@cryptanalyst To me it seems like an awesome interview. All the best.
I want to ask the seniors about RAT of IIM-B. What is duration of the test? Total number of questions and difficulty level of questions (is it CAT Level/GRE-GMAT LevelT/SNAP-XAT-FMS Level/MAT-Bank PO Level etc etc.)
There is also a mention that an area specific test could be taken. If yes, then what kind of questions are asked in Finance area? Is it an objective test or subjective or case study based??
Thanks and Regards
@horsehead as I remember RAT was for 2 hrs, 3 sections similar to CAT and slightly easier than CAT maybe.
I dont think Fin & Acc. area has specific tests, just RAT and PI.
My interview experience at IIM-Ahmedabad for FPM
Profile - 95% in 10th, 87.4 in 12th, 74% in Graduation(till 6th sem), IIT Bombay, Mechanical Engg. B.Tech
CAT 2012 - 99.8(QA) +78.22 = 98.56
Work ex - 0 years
Area - Production and Quantitative Methods (P&QM;)
Date - 11 March 2013
Panelists - 3 Profs of the Area - P1, P2, P3
I walked in at about 9:55am, the interview lasted for around 8-12 minutes..
Me - Good morning, followed by hand shake with all 3 panelists;
P1 - have a seat
Me - Thank you Sir
P1 - So why P&QM;?
Me - Because I like mathematics and I have done courses in IEOR (Industrial Engineering and Operations Research) dept. of IIT-B relevant to this programme and I thoroughly enjoyed them.
P1 - Why now and not later?
Me - Because I think at this point in life, i have minimum responsibilities, and I would be able to do this course with full focus at this stage..
P1 & P2 - Okay!!
P1 - So, which other calls do u have?
Me - IIM lko and kozkhikode for PGP; i had applied for agriculture FPM in IIM-A, but didn't get shortlisted; Also, I have appliled for PnOM and QM areas of IIM Bangalore...
P2 - Okay, which one will you select?
Me - FPM, not just for sake of saying, I really am interested in this course, and anyways I will get to learn whatever I learn in MBA in FPM..
(P1,P2, - gave a strange look..)
P1 - So which courses have u done?
Me - Optimization Models, Probabilistic models, Game theory, Quantitative Methods in Project Mgt, Basic Operations Research.
P1 - Tell me some optimization models?
Me - Linear Programming, Hungarian, Vogel Approximation Method(VAM).
P1- What is VAM?
Me - [Told what it does..]
P1 - But that can also be done by North West corner and other methods...What is special about VAM?
Me - [Answered]
P1 - What is Hungarian Method?
Me - [Answered]
P1 - Can we apply VAM to Hungarian Problems?
Me - [Answered with reasons]
P1 - Can we apply Hungarian to VAM problems?
Me - I need some time to think..
P1 - Okay
After 8-10 sec,
P2 - You cannot take as much time as you want....
Me - [Answered]
P1- Asked for reasons why Hungarian cannot be applied to VAM problems
Me - [Answered]
P1- What exactly you know about PnQM and which is your interest area?
Me - I don't know much, but from what I read in brochure PnQM can be divided into Operations Management(OM), Operations Research(OR) and Statistics and I would like to work in either of OM or OR.....
P2 - what's the difference between OM and OR?
Me - I am not sure, but I think OR is more oriented towards mathematics....
P2 - You are right!!!
P3 - Which came first, OM or OR?
sudden laughter in the room, all the profs started laughing
me giving a very confused look
P3 - That was not a question for you, it was for us!!!!
Me- Okay
P1 - What exactly is your interest area?
Me - Not sure Sir, maybe i need to explore more, I liked all the courses related to this field in college..
P1 - See, FPM cannot be generic, you need to tell us your interest, so that we can also see if it matches with our research..
Me - Sir, though my background in this field is not much, but since I like solving problems by optimization models, I would like to develop algorithms for problems ....
P1- your bakground is not strong because you are from mechanical engineering, is it?
Me - Yes Sir!!
P1 - Okay, I think we are done.!!
Me - Thank you Sir!!
IIMA FPM Interview Experience
My FPM interview at IIMA was scheduled on 12th March for CISG. They have called everyone at 9:30 am but my interview was held between 12:30 and 12:45 pm.
