IIM Admission 2020: How Sourav Mishra converted IIM Ahmedabad call

Sourav Mishra, who scored 99.92 percentile in CAT 2019, shares his AWT-PI experience at IIM Ahmedabad with Shiksha. Read on and know how he handled surprise questions.

Sourav Mishra who scored 99.92 percentile in CAT 2019, recalls that his IIM Ahmedabad PI was not a smooth sailing. He dodged a couple of bullets to come off with flying colours. An Electrical Engineering Graduate from Jadavpur University, Sourav is currently working with PwC India. He received interview calls from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, FMS Delhi on the basis of his stellar score in CAT 2019.

Sourav shared his AWT-PI experience at IIM Ahmedabad with Shiksha. Read on and know how he handled surprise questions.

Date & place of interview: March 15, 2020, Kolkata

IIM Ahmedabad Analytical Writing Test (AWT) Topic

• Topic: There was an argument saying that millennials don’t want to get married or get committed and continue to enjoy the independence that they have had since their childhood. In the current situation, conversations are just a click away at social media platforms. Hence, just like ‘Honesty is the best policy’, Singlehood should be the best policy. We had to analyze the given argument, giving pointers to strengthen or weaken the argument.

• Summary of what I wrote: Rather than choosing a particular side of agreeing or disagreeing with the argument, I analyzed the argument from both the perspectives. Touching all the keywords mentioned in the argument, I mentioned their relevance on an individual and how relationships are made considering all these factors. Furthermore, giving pointers for strengthening and weakening the argument, I wrote about the other important pointers that have to be considered for evaluating the argument, for example, personality and the impact of social media on the same.

IIM Ahmedabad PI Experience

Panel: 2 male panelists, hereafter, referred as P1 and P2

P1: Good morning Sourav. Are you nervous?

Me: Good morning Sir. A bit, I am, honestly.

P1: Don’t worry. Have some water.

Me: Thank you sir. (Took a sip from the bottle)

P1: You work at PwC, right? What do you do there?

Me: Majorly, I work on data analysis by the implementation of data warehouse and querying to ascertain the business function and building the data visualization for the same.

P1: So, what is the difference between a database and a data warehouse?

Me: We store data in the database in any form whereas, in a data warehouse, we store the relevant data that ascertains the business function which can be used for querying and analysis.

P1: So, basically, data warehouse is a type of database?

Me: Yes sir. While implementation, we build data warehouses inside the database.

P1: You must be working on SQL for querying, right? What is the full form of SQL?

Me: It’s a Query Language. I work on SQL on a daily basis but currently, I am not able to recall what S stands for. (Smiling guiltily)

P1: You ruined my next question. S stands for Structured. My next question would have been why is it called Structured? But now, I can’t ask you that question. Can I?

Me: Umm. You can sir. It was just that I wasn’t able to recall the full form, but I can give a try for this question. It is called structured because whenever we query, it gives a structure in the form of rows and columns. (Though, this was not the complete right answer)

P1: Okay. So, while at work, what all subjects are used that you learnt during your undergrad?

Me: Not a lot majorly sir. Basically, it was SQL, Numerical Analysis, C and C++.

P1: What is the difference between C and C++?

Me: There are certain library functions that are present in C++ but not in C. Moreover, the syntax is different for both the languages.

P1: That’s the syntax difference. What is the major difference?

(I thought about it, but wasn’t able to think of a possible answer.)

P1: Is C an Object Oriented Programming?

Me: As far as I remember, C++ is. But for C, I have not used inheritance or encapsulation, so I think that C is not an Object Oriented Programming.

P1: Can you tell me why is it called C and not A or B?

(I was completely puzzled at this question)

Me: I can’t think of a possible answer to this question. But, I will give it a thought later for sure.

P1: Okay. So, what kind of visualization have you worked on, for the data provided?

Me: Explained the plotting of sales data region-wise and for the different product categories.

P2: Have you heard of Sachin and Binny Bansal? Who are they?

Me: Yes sir. They are the co-founders of Flipkart.

P2: So, are both of them with Flipkart now?

Me: No sir. Binny is. But Sachin Bansal moved out after the Walmart deal.

P2: Can you tell me the difference between FII and FDI?

Me: I won’t be able to sir. I have a limited knowledge of Finance.

P2: Okay. Do you know what Single Brand Retail is?

Me: Sorry Sir. As mentioned, I don’t know that.

P2: We won’t go in that direction then. Have you heard of Scindia? Why is in news currently?

Me: Mentioned that Jyotiraditya Scindia moved to BJP after being in Congress for a very long time. Mentioning that he comes from the royal lineage of Maharajas of Gwalior, I explained about his entire family background from Jivaji Rao Scindia, Vijaya Raje Scindia, Madhavrao Scindia and Vasundhara Raje.

P2: What are your interests and hobbies?

Me: Mentioned about public speaking and youth parliaments as interests. Moreover, I mentioned running as my hobby and being a part of 10K and half marathons.

P1: Yeah yeah. We will make sure that you run from one place to another at IIMA.

(We all had a laugh then).

P1: (Giving the AWT topic) What are your views on this argument?

Me: Actually sir, it depends. It would depend on the personality of the individual. If they feel that they can thrive ahead in their life by being single, then it’s completely up to them. But on the other hand, these social media platforms have added to the anxiety of the individual. (Then, I went on explaining why emotional attachment is necessary and how it can be developed in the current scenario. I talked about building connections, attachment, concept of a soul mate and even, questioned the theory of ‘like poles repel’ in the current context)

P1: (After having some clarifications on my co-curricular and extra-curricular achievements) Thank you Sourav. Have a cookie.

Me: Thanks a lot sir. Good day.

Status: Converted

Thanks!

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