Presuming that you are eager on this subject, let’s get to business straight away.

Here is a list of Most Frequent Interview Questions :

1 ) Introduce yourself !

9 out of 10 times, you will find this as the first question of an interview. Quite surprisingly, over 80% people aspiring for their first interview find this difficult. The basic idea behind this question is to make you feel comfortable. There is nothing tricky in this as the interviewer is giving you space to get your senses together. The most general answer to this question is :

“I am ABC, currently pursuing MBA from XYZ university. I am currently working with EFG Limited as a Developer. I am currently drawing a CTC of Rs.10,000 p.m. I have done my graduation from ….so on.”

Avoid such kind of answers as this can ruin your first impression. All these details are mentioned in your CV and there is no point on reciting same things again. Another important thing to take care off is Grammar. Avoid using sentences like “Myself Mr. ABC,…… so on.” The term Myself Mr. ABC here is grammatically incorrect. Be careful. Take this question as an opportunity to get up close & personal with the interviewer and create a healthy atmosphere for interaction. Infact, one of the earlier posts by Mr. Vaibhav Mittal on “How to introduce yourself in an Interview” will provide you a complete idea to answer this question. However, an example answer to this could be :

“I am a fun loving person, who believes in Live life as it comes. I am very fond of classical music and have acquired a professional degree in this also. Playing online chess is my favourite pastime. I believe Internet is the future of human civilization and would love to see myself as a successful Marketing Manager.”

2 ) Where do you see yourself after 5 years from now ?

Here, the interviewer wants to check your instincts. He wants to know whether you are a practical person or a day dreamer. This question is to check your planning skills. Avoid giving answers like “CEO of this organization or HOD of a department.” If you are an executive, Manager is the maximum you can attain in five years. (The designation maybe different according to your industry but the common thing is that you will be in Middle Level Management.) Some of you might be thinking of another answer i.e “I want to see myself as the best in my profile.” Be very clear on a fact that nobody can be the Best. You can only be first among equals. By giving such answers, you are reflecting that you have no vision. Rather you are happy to be the same after 5 years. Therefore the following answer can be the most suitable one :

“I would imagine myself being in middle level management after 5 years from now. “

3) If not selected today, what will be your future course of action?

This is the second check point for your practical instincts. Here the interviewer is analyzing your approach toward failures. The most popular answer to this question is – “If  I am not selected today, I will try in some other organization.”  This is an answer which can ruin the positives you have attained/will be attaining in the interview. You need not tell your worth at any point during an interview. It’s the job of the interviewer to decide how efficient you are. Avoid leaving the impression of an opportunist. The most apt answer to this interview question can be :

“I believe in Learning from my mistakes. Likewise, if  I am not selected today, I will kindly request you to tell me my shortcomings so that I can go back, work on those and sit again in front of you (obviously if rules allow) to turn my failure into success.”

4) If in case you are working on bidding for a project which is very important for organization’s growth. Will you consider bribing the authority to ensure decision in your favour?

Now it’s time for a personality test. At the first level, the interviewer wants to test your diplomacy. Be very clear that this question has no connection with your family values or principles. It’s just to test your art of handling tricky situations. Every organization wishes to hire people who can think smartly. Thus, avoid giving a Yes or No straight away. The best possible answer to this can be :

“Sir, I have been brought up in a family with high moral values. I consider my workplace as my family. If an awkward situation arises, I will try my level best to resolve it amicably. However, if it requires me to bribe someone for the well being of my family, I will definitely consider it.”

By giving this answer, you will surely sink deep inside the mind of your interviewer.

5) How many hairs on your head?

Since your diplomacy has been evaluated in the previous question, it’s time to judge your smartness. Be crystal clear that this question isn’t to create a relaxing atmosphere, rather it aims to test your presence of mind. Don’t give any vague answers like “As many on your head” or “I have never counted”. Just let them know your smartness by saying :

“As many stars in the night sky”. (Don’t forget to put a little smile on your face.)

This way you will maintain the humour as well as prove your mental strength to the interviewer.

6) What will you do when you come across a whistle blower at your workplace?

After diplomacy and smartness, now it’s time for maturity. This question is to test your character as a professional. There are many distracting people around you at the workplace. This includes all those “Boss Favourites” and “Office Politicians”. The interviewer wants to know how you tackle them. Don’t reply with “I will go and discuss if there is any personal problem with him.” Nobody is interested to share his/her personal life at the workplace. Be careful not to answer this way. Also, avoid answers like “I will complain to his/her reporting authority”. This answer devaluates your rating as a team man. Just give a simple answer :

“I will not repent until his/her activities start hampering me or my team’s productivity. If the situation goes beyond control, I will kindly bring the matter to the notice of his/her reporting authority.”

7 ) Tell me something about your previous boss.

Your personality test is now over. It’s time for professional aspects. Here, the examiner wants to analyze your track record. Be very judicious with your words usage because this is a showcase in which the interviewer expects himself to be in after 2-3 months. The most general answer to this question is :

“He is one of the best professionals I have come across. But unfortunately, I had a number of disagreements with him. He is not open to suggestions and always insists on his sayings. Infact he is one of the reasons I am leaving that organization.”

This shows that you have a malicious track record. Answering in this negative way will surely hamper your chances of selection. Another popular answer to this question is :

“He is a very good man with exceptional skills. He always encourages me to learn new things. He has helped me a lot to develop my skills and it’s he who has brought me to this level.”

Avoid this one too. Don’t overemphasize on your boss or else you will be judged as a stooge. If your boss is such an eminent personality than why are you leaving the organization? You will end up in a web of such questions. The best possible answer to this can be :

“He is an excellent person to work with. Always ready to share his experiences. I have learnt many things from him and will always count on him at difficult situations.”

