Monthly Archives: August 2007

Applying to IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade) New Delhi

As you know already, that I am thinking of applying to IIFT this year. So, I have to hurry and get the application form filled as deadline is nearing. I checked the official site of IIFT
which of course I liked. haahaa not because I am applying there… honestly I am more used to homepage of US MBA programs & it’s very different from them. Simple-Light and Plain!
No flashy pictures and no fluff. Yeah I agree that those flashy homepages look cool and sleek.
This however is much coarse.
I read all instructions and I realised that I HAVE to make a demand draft first and then check with rest of the application.
A demand draft of Rs. 1330 for general candidates and Rs. 700. for minorities/ and if you are a foreign candidate or NRI(non residential Indian)/ NRI-child you’d have to pay $75 for applying.
Couple of days back I went to town to the Bank for DD. But as usual seeing jammed packed (crowded with people ) bank was real turn off. The bank is going through major transformation and so is very troublesome lately. It was obvious that it’d take me at least four hours in queue standing 😯 to get the DD. So I chucked the whole plan and came back empty hand.
…Actually this was a wise decision as we have sub-branch of it in our village which hardly has any transaction. I submitted my DD form to the sub-branch & I got the DD next day!
Cool isn’t it! I didn’t have to wait for it standing for four hours.
I was not in hurry so I could afford this.
Now that I had my DD in my hand ready. I again checked IIFT site to apply online…
applying was easy but it said that you should have a printer ready to take out the print of your application which then to be sent to IIFT.
haahhaa & my printer is in my home town so right now I have just copied it for printing it from a stationery store or cyber cafe tomorrow.
Once I take the print out of the application form, I’ll have to send it to IIFT along with the Demand Draft.
I got to keep a close eye to all deadlines:
One thing I like about the website is as soon as I applied online they gave me access to my page through which I could track important informations like deadlines
so here’s a sneak peek’
:

1. Last Date for Sale of Prospectus by post: 20th August 2007
2. Last date for Sale of Prospectus across the counter at IIFT: 3rd September 2007
3.Last Date for Receipt of completed Applications: 3rd September 2007
4.Written Test: 25th November 2007
(10 am–12 noon)

hmm interesting! they haven’t mentioned about he Group discussions and Personal Interview dates… I think that should be around January-February 2008.
And for my own record: I am writing the test pattern that is mentioned on the college website verbatim

The admission test is a multiple choice objective type written test (in English). Duration of the test is two
hours. It will cover English Comprehension, General Knowledge & Awareness, Logical Reasoning and
and Quantitative Analysis.
THERE WILL BE NEGATIVE MARKING FOR WRONG ANSWERS.

I used to be good in General knowledge once… haahaa ages back.. guess I’ll have to again start reading pink papers .

Thinking of Indian MBA…

Dont look around, you are right. It’s me. Yes! aim-wsc is thinking of applying to some Indian MBA programmes this year!
surprised? yeah! even I am as surprised as you’re!
I think I must clear this haze around aim-wsc a bit…(OK may be I’ll write an introductory post soon.)
…that’s not the purpose of posting this article… today however, I’ll just talk about my voyage to various Indian MBA programs.
Now you might ask which programs am I thinking of: IIFT. IIFT & IIFT. Right now it’s the only one college I am thinking of applying but soon I’ll reach to some concrete decision.
FMS New Delhi, SP Jain, IIT SOM Mumbai are some of the other colleges I am thinking…
Now the obvious question arises: Why IIMs is not in the list… well for some odd reasons I don’t want to apply there… (not like sour grapes 😉 Yeah I know it’s not in my stretch and even if it would’ve I wouldn’t apply there…)
I’ll check it up with PaGaLGuy Forums but surprisingly I get more hits @ CoolAvenues when I searched about any MBA program in India on google… seems they are doing better with SEO and the stuff.
So I’ll check CoolAvenues site too…yeah I should not forget that this site is commercialised even before PaGaLGuY forums/ portal started. Anyway all I need is some information about these institutes which I would use to make a decision whether to apply to their programmes or not.
Well most probably ( according to my instinct) I wont be apply to any of other Indian or international MBA program this year. So it’s gonna be IIFT only.
But I’ll surely come up with some good reasons for the decision that I would make.

Strategy for GMAT : study under a month.

The general answer for EVERYBODY :
PREPARATION for GMAT: STRATEGY for 30 days schedule:

