Test Q&As : Are you a Brainiac?

In this section, we shall explore several different types of questions from the various areas of entrance exams like the CAT, CET, GMAT, etc, and how to best solve them.

Quant

DIRECTIONS for questions 1: Choose the correct alternative.
1.  A lecturer uses a microphone while teaching. The 4.8 m x 7.2 m classroom has speakers mounted at the four corners. Whenever the lecturer ventures within 3 m distance of the corners, there is a disturbance on the speakers. What is the maximum distance that he can walk in a single direction, parallel to the longer sides of the room, without any disturbance?
1] 6 m                2] 4.2 m                3] 3.6 m                4] 1.2 m
     
AP = AB = 2.4 m. OA = 3 m. So, OP² = (3)² – (2.4)².
So, OP = 1.8 m. So the maximum distance he can walk in the same direction = OQ = 7.2 – 2 (OP) = 3.6 m.
Hence, [3].


2.  Ankit and Arpit started a cycle race from A to reach B. Arpit cycled at th of Ankit’s speed. Ankit broke some rules of the race and as a penalty had to go back to A after covering half the distance and then resumed the race. How long did Arpit take to finish the race if he won by 10 minutes?
1] 20 minutes                2] 25 minutes                3] 45 minutes                4] 80 minutes
Let time taken by Ankit to travel from A to B be ‘t’ minutes. Since, he travelled twice the distance from A to B, he took ‘2t’ minutes. Since Arpit travels at   times Ankit’s speed, he took minutes to travel from A to B.
2t – = 10                 t = 15
= 20 minutes.
Time taken by Arpit to finish the race = 20 minutes.      Hence, [1].

3.   The minimum value that the polynomial p(x) = x2 – 7x + c can take is:
1] always                                          2] , only when c > 0

3] , when c > 13                               4] always
p(x) = x² – 7x + c
p(x)   =      +  
(on completing the square)
=     +  
Now, 0 and attains the minimum value ‘0’ at x =
Minimum value of p(x) is always ,            Hence, [4].

Verbal

DIRECTIONS: The sentences given below, when properly sequenced, form a coherent paragraph. Each sentence is labelled with a letter. Choose the most logical order of the sentences, from among the given choices, to construct a coherent paragraph.

1. Chronic worriers operate under the misperception that their over-thinking and attempts at controlling every situation allow them to problem-solve and plan for the future.
   
   
2. Psychologists believe that worry, defined as a person’s negative thoughts about a future event, evolved as a constructive problem-solving behaviour.
   
   
3. The hyper-vigilance that is the result can lead to cardiovascular problems, ultimately rendering the body unable to cope properly with stress.
   
   
4. Instead their thought pattern hinders cognitive processing and also causes overstimulation of emotion- and fearprocessing areas in the brain.
   
   
5. But excessive fretting does more harm than good.
   
   1] ADBEC
   2] AEDBC
   3] BEADC
   4] BAEDC

Explanation
The paragraph is about the fallout of chronic worrying. B starts the paragraph since it defines worry and its use. Since it introduces the idea about how excessive worrying is not good, E has to immediately follow B. A elaborates on what chronic worriers do; D extends the argument and C outlines the health problems it can cause. Thus, BEADC is the correct sequence.
Hence, [3].

International education : Fact vs fiction

It is a fact that there are far too many myths about studying abroad. From costs to the getting admission to lack of information, Indian students are still apprehensible about an international education. In this article, we expose a few of those “facts” as actual fiction.

Aarti N Kukreja,
Head, Study Abroad Consulting, IMS
The Indian education trend has seen a lot of mobility since the early 2000s. Back then, international education was a realistic option primarily for the uppermost segment of our consumer class, which comprises around 3 per cent of our population. However, in the mid-2000s, the upper-middle class too received the opportunity to consider an international education, mostly at a post-graduation level, due to the proliferation of personal and educational loans made available to them.
The international education industry was worth around `27,000 crore as of 2012, and with increasing costs of living abroad and tuition fees, this figure has gone up despite a small dip in the numbers thereafter. Table 1 shows the growth from 2006 to 2012 from 1,58,215 to 1,90,055 (without UK’s exact figures.) These figures include Indian candidates who do summer school or opt for short courses abroad.

