How To Prepare For MBA Entrance Exam- Preparation Tips From 99 Percentiler Minkesh Devani (SNAP 2020), IIM Shillong

'How to prepare for MBA entrance exam?' Have you had sleepless nights wondering about the answer to this question? If yes, then you just might get the perfect answer to your question in Minkesh Devani's MBA entrance exam preparation journey. Let's look at his scorecard for MBA entrance exams, and then know how he managed the feat.

• CAT 2020: 98.75%ile
• SNAP 2020: 99.96%ile 
• IIFT 2020: 98.68%ile

Before diving into the syllabus of any management entrance test, it is imperative for you, as an aspirant, to expect an outcome. No, I do not suggest you know your chances of selection. But you do need to research the institutes and their cutoffs, hence setting a benchmark that you will fight for with your MBA entrance exam preparation strategy. You do need to set a finishing line even before you start your marathon to know what distance you will be running.

How to Prepare for MBA Entrance Exam- Analyze Previous Years’ Papers

The first task for the aspirants writing the exam for the first time is to check the previous year's papers. Check the topics and intricacies involved. Looks exciting? I guess yes! These are the topics that you have already covered in or before your 10th grade. You will realize, that although writing the exam for the first time, the preparation would not entirely be from scratch. That being said, it’s the best time to check how you fare here before you dive deep into MBA entrance exam preparations. Find out any demo mock test or previous year paper that is available in the form of a mock. Some of the reputed coaching institutes do provide that. Hence, if you have decided not to join coaching, it’s fine. But you absolutely need to subscribe to the test series.

This first mock – even before starting the full-fledged preparation – will help you know where you stand based on the projected percentiles in each section. It also tells you which topic is your strength or weakness. Jot this down in an excel sheet. With this, you have officially started the actual journey of a CAT aspirant.

If enrolled with a coaching institute, be regular with classes. If not, make a timetable and stick to it. When it comes to CAT or other such management entrance tests, the most important thing is consistency. It means, instead of putting 14 hours on a single day every week, it is better to put 2 hours every day for the entire week.

Also read: How to Prepare for CAT Exam 2022? CAT Preparation Timetable, Guidance, Tips, And More!

MBA Entrance Exam Preparation Tips: Section-wise Guide

1. Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC)

Reading Comprehension is all about cracking the crux of the story & eliminating the wrong options. Figure out what ails you – comprehending the story or zeroing down to the right option. Solve a good number of RCs on a daily basis – at least 2 every day. That does the job well.

Verbal Ability, again, is about practice. But here, please check with the ROTI (Return on Time Investment) for each type of question. It varies from individual to individual. For some, Summary questions are easy; for others, Odd-man-out are easy. Hence, check what is your best suit! For the past few years, Para Jumbles and Odd-Man-Out do not have negative markings. They are in the form of TITA (Type In The Answer) questions. Of course, this will allure you to attempt them anyway, but a few questions here can be traps where you will end up wasting a lot of time for no return. Hence, you need to be quick in judging if a question is worth investing (or wasting) your time in! 

2. Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)

Cliché again – Practice. The key is to get exposed to as many types of sets as possible before D-day. Generally, 4 questions are attached to a set (CAT 2020 was an anomaly where we had 6-question sets too! And they call it a surprise :P)

The selection of the right sets is important. Eying at all the sets (generally 8) beforehand can help you assess the Level of Difficulty of the section. Note down the number of doable sets with a specific order. Of course, you cannot always judge which sets are doable at such a glance but spending around 3-4 minutes initially can help you get clarity. Leave a set & your ego aside if you are stuck for more than 5 minutes. Remember, all the questions hold the same score, regardless of the LOD of the same.

Another smarter way to handle it is to get clues and help from the questions. In my case, CAT 2020 Slot 3, there was a set on Set-Theory, wherein I used options to get answers for 2 questions! Similar was the case for a Mango/teak tree-related set as well. Hence, it’s a good idea to take help from the questions and options. 

Also Read: CAT 2022: Tips To Score Well In Logical Reasoning And Data Interpretation (LRDI) Section

3. Quantitative Aptitude (QA)

I have always been above average in this section and will try to explicate what helped me get 99+ percentile in this section in CAT and IIFT, and 20 out of 20 in SNAP.

You can start the preparation for this section with Arun Sharma's book for Quants (McGraw Hill Publication). Upon the completion of each topic, prefer taking an assessment or sectional test from that topic. Gauge your performance and check the solutions. Getting answers is not important at the initial stage, using the right approach is.