There were 21 interviewees and 3 profs taking the interview (one is a lady and 2 gents !).
The interview lasted less than 15 minutes and they hadn't asked me questions I was most expecting like why FPM, why IIMA, why not PhD from IIT of some US university (since i am already having my masters from a US university !).
They have not even asked me my research areas and questions from the same. Overall it went like this:
Lady L (she is sitting to my left): So, Rahul u r working?
Me: Yes ... replied that i am working as a senior lecturer at ... ... ...
Lady L: So rahul, u want to do research. (at this point i thought she may ask me about my research areas ... but no
). What do you teach there ?
Me: Cloud computing, software testing & debugging, computer organization & architecture and principles of programming languages ... (I thought questions would be from cloud computing which is also my area of interest but again
).
In the mean time the prof in the middle took my testimonials and started looking at them.
Mr R (he is sitting on my right hand side): Ok, so u teach principles of programming languages.
Me: Yes sir.
Mr R: what is structured programming?
Me: replied ...
Mr R: what is the difference between structured programming and object oriented programming?
Me: replied ...
Mr R: why goto statements are not considered a good programming practice?
Me: replied ...
Mr R: what is cohesion and coupling in programming languages?
Me: Sir ... i have read it .. but can't remember now.
Mr R: (Looking at one of my BE mark sheet) so u have studied artificial intelligence also. what is best first search?
Me: sorry sir AI is not my area and i have only studied during my bachelors degree.
Lady L: Ok shall we ask you questions from data base systems?
Me: (reluctantly) ok madam
.
Lady L: which databases u have worked on?
Me: MS access and sql server.
Lady L: this databases comes under which database model?
Me: relational databases.
Lady L: why they are known as relational databases?
Me: replied ...
Lady L: why we do normalization in databases?
Me: replied.
Lady L: suppose we have a table and during normalization, we have splitted that table into 4 tables so as to reduce redundancy. Now each resultant table having one column same as that of the original table. Now, here we have increased redundancy as each of the resultant tables have the same column. So why we r doing normalization?
Me: Tried to explain, but i think she was not satisfied with the answer.
Lady L: Ok. In which area u want to do research? (finally i thought there would be discussions on my research area
)
Me: social impact of technology or issues with technology.
Lady L: But everybody seems to be working on the same thing. what u would do?
Me: Designing privacy aware software systems which would have privacy built into them.
Lady L: Ok, have u heard of TAM (or something like this !) ?
Me: no madam.
Lady L: Have u used facebook?
Me: Yes madam.
Lady L: is facebook privacy aware?
Me: not completely madam.
Lady L: if facebook is not provacy aware then there would have been many cases against facebook in USA?
Me: yes, there are. (I tried to elaborate my point explaining fb privacy policy, but she cut me short
).
Lady L: Just tell me facebook is privacy aware or not?
Me: no madam, not completely.
Then, finally Mr R asked me a couple of questions about from where i have done my masters and in how much time i have completed it.
The entire interview got finished in less than 15 minutes and all the interviewees have had the same time. They r giving any time to explain the answers and most of the candidates have the same sort of ... so ... so ... interview experience
... not too good and not too bad ...
My FPM interview at IIMA was scheduled on 12th March for CISG. They have called everyone at 9:30 am but my interview was held between 12:30 and 12:45 pm.
There were 21 interviewees and 3 profs taking the interview (one is a lady and 2 gents !).
The interview lasted less than 15 minutes and they hadn't asked me questions I was most expecting like why FPM, why IIMA, why not PhD from IIT of some US university (since i am already having my masters from a US university !).
They have not even asked me my research areas and questions from the same. Overall it went like this:
Lady L (she is sitting to my left): So, Rahul u r working?
Me: Yes ... replied that i am working as a senior lecturer at ... ... ...
Lady L: So rahul, u want to do research. (at this point i thought she may ask me about my research areas ... but no
). What do you teach there ?Me: Cloud computing, software testing & debugging, computer organization & architecture and principles of programming languages ... (I thought questions would be from cloud computing which is also my area of interest but again
).In the mean time the prof in the middle took my testimonials and started looking at them.