Table - 1
Indian Higher Education Enrollments in top 7 Receiving Countries, 2005 - 2012
Year	USA	UK	Australia+	Canada	NZ	China	Germany	Total
2012	96,754	NA	12,629	28,929	11,349	10,237	5,745	1,90,055**
2011	100,270	29,900	15,395	23,601	12,301	9,370	4,825	228,774
2010	103,895	39,090	21,932	17,549	11,616	9,014	3,821	253,743
2009	104,897	38,500	28,020	9,561	9,252	8,468	3,236	247,631
2008	103,260	34,065	28,411	8,325	6,348	8,145	3,217	216,516
2007	94,563	25,905	27,078	7,304	3,855	7,190	3,431	205,852
2006	83,833	19,228*	25,497	6,927	2,599	3,245	3,583	158,215
2005	76,503	16,872*	22,529	6,688	NA	NA	3,807	NA
Sources: IIE Open Doors, UK Higher Education Statistics Agency, Australia Education International, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, New Zealand Ministry of Education, China Scholarship Council, DAAD/HIS (Germany). *Inferred from percentage of total international student body **Minus UK total for 2012 +Higher Education (University) enrollments only; no VET

Table 1 shows that although the figure remained pretty much stagnant from 2009 to 2011, it suffered a slight dip in 2012 and clawed its way back up again in 2013, only to gradually increase as we enter the 2014 Fall admissions. The reasons for this are said to be multi-fold — visa restrictions (especially from the UK), Indian students appearing to opt for less popular study destinations as their country of choice, such as China, Germany and others, many students choose to get an international education right here in India in some of our top league universities. GMAT & GRE tests takers in India each year number over 1,15,000 in total (data for 2013), which inevitably shows that Indians prefer a postgraduate degree abroad in management or technical and functional specialisations. However, an estimated 20,000 Indians pursued an undergraduate degree abroad as well in 2013. This number is expected to grow by 5,000 or so each year.
Now, let’s be honest. From an average Indian family’s perspective, an international education entails a deep financial plunge into the pocket. It is probably the first real investment in that family and student’s life. This, along with the distance factor, brings in various other critical questions — choice of university without actually visiting it, capability of the student to get admission, adjustment to the new culture and environment, along with emotional sentiments of being away from home for a long while for the very first time. But for most, the biggest question is: What will happen after the degree?
Let’s tackle some of the most crucial queries faced by Indian candidates while considering their study abroad options, and bust a few of those persistent myths of international education.
Cost and ROI
As mentioned earlier, the biggest concern of studying abroad for a student is the cost, and this isn’t an independent factor. The cost of a programme depends on the brand of the institute (also known as rank), the reputation of the country the institute is in, the average salary received after graduating and the time taken to receive a suitable job. With these compelling factors in mind, let’s take a look at the most popular programme studied abroad by Indians: the MBA. Table 2 shows the programmes at top schools in various regions of the world with their tuition fees, average salary after graduation and percentage of students employed post their graduation within three months.