8 ) Ask me 2 questions of your choice.

This is the second level of your professionalism test. Many of you may consider this as the simplest of all questions in an interview. But to your surprise, this is the most important tool for an interviewer to verify your candidature so far. He wants to know whether your answers are a result of “overnight preparation” or you actually own that sense of professionalism. That’s why you should be cautious to ask questions. Avoid asking things like “How is the incentive structure”, “What is the employee strength?”,”What will be my reporting hierarchy?”, “Can you elaborate your business model?”and one most general one “When will I get the response for my interview?” All these questions are miles away from the mind of a professional aspirant. Even talking about the business model is no less than stupidity. Whenever you come for an interview, you are expected to have already gone through the company website and other stuff. The most preferred answer could be :

“There is not much I would like to ask but if you could give me a brief idea on future expansion plans it would be great.”

9 ) Why this company ?

This is the last level of your professional test. Till now, the interviewer is almost done with you. He just wants to confirm his evaluation. I assume that nobody of you would say stuff like “As the call came from your HR department regarding an opening, so I am here.” The most obvious answer to this is :

“I think working in an esteemed organization like yours will definitely help me to evolve as a complete professional. I believe that I can make the best use of my existing capabilities in a constructive working environment like herein.”

10) Why should I select you?

Now this marks the end of an interview. But don’t conclude that you can take it easy. Rather a judicious reply can assure you a place in your dream organization. The interviewer is now completely aware of your in & outs. Now he is just enquiring if something has gone unnoticed. Thus, a little word here and there from your side and you will create a trap for yourself. Just reassess what you have said and assert only those facts. Generally people say “You should select me because I am a hard worker and will do my best to achieve organizational goals. I will prove to be an asset to the organization.” Simply avoid such replies. You have already told your worth with your answers. Don’t elaborate yourself. The most preferred answer is :

“Since you have now evaluated me on all your benchmarks, I believe you would know better if I should be selected for the profile or not. As from my side, my job is my passion and that’s a one word summary of my candidature.”

Remember that an interview is the ultimate gateway to your dream organization. If you are not amongst the few unlucky ones, your interview shall be a 20 minutes interaction with someone who will test your personality & professionalism. Each & every question will check your level & sense of understanding.

This concludes my post on “How to Crack an Interview.” I wish you can get maximum answers to your queries on aspiring for an interview. Feel free to share your opinion on any of the above points. All the questions and answers discussed are solely based on my online research and Business Communication lectures of Prof. Gaurav Vashisht (IMT – Ghaziabad).

Good Luck for your interviews.Similar Posts:

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First of all, I thank you all for showing your interest by posting your comments on my 1st post.

As I mentioned in my last post that I will be writing about ‘How to prepare for MBA in long run’, here it comes.

Lets Understand 1 thing first. People(CAT experts) say that CAT is an aptitude test. My ques to that statement is, what kind of aptitude does it check. My ans when I don’t want to ans is, It checks ‘Managerial aptitude’. What I have not told here is, what is managerial aptitude? Now, my suggestion to all is, tell me what do u think is the managerial aptitude?

What is my understanding of managerial aptitude, I will post that soon. Not posting for I want all of you to brain storm about it. BRAIN STORM: thats one of the things which makes managerial aptitude. Hey guys, so if u read all my posts carefully(over a period of time), u will understand what it is, though I will write explicitly what it is.

In this post my focus is on, what to do to develop that managerial aptitude.

So, here I a few things you should do on a regular basis(daily) not till u clear CAT but even in those 2 years and years after that.

1. Start reading DELHI TIMES. Hey, I am marketing TOI for no salary. Most of the CAT teachers will say, be away from DELHI TIMES. Guys, see it from my eyes. There is SUDOKU, KAKURO, SPELLATHON, CROSS WORDS, MIND BLENDER, LOOP THE LOOP etc. in all 7 or 8 such things. I suggest start spending time on these things. Initially you may end up spending 2 to 3 hours on these, but soon, with a little practice your time will come down to 50 minutes approx. As of now, try solving these spendng as much time as you can, per day.

2. Pick up some puzzle books. There are 3 books by Shauntala Devi. They are good. Pls note here that Shakuntala devi has not written these books for CAT and other MBA entrance exams. So many puzzles there, u may not feel that they are useful for CAT. Never mind. Since you do not know what is useful for CAT and what is not, in thise books, I suggest you better concentrate on solving those puzzles. Guys, 3 books taken together, you have to solve just 5 puzzles per day. And beware. Solutions are there at the back. DO NOT, DO NOT for god sake refer to solutions till you have tried solving a puzzle at least 5 times, on 5 different days. Just match your answers.

3. Start reading some novels. U should be an avid reader. U shud have 1 novel going, always. I know some of u hate reading novels. But then a manager has to read many reports he is not interested in. So u will have to develop this habit of reading. To name a few good novels, I will say, ATLAS SHRUGGED, GONE WITH THE WIND, THIRD WAVE, FUTURE SHOCK, POWER SHIFT, MADE IN JAPAN, BUSINESS @ SPEED OF THOUGHT, GOD OF SMALL THINGS, LEE IOCOCCA-An Autobiography, CHICKEN SOUP(all editions), THE TOYOTA WAY, ZEN & ART OF MOTOR CYCLE MAINTENANCE, DAVINCI CODE, SOPHIE’S WORLD, PRIDE & PREJUDICE are some good ones to start. For those who will start reading novels for the first time, 5 POINT SOMEONE, 1 NIGHT @ CALL CENTRE, ALCHEMIST, Books by Sydney Sheldon, TO SIR WITH LOVE, WHO MOVED MY CHEESE, 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, WHALE DONE, RICH DAD POOR DAD are some of the good ones. Typically 1 novel should be finished in 4 to 10 days, spending about 2 hours a day. For those who don’t have time to read that much, I will suggest use, ‘time of travelling’, ‘time of waiting for ur turn at doctor’s clinic’ etc., to read.

