About the Author:
Shrishti Chowdhury (M.A. HRM & LR, TISS, Mumbai)
MA: What inspired you to prepare for MBA admissions? Please give a small background of your education and career?
Shrishti: Ever since I stepped into the corporate world, I was fascinated by the work people did post their MBA. Coming from an engineering background, and getting to work in a manufacturing firm, I got great exposure to their day to day operations. But I wanted to dive deeper into management roles. That’s when I decided to go for MBA.
MA: How did you begin the preparation; did you have a strategy or plan for the upcoming months before the exams?
Shrishti: I began my preparation by learning all the concepts, diligently giving mocks, and analyzing the results every weekend. I made it a point to practice all the sections daily. Since I had to manage my office work alongside, I tried to put in at least 4 hours every day. Practicing RCs, solving DI-LR sets, reading articles became a part of my daily routine. Since one needs to stay up to date, especially to crack the GK section of TISS NET and IIFT, I used to go through my GK modules during my office hours, commute, or any free time that I could squeeze out from my hectic schedule.
Also, I had a great mentor, who kept giving feedback and helped me revise my strategies. It took a long time before I started performing well in my mocks. Only patience and thorough analysis is the key to scoring well in them, and therefore, do well in exams.
MA: Which were your strongest and weakest areas? Did you focus on bettering your strong areas or worked to improve your weaker ones?
Shrishti: I felt that the QA section was my strongest area. With practice, I had started enjoying this section. I was moderately good in the VA section, but my scores used to fluctuate with every mock that I gave. I put in extra efforts to stabilize the score and gave sectional tests every day from a month before the exams, to get better at managing my time and improving sectional accuracy. DILR section was my Achilles heel. I worked hard to improve my accuracy, and the ability to handle various kinds of sets. Sectional tests were the best way forward for that. I preferred the past year's CAT papers and coaching institute mocks tests for sectional tests.
MA: Can you share some of your exam and interview experiences at B-Schools?
Shrishti: I have two specific experiences I would like to share :
From Exam:
One particular incident that I’d like to share, is that after a week of tanking my CAT, I had my IIFT exam. I had entered the hall with a specific strategy in mind, regarding the order of sections. No sooner had I started to attempt the LR section, I realized that it’s a bit time taking and lengthier than usual. I remember panicking in the middle of the exam, and thinking that I had lost another chance. But I gathered my senses, and changed my strategy, attempted the DI section first, and some more of VA. When the exam got over, I realized that I had done decently well. Fast forward to January, I got the interview call and dived into interview prep, eventually getting an admit from IIFT Delhi.
The moral of the story is that you should not give up! You are in the game until the very end. Just have faith in yourself.
From Interview:
I had begun my preparation for the second phase in January itself and went through several mock GDs and PIs. During the college interviews, I came across various questions related to my goals and aspirations, academic and professional background, my learning over the years, my opinions on the current affairs, some situational questions, and of course, my reasons to pursue an MBA.
The one thing that I learned here was never to underestimate yourself. I had never thought that I’d be one of those 68 people who make it to the prestigious HRM & LR program at TISS, but I managed to reach here. One needs to trust the process; things will turn out just fine.
MA: Any tips for the 2020 aspirants?
Shrishti: Keep practicing all the sections by giving sectional tests daily, which helps in time management, and give a full-length mock test every week. Focusing a bit more on building your vocabulary can prove to be useful since it not only improves comprehension, but some exams have direct questions on that.
The process can be tough, and a bit overwhelming quite a number of times. But it’s equally rewarding. You need to hang in there and enjoy this phase, because it is surely going to be a great experience, and you will turn out a lot better.
All the best!
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