Mr R (he is sitting on my right hand side): Ok, so u teach principles of programming languages.
Me: Yes sir.
Mr R: what is structured programming?
Me: replied ...
Mr R: what is the difference between structured programming and object oriented programming?
Me: replied ...
Mr R: why goto statements are not considered a good programming practice?
Me: replied ...
Mr R: what is cohesion and coupling in programming languages?
Me: Sir ... i have read it .. but can't remember now.
Mr R: (Looking at one of my BE mark sheet) so u have studied artificial intelligence also. what is best first search?
Me: sorry sir AI is not my area and i have only studied during my bachelors degree.
Lady L: Ok shall we ask you questions from data base systems?
Me: (reluctantly) ok madam
.Lady L: which databases u have worked on?
Me: MS access and sql server.
Lady L: this databases comes under which database model?
Me: relational databases.
Lady L: why they are known as relational databases?
Me: replied ...
Lady L: why we do normalization in databases?
Me: replied.
Lady L: suppose we have a table and during normalization, we have splitted that table into 4 tables so as to reduce redundancy. Now each resultant table having one column same as that of the original table. Now, here we have increased redundancy as each of the resultant tables have the same column. So why we r doing normalization?
Me: Tried to explain, but i think she was not satisfied with the answer.
Lady L: Ok. In which area u want to do research? (finally i thought there would be discussions on my research area
)Me: social impact of technology or issues with technology.
Lady L: But everybody seems to be working on the same thing. what u would do?
Me: Designing privacy aware software systems which would have privacy built into them.
Lady L: Ok, have u heard of TAM (or something like this !) ?
Me: no madam.
Lady L: Have u used facebook?
Me: Yes madam.
Lady L: is facebook privacy aware?
Me: not completely madam.
Lady L: if facebook is not provacy aware then there would have been many cases against facebook in USA?
Me: yes, there are. (I tried to elaborate my point explaining fb privacy policy, but she cut me short
).Lady L: Just tell me facebook is privacy aware or not?
Me: no madam, not completely.
Then, finally Mr R asked me a couple of questions about from where i have done my masters and in how much time i have completed it.
The entire interview got finished in less than 15 minutes and all the interviewees have had the same time. They r giving any time to explain the answers and most of the candidates have the same sort of ... so ... so ... interview experience
... not too good and not too bad ... By what time IIMA would decide on the final admits ? Do they send rejections also, as i think, as per my interview ... i haven't done so well ... how do they send the acceptance information ? by mail or declare the list on web site ?
@meera26 First of all ... Congrats for the call ... so, r the calls for IS from IIMB are out ? Even I have applied to IIMB for IS as my first preference ? Do I need to call them ? How do u receive the interview / RAT call (via email or is there any list on IIMB site or have u called them) ?
@rahul5184 Expect result to be out next week. Had a talk with FPM Office today regarding this. They do not publish a list on website. You will get a mail in either cases (selection or rejection).
@drish Thanks for the reply ... Good to listen that, they will also be sending rejections 
. At least i would get to know the results in either case ...
. At least i would get to know the results in either case ...AND ARE ALL IIM I DOMAINS DONE WITH THEIR FINAL LIST. ANY ONE HAVING ANY INFO....
Hi,
I applied for marketing and strategy for IIMB. In case I am shortlisted for IIMB, need to prepare for RAT. Can any one share study material for the same?
@SkyIIT "tell us your interest, so that we can also see if it matches with our research.." >> this happens to be the crux of any IIM-FP interview, no matter what -- every candidate's final call/reject rests on that!! ATB :)
Dont understand how does IIM C expect me to reach there as per schedule, when the train tickets are not available from Delhi, and they certainly wont reimburse flight tickets...
Also dont understand how ISB is taking so much time for shortlisting.....
@nishanta2006 It is quite frustrating and I have experienced this last year as well. Results are also announced dramatically and I left XLRI admit for IIM Shillong which ultimately was a bad decision.
@rahul5184 Hi, I got a mail and it mentioned about RAT on 4th and interview on 5th. I had IS as my second preference. Not sure if all calls for IS are over, you can either wait for some time or call and confirm from them.
I didn't print the form that I had sent while applying, how can I access it now?