothing with my life and living an inconsequential existence. Well, that would be taking the worst case scenario for sure, but this disability made me focus and work hard for everything, and most importantly it made me believe in myself and gave me an attitude to keep trying , giving my best, and enjoying every experience.
Do you think your MBA degree has got you where you are today? Or do you believe you had it in you to circumvent every obstacle?
The people I met in my MBA years, the opportunities I got have been overwhelming. I would relive my MBA experience anytime. An MBA can make a major difference in your life if you know what you want out of it. There are so many things you could choose from and so many ways in which you can shape yourself… and improve your career and social life. It’s easy also to not do anything sometimes, but believe me that would be such a waste of opportunity.
FMS Delhi summer placements 2010-12: 41% in sales, marketing, FMCG and 33% in Finance
The Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi completed the Summer Internship Placements for its class of 2010-12 for both the MBA (Fulltime) and MBA (Management of Services) courses. Nearly three-fourths of the students of this batch will intern in either Sales and Marketing or Finance roles next April.
Of the total 91 companies that made offers, Citibank made the largest bulk. The other companies that recruited in large scale were Accenture Business Consulting, Tata Administrative Services, Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Mahindra & Mahindra.
The combined strength of the MBA (FT) and MBA (MS) batches was 236, of which one student returned to her previous company for the internship. That left 235 students, who landed internships across the 5-day-long process.
This is the last MBA (MS) batch at FMS, as starting 2011 the b-school will merge both courses into one single fulltime MBA offering.
| Batch strength | 236 |
| Did not participate in summers / Opted out | 1 |
| Effective strength that appeared for summers | 235 |
| Number of companies that made offers | 91 |
| Total number of offers | 235 |
| Avg offers per student* | 1 |
*According to FMS Media secretary Shankar Rao, the system followed at FMS requires students to exit the summer placements process once they receive an offer and hence cannot have multiple offers.
The average stipend offered for the two-month internship period was Rs 42,500 per month. The highest domestic stipend offered was Rs 125,000, offered by an investment bank for its Mumbai office posting.
41% of the offers were made in sales and marketing roles, half of which were in FMCG companies. 33% students will intern in Finance roles, one-third of whom will be in Investment Banking, Venture Capital or Private Equity companies.
Companies from the Consulting sector
Arthur D. Little offered international roles to two students while Accenture Business Consulting made 6 offers for their India locations. The other consulting companies that recruited FMS interns were Deloitte Strategy & Operations, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Functions, Avalon Consulting, Korn Ferry International and Wipro consulting.
Finance
Avendus Capital, Jacob Ballas PE, IDFC Private Equity, Helion Ventures, IDG Ventures, Deutsche GMC, Religare Global Asset Management, JP Morgan, Motilal Oswal Investment Banking, Nomura, SBI Capital, Langham Capital, Synergy Consulting, Singhi Advisors, Hinduja Global Solutions, Langham Capital and HDFC Investment Banking division.
Citibank, Standard Chartered, Bank of America (treasury roles), HSBC, American Express, Tata Capital, Axis Bank, Juniper Capital, Industrial Finance Corporation of India, Religare, ICRA, Fullerton Securities, Gensol, GrowX Ventures. National Commodities & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) offered its Commodities exchange profile, while Gensol offered its carbon trading role and American Express offered both its Risk Management as well as Sales & Marketing profile.
FMCG, Sales and Marketing
Hindustan Unilever and Procter & Gamble led the way with 5 offers each, while ITC made the highest number of sales and marketing offers at any campus this year. Other companies: Colgate Palmolive, HCCB, Marico, Kraft-Cadbury, Coca Cola India, Nestle, Colgate Palmolive, GSK Consumer Healthcare, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, Reckitt Benckiser, Johnson & Johnson, Wrigley, Pepsi, Britannia, Dabur, Godrej, Marico, Kimberly Clark, Heinz, SABMiller, Perfetti Van Melle, CavinKare.
