CAT’09 Corner – Backing you up all the way

With CAT’09 just around the corner, it’s time for all your hard work to pay back. We understand this paper is very important for you (and for us as well), and consequently a certain amount of tredipitation is but natural.

Keeping in line with its promise of ‘Student’s Delight’ Career Launcher is striving to address your anxiety, curiosity and requirement for guidance through the following initiatives:

-Slot-wise Test Analysis

After each examination, our faculty which shall have sat the test along with aspirants, shall do an assessment of the test and provide you with a clear feel for what will be coming your way. We cannot stress enough the importance for you to regularly tune into this section.

-Discussion Blog

CL’s CAT Blog will be a platform for students to discuss their papers, ask questions to those who have already given the CAT, and share opinions. If you have anything to say, are curious about something, want to interact with those who have already experienced the paper first hand, then this is the place to be.

-Personalized Interactions with Mentors

In case you can’t find certain questions getting answered anywhere else, need tips to tackle stress, are eager to hear expert predictions and opinions on the new CAT and how it is shaping up, all you need to do is interact with our CAT experts and faculty through live chat, to back you up with whatever you need.

For a detailed description and schedule please head over to CAT 2009 Corner.

We would like to wish all our students the very best of luck! We believe in you and are committed to backing you up all the way, in every way possible.

P.S. – Here is a link to help you get charged up for the CAT!

Online CAT poses new challenges

• This year, 2.42 lakh students registered for CAT, which registered a dip in applications of over 12% since last year’s 2.76 lakh applications.
• The fall in numbers could be attributed to the test becoming computer-based starting this year. Not everyone is sure of the outcome and many have decided to watch from the sidelines.
• Expert Views:

• The online test is also a first for the CAT management. Much is at stake and the situation may be tricky at first, but later on, probably everybody will get used to it.
• The test  will be conducted in 32 cities through 105 secure computer-based testing centres, specially prepared for the CAT.
• Just like in the earlier format of CAT, students should keep in mind to attempt questions that they know first and as well as they can.
• Experts also advised students to get used to reading comprehension online – one of the biggest changes that will be felt in the new format.

Source: Times of India

CAT 2009 will offer 560 extra IIM seats

• Sources from HRD ministry confirm CAT committe has been asked to add 560 more seats at IIMs for aspirants this year
• CAT Cabinet approved 4 new IIMs in August at Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Rohtak (Haryana), but the institutes are yet to be established.
• New IIM shall admit 140 students each.
• Some IIM directors have objected, saying these many seats will be too much for a new institute to manage.
• “The older IIMs will help the new institutes decide the content of the academic courses, but only after the new directors are appointed,” said a government official.
• The ministry has called for applications, but is yet to form a panel to appoint the new directors.
• The ministry has also been unable to finalise temporary infrastructure for setting up the new institutes — except for IIM Rohtak, which will initially get a campus at the Maharishi Dayanand University.
• The CAT announcement had not mentioned the new IIMs.

Source:  Hindustan Times

Practical Guide to CAT

We hope you have taken a look at the Prometric’s ‘A Practical Guide to the CAT‘ (PDF)

IIMs bet big on SE Asia for placements

Summary:

• Premier Indian B-schools increasing placement focus on emerging South and South East Asian markets from Singapore, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, necessitating an Occidental slant in their teaching procedures
• 20-30% rise in Indian applicatns at Univ. of Hong Kong. Indians keen to learn Asian business conduct
• Sources said IIMs were in talks with companies like P&G, City Bank, Standard Chartered, Barclay’s and niche companies such as Huawei and Intel for campus placement
• Students expect 10% campus placements to be from these regions
• Opportunities in Singapore from marketing and operations besides finance sector
• Many B-schools like IIM-Shillong, are conducting a course in the Chinese language
• Besides popular names like China’s Haier and Huawei, many more are appearing, like ZTE, Alibaba, and Shanghai-based Focus Media, in addition to the Toyotas, Sonys, Samsungs and Nintendos

Source:  Economic Times

CATsunami

Gejo Sreenivasan , CAT 1996

The year was 1996. The alarm rang. It was a wake up call. Only this time, it was not a call to get up from the bed, but a call to figure out what next after IIT! While getting into IIT, I had thought, “This is it!!” After three years of studying Mass Transfer, heat transfer and thermodynamics – only entropy prevailed. Nothing is ever ‘the end’. Gosh! I do hope that when I am 73 [a random intelligent sounding number] I will find an answer.

After careful analysis [99% of the analysis revolved around what my friends were doing and the remaining 1% were day-dreams] I decided that it was time to bell the CAT. The salary figures at the IIMs were definitely a strong motivator for a chappal-clad engineer like me [No offense to any of my fellow peers].

Belling this CAT seemed more difficult than sending a turtle to the moon.

One – There were at least 40,000 students who were loitering around with the bell. [Now, after 13 years, the figure has gone up to more than 2 lakhs! What a CAT-walk!]. Never have I managed to be among the top 10 in my class of 55. The thought of beating 40,000 odd souls made me want to swap my brains with my kidney.

Two – I knew English was not my strength [I am 102% sure you would have figured that out by now]. After reading a passage on philosophy, where I could not understand the link between any two random lines, I had to answer the question – What is the mood of the passage!!!! After a series of painstaking reasoning, I could boil down to 2 out of the 4 options provided – ‘a’ & ‘d’. The answer-key revealed both were incorrect and when I turned to the solutions, it said just one phrase – Obviously c!!

Three – The biggest de-motivator in the entire process turned out to the same set of friends who once motivated me to start this idiotic process. They were studying more than me, scoring more than me, and having more fun than me. I remember once I wanted to share my happiness of cracking 90 marks in one of the tests [Those days, the cut off used to be around 120], my ‘bes-test’ friend was sad that he had got only 119 in the same test!

