My Observations on TISS Interview Part 2

Almost 2 years back I wrote the post " My Observations on TISS Interview Part 1" .
It can be read here :
 http://anvesh87.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-observations-on-tiss-interview-part.html

Till date it remained the most read post in my blog despite my numerous attempts in posting humorous posts and intellectual posts ;)

But in one way it served the purpose.....when I started preparing for TISS entrance exam and searching seriously all over the net for experience, life at TISS etc  ..hardly there were any blogs or content, so I made it a point to write the series "Life at TISS" once I joined in TISS ...any how to cut this already long epilogue....I am planning to write  part 2 for the  post "My Observations on TISS interview Part 1 "

Having spent 2 most valuable years of my life at TISS and close to 1 year in HR field after graduation, I believe I am better informed about TISS as a college and interview process in general...

So here is the plan, as I can see the traffic for blog had increased in recent past with announcement of TISS results, I can safely assume that some of TISS aspirants are visiting the blog to know more about TISS....So when you visit next time, leave a question in the comments section of this post .....I would come up with one article covering all questions on 16th February ....if there are no questions, I would believe I have covered every thing in part 1 and part 2 is just as unnecessary as Dhoom 3 :P :P

Thanks for reading and all the best for actual test in TISS selection process ...Interview

PS: Don't be so lazy  in asking questions such as "Explain TISS interview process"...I am as lazy in not answering such questions if not more ;)

4 Mistakes to avoid during campus interviews

Its been close to an year that I had given a couple of interviews during campus placements ( Well more than a couple infact). In retrospect, I can see that there are couple of mistakes which I had repeatedly done in multiple interviews which I should have avoided ..........

So the following post is a summary of those mistakes. Since these are what I perceive to be mistakes which may not actually be , take the advice with a big teaspoon full of salt :)

• Too much rambling:  Everyone would appreciate short and sweet conversations. But nervousness during interviews can make one ramble too much , in other words beating around the bush. Doing this shows that either one is not prepared enough or not confident enough

• Being too rigid: Last year there are couple of interviews where I mentioned that I am very much interested in Industrial Relations and would love to start my career in that area. Though I have taken caution in ensuring that I said this point in those companies with IR profiles, I now think that not many would be interested in taking a person who is hell bent on one area. A rather better answer would have shown my inclination towards IR , but at the same time open to other areas

• Missing out on areas mentioned as favourite/Interest:  In one of the interviews I mentioned a particular project I had done in one of the fieldworks is of much interest to me, but as luck would have it, I have not gone through the project before the interview and did not remember some of the factual basics from the project. My interview went on downward spiral from that point on wards ....In another interview , I have stated upfront that I am interested in IR and that's my strong area. For the best part of the interview , panel tried to prove it wrong and they were quite successful at it :)

• Leaving out the behavioural questions: This should have been a no brainer ,because most of the interviews start with the question "Tell me about yourself" . Unless answer for this is prepared well in advance there is a good chance of rambling stuff...There are other questions "strengths, weakness etc" which should be prepared well in advance

Some last words of advice : Since its a final placement, most companies would like to hire some one who will fit well into the culture of the organization. So its a good idea to have a word about work culture ( whether its an aggressive organization, kind of work done , how people interact etc) . Last but not the least, when some one asks whether one would be flexible with relocation, answer isalways expected to be YES ( unless there are genuine concerns with location)

So best of luck to every one sitting for placements  :) :)

 

My Observations on TISS interview- Part 1

Its close to one year that i attended the TISS interview (March 9th to be precise :). The year had completed pretty fast & its quite eventful  and here the next batch is ready to attend the interviews in few days . So i believe its time to clear some air around the interview process


There are quite a few misconceptions when it comes to TISS interview , just to quote a few :
(1) TISS looks for people who had done so much of social work
(2) Extremely good profile is required to make it into TISS
(3) Clearing written cut off just by a small margin affects the final offer
(4) High score in written exam helps in sailing through the interview part
(5)High level of HR knowledge is required in the interviews
(6) The conversion ratio is only 1:10 and that too with 50% reservations , there is hardly any chance
(7) If interviewers come to know that i had given MBA entrance examinations (or got some IIM calls ) , they won't select me 
(8) Last but not the least , Is it worth leaving XYZ college to join TISS
and so on .............