4. Read at least 1 newspaper a day. I like TOI bt for MBA prep I will suggest HINDU as 1st choice, INDIAN EXPRESS as 2nd. I suggest start with any 1.

5. Read a Financial Newspaper, daily, at least Mon to Fri. I like ET, you may start with any other as well.

6. Subscribe EPW, a weekly magazine, Economic & Political Weekly. www.epw.org. If I can recall properly, in 2004 there was a RC which was a part of one of the articles from EPW. Read THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, TIMES MAGAZINE, AND ECONOMISTS. You should read these regularly. A must for your good health.

7. Read a general magazine like Outlook, India today etc. and a business magazine Business world, business today etc. regularly.

8. Play Minesweeper. Play Chess. Play Poker, teen patti of and on.

9. Solve some puzzles on internet, average 10 puzzles a week.

10. For Grammar pick up Raymond Murphy(Beginner) and read 3 chapter a day. And read them 2-3 times till u get everything in your head. U may like to pick Wren & Martin. Ok with me. 1 Chapter a day.

11. Word power made easy – by norman louis. Read a chapter a day and follow the instructions inside. In addition, pick up any tutorials word list and start mugging up 25 words a day. Its a boring exercise. What do you say? Follow my method. Learn 25 new words of A the first day. 2nd day 25 new words of B and revise old words of A. 3rd day 25 new words of C and revise old words of A & B and so on. Revise maximum 4 old alphabets. In additon, you the tricks given here by Bhuvanesh. They are good.

12. And now the last thing, my favorite subject. Maths or Problem Solving as it is called. Don’t worry. This is the easiest subject to learn. U don’t believe me. Ohh i c…

Lets see what are people’s comment abt what i said, that its the most easiest subject to learn.

Guys, I want your feedback, not with respect to what u feel abt what I have written, but with respect to how you feel after following this schedule religiously for at least 5 to 7 days.

Happy START of your preparations…

Wait for the next post for tips on Maths…

Bye. VMSimilar Posts:

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• Everything about MBA entrance exams…#4
• Why MBA?? Why not Something else?
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Frame: In our lives we play many roles. Our roles are not restricted to job only, we are part of society we have to play family & societal roles also.

The middle way  path is moderate path between two extremes. The middle path does not mean a mid point in a straight line joining two extremes represented by points. Buddha realized the meaning of the Middle Way when he sat by a river and heard a lute player in a passing boat and understood that the lute string must be tuned neither too tight nor too loose to produce a harmonious sound.

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Yesterday I was watching ZEITGEIST MOVING FORWARD and the one word that stuck in my mind is “Planned obsolescence”.

Taking one more steps to dump stuffs qucikly corporation used one more technique called “perceived obsolescence”, to convince us to throw away goods that are still perfectly useful. How do they do this? They change the way things look.

1. Fashion is a prime example of this: It encourages us to value ourselves and others by the clothes we wear and the cars we drive, and to keep up with the current trends.

Summarizing the issue: We have become a nation of consumers, and this has become our primary identity. We buy and throw out so much stuff that we are going to create one more Himalaya of trash. Our earth has limited resources & if we will be continued with this habbit then will left with nothing for our future generations. So think before buying unnecessary items and creating waste.

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First of all, following are the various type of case studies, you may come across:
1. Finance based
2. Marketing based
3. HR based
4. Ethical Dilemma
5. Social issue
6. Legal issue

Most common of all, is the HR case. The reason for that is, that anyone can speak on HR issues without technical knowledge of HR function. And they want to give chance to everyone to speak, because without you guys speaking they won’t be able to judge you.

Now, irrespective of which type of case study has been given to you, following are the steps, I will suggest you should be following:

1. Identify the problem in the case.

If a case study has been given to you, there has to be a problem or concerns which you are suppose to tackle. You need to clearly identify this. Please note, it seems identifying problem is easy. Trust me it is at times not that easy.

Eg: ‘Excessive exposure of female anatomy should be banned in the advertisements’

Think for a minute, before reading further, that in this GD(not case study) topic what is the main concern.

Is it exposure?
Or is it excessive exposure?
Or is it females?
Or is it exposure of females?
Or is it excessive expose of females?
Or the advertisements are the issue?
Or females in advertisements are the issue?
Or is it exposure of females in the advertisements?
Or is it excessive exposure of females in the advertisements?

Trust me it’s neither of the above. When I took this GD topic, in my class a couple of weeks back, almost everyone in the class of 40 said something or other written above.

The problem/concern in the above topic is ‘Banned’ or ‘Banning’. Think over it.

2. Identify the cause of the problem.

Once you have identified the problem, your next step should be identifying the cause of the problem. Note that cause of the problem may or may not be explicitly mentioned in the case. If it is mentioned, nothing like it. If it is not, then you have to take assumptions.

In the above example, following can be the causes:
Exposure is spoiling the society.
Models are ill-respected.
Society heads are raising questions.
Laws does not allow.
Etc.

