From CAT results to IIM admissions: IIM student recalls his journey

IIM Raipur's class in session

Shiksha brings you a personal account of IIM’s current student sharing his admission experience with you.

Meet, Abhishek Sharma, a 98 percentiler who is currently pursuing PGDM from IIM Raipur. He will help you understand what you should expect to face after getting your perfect CAT score.

Abhishek Sharma, PGDM student at IIM Raipur

Abhishek was working with TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) while preparing for CAT and he very candidly admits that since he was working weekends were the main time-period he spent in CAT preparation. His CAT preparation involved taking mock-CAT exams on weekends and rest of the time he usually spent in reading newspapers and magazines for preparing well for his WAT/PI.

What after scoring well in CAT?

When most of you think that getting a good CAT percentile is your goal, hear from this IIM student who feels that, “Scoring well in CAT isn’t everything it takes to get into an IIM. It’s just the beginning of a long road ahead. After taking CAT, I also took other exams such as XAT, IIFT, SNAP and NMAT, which I had applied for. I started my WAT/PI preparation after the CAT results were announced, which was in January”. He further adds, “Although I wanted to join an IIM only, but just as a backup you can say, I applied for few other prestigious institutes like MDI Gurgaon, IIT Delhi, NITIE Mumbai, FMS Delhi etc. Even then I had it in my mind that if I couldn’t make to any of the IIMs this year, I’ll not join any other institute and will take CAT the next year too”.

Getting that IIM call

When most feel that getting that IIM call will take some time after the result is announced, the truth is a little different, or so says Abhishek, “I got my first call in January from few IIMs and my PI was scheduled in March. After that I had few interviews in April as well, from other B-schools”.

What to do before going for the PI

The procedure for short listing candidates for GD/WAT/PI in almost all the management institutes happens on the basis of a candidate’s CAT score; his 10th, 12th and graduation scores; work-experience as well as their profile. In order to fare well in his PI, Abhishek developed a plan, “I divided my post-CAT preparation into two portions – General Awareness and Self Evaluation. For WAT preparation, I used to read newspapers and magazines on a daily basis to hone my general awareness and to be abreast with the current affairs. But, apart from current affairs what is more important is one’s opinion/view about something and this is something which is judged in PI too”. In order to develop a sound understanding of the events happening in the world, Abhishek focused his attention on reading the Editorial section of newspapers, which he feels helped him build a twin-sided view point of major happenings.

As per him one should have a detailed framework in mind to prepare for their WAT and GD as both require a different skill-set, “Two important things for WAT preparation are good writing skills and time management. One should know how to write useful and sound information/opinions in a short span of time. For GD, apart from current affairs, practice matters the most. I practiced through a lot of mock GD’s.” However, he adds that the main point here is that good communication skills can’t be developed in a few weeks time, it requires continuous practice and the sooner one starts to work on it, the better it is.

He further shares his experience of sitting for the personal interview stating, “Personal interviews, apart from current affairs and general awareness, are aimed at knowing the candidate more intimately, assessing their clarity of thought, future goals, self-awareness and the ‘fit’ with the institute. Keeping this in mind, I asked myself few frequently asked PI questions like why MBA, why this B-school, long-term goals, everything about myself etc. and thought about apt answers for the same.

Here comes the PI Day

Like all students, Abhishek was also nervous on his PI day. Sharing his PI experience he said, “It started with usual questions – why MBA and tell me something about yourself. Then I was grilled on my knowledge of current affairs. At that time, the Jan Lokpal Bill was very much in news. I had some questions on corruption and Jan Lokpal wherein the panel wanted to see my opinions on the same”. Apart from this he was even questioned about his work experience and work profile. But the surprise element in his PI was when the interview panel asked him two-three technical questions related to SQL, DBMS, and Data Structures. “So be prepared with the technical side of things as well,” adds Abhishek.

WAT experience

Talking on his WAT experience, this IIM Raipur student said, “My WAT went very well. Luckily, I got a topic on which I recently had some good readings. The WAT topic was in the form of a small paragraph of 3-4 lines. It goes like ‘Women Empowerment will lead to social development…”.

The waiting period after WAT

This TCS employee (at that time) went back to his normal routine and waited for the final list of shortlisted candidates to be released by IIM’s. Along with that he started following some blogs and websites to find out about the shortlist/waitlist of the IIM’s. He also attempted to get in touch with the students of various B-schools to clarify his doubts related to IIM admissions.

Getting selected at IIM Raipur

Life is a happy blossom when you attain your goal and so was the case with Abhishek, “I was waitlisted in IIM Raipur, IIM Udaipur, IIM Trichy and IIM Kashipur; which got cleared in the subsequent waitlists. But I decided to join IIM Raipur. I was informed about my final convert in IIM Raipur just 5 days prior to the joining date”. Since he was already working, this ex-TCS employee spent his days winding up things at work and completing his separation formalities. He was also given a long list of documents that had to be sent to the admission staff as early as possible.

On joining IIM, he adds, “I spend almost all my time completing my formalities at work and at IIM Raipur. The rest of the time that I was left with before going back to experiencing college life again, was spent in bidding adieu to TCS and in getting ready to join IIM with such zeal and enthusiasm which I can surely say, I never experienced with such passion before”.