Table-2  - QS MBA - Elite Global Schools
Rank	School	Average Salary US$	Total Tuition fees US$	% Employed 3 Months After Graduation
North America
1	Harvard Business School	120000	112350	74
2	Stanford Graduate School of Business	129692	119100	92
3	University of Pennsylvania: Wharton	120000	119472	83
4	University of Chicago: Booth	115079	117520	89
5	Northwestern University: Kellogg	120000	118170	86
6	Columbia Business School	103453	121440	94
7	UCLA Anderson School of Management	100000	75180	80
8	Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto	89848	75000	82
9	MIT: Sloan	118406	61440	94
10	Duke University: Fuqua	112626	118000	80
11	University of California at Berkeley: Haas	97000	77096	80
12	University of Michigan, Ross School of Business	111047	116900	85
13	York University, Schulich School of Business	86587	55900	94
14	Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario	93078	78280	90
15	Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University	90000	80000	98
16	HEC Montreal	72776	14200	71
17	Yale School of Management	104147	114400	85
18	Queen's School of Business	62580	82000	80
Europe
1	Insead - France	122900	59500	84
2	London Business School	113779	97000	96
3	IE Business School	102500	59900	92
4	Oxford University, Said Business School	99000	54000	90
5	IMD	142412	63000	89
6	SDA Bocconi School of Management	95000	59000	83
7	IESE Business School	101990	93000	97
8	ESADE Business School	90400	74100	97
9	Copenhagen Business School	100031	57000	77
10	HEC Paris	109880	62400	88
11	The St.Gallen MBA, University of St  Gallen	110000	67000	90
12	Trinity MBA,University of Dublin, Trinity College	100000	38350	70
13	University of Cambridge: Judge	108736	57000	97
Asia Pacific
1	Insead - Singapore	122900	59500	84
2	IIM, Ahmedabad	66888	36000	100

As shown in Table 2, 89.45 per cent of graduates from the top 18 North American, top 13 European and top 2 Asia-Pacific business schools obtain recruitment within three months of graduation. The Return on Investment on most business schools is less than a year, according to Table 2, and the few that are over a year barely make up for it in a mere two months later. It is interesting to note that here, IIM Ahmedabad has the least average salary received in a graduating class overall, but the ROI is just a little over 6 months. IMD Switzerland, on the other hand, has the highest ROI across all business schools, since Switzerland as a country only charges tax for tuition fees to international students as well.

Scholarships
Apart from the cost, we should also consider the opportunity of scholarships with international universities. Although the scholarship scale has been tightened in the last few years, millions of scholarships go unused each year due to lack of information about them, along with the believability factor of obtaining one.
Scholarships can be of two types:
i.     Internal, provided directly by a university on merit or need basis, and
ii.    External, provided by various educational organisations for studying in particular countries or subjects, also based on needs and merit.
Universities first open their deadlines for scholarships and the regular admission deadlines only afterward. This is to motivate candidates to apply early on for the scholarships, especially the merit or needs-based candidates, so university endowments can be correctly allocated. There are usually a few categories of scholarships; many universities have leadership, team player, women in empowerment and specialisations as core scholarship essay topics, along with the merits of the application. International universities also consider the actual application as a huge factor while assessing the scholarship application. The CV, essays, statements of purpose, letters of recommendation and interview preparation all play a crucial part in obtaining any scholarship through the university directly, irrespective of the scholarship amount. The competition for scholarship is, however, unknown and usually extremely fierce.
So far, the most useful Indian website for external scholarships is www.mhrd.gov.in, which has specific links to all international scholarships (country-wise) for Indians. There are also global external scholarship bodies such as UK Commonwealth and Fullbright that promote international student scholarships, and among which there are specific scholarships for Indians as well. A list of these bodies can be found at most universities’ scholarship sections under the “not restricted by region” section.
Capability – Getting admission
Just like the myths about getting into universities in India, Indian students harbour apprehensions about their “capability” of successfully getting admissions to international universities — also a myth! However, international universities are less score-centric compared to India. They usually look for holistic profiles — they would like unique individuals with various professional and personal backgrounds to increase the diversity of their classroom. International schools are always looking to find the so-called “X-Factor” in profiles that cross their desks. Beyond academic excellence, aptitude scores and work experience (if applicable), they are interested in the core interests of the candidate outside the classroom and workspace. The highest rates of rejections in applications are from Harvard and Stanford, although this is because they receive the most number of applications across all universities. They have been known to reject candidates who are simply too academic and others who are overachievers and might not fit into the classroom on numerous occasions, but they do welcome candidates who might be less inclined towards academics, for instance, but have an instinctive understanding of entrepreneurship.
Lack of information
Despite the viral effect of virtuality, there are still two impediments, of sorts, amongst Indians: spoon-feeding and hearsay. India hits the pit of the worm-hole with hearsay, and this is a critical issue while seeking guidance for international education. Every Indian “knows someone who knows someone” who has had a certain type of experience while studying abroad, and usually they are as inaccurate as Indians still using elephant transport, locally. Lack of information as mentioned above is easily clouded by such lack of accurate information, and hence it is most important to go through proper channels to acquire information.