When i had attended the interview an year back , i myself had quite a few of the above doubts . But seeing my batch , seniors and interactions with faculty , most of them are clarified


It is a fact that TISS participates in socially relevant causes ( for ex: M-Ward initiative ) and students across the courses actively participate in them . But its not a mandatory requirement that u should be having an experience working for a social cause . I had literally none , along with 50-60% (conservative figure)of my batch . So if u really had some  experience , portray it else don't try to fake


Its a fact that quite a few in the class come from elite institutes like LSR,SRCC ,Stephens , NITs(for Engineers) . But there are also others who come from normal colleges and with quite ordinary acad records . At the end ur attitude is what matters


Coming to the scores 
Once you are in for interview process scores hardly matter . If the panel wants to take you in ,rest assured u are IN . if they don't want to take even perfect 70/70 in written will not save you


An overview of HR knowledge would be appreciated and shows your interest in the field. But the interviewers obviously won't be expecting you to cover "organizational Behavior" (we read it for 2 sems :0 ). But being aware of happenings in the country and having an opinion on them would be of great help


coming to the conversions , its a fact that only 60 people make it into HR course from a rough estimate of 9000 applicants . The fact that one made it into 600 people itself is so special and its a utter waste of oneself if he/she believes he cannot make it into the top 60 . One best advise i received while i am preparing for MBA entrance exams is " You are competing with only yourself, never even bother to try comparing yourself with others" . This would be of great help on the interview day where you can see lot many studs , if u are afraid and feel not worthy enough for TISS, definetely u are not worthy to be here 


There is no mistake in disclosing about your other interview calls. No one ever writes only one exam . But be sure to make it a point that TISS is of priority to u and not just a fall back option


"Is TISS Worthy enough to Join"--i would better not answer the question atleast at this point of time


PS: All the above points are my personal opinions and i am quite prone to be biased :P , so take them with handful of salt 


PPS: Would try to come out with other post , if i happen to remember any more points (i so love to write in parts :P)

Last Minute prep tips to TISS

Disclaimer: All the below suggestions are applicable majorly to HR as that is the only course i attempted and hence i do not have much idea on how to tackle papers for other courses

With just less than a week to go for TISS exam , its high time one should concentrate on important areas rather than trying to achieve every thing

To be very honest , those who had written any other entrance exam this year can sleep in peace. One might then wonder what to do with the last section where in you come across questions from wide variety of areas like sociology,human resource management etc (seriously neither did i have much clue at this point last year, even though i concentrated my full efforts in the last 10 days for this section ,which didnt help me much in exam :( )

so i would like to summarise on the points which helped me last year, the mistakes i did while attempting the written exam etc . Read it and do attempt the paper intelligently . I would stick to the written part for now .

NOTE: This is not the only way to attempt the paper . Play according to ur strengths . Verbal is my strength

(1)Practice good number of papers in TISS format in the last week . Apart from this year Model paper  u should defineteley practice last year model paper (which incidentally is the original paper of 2010) and possible one or two other model papers u can get ur hand on

This would get u in tune for the format of TISS

(2) Paper I should be easy (personal opinion) as it is common across all the courses . Mind it that apart from students appearing for courses in School of management & labour stuides , the other students might not be appearing for management entrance tests. Also time would be more than sufficient for every one . Only caution here is that dont do silly mistakes and also do mark the answers on OMR sheet from time to time

(3)Part 2

This is the area where u have to take a call based on ur strength area . For me its verbal . so i started the paper by attacking the RCs

But i suggest that dont go with a rigid strategy . Be felexible because the standard of TISS (generally based on previous years) is low and hence ur weakness (quant is my weakness but i solved each and every question in that section) may not effect u much

so start with a section which seemed to be easy and try to maximise the score (remember that there is no sectional cut off )

QA:

Even though it is data sufficiency , having a good knowledge of basic formulae helps 

last year the questions are quite basic and even if one do not have much grip on formulae can solve the paper 

Verbal:

Last year i felt the RCs are a bit lengthy but i persisted in completing all the questions there . This i feel is a mistake because later i realised that Return on investment(ROI ) on DI and QA section is better than Verbal

