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JAN-FEB 2011 will be crucial for all MBA  aspirants to get into their dream B-School. Just after  X’mas/New year eve  you will be facing  another barrier to get in to MBA college. You have to shift your focus to group discussion, current affairs, general knowledge personal interview, & essays/sop’s.  Here essay/sop’s will be playing a important role for your candidature.

Although CAT score, Marks and Grades are considered key benchmarks for shortlisting for first round but essays or sop writings are key criteria for admissions in leading B-schools,  be it IIMs, IIFT,Grate lakes or Symbiosis MBA program. For instance, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode and IIFT conduct Essay Writing along with GD PI.

IIFT has recently declared the names of the candidates shortlisted for Essay Writing, GD and PI, which will be held in January 2011. When the CAT 2010 results are declared on January 12, 2011, the IIMs too will call the candidates to appear in the GD PI and Essay Writing rounds from February.

Hence, it  is very crucial for you to have good awareness about the patterns of Essay Writing and how to prepare and practice for perfect essay writing.

Following writing  from Ms. Jaya Desai( Product Head, IMS Learning) will give you some tips for MBA essays writing.

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This time I am bringing something very different for all of you. This is especially for those who tried to prepare last year for CAT 2009 but somehow could not. This is also for those who have started their preparation and are facing difficulties in adjusting their preparation into daily routine. This is also for those who want to give up their preparations.

This is how one of my students started preparing for CAT and what all challenges/problems came his way. This will also tell you how he tackled those challenges. This article will also act as a time manager for you.

I have written this article keeping myself in his shoes. So now on where ever you read ‘I’ it’s he actually. He does not want his name to be mentioned here and his friends call him ‘Quiz Master’. So I will also call him Quiz Master.

I am calling this article ‘My Life, My Journey, My CAT preparation’

Enjoy reading it.

Vaibhav K Mittal

CEO – Zion Education Services

‘My Life, My Journey, My CAT preparation’

Majority of us want to live life to the fullest; best job or business, beautiful house, luxurious car, great family and be able to travel to places of our dreams. I was no different when I started working. Being a fresh graduate from an engineering college, I thought that I would take the whole world in my hands. But soon I realized that it was not easy to grow in an organization. Time and again you have to proof your worth to your managers in order to excel. This is when I started to observe my managers to learn from them and be like them. After a few discussions the fact came out that they all had a vast experience of at least 5-7 years before coming to this role. The other fact that also came out was that those who did a post-graduation in finance or with an MBA degree from a reputed institute got placed as managers earlier than those who were just graduates.

This is when I decided to prepare for CAT and pursue MBA; after all it was shortcut to becoming a Manager!! Shortcut? You may ask!! There is no shortcut to success. Yes, everyone knows there is no shortcut to success but doing an MBA from a prestigious college is no shortcut. It requires great hard work pre and post admission into these colleges.

When I started preparing for entrance exams, I faced another challenge. I was almost out of my home for 13 hours working and traveling to work. Coming back from office I was left with no energy to study. However the words of one of my school teacher echoed in my mind who said “We would spend endless number of hours searching for the Gucci T-shirt that SRK wore in DDLJ even on a hot summer day but we would not study in the comfort of our home knowing that one day it will help us earn enough to afford that same T-shirt and many more things”.

This, indeed, is a fact that most of us achieve what we want to if we are passionate about it.

Since I was passionate about preparing for MBA entrance and getting in a good B-school, I started analyzing my time and the way I can utilize it to the maximum.

There after my mornings would start with a prayer and then a quick walk to the park. I prepared cards with word meanings, its synonyms and antonyms, and would read them while having my breakfast. Since I used to travel to office in a company bus, I carried a newspaper and the cards I prepared for vocab, and read both during the journey to office. For those of you who drive yourself to office; you can download some Mark Gorman motivational lessons or David Swartz’s ‘Magic of Thinking Big’ audio-book and play them either in your mobile or your car’s CD player. This would keep you motivated throughout the day. I used to listen to them while coming back from office as there was not enough light to read during my evening journey back home.

Once I was home, I did not waste much time and focused on the main topics of mathematics, data interpretation/sufficiency, logical reasoning and verbal ability. I spent on an average 2 hours a day studying these subjects. I tried studying both Maths and English on a daily basis but on occasions I would study them on alternate days.

