iim A iview and gd

[murireads]

hi all

i have got over the first one today..the biggest of them A
really went well... i think i cud say tht... really got the impresiion frm all de feedbacks of fellow iviewees tht the panel had decided tht these guys r gud so lets test them and c if they have got any major defect. very cordial atmosphere ( the panel even offers biscuits)

gd- a case study of a woman with 2 daughters ( one married and one in 10th) given the option of upssclaing her existing pickle business by a voluntary orgainisation who is ready to give her a grant and a loan.we were given 5 mins to read and 20 mins to discuss.they indicated when to start and stop etc.

lots of numbers involved in the topic and had to do work out som figs.
but gd was real cool wit every guyin comin out wit points and nobody really takin charge..we cud come to a conclusion

iview- gen: panel was askin lot of tech stuff ( mostly on application) to both work ex guys and fresjhers wit only diff being work ex people was qnsetioned abt their work also. an iview last abt 20- 30 mins..but mostly 20 mins..

GK-very less qns, infact none

Extracurriculars- yes mostly abt wht u had ritten in de form and wht certificates ur showin.

qns on Apllication form- very less... and hence be sure to take pain in ritin ur essay very thoughtlfully and clearly bcoz ur not goin to get chance to explain urself if there is anythin ambiguous in it and the panel mit intrpret it differently later onwork ex- yes m,ostly wht u learned frm work and abt ur industry and stuff
a situation whr u showed mangerial capabilities etc..

they usually start wit one qns and then follow wit qns based on ur ans

mech tech qns- performance of diesel engines, wht is governor, and flywheel ?? why is tyre of a tractor bigger at the rear??, mostly not concerned abt whether ans r correct ..atleast i got tht impresion but whther ur makin de effort is wht matters is my guess

cheerio
muri

[prats]

Thanks a lot Muri.
This really counts.

Cheers,
Prats.

[aquarian_gal]

Thanks Muri, for sharing ur experience with us.

Wishing u luck for the rest of the GD/PIs

-Natasha

[shama]

Hi !

I have just joined and this is a great forum !

I finished my IIMA GD too on 21st. ANy idea when the final admit results are out ??

Shama

[philiptj]

Hi Shama,
The results might be out by april end or beginning of may. Meanwhile why dont you upload your interview experience so that others get some info abt it...

And talking of that lemme upload mine now. Couldn't do it earlier due to the server transfer. But I must say PG that you have done a really wonderful job. This looks like a whole new thing with lotsa features, at the same time most of the old features are there...

Philip

[philiptj]

Hi All,
Back after the "BIG EVENT", the IIMA interview.

The bangalore logistics is like this 24 ppl for a session, divided into 3 panels of 8 each. Each panel consists of 3 profs. 12 sessions over a period of 6 days make it a whopping 288 from bangalore only. The GD is for 20 mins after 5 mins of preparation. It starts exactly at 9.00 and they were pretty harsh with latecomers, even if it is a few seconds.

We got a case study of a textile exporter. He takes some loan, planned to make 12k shirts an year, and 30 Rs profit per shirt. In 10 months he exported two lots of 3000 shirts each at 5th & 10 month. 4000 of them got rejected and for 2000 he got money. He spends rs90 on a shirt & we were to discuss what we needed to do.

A very calm and peaceful GD. Pretty satisfied with my GD performance. Came up with all the facts, figures and did a summary also. Everyone got enuf time to speak, and there was even a time when none was speaking for 2-3 secs. BTW your seats for GD and slot for interview is pre-decided

I was the 6th for the interview. They have told that each interview was going to take 20 mins and we can calculate the time and be there by that time. Mostly, things were pretty cool. The panel was pretty sweet, put the candidates to ease, and did not grill guys on things they did not know. Mostly people were really pleased with the interviewers.

I was expecting a pretty comfortable interview as I was happy about three things - Cat score , GD Performance and Work Ex. Immediately after entering the room, the first thing I heard was " Why the HELL do you want to do an MBA?" before anything else. And as a continuation I got "Do you want to do an MBA????" with a mocking voice and a funny facial expression. I replied with a "yes, sir" . Then I was told to get out of the room and they said they didn't had an MBA program. I told I wanted to do the PGP, coz I don't bother about the MBA tag, but I am interested in the learnings and experiences from the program. This was how everything started.

Though generally it was one guy from the panel at a time, qns were flying from all the corners to me and they made it a point ot argue for each and everything that I spoke. Qns came from a wide variety of subjects, cricket, women in kerala, literacy in kerala, bihar, malayalam, malayalam literature, jnanapith awards, malayalam movie, MT Vasudevan Nair (A writeer in Malayalam), Kerala folklore, puzzles etc. Then I was asked to write some computer programs & there were questions about my company. 15-20 minutes into the interview I was asked to go out of the room and come back with some shields which I said is kept inside my bag which is outside the room

Then there were questions about software industry, and questions about the financial details about some companies. Some puzzles were also asked (May because I said I am a mensa member) . Then a little bit of discussion took place about the GD also.