Prepare a book where you can jot down all the formulae you have learned and any interesting questions you have encountered and find the approach unique. This will come in handy and is easy to refer to before every mock is taken. Revise it time and again—at least once a week!

The strategy for this section is to pick low-hanging fruits first! This means you will go through the entire paper hunting for the easier questions and killing them right away if found. Call it Round 1. This round takes approximately 50% of your sectional time and can help you tackle 40 to 50% of the total questions in the section. Comes Round 2, where you will pick slightly more time-consuming or medium-level difficulty questions from the section. This shall take no more than 30% of the sectional time. Finally, in Round 3, take care of the rest of all doable questions from the paper. This way, we can maximize our number of attempts.

Use an Error-log book. If you are like me, who tends to make silly mistakes in this section, maintaining such a log is a must! My accuracy used to be around 80% in Quants initially, which is disastrous, given my concepts are clear but still, 20% accounted for silly errors. Heavy loss!!! Hence, in this Error-Log book, I used to jot down all the mistakes I made. For example: In AIMCAT 21XX, Que No. 8, I assumed ‘non-negative numbers’ to be ‘positive numbers', and hence mistakenly removed 0 from the count!

Also read: CAT 2020 topper Shivam Kumar shares the secret of scoring 99.95 percentile!

IIM Shillong Interview Experience

Scheduled: Zoom Call— Saturday, April 10th, 2021; 2 PM

Panel Identity:

• M1 – Age: 60s
• M2 – Age: 40s

 ***Call Started***

 Pleasantries exchanged.

M1: I read in your form, that you are working at S&P Global. Tell me how you rate India.

(Said I am in Market Intelligence, and not in Ratings or CRISIL)

M1: Okay, tell me about your work in brief. Also, as the tools, analytics & clients.

(Answered all)

M1: You are a Mechanical Engineer. Tell me about Selective Catalytic Reduction.

(Answered its concept and application)

M1: And what is the Chemical Process for the same?

(Don’t know) 

M1: You are a Mechanical Engineer. (He said this again!) Tell me about the major changes in the Manufacturing sector nowadays.

(Talked about Industry 4.0, and it's core utility)

M1: Alright. Tell me any application you can recall and major long-term impacts.

(Talked about General Electric (GE) company using AR glasses for manufacturing purposes. As for impacts, it will help improve quality due to involvement of the advanced technology (IoT/AI/ML). And the number of jobs will increase) 

M1: Wait! What did you say? Increase? Why?

(Told him about a document I read from the World Economic Forum, which stated that although these technologies will eradicate 75 million jobs worldwide but will add 133 million jobs specific to AI and advanced functions.)

M1: That’s impressive. I am done from my side. 

*Over to M2*

 M2: Minkesh, what’s your area of interest?

(Talked about my interests in knowing more about the universe, human existence, emotions & rationality concepts) 

M2: Share some wisdom with us that you have gathered. (He smiled. So did I.)

(Talked about a book I read and added flavors saying how rationality should prevail over emotions)

M2: How do you see this helping in the corporate world?

(Took 5 seconds to think and said, the closest answer I can think of is the correlation between EQ and IQ (Emotional Quotient and Intelligence Quotient). Both are necessary elements for an ideal leader.) 

M2: Where did you learn about EQ? Any book?

(I said I don’t remember. He said ok.)

M2: The younger generation is facing challenges in terms of anxiety & mental health. What are your suggestions?

(To spend time productively and incorporate time for meditation, and mindfulness; also talked about how social media incites comparison, leading to inferiority complex) 

M2: That’s really interesting, Minkesh. Now tell me how’s Indian economy is doing, and what are the Central Government’s efforts to cope with the challenges.

(Discussed the union budget highlights- huge fiscal deficits due to COVID-19 relief packages under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan and sudden other costs, Divestment plans of Public Sector Banks and giant like LIC; Added the second angle saying Govt is also trying to assuage the fear of the citizens, which is a good thing.)

M1 & M2: Ok Minkesh. Thanks, and All the very best. “Bye-bye!”

(I actually laughed here on hearing “Bye bye” 🤣. I also said the same and ended the call) 

***Call Ended*** 

And finally, I got a selection call from IIM Shillong. Remember, you are a fighter! Exams per se may not be difficult, but the competition is. Hence, keep slogging till you hit your mark. All the best! 

For more similar stories, read:

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2. “My 3 years journey of 3 attempts, and from getting 0 IIM Calls to converting 10 colleges” - Ashwini Rahangdale from IIM Calcutta
3. “I didn’t let COVID restrict me from acing CAT”- Suvojit Roy from IRMA
4. "How I got into my B-school of dreams?" Antarip Biswas from K J Somaiya