Since I was regular with Maths, DI/DS and LR and English including grammar, RC and vocabulary; the only thing that was left was my business aptitude. Since partially it was taken care off by the newspaper readings, to get the complete insight of the business arena I subscribed myself in Business Today Magazine.

During the weekends I would read books of renowned authors, revised the topics I studied during the week and solved some crossword-puzzles and sudoku. These puzzles are important for your mental abilities.

As most management entrance exams test a person’s time management skills; I had to test mine before the D-day. A mock-CAT series is what helped me in trying different strategies for the main exam.

I am sure that this experience of mine will help you in your preparation for CAT exam. I know that people get nervous by just thinking about the exam. All I would like to mention before I sign off is a thought that someone shared with me:

‘It doesn’t matter where and who you are, all that matters is where and who you want to be’.

Courtesy: Quiz Master.

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We do that by a simple fission reaction.
Let us break the bigger set of CAT into two subsets: Math and English.
The two subsets can be further divided into smaller sets.
In case of English, identify the core areas of study followed by the thumb rules and strategies. Once you identify- the ‘whats’ of the core areas, move to the next step- the ‘hows’ of your study plan. Make a day plan-make sure that your hobby is a part of your day plan. If you love playing video games-ensure that playing video games is a part of your day plan.
I suggest that study Math and English everyday because you will not take Math and English exams separately. It is important to allocate few hours to both subjects each day. As for reading, I strongly suggest that you should not read what you love instead you should learn to love what you read. Let us summarize:

1. Break the big set of CAT into subsets and smaller units
2. Identify the core areas
3. List the thumb rules and strategies
4. Progress from the ‘whats’ to the ‘hows’
5. Make a day plan. Don’t forget to include your hobby
6. Study both subjects every day.
7. Don’t read what you love instead learn to love what you read

Dream comes true when passion multiplies!

Cheers!

Neha Sharma
CAT Trainer – Verbal Areas – Zion Education Services.
Learn for CAT; Train for life
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1) FEEDS/RSS

In a nutshell it is the dynamic (which gets created on its own) file which contains the updated content of your site. These feeds are only read by any feed reader/aggregator just like an epub can be read by Kindle. If you don’t know about kindle and epub, then no worries here are the following pages where you can do more research:

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

Though RSS is a subset of Feeds but here my motive is not tell you the technical difference but to make sure that you never gets embarrassed when somebody asks you about your feeds/subscriptions.

Take note of the image in the Resource box. This image is used more often by any site which provides its feeds. So feed is an update to read which you do not need a mailbox but an aggregator/feedreader. Well feeds got invented as people didn’t want to give their email addresses and they did not  want to visit every site daily.

Well have a look to this video in which Chris has explained what is RSS. This will help you more in understanding RSS.

2) FeedReader:

When you are creating feeds, then obviously you need one tool to read it. So feedreader is the tool whose purpose it to read the feeds/rss. Though there are large number of feedreaders in market but I have few favorites. Here are my favorite:

Desktop Feedreaders:

1) FeedDemon (My favorite. I use this application only)

2)FeedReader

Online Feedreaders:

1) Google Reader

2) Netvibes

3) Bloglines

Resources:

Full list of Aggregators/FeedReaders

Comparison of Online Feedreaders

Setup your Feeds:

I want you to follow a safer journey in feedreading i.e you should maintain an online feedreading account which should be linked to a desktop application so that you can read your feeds online as well as offline. By following this route you also get rid of the risk of loss of your feedlist once your windows gets crashed.  After all we are the people who do not want to be dependent on our PC for our data. So, I am making a small assumption and that is all of you own at-least one gmail account, if not then create one. Now:

a) Type “Google Reader” in google and press the first link in the result.

b) Login with your google account

c) Enter the site name or feed url (get when you click on the feed button/logo on any site) in the box appeared when you will click “Add Subscription” which is Yin the top left position of the webpage as shown in the figure.

5) Now download Feeddemon. Here is the download page of feeddemon: http://www.newsgator.com/individuals/feeddemon/ .