Information for international education is very readily available online and backed with statistics, but if that is not enough, India is filled with counsellors, to handhold a candidate through the process of an international admission. Some of the top queries students have regarding their admissions are:
i.     Eligibility of programme
ii.    Country to pursue programme in
iii.   Work-permit after graduation
iv.   Jobs available after graduation
As a thumb-rule, fresh graduates with up to two years of work experience are eligible for:
i.     Any MS programme with any specialisation of their choice
ii.    Masters of International Management Programme
Furthermore, fresh engineering graduates with up to two years of work experience are eligible for:
i.     Masters of Engineering Management
ii.    Masters of Financial Engineering
Any candidate with over three years of full-time work experience is usually eligible for an MBA anywhere internationally. Some schools even admit candidates with two years work experience. Lastly, anyone who would like to pursue a PhD has to go through the MS route in most cases with the exceptions of years of research and development experience.
In terms of choice of country and their work permit laws, Table 3 clearly depicts the duration of courses along with the time given to obtain recruitment.

Table 3: Work-permit laws post study
Country	Course duration	Work permit rule
USA	2 years	3 months to look for a job with a 9-month extension if employment obtained.  Sponsorship from employer for H1B Visa thereafter
UK	1 year	No work permit post study unless there is employer sponsorship or if the student can prove he / she is a highly-skilled worker
Australia / Canada	2 years	3 years automatic work permit and Resident Visa thereafter
Netherlands / Spain / France / Sweden / Italy / Ireland	1 year	1 year search for a job permit
Germany	1 year	18 months search for a job permit
Singapore / UAE / Malaysia / Hong Kong	1 or 2 years	Renewable tourist visas can be obtained to stay back to look for jobs

Table 3 gives rise to the question of a 1-year course against a 2-year one in any specialisation. The school of thought for 2-year programmes has always contended that these programmes are more intricate and inward learning with a probable opportunity to do an internship. On the other hand, the 1-year programme is generally considered to be an intense and advanced learning, whereby the student is expected to know the basics beforehand and brush up on them during the course of the programme.
The crux of investing in an international degree usually is seeking better employment opportunities abroad after the degree, aside from the aforementioned salary packages. The most critical learning in an international education is global employability — executing business decisions across international markets and dealing with cross-cultural environments.

Table 4: Specialisations and compensation
Specialisation	Mid-career median pay (in USD)	Projected employment increase for common jobs associated with this degree (in %)
Electrical Engineering	124,000	18
Finance	119,000	18.60
Physics	117,000	22
Computer Science	114,000	21.30
Civil Engineering	102,000	19
Information Systems	101,000	30
Physician Assistant Studies	98,800	22
Nursing	88,600	26
Public Health	84,100	30.50
Occupational Therapy	81,000	33