3. Work on solution.

There are two ways of doing it.
a) Work on the cause. If cause can be well taken care of, then the problem itself is taken care of. In this case develop strategies to address the cause. You should at least develop 2 strategies for this. Once primary and the other secondary.

b) Work on the problem. May be the cause is intrinsic. That means the cause and problem are interlinked, in the sense that solution to one thing gives rise to other. In this case, you will have to work on minimizing the effect of the problem or eliminate the problem working on something else but the cause. Again I will suggest develop at least 2 plans/strategies to work on it.

4. Implementation plan.

This means how are you going to implement the plan you have made. What will be the stages involved. What will be the order in which you will implement it? Etc.

5.Backup plan.

A manager has to be always ready with the backup plan. If the main plan back fires than the back plan has to be used. In a case study discussion you will only mention what is your back up plan. You need not talk of its implementation plan, reason being its implementation comes into picture only when the primary plan fails and that’s something we can’t say in discussion only.

That’s it.

All the best

Vaibhav K Mittal
CEO – Zion Education servicesSimilar Posts:

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Today, I am giving you tips on ‘How to write an effective CV/Resume/Biodata’ to be carried to GD-PI centre of various institutes.

First and foremost, Most of the B-schools give you a check list of what to bring and what not to bring to the GD-PI centre. Most of those institutes which required a biodata from you, will explicitly ask for it. And many won’t. My students ask me if they should be carrying a biodata to the institute which has not asked for it.

Answer to this is quite tricky. See, if you have a lot of credentials which you like boasting about, I will suggest carry your biodata, which carries these achievements, to the GD-PI venue. This is to ensure that they at least get to know the achievements which you have gathered in so many years. And also to invite questions on them.

Second case, if there are things in your life, in your biodata, which you do not want an interviewer to prick you on, I will suggest better don’t carry biodata in that case. I am sure I need not explain it further.

Another case, you don’t have much to write on your biodata, in that case I can say it hardly matters that you carry the biodata or not. My suggestion is better don’t carry. Why will you like someone to see that there is nothing much you can talk about, about yourself, on paper?

Another point, when I am saying above that don’t carry your biodata, Please note I am saying don’t carry it in the folder you are going to show to them. You FOR SURE should carry a biodata in every case, though you may keep it at the back of the folder or in a different file in case it’s not asked for and at the same time you decide not to show-case it.

Now, some important DO’s and DON’t OF WRITING BIODATA:

1.

Always write the biodata in reverse chronology. That means – latest first. For e.g. if you are an engineer with 2.5 years of work ex and 2 companies, you will start your biodata with work experience that too with the current company, followed by the previous company. Then will come your academic profile which will start with engineering, followed by 12th, followed by 10th. Then you will talk of your extra –curricular, that too in reverse chronology i.e. latest first. Then you will talk about the achievements/awards/certificates etc. again in reverse chronology. And lastly you may talk about your hobbies/interests etc. or may be strengths(NO WEAKNESSES in biodata).

2.

Writing a long biodata say 3 to 4 pages is a wonderful way to ensure that no one gives a dam to your biodata. In a way, you make interviewer loose the interest in you. Note that your biodata (assuming, you don’t have more then 3-4 years of work-ex) should not exceed 1 page, whatever come may.

3.

Note that biodata is a SELLING TOOL. Remember you won’t buy Ruffles lays if the packet is torn. Right. So is the case with biodata. Remember to do spell check before taking a print. There should not be any grammatical mistake or spelling mistake for that matter. And yes, you will never fold your biodata. It has to be crisp.

4.

A biodata is like a greeting card for your girl friend. You need to have a separate(customized) card for all of them. You cannot have a generic card for all of them. What I am trying to say is that you may have to do a little shuffling here and there in your biodata, depending on the institute you are going to. E.g. for XLRI-PMIR your biodata may not be 100% same as what it will be for IIMs, though in totto it will be same. What may be different is the sequencing.

This is all in all how you should draft your biodata. Here is one sample CV for your referance:

Resume – Amol 1

I welcome all the individual question you may have. You can post your questions here or can email me at vaibhav.mittal@mbatutes.com

Happy BIODATAing

Vaibhav K Mittal
CEO – Zion EducationSimilar Posts:

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This question is the most scared question across all MBA interview panels. In 1908, the Graduate School of Business Administration (GSBA) at Harvard University was established; it offered the world’s first MBA program, with a faculty of 15 plus 33 regular students and 47 special students. The mission of the program was to produce leaders and ideas that will shape the practice of management in vital organizations of every kind around the globe.  What makes an idea or a leader successful is the clarity. That is why each applicant was asked to write in their SOP [statement of purpose] the answer to the question “Why you want to do MBA?”.  Since many B-schools do not have the concept of SOP, they ask this during the interview.

But as smart we think we are, the people in the interview room sitting across the table are Smarter. Don’t forget these are the people [the Profs] who are taking interviews over the years. Some of them have career span more than the age of the certain candidates. So no prize for guessing that how easy it is for interviewer to catch fake or made up [as spoon fed by the coaching institutes] answers. And  if you are successful in doing that [first of all give yourself a pat], the story does not end there. Read ahead.

I hope I have been able to draw your attention towards the issue in the right way.  I am sure most of you still have not got YOUR answer to THE question. This is fairly okay… it is good if you are searching for your own rather waiting for someone to spoon feed you.The answer has to come from within and believe me it is going to come some day.

To help the readers about being clear about their thoughts and organize them, here are few books I would suggest that will give you fair idea how can live your dream and please appreciate that its not going to be MBA for all of you.

1. Virgin King -Richard Branson
2. Business at Speed of ligth- Bill Gates
3. Snap shots from Hell The making of an MBA- Peter Robinson
4. Alchemist- Paulo Cohelo
5. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull- Richard Bach
6. Rules of revolutionaries – Guy Kawasaki
7. Odyssey – Pepsi to Apple – John Sculley

Some of these books will give you good idea to introspect and how managers handle things at work place. In the next article I am going to suggest some more books, which will help you figure out YOUR own answer to WHY MBA??