DI:

The sets are very basic and they did not contain much data either .But since i attempted this section last , i am under some pressure and made 1 DI set wrong . Some how managed to correct at last moment

Sociology,HRM etc:

If u have prepared for this section , its good . Else leave it . its not the time to be nervous thinking of the weaknesses. Concentrate on strengths and maximise the score . Even those who prepared for this section , do not spend much time thinking of the answer . As soon as u see the question , if u remember the answer good else move on (Dont mark guesses, this year there is negative marking for second paper)

Caution:Even those who did not prepare for this section , do have a look at it for a few mins . U may find some qn which u touched upon some where and some times it do happens (last year it happened) there might be a critical reasoning qn in last section which case u can answer it

The toughest part of getting into TISS is the interview regarding which i would discuss later .Just go with a calm mind and exam can be cracked

one final word of caution: Paper2 is more about race against the Time . so dont get bogged down by a qn . if u dont get the answer leave it and go ahead . there are immense no of sitters in the paper and also dont be astonished if u find any qns too simple to be asked (last year it happened to with one DI set where in i spent time thinking examiner cannot ask such a simple qn :P )

Also there is change in marking scheme (negative marking for paper 2 ) . So dont go with stereotypes .Paper might be difficult for a change .but do remember it would be surprise for every one

My score last year in written : 51.8/70

All the best for the exam :D :D

prep and more

well its been a long time i wrote a blog entry
this one would be more like a diary entry with details of what i had done over last 20 days
i had started my prep in the first week of may,but if i introspect how much i had done over a period of 40 days ,i had hardly completed any(theory of geometry and 75 problems from total gadha)theory of numbersystems and some 10 previous aimcats for DI
i have done good considering the fact that when ever we start any thing moment of inertia would be there...but then it is highly competetive world out there
and then i went on vacation for 1 week and before that 1 week i had not worked...some times they happen so i should plan for all those breaks in advance....
the thing is if i complete the office work in advance,it would not be bugging me and i can concentrate well on y prep

one good thing happened to me this time is having study partner as pavan
he is very comited person and i realise how imp a study partner can be for MBA entrance preparation
last year my prep use to be hapazard but this year it is more organised with regular study of 9 to 12 every night
if i continue this ,i am definetely going to make it
the first hurdle and a good confidence booster would be the AIMCATs and the first one i am going to write in 10 days ...
points to remember:
(1)complete the office work in advance ,so that mind would be at peace for prep related work
(2)give time for unexpected breaks ine the study
(3)complete all the previous papers well in advance ,instead of procrastinating till the last moment

preparations for 2010

may has been good so far
after a long hiatus ,finally i had started doing what i am expected to do.
yes,started my preparation ;)
its been good so far,in the sense ,i did not miss preparation any day in the last 10 days
but if i introspect ..the quantity and quality,there are definetely some areas of concern
i had done 3 previous DI papers from AIMCATs.
even though i could not do all the problems ,but seeing and analysing the sets is giving immense confidence
this (DI) is one area ,which i had not concentrated in the last year and the results shows :(

well coming to the quant preparation,this is the area of concern,not that i am bad in quants but my scores in AIMCATS and XAT says otherwise ;)

i started earnestly with geometry from TG e-book but hardly done 30 questions(its better to say ,have seen the answers of 30 questions )
still it takes time to be comfortable with quants but definetely i would not leave it until i am very comfortable in it

and last,but coming to most important section Verbal..my preparation in this section is more or less confined to reading hindu editorial and business line
have plans to start with barrons word lists(i have studied them N number of times in the past few years)
but for now concentration is more on quant and DI and have to see how things work out
but have this intuition that this year i will make into XLRI :)
hope dreams come true ...

