My Interview Experience, Questions, Preparation, Tips:
Research Area: Data Mining-Text Mining-Opinion Spam Analysis, Social Recommender Systems.
B.Tech Electrical Engineering, work ex:19 months as an ETL Developer
IIM A has an Area Round followed by FPM-Committee round. In the area round they assessed the candidates' readiness within that area, where as the committee round wanted to eliminate non-genuine applicants(by non-genuine, I mean applicants who applied for FPM because they didn't get into PGP, people who wanted to try this new program without having anyidea about research etc..).Â
Note that, questions depend on research area as well, my area requires maths, hence, more mathematics questions.
Area Round:Â
Maths Questions based on Probability, Single variable Calculus. (You have to explain them why the next step is logical and deterministic)
40% of questions from DBMS
10% on my interests and research paper. Like, what it solved, is the problem really solved by that paper, probable work, my thoughts etc..
The questions on DBMS were steered by me, they asked what relevant subjects I have studied, DBMS went in there. So you should know atleast one relevant subject and should be really good at it, they will pick any corner of it.Â
I was comfortable in answering all of them, I was very nervous in the first 3-4 minutes and my solution for the first question was partially correct, but then every thing went so well.
Committee Round: This is where they tested my intent to pursue. The professors were old and very wise. You cannot give them a pre-prepared answer, they will catch you. Every word counts. It lasted for 10 minutes. They started with work ex, why not pgp, why not mtech, why fpm, goals, motivation, preparation for the program. It pretty much goes like a conversation, whatever you utter will be an anchor. You mess up here, you are done, wanna give synthetic fancy answers you are done. Be very honest here, some people who thought that they did very well in the round are rejected.
Preparation: I studied all the subjects which were relevant for my research area. These are the materials I have used
Linear Algebra-Gilbert Strang(MIT-OCW-18.06sc)
Calculus-Khan Academy
Probability-NCERT Class 11,12
Statistics-Khan Academy, few random sites
DBMS-Korth Text Book
Research Papers:Â
I had a topic in mind, just searched whether it was being researched and unfortunately it was. I read 2 review papers, the first paper and the most recent one in that field. Implemented the model from the first.
Tips/Notes:
What I read was for my long term goal, in the available short span just focus on fundamental maths required for your area. If your area is decision science/ operations you need maths, if you are studying egovernance/telecom policy maths is low on priority, but knowing fundamentals is always better.
Relevant Subjects: achieve a bit of proficiency in the required subjects. Don't tell them that you will start learning after FPM commences-show them you're already in the path.
some iims may not expect experienced people (>4yrs) to remember subjects but IS did ask maths to 7+ exp. candidates. If you have less experience then prepare for a heavy quant showdown as required by your area.
Research area: Some faculty expect you to read atleast a paper and some don't bother. Its always advisible to read a paper of your interest in your area. Don't ask me suggestions for papers, what I find interesting may be boring to you.Â
This is applicable for a quant-focussed IS program and cannot be generalized.
IIMA-IS rejected past pgp students as well. If you apply to IS know what that IS department does, prepare well. Applicants like: 'I want to pursue research but I don't know anything about relevant subjects nor I have done any homework on that area. But you know, I have good grades and want to study all of these in FPM' will be out right rejected even if you are an alumnus with a dean's honor.Â
Hoping the best gets an admit.