P.S — Please share your thoughts, doubts and questions. I will try to answer each of them.Similar Posts:

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Topic-wise break-up of questions – The distinctive feature of IRMA GK section is that almost all the questions relate to the rural scenario in India. The questions in this section test the candidate’s basic understanding of all relevant issues of present day India, and ability to analyze and take a view on conflicting socio-economic goals, objectives and demands.

According to IRMA’s brochure the GK questions are mainly asked from:

1. The Indian economy and Issues relating to India’s national income and its composition; per capita income, etc.

2. Millennium Development Goals, human development, HDI and its achievement by India.

3. Issues in demography: rural and urban population, sex ratio etc.

4. Issues arising from the social and economic exclusion of large sections from the benefits of development such as poverty and inequality: poverty levels, poverty line, disparities in income, employment and literacy by rural-urban background, and gender and social groups like caste and religion.

5. Right to information; issues relating to good governance and accountability to the citizens including the maintenance of human rights, and of probity in public life.

6. Planning in India, 11th Five Year Plan-goal, targets and strategies.

7. Agriculture in India, crop and livestock production systems.

8. Approaches to rural development: basic features of target based approach, area based approach; participatory development etc.

9. Rural poverty alleviation and development programmes – goals, features and major achievements: green revolution, operation flood, land reforms, NREGA, ICDA, IAY, SSA and NRHM.

10. Institutions in rural development-policy, role and characteristics; rural banks, NGO’s, co-operatives, PRIs, corporate social responsibility.

11. Health issues including the management of public health, health education, and ethical concerns regarding health care.

12. Primary education, regional variation in the level of education, educational status of different social groups.

13. Social movements, recent legislations on social issues.

14. Internal security, naxalism, and related issues such as the preservation of communal harmony.

15. Environmental issues, ecological preservation, conservation of natural resources. This section is usually quite difficult to solve with many of the questions being based on comprehensive understanding of the recent economic and social development issues. The GK Section of IRMA is important for scoring good marks in the test as it carries 60 marks.Similar Posts:

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‘Google Lookup’ is a SpreadSheet function of Google Docs. Using this function you can find Google/Internet (pun intended) right from your spreadsheet. Tutorial Video is embeded below. It’s you who has to think how you can exploit this new function provided by Google. After watching the embeded video I chuckled and thought that – now this is the power of Tech-Age. Well, let me cover ‘GoogleLookup’ in Q&A form:

Q. What is Google Lookup?

A. A google-docs spreadsheet function which searches Internet and brings the attribute you want to find. For Eg. if you want to kow the capital of ‘India’: you will put ‘India’ (event) in one column of spreadsheet and ‘Capital’ (which is attribute) in other column header. After this you will use ‘=googlelookup(“India”,”Capital”)’ in a cell and it will bring the result – New Delhi in no time.

Q. Why Google Lookup?

A. To name a few:

For Students: create GK Sheet, Project Research, Holidays List etc.

For HouseWife: know Festival Dates, Squares & Cubes (;)), songwriter etc.

For Professionals: Know Stock Price, Event Date, Move Release Date, Capital of a Country, GK Sheet etc.

Hfffff! I think I’ve provided enough reasons of why googlelookup?

Q. Limitation of Google Lookup?

A. You can do upto 1000 lookups in a single spreasheet. Even Google’s official blog didn’t talk about it. I found it when I tried to go beyond it. Here’s the proof.

Tutorial Video:

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Answer is a plain Yes.

And, now let’s look into what’s that?

1. Speed
2. Focus
3. Consistency

O yes, these are the only things common between 3-idiots and those who crack CAT.

Intelligence, hardwork, High EQ blah blah blah are seriously not what is required to clear CAT.

Let’s understand one thing. They say CAT is an aptitude exam. Question is what kind of aptitude does it checks? And the answer is Plain Vanilla. It checks ‘Managerial Aptitude’. Now the question is what is ‘Managerial Aptitude’?

Answer to this is not plain Vanilla. ‘Managerial Aptitude’ has not got one or two things. It has several things. It includes

- Optimistic nature
- Tough mindedness
- Attitude
- Strategy formulation and using Smart approaches
- Reading between the lines/Looking beyond the obvious
- Believing that no work is big or small
- Vision(Should be 6/6)
- Time management/Time deadlines
- Always being on toes
- Being ready to help others
- Keeping nerves cool under pressure

And may be a few more.

Friends, Believe me or not, after appearing for 14 CATs in a row(1996 – 2009), I can for sure say that CAT checks nothing but what makes ‘Managerial Aptitude’.

I have a question here. Can anyone teach you any of the 11 things, mentioned above? I think NO. These are all intrinsic in nature and cannot be build externally.

But yes these things can be developed, can be polished, given that they exists, if not all, most of them. They can be developed if you guys keep three things in mind: Speed, Focus and Consistency.

You need to understand that completion is tough and so the one who has maximum speed is the one who will win.

Focus here does not mean single mindedness. Absolutely not. It rather means Keeping everything in Mind at the same time. Management means growing two blades of grass where otherwise only one could have been grown. If that is true of management, then managers need to see everything that exists. Growing two blades of grass is not that easy a job. It is possible if manager keeps everything in mind at the same time. It means utilizing all the resources that are available and optimizing their use. It means removing all the obstacles(weaknesses) that may hamper growing two blades of grass. It means doing everything else also and not waiting for two blades of grass to grow up(Do not sacrifice other things which are necessary in your life, for the sake of CAT, whether it be a cup of coffee with your girl friend, or it be watching a movie every alternate weekend with your parents). And remember that even when you are watching movie, you know what is happening to your ‘Grass’.