PS:writing this in office,waiting for my manager to come from his home,so that my appraisal can be taken(today is the last day for appraisals ;),....like team like manager)

MY XAT experience

well i have told earlier that i scored 98.46 in XAT
yes,i take pride in that,and the performance gave me enough boost and confidence to go all out once again
i have never mentioned my 2 hrs of XAT experience,so thought of sharing it now
prelogue:(events happened before XAT)
i have taken my CAT exam on first sunday of december ,thanks to prometric ,i have no idea ,how i have performed in the exam
what i know is i have written the exam with a cool mind,and the graphs of DI are very confusing as i am not able to read them properly
then came JMET in the second sunday of december and i thought i had done pretty decently(ofcourse i came to know its one of the worst performances soon after)
i scored a pathetic in verbal(the section which i scored 96 in CAT and 99.81 in XAT) owing to spending very less time on that..

well so after CAT,i had solid 3 weeks time(dec 13 is JMET and JAN 3rd is XAT) for XAT
i started prep(welll after completion of CAT,i am not very interested in any more prep)
i solved one XAT paper XAt 2009 and scored 27 overall (the cut off previous year is 30)
so i thought XAT is well in my reach(in this exam i scored 6 marks in english,by not giving its quota time)
and then wrote XAT 2008,scoring this time a balanced score and attempted XAT 2009 again and scored 34 overall with 14 in verbal
my uncle and his family came to visit ooty one week before XAT and they insisted me comong with them,though not very interested went along with them

so all in all my prep for XAT is solving 2 previous year papers
so my strategy before examination is :
XLRI PMIR has higher cut offs in VA than BM ..
BM has highest cut off for QA,where as it is in 80's for PMIR
and the overall cutoff for PMIR is comparitively less for PMIR when compared to BM
so if we can score heavily in VA ,and even though misses QA cut off(worst case)will make the mark for PMIR
so thought of changing the order of my attempts(this also has some thing to do with my VA performance in JMET)
so the order i thought of attempting is VA-LR-QA (40 mins each)
during this time ,i was bit worried abt VA,as in XAT-2009 they have asked questions on figures of speech,so during the time i had also roughly gone through them
coming to LR ,i am pretty confident,can crack a puzzle of 4 questions in 15 min max,so thought if i can crack 2 puzzles along with business scenario questions ,i can sail through this section

QA ,i am confident enough,as it also contains DI part and doing 8-9 questions correctly will clear the cut off even for BM(previous years cut offs were very low)

so went to see my centre one day in advance(i think xaviers collge),had this feeling that i am going to cherish this exam centre forever,had this feel good factor(basically,because i am not expecting very much,no pressure just plain confidence)
called my mom,before entering the exam hall,she said she had a good dream of me doing well in the exam and getting into college(see again good signs)
so i entered my room after routine trip to the loo
Exam Time
............
got the paper it contained 101 questions(3 less than last year,and less negative marking compared to last year)
did not had any predetermined no of attempts in the mind,thought of attempting as many as i acan with confidence
started with english(there were no questions from grammer)
only short passages and parajumbles
started doing the paper confidently and with in 40 mins had 23 attempts in VA
haven't even seen the remaining seven questions,already had the feeling that i blasted the paper
continued to LR,seen through the puzzles and selected 2 which i thought i will attempt
done the fisrt one ,but it took close to 20 mins time (first mistake)
thought that,i cannot trust my answers in business scenarios so went with attempting the second puzzle(biggest mistake) so with 40 mins into LR i had attempted 6 LR questions along with 3 other individual questions,should have continued to QA as planned initially
but business scenario questions seemed to be very easy,so persisted for 12 more minutes and completed them
that left me with 28 mins for QA,even if i take 5 mins(worst case) i can attempt 6 questions correctly ,which would be fairly sufficient for PMIR
but pressure got the best of me..i am desperate to make more attempts
thought even though DI may take time,but i can be sure of answers ,so chose the roses and carnations set and started doing it ..10+mins into it and i completely missed the logic and i am already in panic..so with half done answers i had marked 2 options (both are wrong)
in the last 15 mins done some qa questions and they are correct ,but my scoring coming to 5 ..which is a reason to worry
in the last 10 mins of exam i can see my hand literally shaking (this is the time i understood what pressure can do to u and the importance of not just finsihing the topics required for exam but also prepartion in tackling the exam)
so after 2 hrs i know, then itself i had screwed my qa and chances for xlri
attempted the essay with half heartedness and came out

