Get set for you MBA Entrance

Exams!
The MBA entrance exam season is on the brink of
getting started. A number of candidates will be finetuning their preparation right now, whilst there will be
others who would be struggling to kick the inertia out
of their systems and start their preparation. Those
who fall in the latter group, should not let the lazy
voice within tell you: Be practical, its too late. Run
away from those who spread negativity. You may
come across people who may say, Im preparing for
the last one year and its not working for me or
These exams are really difficult to crack, its not our
cup of tea. Remember these are the people who
dont plan realistically or have laid back attitudes.
The basic syllabus for these exams is roughly the
same as Mathematics and English taught in the class
VII-X. So, ideally , if your fundamentals are in place
then it should take roughly 250 hours of preparation
which means just 5 hours for 50 days or 3 hours for
some 85 odd days i.e. max 3 months. However, you
need to be very focused in these 3 months and
practice religiously. Also, you need not run after
solving more and more questions, instead focus on
solving different varieties of questions and remember
the method used to solve these questions. There is a
need to master the art of solving questions using
shortcut techniques.

Having said that, a valid and essential question is:

How to plan these exams? To begin with, preparation
time should be divided into 2 phases.

Phase 1: Concentrate on building

your basics and improve your
accuracy
During this Phase, cover the basic concepts in
quantitative aptitude for all the topics. This is the
phase where you build on the basic principles and
prepare yourself for the tougher questions.
Remembering reciprocals till 30, squares till 30, cubes
till 15, and multiplication tables till 20 is a must to
increase speed.
For e.g. If the question is: After giving a discount of
9.09% a shopkeeper still manages to gain a profit of
11.11% then find the mark-up percentage?
If we know that 9.09% is and 11.11% is then this
question can be solved in less than a minute time.

Solution:
If the cost price of an article is Rs. 9 then it makes a
profit of Re. 1. Thus, selling price should be Rs. 10.
If the mark price of an article is Rs. 11 then the
discount given is Re. 1. Thus, the selling price should
be Rs. 10.
Now, the cost price is Rs. 9, mark price is Rs. 11 then
the marked-up price is Rs. 2 over the cost price of Rs.
9. Thus, mark-up percentage is 22.22%.

So, remembering reciprocals helps to save ample

time in many questions in Quant as well as DI.
Also, making an equation and solving it makes the
solution ugly and wastes precious time. So, the focus
should be on learning the art of solving majority of
the questions without using equations.
For the verbal section, set aside 1-2 hours every day
to reading. Read different genre of articles varying
from fiction to politics to science to anything. Just
build reading habit and get the mind ready for any
topic, style or subject. Vocabulary building will also
play a rational role in this phase.

Phase 2: Concentrate on
increasing number of attempts
In this phase start by practicing 2 Data Interpretation
sets (once you are through with different varieties of
questions from Percentage Module), 2 Logical
Reasoning set, 5-10 Advanced Reasoning questions
(word based puzzle, math based puzzle, Input-Output
questions etc) , 1 RC and 20 math questions (from
various topics) on an day to day basis. Try to improve
your concentration by practicing for 3 hours at a
stretch. This will help reduce concentration lapses
during the Mock Test and eventually the actual test. It
is time that you start practicing 1-2 Mock Tests on a
weekly basis and try to figure out your strengths and
weaknesses. Dont take Mocks like mock test rather
take it like your actual test mimicking the exam day
scenario.
2 months before the exam, your motive should be to
find out your strengths and weaknesses. The focus
should be on SWOT analysis of your preparation in

stage 1. Followed by it, work towards improving on

weak areas by providing exhaustive practice. One
should divide syllabus into four different areas:

A
High Speed High Accuracy
B
Low Speed High Accuracy

C
High Speed Low Accuracy
D
Low Speed Low Accuracy

Dedicate 2 days to practice questions in A and try

to build 100% accuracy in the questions from
these areas.
Dedicate 3 days to practice questions in B and try
to move them in A.
Dedicate 1 day to practice questions in C and D
to improve accuracy and try to move them in B.
In every mock that you take, try to increase your
attempts slowly and gradually. Before every mock
that you take, analyse the questions that you either
attempted wrong or didnt attempt in the previous
mock. Without that, it wont make any sense to take
the next mock. Your analysis should include questions
like:
(a) Where did I go wrong in these questions?
(b) Why did I not attempt these questions?
(c) Why am I making mistakes in these areas?
(d) Am I selecting the right questions?

(e) How many questions that I skipped were do-able?

Also, make sure that the mistakes once made should
not be repeated.

More importantly do not take 2 Mock

tests on the same day to increase
your Mock count. It wont help.
Analysis after every test is very
important in order to improvise your
scores in the next test.

Tips to be followed:
1. Admit to yourself that I will not know all of the
answers. No matter how hard you have studied.
2. If you feel nervous on a question, skip to the next
question. Dont waste time on a question that you
dont know.
3. Never panic about test. You will still be the same
the person whatever marks you get, so it doesnt
matter how well you do.

You can read the full article here: Get set for you MBA
Entrance Exams!