And doing all(What is important for CAT as well as what is important for life) this regularly is Consistency. Not getting bogged down by obstacles in your way is consistency. Not being low, when either you don’t score 99.9 percentile in Mocks or when your girl friend breaks up with you (God forbid), is consistency.

Will love to hear from you @ ceo@zioneducationonline.com or 9891638000

Vaibhav K Mittal.
CEO – Zion Education ServicesSimilar Posts:

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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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So without wasting anymore time of yours, I am giving you 2 video series of  “CAT on CAT 2009″. I hope you will follow these tips.

May be I am a bit late but majority of the CAT aspirants are giving their CAT in december; so just try to follow his tips/advice, they are seriously helpful.  Please put your feedbacks/comments below which Vaibhav will answer in person. BTW, we didn’t have the tripod due to which sometimes you will feel that the camera is shaking

You can visit our Official Youtube Channel to watch all our videos

Similar Posts:

• Online CAT 2009 Official Demo Test
• CAT 2009 Live Feedback
• CAT 2009 Live Feedback 2
• CAT is out of the Bag.
• CAT 2009 Result Site Down

Before writing this article I will like to thank Ms.NEHA SHARMA, a leading CAT trainer for Verbal areas and Academic Head – Language, at ZION Education Services, for taking her invaluable time for writing an article for our beloved students.

When I asked her to write something on verbal for our students, She said, Verbal is something any CAT faculty can talk about and there is innumerable knowledge available on net on verbal areas of CAT. She said, She wants to talk about how she(with her 1000 plus eyes: eyes of her students 100s of which make to IIMS and other top 10 B-Schools every year, year after year) sees CAT as. She said she will like to show off the reality as to what CAT thinks it is vis-à-vis what usually a good student thinks about CAT. My mentioning anything else here is History. Lets read the face to face discussion of CAT with NEHA.

||| NEHA and CAT sat for a CHAT

Let me take you back in time-the time when I first set out to discover CAT.

What is CAT? I shrugged the cobwebs of cliched definitions and combined two words as my answer: aspiration simplified. Of all the exams that I experienced including CAT, GMAT, GRE, SAT, IELTS and TOEFL-CAT was the simplest. It is because the experience of taking CAT is synonymous with the experience of studying MBA. Far from the hackneyed ‘Masters in Business Administration’, MBA is –my best attitude.
As I embarked on my journey to acquaint myself with quite an entrancing CAT exam, my mother’s words illuminated and strengthened my purpose. She always told me, ‘Neha, if the world asks for the sun, you ask for the sky.’ I think it was her way of telling me –don’t aim for the big sun, aim for the bigger sky. Consequently-I began to de clutter my mind to create space for my first rendezvous with CAT. Excerpts from the interview:

Neha: I wish to achieve you. Is it possible?
CAT: Achievement and skepticism are not compatible.

Neha: Uh-alright, how do I realize you? You are the synonym of progress, profit and excellence.
CAT: Thanks for the compliment. However, I know that I am lifeless, unless adjectives breathe life into my being.

Neha: Adjectives? Does it mean that I must study grammar to acquire you?
CAT: The logic of grammar rests in the motley crowd of expression. Don’t forget that expression is experience exhaled.

Neha: Logic? Uh- appears intricate. Do you suggest that I learn logical reasoning to attain you?
CAT: The coincidental coexistence of reasoning and grammar is delusive unless conducive. Deconstruction is closure but reconstruction is commencement.

Neha: Uh-mammoth. Do you mean that critical analysis is the only way to reach you?
CAT: Don’t you remember your mother’s words, I am sky not sun. Don’t confine me in words. I am what you will learn from me.

Neha: You are my aspiration. You must tell me the way to arrive at you.
CAT: If I am your aspiration, simplify me. Why scatter me in categories? Unify me as a process.

Neha: Ah! You are elusive, mysterious and therefore desirable. Eureka! You are my mirror. If I reflect simple-you appear simple. If I reflect arduous-you become Herculean. Since MBA is my best attitude-you are my aspiration simplified.

CAT: Ah! The music of thought plays the lyrics of heart. To the attentive-Beethoven to the inattentive- shrill.

Cultivate Skill to invent attitude-my best attitude-MBA. Combine Attitude and Task to crack CAT.

Keep Smiling.
It is still tax free !
Cheers!

Neha Sharma
CAT Trainer & Academic Head – Zion Education Services.
Learn for CAT; Train for life.|||

Cheers to all of you. Hope you learnt some lessons from NEHA SHARMA.

All the best

Vaibhav Mittal(VM)
CEO-Zion Education ServicesSimilar Posts:

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Hello students and I am back again to help you with your preparation for the CAT and other MBA examinations. This time, we will focus on how to get command over this reading comprehension, and make the mark in the competition. But before we proceed with that, there are few facts, that i would like to throw some light at , so that you may know why is it so important to pay special attention to these reading comprehension part. As we all know that the verbal section in CAT or any other exam for that matter is divided into both reading comprehension and verbal ability. But over the years changes have been observed in the pattern. Nowadays the numbers of questions are much lesser than what they use to be before. As a matter of fact, CAT 2006 saw only 25 questions on verbal ability out of these only 15 were from the reading comprehension part.  Now the point of mentioning is this , that now we have to rethink our strategy according to the changing patterns plus CAT going  online this year makes the change in strategy even more than necessary. But it’s nothing to worry about if you are well prepared.