Given in Table 4 are the best-paying Masters’ degree jobs with their mid-career median pay and projected employment increase for common jobs associated with the respective degrees. It is imperative to understand that the average course cost for a Masters degree in the below specialisations is US$50,000, proving that the ROI is less than 1 year in the first year of employment.
Similarly, it can be seen from the chart above that candidates from various backgrounds who pursue an MBA abroad venture into the below industries pre-MBA to post-MBA.
It can be seen that fresh MBAs mostly venture out into Consulting and/or professional services. Naturally, banking and the financial sector are the second largest, followed by HR, manufacturing, IT and FMCG. Therefore, there is a realistic scope to pursue a career in the industry of your choice, along with a reasonable ROI and salary/ bonus package after pursuing an international education.
Moreover, as far as research and development is concerned, the pragmatic opportunities available to an Indian student after his graduation in India are far and few between, primarily due to the lack of foreign direct investment in India and, consequently, the absence of R&D centres across India. Table 5 shows the R&D spend by the top countries around the world and India’s own R&D. This is in direct correlation to the nature of jobs and salaries available to students in India  compared to ones abroad as discussed above. Finally, to sum up, pursuing an international education is certainly a strain on the finances of an average Indian family. One might feel the pinch of this investment and get bogged down with the myths of the apparently  unobtainable admission to an international B-school, but the facts are far too real. At the end of the day, what it all boils down to is the upward impetus it gives to an individual’s career graph.

Table 5:  A snapshot of the global R&D spend is provided below
Global countries spending billions on R&D	2009 GERD PPP* billions, US$	Share of total global R&D spending
America	437.1	38.20%
US	383.5	33.60%
Asia	386.9	33.80%
Japan	144.6	12.60%
China	142.5	12.50%
India	24.1	2.10%
Europe	280.2	24.50%
Rest of the world	39	3.40%
	1143.2	100%
*PPP - Purchasing Power Parity GERD - Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D Source - Battelle, R&D Magazine

Vocab Dose

Perils of cyber crime

Case was twenty-four. At twenty-two, he’d been a cowboy rustler, one of the best in the Sprawl. He’d been trained by the best, by McCoy Pauley and Bobby Quine, legends in the biz. He’d operated on an almost permanent adrenaline high, a byproduct of youth and proficiency, jacked into a custom cyberspace deck that projected his disembodied consciousness into the consensual hallucination that was the matrix. A thief, he’d worked for other, wealthier thieves, employers who provided the exotic software required to penetrate the bright walls of corporate systems, opening windows into rich fields of data. He’d made the classic mistake, the one he’d sworn he’d never make. He stole from his employers. He kept something for himself and tried to move it through a fence in Amsterdam. He still wasn’t sure how he’d been discovered, not that it mattered now. He’d expected to die, then, but they only smiled. Of course he was welcome, they told him, welcome to the money. And he was going to need it. Because — still smiling — they were going to make sure he never worked again. They damaged his nervous system with a wartime Russian mycotoxin. Strapped to a bed in a Memphis hotel, his talent burning out micron by micron, he hallucinated for thirty hours. The damage was minute, subtle, and utterly effective.

Excerpt from William Gibson’s Neuromancer

MATCH THE WORDS WITH THEIR MEANINGS

1. Rustler – (ruhs-ler) (n)   2. Sprawl – (sprawl) (n)   3. High – (hahy) (adj)   4. Proficiency – (pruh-fish-uh n-see) (n)   5. Jacked – (jakt) (v)   6. Cyberspace – (sahy-ber-speys) (n)   7. Disembodied – (dis-em-bod-eed) (adj)   8. Consensual – (kuh  n-sen-shoo-uh  l)        (adj)   9. Hallucination – (huh-loo-suh-ney-shuh  n)        (n) 10. Exotic – (eg-zot-ik) (adj) 11. Fence – (fens) (n) - A person who deals        in stolen goods 12. Strapped – (strapt) (v) 13. Micron – (mahy-kron) (n) 14. Subtle – (suht-l) (adj)

a.   A high degree of skill; expertise b.   An experience involving the apparent perception of something that is not present c.   The notional environment in which communication over computer networks occurs d.   A unit of length equal to one millionth of a metre e.   A person who deals in stolen goods f.   The disorganized and unattractive expansion of an urban or industrial area into the adjoining countryside g.   Not usually encountered; out of the ordinary h.   an energetic or vigorous person i.   so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyse or describe j.   Relating to or involving consent or consensus, something that is agreed upon k.   connected to, usually via wire l.   Feeling euphoric, especially from the effects of drugs or alcohol m.   Held down or fastened with the help of tethers n.   Separated from or existing without the body

Answers

1. h	2. f	3. l	4. a	5. k
6. c	7. n	8. j	9. b	10. g
11. e	12. m	13. d	14. i

MUST Read!