There were no questions regarding the things in the form. It was the same for all the candidates. So be very careful while filling the forms, you wont get a chance to clarify yourself. There was not any question asked about my work, or my acads etc. Things used to vary from subject to subject.

Another thing I noticed that was 10 minutes in to the interivew, (for all candidates I think) an attender will come to the interview hall and serve you some drink. Tea, coffee, sprite, buttermilk, lassi, coke everything was served. The interviewers just continue with the interview and the drinks will be served for all. In my interview after sometime one of the interviewers had his coke after 2-3 minutes. Other's dint drink. (May be they are taking turns, as they cant have a different drink every 20 mins). And in the end when candidates leave, they are given the drink if they haven't drunk it already. I really donno what they were trying to do, but this was there for all the candidates I saw.

Overall the interview went for about 40 mins. I am pretty happy with my performance. Let us hope for the best. Others also do share your experiences and let us see if there are any patterns. All the best for guys who are yet to have the interviews.
Philip

[shama]

Philip ! I hear you are THE guy ! I guess I will see you in Ahmedabad , then

well, my experience was very similar to Muri's.. same GD topic.. so I guess we were in the same batch.. muri.. d'ya remember any girl with crutches ??.. that was me !

so.. here's my story..

GD was at best ok.. the case I felt was vague, needed a lot of assumptions to be made.. like if there was a market for the product etc.. IMHO, 20 minutes was too much.. people kept making the smae point again and again.. and we STILL didnt make any conclusions at the end of it

the panel ( very considerarately ) called me first for the interview , though I was number 8.. I was involved in an accident a couple of months aga , so am still on crutches ( do uthink I cud gain some sympathy points here )

asked me a lot of work related stuff.. who our customers were.. how s/w is priced, my role in the team...
some general stuff.. whats the current gold price.. compare a car with a human body..
some based on the form.. like the places I had been to.. cultural differences, how I would deal with them at the work place etc..
overall, it was pretty good.. I guess most would agree with me on this.. there was one guy who wasnt asking me much.. maybe the 'observer' !

thats it i guess... got my IIMK on 2nd.. will write about it then ..
best of luck to all..

Shama

[kunalrana999]

hi shama,
i remember u
and u were in my batch
i was no. 2 in a blazer(remember??)
i was sittin almost opposite to u

u know what i guess ur group messed it up
at least i did
i took the pickles prepared to be 20 instead of 40
and gave u guys wrong data on profit
but the surprise was...
that none of u pl challenged me on that
and that means none of u calculated the profit?????
so if the profs noticed this blunder on everyone's part
all of us are OOUUTT!!

good that ur interview went well
coz they really SC****ED me
asked me economcs which i have no idea abt
asked me to name 3 hindi poets which i couldnt
i even failed to solve a simple probability question
the only saving grace was the talk i had abt coaching institutes
and rajdhani express and india-zimbabwe match
no engg questions for me
but lots and lots of maths
one of them asked me what i didnt like in maths
and when i said laplace n fourier
he actually taught me what they were ....
and oh ya..all thru the interview i was gettin sarcastic grins from these guys
dunno why???

anyways i know im outa the race
so lets see what happens at K
luv,
kunal

[shama]

Hey kunal !! yup..I remember you !

and hey.. take heart.. you never know what they are looking for.. maybe they were out to get you and if you remained calm, that could have worked for you !

CAT and the entire process is one big black box.. I didnt even think I would get a call after the way I did my quant.. and here I am , with all six !

nyways, best of luck for ur IIMK. maybe I'll see ya there !

Shama

[ravi]

Hi.

