How to crack MBA entrance Exams

MBA Management courses are a popular choice among several aspirants who wants to pursue their career in corporate management field. Admission to this prestigious course is done through via an admission process which includes competitive exam Group Discussion and Personal Interview. Let’s understand preparation method for these steps and tips to achieve best performance in each round.

There are several Competitive exams for MBA admissions in various institutes and syllabus for these exams are different. So we will not go to syllabus wise update But here we will discuss about preparation tricks which can help you achieve success in these exams.

As name suggest these exams are competitive in nature and pushes you to your performance boundaries. These exams present basically two kind of challenges, Time Constraint and Difficulty constraint. For Example, IN MAT (organised by AIMA) participants have to solve 200 multiple choice questions in 150 minutes, clearly this is designed to challenge participants with a time constraint which will pressurize participant to do mistakes.

Second type of challenge is difficulty challenge, as the syllabus for these competitions are quite robust & question paper will have questions from different sections, there is a fair chance that you might find some question difficult from others and as we already know that question paper is already having a time constraint, if we are not vigilant, we may end up wasting too much time on difficult question/s resulting in lower than deserved score. Simple Tip is to postpone question/s which are appearing difficult and to quicky but carefully solve all questions for which you feel confidant, but don’t forget to mark difficult questions and once you finish with confidant answer parts, then go back to questions which you have marked as difficult.

Another mistake is related to mark the right answer on OMR sheet, yes it may look small thing, but several students do these mistakes they solve the problem but on OMR sheet they mark the wrong choice. To avoid this you can get OMR sheet for practice and recheck every time you attempt a dummy question paper. This way it will become an habit and chance to do a mistake will become less.

Let’s check out what are the key things which can be done to improve a candidate’s chances in MBA Group Discussion’s and Personal Interviews.

Group Discussions: Lets understand first why a Group Discussion is Organised as part of MBA admission process, as they have already tested your intelligence during written test. A group discussion generally refers to a communicative situation that allows its participants to share their views and opinions with other participants. Group Discussions or GDs are a test for candidate’s ability to perform in tense environment along with group of people who are in competition to each other. Its intended to pressurise you to make mistake like interrupting others, raising your voice, showing your disagreement by shouting, trying to show that I am the boss etc. a good and prepared candidate knows this and do not commit these mistakes. Rather they choose to do below things.

1. Read Business Magazines & Newspapers daily so that you have enough knowledge on current affairs and business activities.
2. Lead the discussion if possible, opening statement should be very unbiased and inclusive so that others can also find ways to pitch in. this will help you make a director of discussion and you may simply earn brownie points if you cover the topic with sincerity. IF you mis the chance to start the discussion then also no worries, enter the discussion at right point where you have strong points to make and/ or you have unique approach to the topic, this way you will have strong impression on judges mind.
3. Its Not necessary to arrive at consensus during a Group Discussion but Ensure that group concludes the discussion within time provided.
4. A participant must focus to showcase logic, articulation skills, leadership skills, Politeness, and Quality of content. Your arguments should be based on facts, situations, and knowledge.
5. GD is not a debate, remember that you must not proves others wrong, instead focus on keeping yourself right.

Now as we know how to participate and focus areas during a GD let’s check what are the key points to keep check on during an interview.

Personal Interview: In personal interview always Answer with sincerity and honesty, It’s fine if you don’t know the answer and accept it politely, don’t attempt to guess the answer. Being courteous is another important point which helps create a good impression. Sometime its candidates loo

1. Practice for Classic Interview questions, so that your flow and confidence will be high (will provide a list below)

Some interview questions and way to approach them.

1. Tell me about yourself- Be professional and showcase that you are capable to pursue management course.
2. How would you describe yourself? This question can be tricky one you are appearing for a professional course and its recommended that you answer this by highlighting your capabilities as an aspirants. This is an extension to the first question.
3. Where do you see in next 5 years? – this question gives you an opportunity to describe your career goals. Use it Wisely Do not give impractical statements like I will be CEO of Worlds top Organisation in next five years.
4. Why do you want to Join this Institute? to answer this question do some research about institute and note some best point of institute as why you really want to take admission.
5. What interests you Management (MBA) Course? Answer with politeness and honesty. Every candidate is different and there is not standard answer for this question but you should genuinely know what is your motivation for the management course, for some it may be career prospects, for some challenging work environment etc.
6. What motivates you?- In all Sincerity this is an individual choice and you can be very vocal about it.
7. What are you passionate about? Everyone has passions if you have not discovered yet then you may choose to describe things which you most enjoy.
8. What are your greatest strengths?- Highlight your strength but be polite and do not over commit.
9. What are your greatest weaknesses?- Mention your points where you want to improve yourself but do not feel low confidant while answering this. Its OK to know your weaknesses you can only improve something when you know that it requires improvements.
10. Do you want to know something from Us? While concluding the interviewer may ask you this & you should take this as an opportunity to show how deeply you want to understand and interested in the management course. So you may ask any question which showcases that you are a serious candidate and really want to utilise the learning capabilities institute may provide. Just for example : an aspirants seeking admission in PGDM International Business) may ask- What is the exposure we may get on International markets while pursuing this course?