To start with RC, you should know, first of all what topics are usually covered in these exams. For instance, in CAT, usually the RC’s are made over topics like politics, genetics, psychology, economics, philosophy, arts etc. So basically the range is wide and so the range of your reading material should be as wide. Try to read as much as you can, over various topics, in short to be put forward, you should at least have a basic idea about almost every topic. Now after this, let’s focus on the real thing, in exam there would not be much time for you to read the article over and over again, and since it would be online this time, you can’t even underline the hard words etc. So the point is , keeping in the time limit in mind, you have to do it all, consciously keep this in mind when you start reading, that you will read it only twice. The first times when you are reading it, read it with the sight of an eagle, focus on each and every word very carefully, and while doing this, try to memorize the lines and hard words virtually. As in while reading through, kind of mark the word in your brain, and remember the context in which it was used. Do the same, while going through the whole passage. Now after you are done reading with the article once, have a look at the questions, and this time according to the questions read the article the second time, and now you will realise that there are many questions solved then and there only as you would remember the answers and meaning from your first reading. And as soon as you are done with this, move onto the completion of your answer.

Now this strategy would definitely work, provided you sharpen your memorizing skills as well because its online you wouldn’t be able to mark or write anything so this the last resort that you have. And like i said earlier , memorize it virtually, by this i mean, try to imprint the lines and scene in your brain. The sight memorizing is one of the methods of learning things.

Apart from this, what would majorly help you in cracking the RC successfully, i have mentioned earlier as well. Read widely , but most importantly increase your reading speed, for CAT your average speed of reading should be around 350 words per minute, but if you haven’t achieved this as yet, there is nothing to worry , there is still time and now when you read set your target. Next time whenever you decide to grab an article, set the timer in your mobile, and decides according to your own pace that in that much specific time you would read and solve questions. This will not only largely help you to know how much you need to speedup but also it would tell you where you stand. To practise this, you can take online tests on TEST MAGIC, LearnHub, WizIQ Education, TCY Online. And there are various other sites as well. Apart from preparing with the techniques that have been told keep your spirits up and give your 100 per cent. All the best.Similar Posts:

• Tips for improving your reading speed
• Crack the CAT 2008
• Everything about MBA entrance exams #6(How can we tame ONLINE CAT?)
• What is Grammar?
• Make Verbal your Strength. Few tips!

One thing until now I have noticed that you all have neither asked us any queries nor gave any suggestion. Do I assume that you all have imbibed the skills which we were talking in the past? Ifyes then is the final skill which is very important for your preparation.

Lets see how, when two days back I was talking to IIM – A alumni Ritesh who had passed out in year 2008. As per normal strategy we used to question them what they think is better and what they had done different to bell CAT, but this time I conversed with him that when I used to prepare for Online CAT, my mode of strategy was something like equal time to all subjects. Suddenly he replied no Bhuvanesh you adopted approach which normal students think. My friends if you want to be in different league you have to different from others. Shiv Khera said “Winners don’t do different things they do things differently”. I was charged yes man I am going to get my next X – factor and that too one of the important which is directly related to preparation. At this moment of time students need something worthwhile to adopt. Friends he named this strategy “Linear Approach”. He told me that today also I used to teach some students & you know how I ask them to prepare. I said how I can know; you just started telling your unique strategy. He replied you have good sense of humor. Ritesh jokes apart let’s come to serious business. I ask them to become mad after one thing. I don’t ask them that give equal time like most of the coaching institutes say. For example I asked my students to give only 15 days for DI preparation. I was astonished; we give whole one year with little time on a daily basis for DI, but at the end of the day we aren’t able to get competitive scores in DI. He asked try out, I said practice 10 sets of DI for 15 days. Then you must have practiced 150 sets by that time and pick any paper for DI and check whether you are still able to clear the cut offs or not. I got his method, if you are running exhausted so much in a particular technique that even you don’t have to revise that particular technique again. Same for the Quant or Verbal section if you fear No system/Geometry practice No system/ Geometry for 5 to 10 days. Do you think practicing these topics for 5 to 10 days are you going to leave any good concept or question in the market. No simply because allotted time is more than that & you will going to achieve best state what you people can never think off. Same in the verbal if you fear Para jumbles or FIB’s then practice them for 5 to 10 days. After practicing them for couple of days you can cover at least 500 Q’s. Still you think you need more practice. Yes friends after that you also don’t need any test series also to compare yourself with others. If you think you have done your homework with honesty then you will come out with flying colors.

Friends don’t forget to use linear approach, see in 15 days we can cover 1/3rd course of CAT and only two sections to go and what do you think how much time still you need. Two months more or 3. Those have started their preparation just now, do not have to panic they have good time to bell one of the easiest exam. Hats off to Ritesh who has given good strategy to follow at the moment of heat & especially for students who are worrying so much.

So friends don’t forget to read last article for X – Factor next week which can actually topple your personality upside down & will make you worthwile to speak in front of crowd. Do give your valuable suggestions in the form of comment so that we can know whether we’ve been able to fulfill your needs or not.

Thanks…………………………………………………………..Similar Posts:

• X – Factor – 1
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I am back once again. And keeping fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong this time & I keep writing regularly, now on. Please pray to god.

Hope you understood already what I am going to talk about. We all know CAT is going to be an online exam this year. How much successful an exam it will be, I will tell you that on 8th December. Successful in terms of the smoothness in exam being conducted.

Anyways, what shall we prepare and how shall we prepare.
Let’s understand one thing; whether it be an online exam or it be a paper based exam, for sure it checks certain qualities in an examinee. These include managing time, keeping nerves cool under pressure, visualization capabilities (which are checked through a particular set of questions), reading between the lines, looking beyond the obvious, strategy formulation and using smart approaches, optimistic nature, tough mindedness etc.