Remember: Feeddemon is an open source tool so even if you are working on an office computer, there’s no harm in installing this tool.

6) After installation you can import your feeds either from google reader or from an OPML file. OPML file is generated when you export your list of feeds from any feedreading tool. Well you need to just enter your google username and password to sync your feeddemon with google reader. I like Feeddemon due to the feature of whether I read my feeds on feeddemon or on google reader the reading status automatically gets updated on its own on both the applications.

Click to enlarge

7) You are good to go now. Your feeddemon application will looks like this.

Click to enlarge

Now I hope I have been able to atleast remove some of your doubt about feeds and feedreaders. I haven’t talked about rest of the feedreaders as it is out of the scope of this article. There is one major reason of writing this post and that is majority(more than 90%) of our users are subscribing it through email subscriptions, so I have decided to show them a new and better route. Kids are still naive for feeds, rss, and feedreader, and this article will give some idea about this new(not for everyone) technology.

Note: I have tried to cover the major aspect of feeds and feedreading but covering every aspect in one single article is out of the scope of this article. So if you have any specific query, then I am ready to lend my ears. Just comment below.Similar Posts:

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2) Adventitious :- Associated by chance and not an integral part.
Syn :- Extrinsic, Incidental.
Unique Way :- Adventitious plan for an ADVENTUROUS trip.

3) Advert :- A public promotion of some product or service.
Syn :- Allude,Cite.
Unique Way :- We adverted this problem through Advertisements.

4) Aegis :- Kindly endorsement and guidance.
Syn :- Auspices, Aid.
Unique Way :- Under the aegis of Delhi police, a safety program for AGED people.

5) Aerie :-The lofty nest of a bird of prey (such as a hawk or eagle).
Syn :- Birdcage, Mew.
Unique Way :- Aerie in the AIR.

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Vaibhav Mittal

Hello All,

How are you?

First of all I thank you all, for a great response to the last article. And special thanks to Bhuvanesh, Garima and Vipul for contributing towards helping MBA aspirants and my articles. And very special thanks to Mr.Ajay for morale boosting of all of us and his best wishes.

I am not happy, at all, from all the guys who have read the article, for I have asked in the last few lines of the article #2, to let me know how you feel after following the schedule for at least 5-7 days. NONE has so far posted any feedback on that. Shall I assume that all you guys are only interested in reading what to do and how to do and not at all interested in actually doing it. If that is true than guys all my efforts will become just the GYAN, JUST THE GYAN, and I will not be interested in writing any more in that case. Guys, as I mentioned in my post #1 that it is you, who extracts everything out of me, and not me who gives you anything/everything, you will have to start extracting before it’s too late. See, as a manager also, u have to utilize the resources which are available. Resources won’t come to you always, and tell u this is how u can utilize us (resources). Isn’t that true? If yes, then I suggest that you all start acting like managers and not as CLERKS.

Anyways, as I mentioned in the last article, I am devoting this article to Maths section of CAT.

My first question to you all is: are managers supposed to be good at Maths? Personally, I doubt. Look into the roles of Finance, Marketing, HR, IT/Systems, and Production etc managers. What has an HR manager to do of Maths except calculating salary increases? What has a marketing manager to do with Maths except analyzing the data to find out what kind of growth opportunity exists in the market? What has a Finance manager to do with Maths except thinking of ROR, ROI, WACC, and P & L.? If those are the only things required for various managers, why the hell you should study No. System, Time-work, Time-Distance, Perm-Comb, Prob, ratios, Geometry etc etc. What has geometry to do with any function of Management?

Let’s understand 1 thing simple. IIT-JEE asks for P, C, M, why, because these are the subjects which have to do something with every branch of engineering and U will study these subjects in the 1st year as well. CPMT asks P, C, Biology (Botany, Zoology), why, because these are the subject which have to do something with every branch of medicine and U will study these subjects in the 1st year of MBBS, as well. And same is true for all the entrance exams; you talk of CA foundation, Bank PO, Bank Clerical or whatever. Basically, whatever is going to be of some use to you in your future jobs is what is asked in the entrance exams. Right??