Since you’re planning on doing your MBA, you need to be well read, and not just on current affairs. In this section, we offer you some choices of books that will broaden your perspective, and you will find that you will never be at a loss in a discussion!

The One Minute Manager Author: Kenneth H. Blanchard, Spencer Johnson Publisher: Harper Collins Price: ₹78 Genre: Management psychology

First published in 1981, The One Minute Manager took the corporate world by storm with the simple techniques it taught to increase productivity, job satisfaction and personal prosperity. The book is a concise, easily read story about a young man searching for an effective manager. His search takes across the world, but he finds only Autocratic Managers and Democratic Managers, both of whom focus either on results or on people. Finally, he comes across an Effective Manager, who manages themselves and the people so that both the organisation and its employees benefit from their presence. The One Minute Manager is a perfectly straightforward book, simple and easy to read, but propounding profound ideas in three steps: Goal Setting, Praising and Reprimanding. An absolute must read for all future managers.

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Although it is the writing of a young woman in her 20s, The Story of My Life is a passionate reading experience that describes the life of a woman whose hearing and sight are impaired. The book goes on to describe the hardships that she had to go through because of her disabilities, and her achievements, which then seem even more monumental. Hardly unsurprisingly, there is not a trace of self-pity throughout the book, although Keller does confess to the occasional bout of frustration. The Story of My Life is a brilliant book written quite eloquently by one of the most famous women in history, someone who changed the world for the better through her life and work. Future managers will no doubt get a lot of food for thought while reading the book.

The Story of My Life Author: Helen Keller Price: ₹102 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Genre: : Autobiography

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The Da Vinci Code Author: Dan Brown Stephen J Dubner Price: ₹223 Publisher: Random House Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Although not Dan Brown’s first thriller, or even the first book featuring fictional Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, The Da Vinci Code remains by far the most famous of the author’s works across the world. The book revolves around the ultra-secret society of the Priory of Sion, which guards one of the world’s biggest secret – the location of the Holy Grail – and the attempts of the Church of Christianity to find and destroy it. In one night, the Priory’s top members are killed, and it falls to Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu to decipher the secret and protect it from the wrong hands. The most important feature of The Da Vinci Code is that it builds the story around actual, historical facts, dating back to the time of the Knights Templars. The book is gripping from page one, and takes the reader through a whirlwind rush to the startling ending. Definitely a must read.

Deciding which test is as important as the prep

With a 99.92 percentile in the CET, VARUNA KAMATH claimed the state’s 20th rank overall. Her score was a result of smart preparation, determined use of limited time, and probably most importantly, the correct assessment of which test to write. In this article, she shares her journey from the gates of Accenture to the gates of JBIMS.

My tryst with MBA entrance exams began in the final year of engineering. There were many students clear about their path ahead after graduation, but to tell you the truth, I wasn’t one of them. I simply wrote the CAT because at the time, most students had to opt between two choices – MS or MBA. I discarded MS as a choice simply because I wanted to stay in India. Also, to me, an MBA signalled a top job and a fat paycheck. However, I managed to get a 96.89 percentile in CAT, and no calls from IIM.

Previous attempts
After I graduated, I started working, with the MBA always at the back of my mind. Two years into my work, I decided to try for an MBA again. This time, I left no stone unturned. I wrote all the entrance exams, took a leave of absence from work for two months. But again, the results spelled out this – I missed getting a call from one college by three marks, couldn’t convert my interview with another, and the one call from a college I did convert turned out to be not where I wanted to go. At this juncture, I felt quite demotivated, as if things were not going my way, and it appeared as if the MBA would be out of my reach.