In addition to the FMCG’s, a number of other companies offered their sales and marketing roles, such as Microsoft with 6 offers, Yum Foods, Vodafone, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Philips, Hewlett Packard, GSK Pharma, Amazon, DaimlerChrysler, Aviva, Madura, The Nielsen Company, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Titan, Jindal Steel, Eli Lilly, Genzyme, Lifestyle, Indus Towers, NIIT, Starcom MediaVest, HT Media, Adobe, Genzyme and Cinepolis.
General Management
Tata Administrative Services (5 offers), Mahindra & Mahindra (6 offers), Bharti Group, Religare, Arcelor Mittal, HCL, DCM Shriram Group, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Vedanta, Cummins Group and Muruguppa Group. The Tata Group was the biggest consolidated recruiter on campus, with participation from a number of group companies such as Tata Capital, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Titan and TCS, in addition to Tata Administrative Services, while Aditya Birla Group recruited through its group companies. A number of PSUs also recruited from FMS.
IT
GE (IMLP), Hewlett Packard Consulting, Wipro Consulting, Lenovo, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Infosystems, Patni Computers, Birlasoft, Dassault Systems, InfoEdge, Spanco Tele and Aricent. Lenovo emerged as the biggest recruiter amongst these with 6 offers.
Source:Pagalguy.com
MICA intake rises to 180, CAT-less admissions increase batch diversity
The Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) which parted ways with the Common Admission Test (CAT) last year, is observing surprising changes in the composition of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Communications) batch.
In the PGDM(C) batch of 2009-11, whose participants had applied to MICA using their CAT 2008 scores, 66% of the batch consists of engineers. The batch of 2010-12, which was admitted using MICA’s own Admission Test (MICAT) only (and no CAT), the students with engineering constitute constitute 59%.
MICA believes that doing away with the CAT has made the batch more versatile. Almost 15% of the 2010-12 batch has students from fashion, media and other streams. The proportion of students from the humanities or social sciences background has increased from 7% in batch 2009-11 to 10% in batch 2010-12. The share of science graduates has dipped from 13% in 2009-11 to 6% in the current batch.
“The course that MICA offers and the student profiles it needs are different from those in regular MBA schools. With the CAT score requirement gone, the doors of MICA have opened to many others who might not have done well in the CAT but have good creative and communication skills,” said Prof Shubhra Gaur, MICA’s admissions chairperson.
“We are hoping that more candidates from non-engineering and non-science backgrounds apply and get through MICA. The big difference between CAT and MICAT is how they scan students for the institute. Where CAT used to eliminate students and only the selected candidates were tested for the needed skill set, MICAT is an open field and will give an equal opportunity to the students who are not so good in quant,” said Prof Gaur.
For the admissions that open this year, MICA’s PGDM(C) intake also increases to 180 seats from the existing 120. The fee for the batch has been fixed at Rs 11 lakhs.
MICAT will also be held in three more cities this year – Hyderabad, Chennai and Guwahati — taking the total number of test centers to 10.
The institute has seen a constant increase of between 5 to 10% in the number of candidate applying to the institute every year. They are expecting that the number of applicants will increase further this year. On being asked by PaGaLGuY, Prof Gaur refused to share the absolute numbers of the number of applicants to MICA in the previous years. (However, we’d wager that the total number of applicants in the 2009-10 admission season would have been in the range of 5,500-6,000. Reason: in 2006, the MICA Director had quoted the total number of applicants for the 2005-06 season at 4,500. Going by the average growth rate of 7.5% quoted by Prof Gaur, and assuming a drop in applications during the 2008 economic recession, the total number of applications to MICA by now can be estimated in the range of 5,500-6,000).
The school is also making incremental changes to the PGDM(C) curriculum. “The subjects that are being paid a lot of emphasis are the ones that are gaining importance worldwide such as climate change communication, health communication and developmental communication. The institute is also training students in golf and some other sports with an initiative to make the graduates wholistic and grounded personalities. There is a spirituality centre that will soon be inaugurated in the campus for the students’ mental health.”
