Chapter #2 – Research on Masters of Business Administration and its preparation
At 5:30 pm, Smiyc walked into the Chaayos just beside the PWC complex–he needed to clear his mind. Ordering a coffee, Smiyc took his favorite corner seat by the window. This place had been a frequent companion while preparing presentations and getting office work done–and Smiyc loved the place! As Smiyc took a sip of the dark roast, the phrase that had been circling in his head the whole day, jumped back in. “Master of Business Administration”-admittedly, the name did promise a sense of authority! From discussions with Vinod to the random conversation he heard on the train the other day, a lot of reasons were in favor of pursuing an MBA. On top of that, it seemed as though an MBA would provide a wide and exciting range of career roles!
Online preparation for MBA Entrance
As Smiyc took another sip, the “ting” of his cellphone messaging system interrupted his train of thoughts. It was Vinod: “Hey buddy, check out this YouTube channel MathOratory! It’s a super useful starting point for MBA prep!” Setting aside his coffee, Smiyc whipped out his laptop and typed “MathOratory” on his favorite search engine and was immediately ushered into a virtual world of MBA preparation, topper testimonials, and a melting pot of information on B-schools and MBA graduate jobs and salaries in India–a plethora of information hiding in plain sight! A flashing pink box marked “MBA graduate jobs” stole his attention; double-clicking it took him to a rather informative bubble chart of placement sectors versus top B-schools such as the IIMs, XLRI, IIFT, and IITs. “Hmm….BCG seems to prefer IIMC for their analyst roles!” The Big Four recruited from most IIMs, although preferring the old schools such as IIMA,B,C,L etc, for coveted roles in consultancy. The stats revealed that MBA graduate jobs provided opportunities to work in a lot of parallel sectors-echoing Vinod’s “diversification and adaptability” from the other day. In addition, median MBA graduate salaries seemed to touch the 18 LPA mark in roles such as consultancy, BFSI, FMCG, e-commerce and retail etc. for most top schools.
Syllabus of CAT and other MBA entrance tests
“Would you like another drink, Sir”? Smiyc looked up, “Yes please, another coffee, and a pakora spread”. The website had hooked him, and he didn’t want to leave anytime soon. MathOratory boasted free online test-prep material: videos, sectional/full length tests, e-modules etc.– and Smiyc, having rarely chanced upon test material, was curious. Quants was a test-area in the CAT, and Smiyc being good with numbers, wished to check out the Quant material. MathOratory had an admirable pool of online MA preparation resources in Quants, with free sectional tests in relevant areas. In fact, Smiyc noticed that each section had a probability of likelihood of appearance in different B-school exams based on past year trends. “That’s remarkable! Seems Time-and-Work, Number theory, Probability. and Geometry are CAT-favorites!”. Smiyc smiled–Geometry was his favorite in school, and as far as he noticed, the CAT tested a mix of basic math, strategy, and smart thinking.
Smiyc checks the courseware and Prep plan
MathOratory’s USP lay in providing customized and convenient MBA preparation online–and Smiyc was quick to spot this! Each module was designed to adapt to a mobile and web-browser in addition to having interactive features such as graphically represented explanatory answers to ease understanding of challenging topics. “Each full-length test ends with a summary of probable calls from IIMs, SWOT analysis of attempted questions, and feedback on which areas to focus on-interesting! Let’s try a math module and see where I land” thought Smiyc.
When Smiyc left Chaayos at 10, he had attempted two math and a verbal ability module–scoring more than 80% in all – and had a delicious pakora spread with coffee! CAT-Prep was fun but needed a lot of practice – “Back to pre-engineering days”, thought Smiyc. Indeed the 4 h stint at Chaayos had left him motivated–there was a whole new world out there–people, perspectives, prospects–which he wished to be part of! As Smiyc looked around the dark Gurgaon night, he smiled to himself–it seemed he was on the way to write the CAT.
More to follow soon! Watch this Space!
Disclaimer: Any resemblance to name of the characters is purely co-incidental. This is a fictional character, based on the profile of an actual MBA aspirant.