Anubhav’s journey from chronic insomnia and anxiety to NMIMS, Mumbai

Anubhav has had a tumultuous journey, from suffering chronic insomnia and anxiety for months to finally making it to the prestigious B-school Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai, he is a living proof that come what may, do not let any situation/condition pull you down and act as a hindrance between you and your dreams. He is here to tell us that, if you are determined and courageous enough, you can and you will achieve what you have been aiming for! So, let us hear what he has to share about his MBA journey and experience!

“Out of the mountain of despair, I found a stone of hope”

Exam – NMAT by GMAC 2020

Finding your purpose

We all have our varied reasons to pursue MBA (change our core field, better growth opportunities, more diversified roles, money etc) make sure whatever that purpose is, it does motivate and drives you to go that extra mile in your efforts during your preparation and ensure that you are doing something relevant that helps you build your profile for a B school (job, certifications, NGO, hobbies etc).

NMAT Preparation

My strategy was very clear that I would kick-start this journey by preparing for CAT initially, as I felt that once you start aiming and practicing for CAT you get very clear on your aptitude fundamentals on the highest levels and this indirectly serves as a strong base for other entrance exam say SNAP, NMAT, IIFT, XAT (of course you follow a different strategy in each by taking up exam specific mocks later but somehow the roots of preparation remain the same).

So firstly, I gave an initial CAT mock to gauge my current level of preparation, this helped me in identifying whether I need to go back to the aptitude books once or get started off with mocks directly. I was keeping a track of all my mock learnings, shortcomings in an excel sheet because I knew if I can’t measure my performance, I won’t be able to improve it. On the topics where I felt I needed more help I took up chapter wise sectional tests.

I had decided that I would give my first NMAT attempt once I was done with my CAT exam in November, and thus, scheduled my center proctored exam around the second week of December. After my CAT exam was done and the final answer key/predictor came out, I thought I would get close to a 90+ percentile (which I eventually got) but knew deep down that this wasn’t sufficient to get a decent call from a top institute, so I shifted my focus to NMAT. I felt that as I had been clear on my fundamentals by November, devising the right strategy holds the key in cracking the exam so I started off with NMAT specific mocks around early December.

Focusing on NMAT

I feel NMAT by GMAC guide and their official mocks are sufficient to know the pattern and type of questions being asked in the exam. As per my experience I have realised that the strategy for the paper depends on the assessment of your capabilities of strong and weak areas which vary from person to person. For me the order of attempt was Language Skills (LS), Logical Reasoning (LR) and then Quantitative Ability (QA) which I thought formed the best fit for me. From the mocks I was able to drastically identify my shortcomings and improvised upon them which really helped me on the D Day.

This was for the first time that NMAT by GMAC exam went adaptive, wherein there was no liberty of going back to review or skip a question and based on that I had to modify my strategy accordingly. From aspirants who had appeared in the earlier windows, I had a rough estimate that an overall score of 240+ with balanced sectionals of 75+ would be a decent score to fetch a call from NM Mumbai.

The D-Day

The D Day finally came, I was confident enough of doing well in the 1^st attempt itself, I tried to stay calm & focused while attempting the paper and to my good fortune I scored 245 in my 1^st attempt with a balanced sectionals of 80+ in each, and eventually landed up getting a WAT/PI call.

The Interview

I would like to highlight some basic approaches that I followed for SOP/WAT/PI which proved to be quite helpful

• Statement of purpose (SOP) -The Statement of purpose forms a key aspect of your profile evaluation which serves as your first-hand impression to the panelist right before your interview. You must include your USP (unique selling points) in SOP that would serve as valuable pointers & key talking points that drive your interview.
• Writing Ability Test (WAT) - Majority of WAT’s conducted by various B schools are of 20 min duration, spend the initial 2 mins to gather, structure, articulate your thoughts. There should always be a logical connect between the sentences you frame. Try to have a proper format (intro-body-conclusion), back your reasoning with facts and examples.
• Personal Interview (PI) – Being calm and confident holds the key, know yourself very well, be crisp in your answers. There always comes up an opportunity in an interview where you can lead the panelist into highlighting your strengths and achievements and drive forward the interview in a direction you prefer to go, make sure you find out that moment in the interview. Be honest if you are completely unaware of a question and never judge how your interview went.

Results

I was quite anxious on the D Day due to lesser options at hand, the results were announced around 1^st week of March and I was happy to see my name in the merit list (Merit list no. 241).

Overcoming Obstacles

Now, coming to the toughest part of this journey, by around late September I was diagnosed with chronic insomnia which made the situation worse for me as my entire sleep cycle was disturbed and I hardly slept 3 hours daily for a period of nearly 4 months, this further heightened my anxiety levels, the more I tried to control my thoughts the more difficult it became to remain calm, I managed to keep my focus on my exams during these tough pandemic times by doing yoga/cycling early morning on alternate days and  tried to eat a healthy diet and It was only by beginning of February I could sense improvement in my health and my sleep gradually improved. Tough times is the real test of character and not giving up in those times paid off.

I would say enjoy this journey, work hard, stay humble, give your best, may you convert your dream B school.

For more such interesting stories, read:

1. From acing CAT with 99.48 percentile to securing admission into 6 renowned MBA colleges
2. Avani Raghuwanshi's journey to XLRI will help you ace MBA exams!