Source:Pagalguy.com
IIM Calcutta summer placements 2010-12: 37% get Finance, 28% Marketing
The summer placement process of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta ended on November 15, securing summer internships for 353 students from a batch of 362. In the five-day long process spread across three slots, there were 125 companies that participated. 215 students were placed in Slot 0 itself.
The batch of 2010-12 has 68% students with prior work experience, compared to 63% last year. The average work experience of the batch is 20 months. The batch has a total of 91% engineers.
Batch strength
|
362
|
Did not participate in summer placements
|
9
|
Effective no of students who appeared for summer placements
|
353
|
Number of companies that made offers
|
125
|
Total number of offers*
|
Not disclosed
|
Avg offers per student*
|
Not calculable
|
* The institute was asked to provide this information, but the placement committee maintained that it did not keep a record of the number of offers.
Finance
A $6 billion hedge fund visited campus. The institute claims that this is the second time that a hedge fund has visited an Indian b-school. JP Morgan has offered one student an internship at the Chief Investment Officer’s desk.
RBS, which was one of the companies of Slot 0, made the maximum number of offers (15). UBS made 12 offers. Other major recruiters included Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Nomura, Bank of America, Merril Lynch, Morgan Stanley, JPMC, HSBC (Global), Citigroup and French investment bank BNP Paribas. First time recruiters included Macquarie Securities.
Investment banks Elara Capital and Equirus Capital, private equity firms Jacob Ballas Capital, M-cap fund advisers Clearwater Capital and Walden International also hired from the campus on the first day. Houlihan Smith, a specialized investment bank, recruited exclusively from IIM Calcutta, said the institute.
Consulting
20% of the batch has been placed in consulting firms. McKinsey & Co, Bain & Co and AT Kearney were among the top recruiters. Accenture was the highest recruiter (8 offers), with Feedback Ventures, Ernst & Young, KPMG and Frost & Sullivan also hiring students for consulting profiles.
Marketing & General Management
28% of the batch has been placed in marketing firms and 8% in general management profiles. Regular FMCG recruiters — Hindustan Unilever, P&G, Nokia, Diageo and ITC were back on campus. ITC made 8 offers becoming the largest FMCG recruiter followed by P&G that made 6 offers. Other major FMCG recruiters who participated in the process are Coke, Pepsi, Airtel, Kraft, GSK and Marico. Tata Administrative Services (TAS), Aditya Birla Group, Mahindra & Mahindra and RPG group offered general management roles.
International Offers
Over 75 students will be interning in international locations, an increase of 20% over the last year. Internship locations offered include New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Dubai, Vietnam and South Africa.
Law firm L&S hired students to work on strategy. This was the first time such a profile was offered at IIM Calcutta. CRY recruited for the social sector.
Slot-based process vs IIM Ahmedabad’s Cohort-based process
IIM Calcutta, though is in close contact with IIM Ahmedabad and watching how the Cohort-based placement system is working for the latter, continues with the slot-based placement system.
The placement committee chairperson of IIM Calcutta, professor Amit Dhiman told PaGaLGuY, “Both the systems have their advantages and disadvantages. Though we know how the Cohort-based system works, IIM Calcutta for now does not have plans of adopting it. We are reviewing our process, but for the upcoming final placement season we will continue with the regular process.”
Sharing some of the comments that recruiters have made to him, Prof Dhiman said, “Where the cohort-based process gives a lot of time to the students and recruiters to make their choice, it might also lead to job losses. In the long term, the companies might reduce the number of offers they give. Some recruiters have also shared their confusion about how the cohorts and clusters are formed.”
He adds, “I personally feel, the process become time-consuming and students stay distracted from their academic routine for a long time. The pressure on one hand in said to reduce on the students, but I feel, it might also add to the anxiety of the students, if they have to wait till the last cohort.”
Source: Pagalguy.com
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