Four – During the process [I don’t know why I keep using the word process] I was bewildered to find that I had problems with Math. Sample this.

How many ways can you put 4 similar balls in 4 similar boxes?
How many ways can you put 4 different balls in 4 similar boxes?
How many ways can you put 4 similar balls in 4 different boxes?
How many ways can you put 4 different balls in 4 different boxes?

I wanted to carefully cover the head of the question setter with the box and throw the balls at his___________ [Let the question setter fill in the blanks!]

Five – The so-called CAT Gyan Gurus’ strategic advice confused me no end. Each had an advice, which was diametrically opposite to someone else’s. As fate would have it…I am one of the CAT Gyan gurus today!!

With all the above-stated and unstated challenges ready to assassinate my dreams, I had The One Powerful Shield: The-Never-Give-Up-Shield. I re-wrote the Ten Commandments:

1. Thou shalt not give up no matter what others tell thee
2. Thou shalt not give up even if strategies fail
3. Thou shalt not give up even if thee can’t comprehend any passage even after reading it thrice
4. Thou shalt not give up even if permutations & combinations to thee is like a guitar to a goldfish
5. Thou shalt not give up even if thee takes more than 3 minutes to find out 567/778
6. Thou shalt not give up even if the score does not improve forever
7. Thou shalt not give up thy dreams
8. Thou shalt not give up thy aspirations
9. Thou shalt not give up thy passion
10. Thou shalt not give up EVER

That’s it! I believe that the only reason why I made it to the IIM is because I did not give up.
Till the year before, CAT always had 4 sections [Quant, DI, Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension] without any time limit. Junta’s objective was to develop a strategy for the ‘fixed’ CAT pattern. This was my biggest weakness. This weakness turned to be my biggest strength.

CAT 1996 was a Tsunami that shook the earth. 2 sections, both timed! All strategies flew out of the window. All fell down like Humpty Dumpty. I didn’t have a problem because I didn’t have a fixed strategy. I was happy that CAT decided what I am supposed to do. After the tsunami, everyone blamed everything under the sun – Coaching Classes, IIMs, CAT, parents for the birth timing, the grass [the sane one], everything!

Two months later, I woke up again to the news that I had got all 4 calls – A, B, C, L. Sweet! I went on to convert C & B and completed my post graduation from IIM C.

My one & only advice: NEVER EVER GIVE UP. NEVER!

Opportunity in adversity

Despite the current gloom, employers still value MBAs

Summary:

• MBA students are worried about recouping the high fees they invested
• Business-school officials experienced the worst ever recruiting season
• Demand for MBAs is declining while supply is continuing to grow
• In U.S., Congress has made it more difficult to hire foreign talent
• Consulting, health care, pharmaceuticals, utilities and energy maintained demand
• Downturn has provoked high-profile criticisms of MBA courses content but the corporate world mostly remains as happy with MBAs as it ever was.
• MBAs still more likely to get jobs than non-mbas and, on average, receive higher salary.
• MBAs get twice as much as undergraduates and 30–35% more than  lower-level management degrees holders
• since 1998, 98% of American corporate employers report satisfaction with their MBA hires
• Aspirants are becoming more conscious of value for money – some are abandoning high-profile business schools for their less well-known rivals. some searching the world for best bargains

Source: The Economist

27% fewer applicants for CAT, deadline extended

Summary:

• CAT witnessed 27% drop in applicants this year
• As per IIMs, around 2 lakh candidates registered
• Online registration process closing date pushed to October 11th from October 1st
• Last year number of CAT applicants was 2.76 lakh
• Number of CAT applicants has been rising 10% every year, with 20-25% increase in last 3 years
• CAT committee feels bank holidays halted the process
• Experts blame bleak placements scenario across tier 2 and 3 B-schools and fear of computer-based test among smaller towners
• Candidates may edit profiles till October 11
• Sale of CAT vouchers at Axis bank branches has been extended untill October 8
• CAT 2009 scheduled between November 28 and December 7, 2009
• Will be conducted in 32 Indian cities through 105 centres

Source:  Economic Times

Steering a new course

Foreign B schools’ response to the financial crisis.

Summary:

• B Schools partly blamed for financial crisis – now pondering about reinvention
• Failed firms such as Lehman Brothers were full of prestigious school alumni who were complacent and greedy
• Programme directors’ dilemma: totally overhaul curricula and appear hasty / change nothing and seem to be in a state of denial
• Most schools have settled for modest adjustments
• Slow speed of implementation of ideas is hampering progress at b schools
• Various views of academic experts on the issue
• Renewed interest in economic history to examine lessons from The Great Depression and 18th and 19th century companies that started with a view that emphasized responsible behavior for sustainability
• Greater emphasis on personal development and on imparting soft skills

Source: The Economist

How to Bell this CAT?

Excerpt from Indian Express article titled ‘How to Bell this CAT?‘, dated 21st September’09 :

Gautam Puri highlights some Do’s and Dont’s that a student should watch out for while taking the exam:

• Expect easier reading comprehensions and data interpretation as their length is going to be shorter in the new test.
• Don’t get stuck with a question at any point. Don’t mark any of the radio buttons if you are not confident of the answer.
• Don’t aim to attempt the maximum number of question. Accuracy is more important in this context. Spend equal time on each section of questions.
• Don’t leave the sections you are most uncomfortable with for the end. That way, bu the time you come about to answering it, you will already be exasperated. Instead, attempt those question in between the other section. That way you can keep your motivation and energies up!
• More the exposure, the better you will perform. Try taking similar online tests.
• It is a myth that the CAT changes every year. It does not. The content and type of question remain the same. Get your basic fundamentals right to sail through.

Source: Indian Express