So, now the question is what’s going to be of some use as a manager to you? Is it going to be English? I am sure all of you will say, YES, for the simple reason that today business is not restricted to a particular geography or region, it’s rather cross borders and so a common language is required. Fair enough explanation of English being a part of Managerial aptitude. What else is required to be a good manager? THINK. THINK. My answer to that is COMMON SENSE, which is what is the most un-common thing these days. ‘Thanda matlab coca cola’ a simple theme developed by Coke to market their product in India. Do they use it in any other country? No. They understood one simple thing that Indians still calls a cold drink, THANDA. And they exploited this word. Isn’t it common sense? For that matter Pepsi could have been the first to think of it. Where will I invest the 500 crore profit I had in last year? Will I buy stocks, Will I put up a new plant, will I issue dividends, will I let them be idle in banks, will I buy competition (M&A) etc etc. Answer to this is, where ever I think is higher ROR for me, I will put my money there. No doubt, later I can turn out to be wrong sometimes. But then that was my perception/calculation of returns in what I invested my money. Isn’t it common sense? All the financial tools are secondary unless and until we have this basic understanding. Once we have this basic level of understanding then things like Black-Sholes model, Product Life cycle, what motivates People except money will come into picture?

So let’s go back. Should CAT be asking Maths? Answer is a plain NO. And dear friends, I after writing 13 consecutive CATs am telling you a fact that CAT DOES NOT ASKS MATHS at all. WHAT IT ASKS IS PLAIN COMMON SENSE.

Here are some examples.

Q: In rectangle ABCD, Point E and F trisects the base DC. What is ratio of Area (tri AEF) to that of rectangle? CAT 2001(if I can recall well)

Ans: How most of you will do it is: Area AEF/ Area ABCD = ½ x EF x AD / AD x DC = ½ x DC/3 x AD / AD x DC = 1/6, which is the right answer.

Now as per me that’s not Manager-Sense or common sense. How I will approach is: Diagonal AC divides rectangle into 2 equal halves. DE=EF=FC, the 3 triangles ADE, AEF and AFC have to be equal. Therefore, Triangle AEF is 1/3rd of Triangle ADC, which is half of the rectangle. So 1/3rd of half = 1/6th.

See, I have taken more words to explain, but when I am doing it in exam, I will just draw 2 lines, AE and AF and immediately mark the answer. 3 seconds job. What do u say? MANAGER’s job is to visualize. Isn’t it?

Q: In rectangle ABCD, Point E divides DC in the ratio 1:3. If area of triangle ADE is 7 sq cm, find the area of rectangle? CAT2000 (if I can recall well).
a) 28 sq cm b) 42 sq cm c) 56 sq cm d) None

Ans: How most of you will approach is: Area ADE = 7. So ½ x AD x DE = 7. So AD x DE = 14. So AD x DC/3 = 14. So AD x DC = 42. And that’s wrong.

Those of you who are cautious will not write DE = DC/3, which DE is not, rather DE = DC/4. Using that you will get the right answer which is 56 sq cm.

Anyways, this above is a Maths teacher’s approach, and not mine. My approach will be: Triangle ADE is 1/4th of Triangle ADC. So Triangle ADC = 28 and so Rectangle = 56 sq cm. And I will take 4 seconds to do it in exam.

Guys, this is how you will do, after doing the 1st question. In CAT, how actually I did was: A line drawn from E parallel to AD, say touches AB at M. Now Triangle AEM is also 7, so rectangle ADEM is 14, Which stands on 1 unit base(DE), so on 3 unit base(EC) area will be 42, so total area is 56 sq cm. Howz that??

Now, I can keep solving questions here in the same fashion. I can solve almost all the questions of every CAT in the same fashion. Guys, you may believe it or not, I take 15 odd minutes to exhaust the Maths section, typically doing things as explained above.

Now, the more important point. How am I able to do things this way? There are things which by chance, I have been doing since early childhood. I hope all of you remember some problems like A & B went to a book shop, each purchased a book worth Rs 25…………………..Where has 1 Rs.gone? Hope you are able to recollect the old problem. Typically, we after a small effort use to leave that after trying for a while. My problem was, I use to try such problems till I use to find the answer. So what’s the lesson for you? Managers are supposed to keep trying till they have the solution? Right? No, not exactly, that’s how u develops eyesight for what is missing. Once developed, that eye sight pays in long run.