And believe it or not these are the qualities which are checked and may be some more. Believe it Maths and English are just the means to achieve the end. They are not the end.

Now, Lets understand some things. When you will be writing an online exam you will not have an option of circling the relevant information in the paper, that’s one. Two, you will not be having the facility of crossing the options which you think are for sure wrong. Three, though you will be allowed to move forward and backwards(at least I feel so) still its not convenient to move forward and backwards as much as it is on a paper-therefore your strategies of doing easy first and difficult later may go for a toss. Four, in RC area you are in a habit of underlining a lot, which you will not be able to do in an online test. Etc etc.

The good part is that you will be allowed to use some plain papers as rough sheets(that’s again my thought. How many papers they will allow I will tell you on 8th December). Now here comes the rescue strategy. I suggest as soon as you have rough papers in your hand, make a chart saying question no., option 1, option 2, option 3, option 4 and option 5. Example is here:
Q No. Op 1 Op 2 Op 3 Op 4 Op 5
1
2
3
4
5

Here showing horizontal and vertical lines is really not important till you keep everything vertically straight.

Now, assuming you have done this, u can start the test. But wait. On another sheet write RC 1. Para 1, para 2, Para 3 and so on AND RC2. Para 1, para 2, Para 3 and so on. Example:
RC 1
Para 1
Para 2
Para 3

RC 2
Para 1
Para 2
Para 3

RC 3
Para 1
Para 2
Para 3

Now you are ready to start the test.

How will you use what you have made? See, Sheet 1 will be used to cross the wrong answers whenever you are very sure of. Not just that, it will also act as a record of what’s the answer to which question (in case something goes wrong with the test and you have to restart it, god forbid). Please note I have personally used this sheet in many online tests and have monitored 1000s of my students doing same in many type of online tests including GMAT/GRE. And it reduces a lot of tension of students.

Now the second sheet. See any RC passage will have 4-8 small paragraphs. If you can write the jist of those small paragraphs in a line or less then that nothing like it. If you can’t, then I suggest write the line no. in that para which you think is the most imp. Doing only this will be a good boost up to you when you will actually start solving the questions on DI. One these pointers will help you locate where the answer is. Two they will remind you of the direction in which the RC is flowing. Three you will get a better hang of RC then what you use to get.

This much only for today.

I have a request. If you guys can tell me the topic on which you want me to write next, that will be a great help, as most of my time goes in figuring out what to write on.

All the Best

Vaibhav Mittal(VM)
CEO-Zion Education ServicesSimilar Posts:

• HOW TO CRACK A READING COMPREHENSION of Online CAT
• Everything about MBA entrance exams…# 3
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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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I am new to MBA tutes and before I start writing anything, let me introduce myself.

I have been training students for CAT, GMAT and other MBA entrance exams since last 13 years and till date I have trained about 20k students.

I have been associated with some of the universities in Delhi as Guest Faculty, Have also been associated with some CBSE affiliated schools for NTSE classes, have also been associated with a few B schools in Delhi as Guest Faculty and in last 13 years have been associated with alomost all the branded MBA coaching institutes for a decent number of years.

About my academic background, I am M.Sc in Maths + an MBA, currently doing research in management areas. In my days, off course, I had IIM calls, XLRI call, FMS & IIFT + a few more(I don’t remember now..).

O ya, something of your interest, I have appeared myself for last 13 CATs and have scored 99.99 percentile and ya, scored a perfect score in GMAT too, recently…

Why I am here? Interesting question…

Answer is plain vanilla. Been training students for CAT etc., I could not resist my temptation of helping students across India and not just in Delhi, When Ansh asked me to share my experiences, here…

He asked me to share my experiences of teaching students, the difficulties which students usually face when it comes to Maths(PS), English, DI, LR or it be GD-PI preparation..I thought it will be an easy job for me, but Ansh, being a DCEite could not see me happy, made my life difficult by asking me to share my personal experieces since I appear for CAT every year and in addition he asked me to share what goes in my students when they are preparing. What kind of ups and downs they go through, while preparing for CAT, not just that, what happens in those 2.5 hrs, which decides the fate of an individual…

I agree, I have a lot of experience but then I am kinda scared as to explaining everything just by typing, without speaking, without seeing a student….

Teaching in a class, I think is pretty easy job as there are so many students sitting to extract every thing from a teacher. So in a way, I don’t give anything to the class, rather students themselves take what they want, and it just comes out automatically…

Ansh said to this, that here also students are going to extract the same way, except that i won’t be able to see their faces and so will they.

So, here I am, with you all, for you all….

And here is a plan to start with…

Next Post of mine I will talk about ‘How should one prepare for CAT, in long run’. By long run I mean given a 7-10 months preparation time which is what I believe is more then sufficient to crack CAT.

Gradually I will look into How a B.A. English Hons can crack CAT or XAT Maths, How a B.E./B.tech can crack CAT/XAT English…how a person scared of water can learn swimming, ohh sorry, these are not How to swim, tips, these are How to prepare for CAT tips….

I meant that only, one who is scared of Maths, how can he/she learn Maths, same for those who are scared of English…

And trust me, Cracking CAT is a game, just a game, which you can be 100% sure of winning, if you play it with the game spirit. If you take it as an exam, for which tonnes of studies are required, then sorry guys, I won’t be much of help. Let’s play the game. Remember, game is for fun. We play it for we love it. We play it to win, we sometimes play to lose as well. So, if you love it, be ready to understand the rules of the game…

All the best to all

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