Collaborate, not Compete!

An Indian Express article this week by Bihar's Additional Director-General of Police Abhyanand, 55, who teaches physics at Bihar's Super-30 Institute for IITJEE caught my attention. If you are not keyed into the news, this institute run by Abhyanand and Anand Kumar, 36, a local mathematician, takes up select students from the minority classes. They are taught for the IITJEE exam, arguably the toughest exam of its kind in the world. All of this comes free-of-cost!

The results this year: 30 students of this institute were ALL selected for the famed IITs! (Read the full story here)

I was always a keen admirer of this venture, but what came as a bit of a surprise was the fact that these 30 students were actually helping each other in their preparation. As far as I remember my days of preparation, I never saw two students preparing together for IITJEE! There were situations when friends used to hide their progress from each other, as if there was only one seat in IITJEE, and they were the two finalists! And here were a bunch of brilliant students, who actually helped each other towards the common goal.

When I look at the MBA (read CAT) preparation at our centre, I am relieved that there are groups getting ready for the test, NOT individuals. We have always believed that 5 brains working together is always better than the five working in isolation. At CL, Pune, we don't have as many number of students as there are total number of seats in all the IIMs put together! Well, theoretically, every student here stands a chance to grab an IIM seat :-)

The Bottomline: Form groups of 4-6 friends=> Spend all the time you can afford with each other (mainly studying, and hence, at the centre)=> Get into the IIMs with the same group as your batchmates!

Enjoy!