Second, I solved Shakuntala Devi book, when I think, I was in 8th standard. And not like most of my students. I didn’t use to refer to solutions ever, except for the answers. Unless I had tried a question 7-10 times, I didn’t use to refer to solution. Matter of chance, I was able to solve almost 95% of the questions in those many attempts. Typically what happens with my students is, after 1 try or maximum 2, they will rush to see the answers and here u have KILLED an opportunity for ur brain to develop. What can any teacher do now?

Third, even till date, when I am not able to solve a question, I will keep thinking of it, especially while I am driving. And will you believe that formulas like ‘Product of all factors of N=a^m x b^n x c^p………..’ I have derived while driving. Hey guys, I am not suggesting that you think while driving, but then what about the time you spend in Metro or Bus, what about the time when you are waiting for ur turn a doctor’s clinic, what about the time you are waiting for a bus etc.

Fourth, I use to share the best tricks I have made with my friends. We use to debate and ended up many times in fighting and spoiling our moods. But then end of the day, we ended up making lot of shortcuts. I remember many till date, how a particular short cut was derived by us, who ended throwing full cup of tea over whom while discussing (arguing actually)? This on 1 hand helped us gaining knowledge through sharing, on other hand the tricks were memorized because of the incident.

Fifth, I use to carry a diary, full of formulae I have read in a particular class, till that date. And I use to take it out of my pocket whenever I was in bus or at doctor’s place etc.(I missed my turn at doc’s place many times, hope you won’t). This habit made me derive many formulae on my own, of which I have never ever read the proofs or derivation. Imagine if u have derived a formula yourself, can u ever forget it and the concept behind it.

Sixth, since class 9th, I have habit of writing every single penny I have spent. What I use to do was, in morning while getting out of home, I use to count the money I am carrying. And when I was back home, I use to count it again. The difference, u know, is what I have spent. I use to think where have I spent, and I use to think till I can figure out every Rs.1 spent. This made my BODMAS solid, and I bet even today you can’t beat me in calculation, calculator allowed for you, not for me. Understand this guys, CAT won’t make you multiply 3456672 with 21344289. But then u will come across 34 x 47 type of simple calculation quite often. If you know that the answer is a little more then 1200, about 1600, that usually serves the purpose. Difficult na. No, not really, see 30 x 40 is 1200. So answer is more then 1200. Further 4 and 40 is 160 and 30 x 7 is 210. So the answer is 1200+160+210=1570. I hope that suffice to all. To those it does not, they can add 4 x 7 = 28 to 1570 to get 1598. Guys, you may not believe, when I was typing, I asked my friend who was sitting on the next table, to give me 2, two digit numbers. He gave me 34 and 47 and I immediately replied that their product is 1598. He said I am kidding and he checked and was amazed to see that it is correct. So the lesson is, when you like numbers you can be fast @ speed of light. Ok ok, speed of sound. Is that enough for CAT? I believe yes.

Lastly, I can keep giving you such tips to no end. As of now I am stopping for Ansh will say, sir no more space on mbatutes for your future articles. Lolzz… Anyways, don’t start following these tips. And say it’s too much. And be where you are. We all, including me, avoid working by saying it’s too much, just that if we start somewhere, slowly and slowly, with time, we end up doing so much that in the end we wonder if it were we only who has done so much. I, in my research (which is going on) these days, counted the pages which I have studied (of various case studies) in past 10 months and was amazed to find out that I have studied more than 12000 pages. I am wondering that it cannot be me who has read all these cases. But then I can’t deny my hand writing on all these papers.

Will wait for your comments, not on the article but on your progress.

Will also look forward to the suggestions on what next you expect from me.

I am planning of lecturing now, starting next article….so what’s the topic you all want….Vedic maths, number system or what else…

All d Best. VMSimilar Posts:

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When the book is written on this years US election, it should not be titled “The Making of a President,” but “The Marketing of a President.” Barack Obama’s campaign is a case study in marketing excellence.

I would like all MBA aspirants to go through this to learn the practical application of strategies and know what it takes to be the biggest brand in the world- BRAND OBAMA.

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