Here are a surprise few lines about an individual @ IIMA’s Class of 2006. Surprise because of two reasons; one because of the nature of his profile and two because he already was quite a regular guest on our forums. The person in question being Mr.Surya Prasad, a Deputy Inspector General of Police of the TamilNadu Police, an IPS officer of the batch of 88 (and a topper at that), police commissioner of Madurai in one of his previous assignments and a PaGaLGuY.com regular during his GD/PI days. And if these were not sufficient enough credentials, Mr.Prasad has been cracking an IIMA admit consecutively for last three years now (in fact BLACKI). Due to professional reasons, he could not take up his place over the last two years and now he is a student of the class of 2006. Know More !!! And yes, he is also the father of two beautiful kids ?
CAT Percentile: 99.85
Final Calls: BLACKI
Work-Ex: 22yrs (yea, you read that right, its 22 YEARS !!)
Under-Graduation: B.Com – Osmania University
CAT Gyaan:
—-> Time Management is the most crucial aspect
—-> Learn to leave questions that cannot be solved in time. Identifying such questions helps a lot.
—-> “It’s what you don’t know that’s important; so be sure of what you don’t know”
—-> For RCs, Mr.Prasad looked at the length of passage and the number of questions that it has. If they were dis-proportionate, he left it.
—-> Similarly he advises people to skip through any RC passage in case they are absolutely new to the topic.
—-> Don’t get bogged down by details; consequently, don’t delve too deep into the details or read things where none exist.
—-> Be cool during the exam. It makes a BIG difference
—-> Spot the questions that you cannot solve and leave them right away.
—-> Don’t take wild guesses
—-> Concentrate on few areas and become perfect in em. (easier said than done, right ;))
—-> Practise by putting extreme time pressure to yourself. Try solving sections meant to be solved in 40 mins in something like 25-30 mins.
Mr. Prasad likes these @ A:
—-> The Case methodology of learning
—-> The quality of people here
—-> Some of the amazing Profs here.
And he isn’t particularly enamored of these @ A:
—-> Less emphasis on soft skills
—-> More emphasis on quant than is necessary
—-> And he has a particularly emphatic question, “Is the stress needed???”
—-> And he also feels the quality levels of support assistants such as RAs & TAs isn’t really up to the mark.
—-> He believes the emphasis on Relative Grading (RG) reduces learning; it also has the effect of people trying to pull down one another
—-> And that not much time is given to internalize the learnings
On PaGaLGuY.com:
Mr.Prasad, like mentioned, has been a regular @ PaGaLGuY.com for quite some time now and in his opinion these are the things he loves about the forums :
—-> The spirit of helping
—-> The Co-ordination
—-> The Community Service Initiatives
He also had a few suggestions for PaGaLGuY.com; we are in the process of thrashing out a few details regarding the same and ye guys shall see them out in the open pretty soon.
Mr. Prasad plans to specialize in Strategy + Finance/Marketing. He’s looking at the cross-functional expertise that he can take back with him. And towards this end, thankfully, Mr. Prasad sleeps for close to 5-5.5 hrs everyday. He believes all people at A sleep; just that their places of sleep differ (dorm or class) ? And he’s quite happy that he is able to compete with junta who are at least 20years younger to him (He’s also in the top 10% of his class @ IIMA !!!)
He believes life @ IIMA is:
—-> Sometimes childish (prolly coz of the generation gap)
—-> Sometimes Interesting
—-> Sometimes offering very good insights
—-> Sometimes allowing one to see varied perspectives
The Backpacker to IIMA should carry:
—-> Sincerity
—-> Regularity
The most experienced person that he is in the class of 2006, we asked him what he believed was the driving force for most “kids” around ? . He believes its placements and that it is a result of the kinda people coming in; mostly with 1-2 years work-ex. He believes one needs diversity in the batch which an exam like CAT cannot bring about.
Sound-Bites:
—-> Only a Busy man can understand the value of time
—-> If you are willing to find time, you can