My IIM-A GD/PI was yesterday(the 24th). The GD went pretty OK. It was a 1 page case study with surprisingly few facts relevant to the issue. I made a bad start trying to summarise the facts presented. Later recovered with some good points. Everybody agreed on broadlines but we realised that only when i asked expicitly if "So, do all of us agree that the ad campaign has to be modified?" - That was the Qn posed to us - whether a bicycle manufacturer had to change their ad.
The interview was all STRESS !!! It started off well with 2 of the 3 panel members present (2 men and a lady). she asked me "Ravi, tell us a little about yourself - where do u work?" So with that specific guideline I had to junk my answer with my extracurriculars and everything thrown in and had to make do with an intro only about my work. she asked a few more Qns abt my work and asked me y i wanted to do an MBA and what i expected to learn from it b4 the 3d panel member walked in. He started leafing thru my form and said "Why r ur marks going down year by year ?" I replied by asking him if he meant that my marks were dipping from 10th to 12th and then to Engg. He said that he meant only my engg marks. I responded that in my 3d yr I had actually scored more than my 2nd year. He said that it was maginal and anyway all 4 yrs were bad. I said that i tht i had done pretty OK. He said "NO! ur marks r pathetic". I said that i had been 16th in a class of 40. He said that didn't change the fact that 68% was pathetic in Engg. I said that i still think i have done pretty OK.
He then asked me "What did u study in Engg.". I mentioned a few of the key papers.He asked me "Is that all u can remember ? 4 or 5 papers ?". I said that there were other papers too, but these were related to these papers - like digital system design related to Digital electronics and " he interrupted me and asked " do u have sthng to justify ur poor marks". I said that in my 1st and 2nd yr, I had been more interested in extra reading and working out at the gym. he asked me if i had a girlfriend. I said No. he asked me y i worked out at the gym. I said i enoyed it. He asked me what I did in the gym and how long i worked out. I said that i started out by doing some warmup exercises and then did some weights. He asked me how much weights ? I said i used to do 80 Kg squats (an exercise for quadriceps, the muscle just above the knee). he said i should become a PE instructor. I replied that I wasn't good enough to turn pro and anyway that was not my area of focus.
He then went off on a tangent and asked me "who was our last president?" I asked him ifhe meant who it was b4 Abdul Kalam. He said that he had said "the last president". I said that it was K.R. narayanan. He asked me abt his initials which i didn't know. he asked me where K.R.Narayanan was from (Kerala) and where was i from (Kerala). "And still u don't know what his initials stand for !" "What do u know about Sonia Gandhi?" I started by saying that she was the Chairman of the congress. He asked me if she was the chairman or the president. I responded that she was the leader of the congress, but i wasn't sure abt the title. He said" if u can't even answer that i think that u should get out. there is no point continuing." i said "I don't see how knowing that will help me in doing this(MBA)" He asked me " who decides what is helpful or not" I said " You do, sir". "So y did u say that?" "I was just stating my opinion, sir." "we aren't here 2 listen 2 ur opinion" "Yes, Sir. I am sorry"
"Write down a quadratic eqn". i did that. "When will its roots become equal?" i said that too. "When will the roots become imaginary?". i said that too. "So when b^2 - 4ac < 0 the eqn becomes imaginary?". I said that there was no thing such as a real qn or an imaginary 1, but the roots would become imaginary. " How do u solve a cubic eqn ?". I said "by factoring". "Do u know how to do it?" "No". He then gave me a cubic eqn and asked me to find its roots. I said i'll 1st substitute 1 "So u will just go on substituting from 1 ?"
"No. if i get a value < 0 when i sub 1 and if i get a value >0 when i put 2 i'll know that the root is bwn 1 and 2" "so if it is 1.5.how do u find the other 2?". "After taking out this factor it leaves a quadratic eqn which can be solved" And there ended all the tech Qns(if they can be called that). After that it was stuff like "Who is the Prez of india". "I said "APJ abdul Kalam and if u ask me his initials i am afraid that i don't know that sir". "Oh, so u r totally shameless now. Smiling and admitting u don't know sthng! " "I smiled again to that. He said that it was no laughing matter and i said "Yes Sir". And then some inane Qns abt "the longest road in Chennai and what the name means" "I actually got the name wrong - and my explanation for what Periyar might stand for caused them some amusement coz i said it might refer toAnna durai's stature. Noting their mirth, i said i don't mean his physical stature, but .... He said that he understood what I meant. He asked me about the river that flows thru the city. "River Cooum". Asked me if it flows or stagnated (the damn thing is so plluted it is literally black in colour and lloks and smells like an open sewer). I said that some people might say that it flows while others might say it stagnated. Asked me about his length and its width which i obviously didn't know. He said "I have tried to ask u the most simple Qns i could think of and u didn't answer even that. So r u serious abt these intrvws?". I said I am. "u don't seem 2 b. Is someone else paying for u". I said that i was paying for myself. Asked me what i had spent in getting there. I started off by accntng for the train tickets. He asked me abt acco and i siad i stayed with a friend. He asked me "Y didn't u prepare ?" I said that i didn't expect such Qns."What did u expect?" "Actually, i didn't know what to expect !"
"Well, anyway, Ravi, best of luck!". I said "thank u sir, thank u ma'am" and when i reached the door he called me and said "u forgot ur soft drink. At least we can give u this." I said thank u and took it and left.
And that was IIM-A. Hope the others go better.


Ravi