IIM Bodh Gaya has made me a very confident person, says Pankaj Patel

By: Pankaj Patel

I gave CAT but after giving the exam I had no hope that I will be able to crack it. I cracked CAT with 92 percentile. I also gave XAT, CMAT, and CET and got good marks in other exams too. I decided to take admission through CAT and got qualified for several interviews.

After scoring 82% in 10th class, I was confused about choosing my stream for higher secondary. I took the advice of many people working in different sectors. I got various suggestions from them. I also searched on the internet about various options. Finally, I chose the Science stream for my higher secondary. I decided to pursue engineering after 12th so I started preparing for JEE Mains. I got a low score in JEE Mains so I decided not to go with engineering. It was not my cup of tea. So, I chose BSc (IT). After completing BSc (IT), I was again in dilemma about my career. I belong to a business family and wanted to be an entrepreneur. So, I decided to go for MBA. Soon 1 started preparing for CAT.

After clearing the CAT, I gave interviews at the popular B-schools of the country. I received offers from many B-schools including SAP calls from the Indian Institute of Management Jammu and Bodh Gaya. I went through the placement reports, ROI, teaching faculty of several colleges and also took suggestions from many MBA students, and finally decided to go with IIM Bodh Gaya. It has the brand name of IIM. It was my dream to study at a reputed institute which came true after getting admission to IIM Bodh Gaya.

It all started in January 2019 when I took admission in TIME classes for CAT/CET and other MBA entrance exams. I started with the hope to get admission to any good B-school. I gave many mock tests of CAT and referred to all the notes and material provided by TIME classes. I was not getting good marks in mocks and I lost all hopes of getting to any good B-schools. After that, I gave NMAT in October 2019. I got a score of 178 in NMAT but I was not satisfied with my NMAT score. So I again filled the NMAT form in the last window of NMAT. But again I was not satisfied with my marks. In November 2019, I gave CAT but after giving the exam I had no hope that I will be able to crack it. I cracked CAT with 92 percentile. I also gave XAT, CMAT, and CET and got good marks in other exams too. I decided to take admission through CAT and got qualified for several interviews. Mentors from TIME helped me to crack the B-school interviews. I got admission to the Goa Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Management Jammu, and Bodh Gaya. Finally, I took admission in IIM Bodhgaya.

My college has not started yet on campus but we have the same experience as on-campus through online classes. The classes start at 9 in the morning. After the first two lectures, we get break time and after the break, we again have two lectures. This is our daily routine. After the classes, we have many activities in various clubs and also many group activities. The case studies are conducted during class and we usually do case study discussions after the class so that we can present it the next day in an online lecture. We do a lot of assignments. I like to attend Marketing, Accounts, IT, and Microeconomics classes. I am a market enthusiast who loves to read about marketing techniques through Philip Kotler's book 'Principle of marketing'. Most of the people read Philip Kotler which is the bible for marketing in the MBA.

Many extracurricular activities take place in IIM Bodh Gaya. We have a Sports Committee which organizes sports activities like fitness activities, sports quizzes, college sports event, inter-college cricket tournament, volleyball tournament, and chess tournament. We also have Cultural Committee which organizes cultural events on various occasions like Teachers day, Diwali, Onam, and other occasions. We also have an E-Cell which organizes entrepreneurs talk series where various entrepreneurs from India come to the college and share their experiences and provide mentorship to students of IIM Bodhgaya.

IIM Bodhgaya also has an incubation center for helping new startups to grow and provide them mentorship. We also have finance, economics, marketing, HR, communication, and other clubs too. It has been a very good experience at IIM Bodhgaya so far. IIM Bodhgaya changed me a lot from being a shy person to a confident person This change has come because of various activities, events, and peer to peer learning. I improved a lot and got knowledge of various fields that I never explored before.

About the Author:

Pankaj Patel is currently studying Master of Business Administration at the Indian Institute of Management Bodh Gaya. He is a BSc (IT) graduate from the University of Mumbai. He is a Geopolitics enthusiast who loves to learn about various international affairs. He also loves swimming and plays badminton.