MBA Mania

Faculty of Management Studies(FMS), Delhi – Interview with Prachita Pujari, FMS Delhi

Thursday, April 01, 2010 By CoolAvenues Editorial Team

Background

Q.Can you tell us something about yourself and your pre-MBA qualifications and work-experience?
A. I’ve done my B.Tech in ICT from DAIICT, Gujarat. I graduated in 2007 and then joined Infosys where I worked for 20 months.

Q. So when did you decide to go for MBA?
A. I seriously started studying for MBA in my final year of engineering and I prepared for CAT for 3 consecutive years before I finally made it through to FMS.

Q. Will an MBA degree add on to your existing career plan or did you decide to switch/start a career in management?
A. I’ve decided to switch to a career in management.

Q. Which MBA institutes and programs you identified for your MBA?
A. CAT, XAT and FMS.

Q. Your present B-school and programme. Also specify your Batch.
A. FMS, MBA (MS), 2009-2011.

Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation

Q. What was your first step to start preparation for getting into the B-school of your choice?
A. Joining Aimcats in June – July.

Q. When did you start your preparation?
A. After joining Aimcats in June or July 2008.

Q. How many months and how many hours daily did you devote for preparation to entrance procedures?
A. Months – 6, hours – 1-2 hours daily.

Q. Did you take up some coaching institute or you believed in self-study?
A. I joined the test series. For the preparation, it was self study.

Q. What was your experience with coaching?
A. I took coaching in the first year I gave cat. It was fine, helped to brush up skills.

Q. What are the others books and tests that you used for your MBA preparation, besides the study material provided by you coaching institute?
A. I used only the material provided to me by the coaching institute.

Q. Can you tell us which are your favorite books, books that you used for preparing for entrance, books for self-development and books for pure relaxation?
A. I used to read magazines.

Q. What was your strongest and weakest area while preparing for MBA?
A. Strongest – LR, weakest – quant.

Q. Some tips which you used for mastering Quantitative Aptitude, Reading Comprehension, etc.
A. Regular practice.

Q. How much time did you put for MBA preparation everyday? In case you were working, how did you manage this preparation while working full time?
A. I used to come home from office and then prepare for 1-2 hours everyday.

Q. Which all Exams and B-schools you applied to?
A. I applied to IIMs, MDI, FMS, XLRI (BM).

Q. Your present B-school and programme. What made you opt or this particular institute and programme?
A. FMS is one of the top ranked institutes in the country.

Q. What procedures your school has for admission to its MBA program?
A. Written test, GD, PI, Extempore.

Q. What is the range of score for students who are admitted in your B-school?
A. More than 98.5 percentile in written FMS exam.

Q. What was your score?
A. 98.6 percentile.

Q. Give some handy tips regarding the MBA written tests that would be of great help to MBA aspirants.
A. Regular study and practice, calm mind in the exam.

Questions related to Group Discussion / Group Exercise

Q. Was Group Discussion or Group Exercise part of selection process?
A. yes, Group Discussion.

Q. What was your GD topic?
A. A topic related to WTO and its relevance.

Q. The duration of Group Discussion, size of the group, number of panelists, etc.
A. 10 minutes, 10 people, 5-6 panelists.

Q. Were there any set norms of Group Discussion?
A. One person had to pick up a chit and we would get a topic corresponding to the number on the chit.

Q. Do write a brief about your Group Discussion experience.
A. There were 10 members in the GD. One of us was asked to pick up a chit, the number on which would decide our topic. We were asked to discuss the relevance of WTO. It was a civilized discussion with everyone getting 2-3 chances each to chip in with their points. The duration of the GD was 10 min. The content of the GD could be rated as average.

Q. How was the environment during discussion?
A. Calm and composed.

Q. Describe your impression of your team members and overall GD process?
A. The group was very knowledgeable though it did not turn into a fish market. Everyone got a chance to speak.

Q. How would you rate your performance in Group Discussion?
A. 6/10.

Q. Areas where you could have performed better in your Group Discussion?
A. I could have added more relevant points.

Q. Give some handy tips regarding Group Discussion or Group Exercise that would be of great help to MBA aspirants.
A. Speak about 3-4 times, be concise and try bringing a different perspective to the discussion.

Interview-related Questions

Q. How did you prepare for the interview?
A. I brushed my technical skills and read up on my general knowledge and areas of interest/hobbies.

Q. How many interview calls did you get and from which institutes? How many and which ones of these could you actually convert to a Final Call?
A. 2 calls – FMS MBA and FMS MBA (MS). I converted FMS MBA (MS).

Q. Date and location of Interview. Were you given the option to choose? Was the interview date fixed or rescheduled couple of times. Was the interview venue changed or scheduled as per your convenience?
A. 19th March, Delhi. No option was given, the interview date was fixed and nothing was changed for our convenience.

Q. Can you tell us about the panel that interviewed you?
A. There were 5 members on the panel, all of them faculty members of FMS. There was one elderly gentleman who asked most of the questions. The rest of the panelists were observant.

Q. How long was your interview?
A. 10 minutes.

Q. What kind of questions were you asked? Were they specific to any particular area?
A. Questions were asked related to my hobbies and to the services sector.

Q. What was the first question? The most interesting question? The most difficult question?
A. First was the extempore, then question on hobbies and interests. Most interesting question was if telecom was a service or a product. This was also a difficult question to be answered.

Q. While facing the panel, were you confident, did you feel prepared?
A. Yes I was confident and felt prepared.

Q. Write a brief about your Interview experience.
A. The interview started with the extempore. I was asked to talk about “being tall” for 1 min. I was asked to stop after the minute was over. One of the panelists had my form in his hand and he was reading through it and asking questions related to my hobbies. Then came the technical questions regarding open economic policy, license raj, single window, difference between a product and a service, and questions related to telecom as a service provider or a product. The interview lasted for about 10 min.

Q. Was any feedback given to you? What feedback did you receive from the panel at the end of session?
A. No feedback was given.

Q. How would you rate your performance in the Interview?
A. 5/10.

Q. Areas where you could have performed better in your interview?
A. I could have given better extempore and answered questions in a better manner.

Q. Give some handy tips regarding interview that would be of great help to MBA aspirants.
A. Be calm and think properly before answering. Be concise and don’t wander into uncertain territory.

After Joining MBA

Q. Were you able to get the school of your choice or did you compromise and opted for the best option that was open/available to you?
A. Yes I was able to get into the school of my choice.

Q. Did work experience help in getting the choice of your school and also in dealing with the curriculum?
A. Not really.

Q. After joining the school, did you ever wish that you should have known certain more things about the school before you became part of it? What are these ?
A. No, it is what I’d heard it to be.

Q. What are the toughest area to handle in your studies?
A. Accounting.

Q. Which one is your best subject?
A. Marketing.

Q. Is there stress level during studies?
A. Yes.

Q. Who is the best faculty?
A. The dean, J. K. Mitra.

Q. What’s the best and most admirable feature of your institute?
A. It’s a completely student run institute and the most admirable feature is that it is part of Delhi University.

Q. Scope of development in your existing curriculum.
A. NA.

Q. Getting into and sailing through a B-school is easier for a Science graduate than for someone from Humanities background. Your comments, please.
A. No, it is nothing like that. In fact, humanities students have a better chance in terms of adding diversity to the batch.

Q. Tips for those who wish to do MBA from your school.
A. Work on your communication skills and learn about answering spontaneously.