Sunday, July 24, 2011

40 Signs You Should Stop Studying for the GMAT

Ten Critical Factors That Can Help You Beat The GMAT

Future of Cellular Industry

SWOT Analysis of Nokia

GMAT Tips: Why to Avoid the Word “Methodology” in RC Answers – and Other Tips

10 Tips for Nontraditional Applicants Applying to Business School

10 Things They Don’t Tell You In Business School

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Critical Reasoning, basically thinking on your feet.

Like Reading Comprehension, you must take a passage and answer the multiple choice questions provided. This time however, the passage given will be less than 100 words and are followed by less questions. Like the title provides, this portion is meant to test your reasoning skills. This means analyzing the arguments provided, but also creating your own arguments as well as action plans to go along with the material.

You will be given a situation in the question in which you will have to break apart to find your answer. Don't get all worried if the subject of what you're reading doesn't seem familiar. The questions are not based on what you know prior or what you're familiar with. They are based on what you can dig up and retrieve from the actual text given.
According to the Official Guide for GMAT Review, there are 3 areas in which you will be working through…
  1. Argument Construction
  2. Argument Evaluation
  3. Formulating and Evaluating a Plan of Action
Argument Construction

What is the structure of this passage? What arguments are being drawn throughout? Are there any conclusions being made, or assumptions along the way? You may find that there are similarities mirrored in different arguments, or that a research question is posed indirectly through the work. Try to delve into the reading and base what you find on the concrete structure that makes up the material.

Argument Evaluation

Can you analyze this given text? Do you understand this certain argument?Are you able to take off your rose-colored lenses and see past the author's possible bias?

Where does the author have strength in their writing? What about weaknesses? This is putting what the arguments are into context of the whole. Asking yourself if the arguments fly and whether they're backed up will help you determine these questions.

Formulating and Evaluating a Plan of Action

How effective is this written work? How diverse is the plan of action provided? Is there an openness about it to leave room for other prospective research, points, arguments or findings? Are there any factors that come into play as far as arguments go, to strengthen or weaken their points? These questions cause you to inquire into the make-up of the plan of action provided. Your job is to see whether it makes sense.

The bottom line for all of these questions is to think critically. Put on that analyzer eyeglass and try to see beyond what the text is generally saying. Critically reason out and analyze each point, bias and statement. These questions test your ability to see the text from a critical perspective.

Make sure to be careful while reading. Some statements are made generally whereas others are solid fact. Make sure you can distinguish between what is claimed by the facts and what is claimed by the author. Truth is an important factor here.

Try to figure out where it falls. It may trick you and not actually fall at the end so be careful with that. These conclusions can help you think logically about the rest of the work you're analyzing.

It is important that you clearly understand what the question is asking. Only then can you be solid in your answer. Read it carefully and then go to your text for reference. Some questions may seem awfully similar (resulting in people getting awfully confused) so make sure you've got your apples and oranges sorted out.

Answer Answer…

Before purely picking the answer you may know is right, read all of the options just to be sure.
If you reason out the material with a critical eye and a knack for what the question requires of you, you can be sure you'll be set!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Journey to B-school: Tips to excel in GD, PI rounds

by Pritika Ghura
For all MBA aspirants, it is time to sharpen your communication and presentation skills. For it is time to gear up for GD and PI round. With the shortlists for GD-PI declared by IIFT recently the MBA aspirants have now woken up to the other realities on their journey to MBA and that is they have to make a mark in GD, Essay writing and personal interview round.
In an attempt to help you ace these rounds and help you make the correct impression in front of the panel of interviewers, Learnhub gives you tips to ace these rounds. One must remember the institute is checking your attitude, how well you structure to your thoughts, your problem solving skills and "how he/she approaches any question or problem.
For Group Discussions, reading a lot helps. You should be assertive but not imposing. You should be able to contribute to the discussion but at the same time let others speak. It will show how you conduct yourself in a board room. You can get hold of a book which covers the Do's and Don'ts of case GDs along with a few practice cases. Each and every coaching institute have these GD books. Another interesting idea is that you can try and form a group with like-minded friends and discuss these practice cases.
For Interview round make sure you're dressed formally and have a clean look. You should go with an open mind, positive mindset and self confidence. You can be asked anything under the sun and no one expects you to know all the answers but it is important is how you approach the answer. Please remember you should model your interview in such a manner that it meets the expectations of the particular institute. Do not appear nervous. For practice, you can organise mock interviews with family/ friends.
There are always a few typical questions like "Why MBA?" "What are your long-term and short-term career goals? How MBA will help you achieve these goals?" "Which specialisation you would like to opt for and why?" You might be asked questions about any drop in education or a sharp fall in marks at any stage - you should be prepared with the answers beforehand.
The key to success in these rounds is reading, practicing and talking to lot of successful people who have graduated from top B-schools.

CAT 2010 Results 'Leak' leaves students in a tizzy

by Pritika Ghura

Was the official website for CAT result hacked? Or was it just a test being done by the Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow? All these and many more questions were boggling the mind of the aspirants since Monday. Some of the aspirants, who have taken this CAT exam, claimed that they had seen their result on the CAT official website on Monday, much before the official result declaration date 12th January, 2010.
While, rumours of CAT 2010 result being spread all over the country since Monday, the IIM-L team which is handling the official website said that they were just testing the portal. News of the official result website being hacked shocked aspirants and also caused panic among them.
As the rumour spread all over, the IIMs, and the online testing company, the US-based Prometric Service Limited which has conducted the test for the IIMs, were flooded with queries about the data leakage and hacking of the website.
One students said over this issue that he too checked the site, but he had seen some result on the website on Monday morning , but the result were of CAT-2009.
"We heard about some students learning of their CAT results on Monday but when we logged on ourselves, we got to see the 2009 results," the student said. "Later, we found out that this might have happened because of irrelevant data being uploaded to test the website."
The team clarified that the portal was not hacked. Some tests were being done before the actual uploading of the result data on 12th January, 2010. Prof Himanshu Rai of IIM-Lucknow, who is the overall in-charge of CAT-2010, said, "The official results website does not possess any information that can lead to a leakage of the results. The official website- www.catiim.in - is down as we are testing it with data in preparation for the uploading of the results on January 12." Rai also added, "It has not been hacked." He said that the results will be out as scheduled but till then the website might occasionally go off the internet because of test runs with dummy data.