Mistakes in hindsight
In hindsight, I can tell that my mindset wasn’t correct. In my final year of college, I wasn’t realistic about what an MBA course was or what it would actually impart to a student. Later, however, my work experience opened my eyes and helped me realise that an MBA might not always imply a top executive or managerial position in a multinational company, but can also make you an expert in a domain of your strength. Then again, if you don’t want to remain in one particular domain, the curriculum and internships will expose you to different work patterns and scenarios, to make you better equipped to handle various roles at various levels across industries.
The second blunder I had committed was writing all the entrance exams. Now there are certainly brighter minds than mine for whom top scoring in all MBA entrance exams would be a piece of cake. Or perhaps there are those who can use six months to a year of their lives and spend it only in coaching classes, their noses buried in books and newspapers. I realised that I wasn’t in either group. If I had to take another shot at this, I would have to narrow down the universities based on my preferences, judge the exam content and difficulty, and finally decide which exam I would most likely want to and be able to crack. At this point I realised my preferences were mainly the return on investment and location. I also realised that I could not realistically think of getting a 99.99 percentile in the CAT. So this left me with the CET, and aiming for JBIMS.

The beginning of preparation
Fortunately for me, the CET was reintroduced in 2014. I started my preparation in January, as I had already taken the CET earlier and therefore only had to revise, not re-learn the basics. The most important factor here was time. I needed to manage that properly, as I could not take long vacations at this time and had to work 10 hour shifts for five days a week.
Most of what I say now can be considered as pointers by future aspirants, but please bear in mind that your preparation entirely depends on your intelligence, studying and improving capacity, and the time you have. For me, I decided to spend a month just on sharpening my Quant skills and focusing on bettering my speed, as in the CET, 200 questions need to be solved in just 150 minutes. I had always been strong in Verbal, so I wasn’t worried there. I would practice daily, for around two hours, late into the night as I’ve never been a morning person. If it got too tiring I would take a one-day break, but I made it a point not to leave off practising till the weekend. I felt having too long gaps between my study sessions wouldn’t help.

 As I practised quant, I also monitored my question solving speed, trying to keep my solving at less than one minute. Initially one makes blunders, but one gets used to the rhythm. Finally, I made sure not to get too fed up with any single area by switching to another every hour. For instance, after one hour of Geometry & Mensuration, I would switch to synonyms-antonyms (my “comfort zone” ) for another half hour and then take a break. After that, I would solve some logical puzzles for another 45 minutes to one hour (Logic for me lies between Verbal and Quant in difficulty.)

The simulated tests begin
In February, I started taking simulated (or mock) tests over the weekends, while continuing individual problem practice over the weekdays. I tried to adopt a different strategy for every mock test, so in the end I would be able to identify the strategy that would be best suited for me. For example, I started leaving tough RCs for the end, and my approach to slightly simpler RCs was to not read it completely, but look at the question and skim through the paragraphs till I got my answer, as in simple RCs, the answer is direct. I also tried to give each mock test as if it were my last. Analysis of mock tests takes a lot of time, but it helps to identify weak areas, which I would then practice over the weekdays.
In March, I could only take four days off from work before the exam. I took one mock test on each of those days, and spent the remaining time analysing a couple of previous mock tests. It helps to keep a relaxed attitude before and while going into the exam, and this applies not just to the CET, but to all others as well. Your instinct would tell you if you have done enough to deserve a good turnout, so just keep that thought in mind and don’t get stressed out.

Success, and what follows
I scored a 99.92 percentile in CET 2014 with a state rank of 20, and am waiting for the admission process to begin, though my heart tells me I shall finally manage to enter the hallowed campus of JBIMS as a student. At the same time, I still want to keep in mind that although the next two years will be dedicated entirely to the world of MBA, it would ultimately be for a job. So I would urge eager MBA aspirants to not disappear completely into their world of MBA preparations for so long that you become oblivious to everything else. I did it for around three months and I wouldn’t have for any longer than that. In addition, use your free time wisely, enjoy the time spent with family and friends, cultivate your hobbies and even join an NGO to spend time for a cause you believe in, and maintain this even if you get the college of your choice. I am still trying to.