[Here’s quick-n-dirty article about ‘study under a month’. Many people have aced the test by just 3 to 4 weeks of study. If you’re in time crunch, dont worry! by using right approach/ method you too can ace it.]
I presume you have sound knowledge of: all areas that GMAT tests; how GMAT works; what is its structure etc…
I assumed this because you generally register a date at least one month before. (if you’ve not, you should. …at least this is what I recommend! The early you book a date, easier it will be for you to plan a killing strategy). Lastly, of course, I assume you do get acquainted with GMAT before sending them your credit card number!
So you’ve thirty days. or let’s say, just four weeks!
Since it is much short period than ideal period to study for the test, you might need to compromise on few study materials which are not significant to you.
e.g. If you’re weak in verbal and Math is your strength you should devote more time for verbal (obviously! )
Coming to materials:
GMAT official guide 11th Edition is must:
Purchase the book immediately if you haven’t already!
As they suggested in the OG (official guide), ‘start with the diagnostic test’. Know your weak areas and know your strengths.
Repeat diagnostic test next day to see how awfully you score. Do meticulous analysis (let’s call it MA here onwards; I’ll come to it in next paragraph.) about your test/answers.
OG 11 has labeled/classified each question (which is great!). Use these tags in the future prep too….know which question belong to which category.
My definition of MA (meticulous analysis) and when & how to apply it:
While practicing GMAT problems I advise to solve at least 35-60 questions in one stretch. GMAT is more about mental stamina and patience! The real test is FOUR hours long and it tests your endurance like no other online test. 40-60 questions assures that you can sit at least for an hour at one go.
Make a table, on spreadsheet (on your computer) or on paper, of no. of rows you’ll be taking questions. And write details about how you feel about each question. This should be done while you’re doing the questions. So dont spend more than 2-3 seconds on filling the table (you can tick on pre-defined columns that will save your time). It can be used as a future reference for your study: the table should enable you to quickly realise your problem areas and which type of questions you require maximum amount of time. One session of this sitting should at least be of 35-40 questions; be it from any section: PS, SC, CR, RC or DS. (…maybe I’ll put snapshots of table if you’re still confused, please remind me at my blog )
 Same amount of time you should spend in reading explanation and analyzing each answers as the amount of time you spent in answering these questions. If you got many questions wrong, increase the analysing time.
Coming back to books and materials:
You can refer basic math books, college algebra or high school grammar books to brush up your verbal and quant skills if you really wanted. But with given time constrains like “GMAT in a month” I think I would instead stick to GMAT materials. If you study smart you, over the time, would know that GMAT asks particular type of questions; and they just love to ask them that way 😉 You’ll be familiar with GMAT style if you solve more OG problems.
Refer to Official guide 11.
Check the math section of the book. Read it (~10 hours?) and re-read all its theory to know the syllabus of GMAT right. Don’t end up studying subjects that are not tested in GMAT.
Download GMAT Prep software for simulated CAT from mba.com. It’s free!
There are many other sim CATs (simulated Computer Adaptive Tests)� that you should purchase.
Check out the article to know more about these sim C A Ts
You can finish OG11 in 5-6 days (Yes you can! but you shouldn’t). Many folks I know finished it in a week (I too did it once-just for fun); but that is not the right strategy. Since the time is short you surely can compromise on other books but not on OG11.
The problems in OG 11 are arranged in ascending order of difficulty. That means, you get harder (/upper range) questions at the end of the problem sets in each section. However problem types (categories) are mixed throughout the sets. This makes many things easy in setting a study schedule. You know your level and can begin the OG accordingly 😉
They say OG11 is a bible of GMAT! Solve as many as problems you can; examine the answers carefully do the ‘MA’ as suggested above. Make Analysis chart.
Try to go through OG 11 twice in the month. (Since I’m not suggesting any other book along with OG, I think its possible to do this.) Check your progress regularly. Once you finish OG for first time you’ll get idea of how many day it’ll take to you to study one more time! If you think you have more time left you should check with other two official guides
OG Verbal guide
and the OG Quant guide.

These new two official guides, (also known as purple and green guides,) are
published when GMAC stopped the production of OG 10th edition. While new
problems are in OG 11; purple and green guides give you lot of repeats from OG
10th edition. Therefore it is wise not to buy these two books iff you already have OG 10.

Three official guides (along with the sim CATs ) are enough for a month study!
Usually, I suggest to take as many simulated CATs as possible. Practice them periodically; say, one in three-four days.
Practice tests play very significant role in your preparation. You’ll need four hours to solve each of them and two more hours to analyze them.
Since they are Computer Adaptive tests you get only one question at a time and at times, you become curious to know your score and you hurriedly complete the test. (just to know where you stand and see the answers) Needless to say: dont do that 😐 While these CATs are especially created to gauge your performance for actual GMAT, I see practice tests purely for practice. These tests hone your endurance, mental stamina to face four hour long real GMAT test! The tests are time consuming and drains your energy and hence you should keep special period for these CATs in your schedule. Be ready to spend ~6 hours for a test. Keep your cell phone on silent mode. Don’t start the test at 10.30 in the night: I know most of you out there are owls 😀 but it really not going to help in your real test. (You cant take the real-McCoy in the night, right? 😉 In fact, once you know your test times be sure to take these practice tests on the same time of the day… say: start your test everytime on 1.30 pm if your real test is scheduled on 1.30 pm of the G-Day!
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I think this much is enough!
If I receive any comment I might add something you wanted.
To sum up the article I can say:

  • Eat OG 11.
  • if time permits study OG verbal and quant
  • Eat OG 11 one more time
  • GMAT Prep : the official computer adaptive practise test for GMAT
  • Plus other CATs

Note that I have not set any particular order in this you should all of it simultaneously.
Hope that helps everyone who is in time crunch.