After exam
..................
it took me till evening to see for the keys(as i had to travel from bangalore to mysore)
and 1st key gave me a score of 30 (which later increased to 32 with careerlauncher and 31 for time)
have seen the performance of pagal guys and man..people commenting this is the toughest paper of the season(i felt jmet is tougher than this) and my score being among the best of scores(ofcourse screwed sectionals)

but this gave me confidence,that i have enough aptitude to crack XAT and this is my type of exam
well after the results my score card read as follows
VA 99.81 QA 70.99 LR 91.98
might be i am not made up for 2010-2012 batch
might be my destiny lies in 2011-2013 batch
who knows only time can say ;)

Fresh season...fresh hopes

well the season for 2010 officially starts today on a new year(telugu new year)
i am now on a vacation in my home town(vizag),and i did told my parents i will not be coming to vizag any time soon,before the end of exams for 2010
some mistakes i had done last year should not be repeated

(1)too much discussion about CAT/XAT and previous scores(read CAT 2009/XAt 2010)is injurious to preparation,it would either lead to unnecessary anxiety or complacency

(2)should always believe from the core of heart,that i can achieve and i am deserved for the best

(3)give weightage for all th etopics and keep the prep simple,no need to go through all the stupid tough problems posted in pagalguy

(4)complete the basics and practise previous year papers

dry season ..no calls

finally the season-2009 ended today,on a sad note :(
didn't get a call from SP.Jain after scoring 98.46 in XAT(accidentally this is my highest score,even after considering my AIMCATS scores)
ofcourse i am not completely hopeful on this call(seeing the rejects last year,and considering the fact i applied for Finance with IT work experience :) )but neverthless,Rejection or to say mildly refusal hurts
now since 2009 officially came to an end ,its time to buck up and start preparing for the next season,the difference,this time with one year experience in preparing and close to two years work experience ;)

today is UGADHI(telugu new year)
so happy ugadhi to all and hope this new year brings more happiness
need to take some decissions on prep this time(in next post)

what i want to do for the next 200 odd days

yaa 200 odd days because after exactly 220 days i would be taking IIFT.
writing CAT 2009 gave me necesary boost,and its time i should make into one of the best colleges(already am having a experience of 21 months :( )
so decided that i will write IIFT,CAT,XAT,TISS,FMS this year
the main hurdle to cross is the Quant part.even though what ever CAT prep i have done for 2009 is just for quant and finally i did not got any satisfactory marks in that(i never came any where close to quant cut offs during my AIMCATS season)
this time should get a 100% fee waiver from TIME institute :),so should be ready by the time first AIMCAT starts....
quant ,even though i prepared ,but never have done it in a structured way....(never completed all the previous papers)
this time target is not to do tough problems,but to be comfortable in basics and then solve all previous years papers of all the exams
then i can definetely land among the best and one more imp thing is never to take the pressure and never to procrastinate
taking a vacation (going to home town )on march 12th and would be back on march 24th
from April 1st sinciere prep will start and this year i am going to rock

u might be wondering what happened to sp.jains percentile based calls,honestly speaking now i do not have much hopes on it and if it comes i will give my best to convert it
any how sp.jain second list will come on march 15th...once it comes i will update the status

Finally CAT results are Out

After a looooooooooooooooooooooooong wait CAT results are out.
CAT is supposed to be the biggest exam of the season,but this no one is interested in it,
lot of confusion abt how the result might be
and finally prometric came out with psychometric analysis to determine percentiles,the authenticity of which is not made obvious to the public.
but how can they pla with the dreams of 2.2 lakh young indians
IIMs could have been more cautious.being technology savvy is appreciable but before venturing into some thing big(Like CAT)they should have done enough home work
hope they rectify their mistakes by next year

any how my CAT result didn't went that well ,it is 91.72
so its 2010 now :)

why am i blogging?

Well, now a days i am not having much work to do.
from the past one year ,preparing for my CAT exam(the only prep is quant,which i screwed very badly :) ),so now i got all the free time waiting for the CAT results
ofcourse my main interest is not CAT results,where in i can get any where from 70-99.9%,but
SP.Jain results which comes along with it
i was going through all the information available regarding SP,and life at SP
in various blogs,so thought why not i start and here it goes :)



PS:scored 98.46% in XAT,so optimistic abt SP call,will update soon regarding the status