Suffering from the epidemic of limited vocabulary? Read on!!!

It has been quite long since I have penned down something useful for you guys. Well, honestly there is always a ready excuse, deep with work till neck; trying to stay afloat...blah blah.... but the muse doesn’t take over often here. I was trying to expose myself to a lot of information and assuming some or the other miracle will happen. Anyway people, needless to say, after a long sabbatical, here I come with the gyan :)

The CAT-09 season has already begun and therefore first things first, vocabulary plays a very important role in contributing to good scores, when it comes to Verbal Ability section of CAT. I know not many of you excel in this forte and I also agree to the fact that taming this section could be a daunting task but it’s almost like “now and never” and so on a regular basis I have resolved to expose you to new words in this site. It’s how one says, ‘vitamins, work best when imposed rather than selected.’

For starters let us take a look at a few easy ways, if followed diligently would ensure enhancement of our vocabulary.

(1)Read, read and read: I am aware of the fact that reading is not everyone’s favourite. But with a little motivation and the want to be an eloquent speaker, take reading as little doses of medicine :) To truly begin, you could pick up anything and start reading. Newspapers, magazines even the very favourite ‘Pune Times’ along with its regular masala can teach quite a few new words. Here the occurrence of foreign words is frequent so ‘time to be fancy’:)

(2)Listen to English channels: Time for some entertainment guys! If news channels like BBC, CNN appear like humongous tasks, you have lots to choose from. For example if you are one of the movie buffs you could watch some great ones in HBO, Star movies, Sony Pix , Zee-studio and the list is endless. I particularly could always vouch for this method of picking up new words like ‘weaned, nemesis, sabotage, condescend’ to name a few. You also have some ‘on the edge of the seat entertainment serials. My personal favourites would be ‘prison break, how I met your mother, heroes, friends’ Although 'Friends and How I met your mother' couldn't be included in the 'adventure' genre.

(3) Conversing in English: Try conversing in English with few/ at least one of your friends or colleagues. This helps you to remain in the groove.

(4) Try thinking in English: Although English will always be a second language for most of us, we need to quit the translation which takes place in our little heads. The day we can overcome this impediment we will definitely be fluent.

So you could follow these few easy steps to be the one (read conversant in English) :) All the best. Signing off now and will be back with more.

Symbiosis Scores Revised

According to an article in Sakaal Times, the SNAP Test scores have been revised. So, if you expected a higher score, please make sure that you check your scores again on http://oams.blueshift.com/snapscorecard/Login.aspx.

All the best!

Last opportunity for an IIM Boot Camp!

After two great weekends of IIM-specific Bootcamps, CL Pune is glad to offer the last in the series on the 8th Feb. Since the IIM Interviews start off after the weekend, this is practically the last chance to get yourself polished further for those crucial calls.

The 8th Feb bootcamp will be a whole day affair in Pune itself. But before you come into the bootcamp, you will have to complete some basic introductory sessions available on the computers at the centres.

To know more, just sms PDP to 9850897035.

PDP Boot Camp Series

The first in the series of Residential PDP Boot Camps was held last weekend (17-18th Jan) at a serene location near Thane. It saw more than 85 students with IIM Calls getting a trailer to what the IIM life would be. After arriving at the venue past midnight from Pune, the students were asked to get ready for an assignment.



The session on Saturday started at 9 am with some hectic GD drills. The participants got the best of expert comments from the panel drawn from the IIMs and currently working in the industry. It was followed by gyan session on GK and current economic situation. With some relief in the form of a "movie assignment", the interviews for some students went off till late in the next day, 4:30 am to be precise.

The last day, Sunday, saw a flurry of interviews lined up for the whole day. The panel size was now extended with another 10 more experienced people joining from the IIMs and other prestigious institutions.

Some of the quotes from the participants tell you most of the story:

“…the co-learning was excellent”

“It met my expectations, and more, in many ways. The case study and its analysis opened up a whole new world for me. Stupendous effort by Career Launcher”

“It was really stressful, but at the end of it, I’m going back better equipped to face the interviews”

“The interview part revealed glaring loopholes in my profile. The feedback has given me the way to move ahead in the remaining few weeks”

“It’s been long since I had a night out and had to complete tasks. I really enjoyed this part of the Bootcamp”

“….The panelists and the officials were excellent. And yes, even the food was good”

“Innovative, creative, inspiring and eye opening”

“Keep it up. The effectiveness of these two days can never be over-stated”

“…it allowed me to stitch my story together…”

“Interview panel was excellent. I owe you guys”

“thank God I attended it”

“Thank you. I loved it”

“Although I loved the Bootcamp, I hope I won’t have to attend it again next year”

“The mix of students was brilliant”

If there is any IIM call-getter keen on attending the next Bootcamp on 24-25th Jan, just send an email to pune.cl@careerlauncher.com NOW!

For more details, please click here.

GMAT-It's never too early!

Hi All! I was reading WSJ this morning and the curious bug inside me urged me to look for the articles on MBA in US. All of us have heard of the phenomenon called GMAT. I read in one of the articles that there could not have been a better time than now to go for a higher education degree. I kept on reading to find that all the counsellors of the US Universities are suggesting the college grads to take the GMAT right after the degree. The chief reason for this being the fact that a high GMAT Score is one of the most important criteria for the most coveted B-Schools, and the other areas, apart from the past academic records, can be built around the achieved score.This piece of information somehow was able to clear the mist that has been shrouding all of us for so long that GMAT should preferably be written by people with a work experience of atleast a couple of years.

I wanted to share this with all my students so that if the exmas haven't been upto their expectations this year and in case they are planning to take CAT the next season, then voila here is a new opportunity for all final year students. Continuing my search for more dope on GMAT, I also chanced upon a blog which stated instances of GMAT score. It said, "A recent test-taker received a scaled score of 45 in verbal (98th percentile) and 40 in quant (66th percentile) and an overall score of 700 (93rd percentile). Notice how much closer the overall percentile is to the excellent verbal percentile. If the overall percentile were simply an average of the individual percentiles, this person would have received about 640. But because the combination of an outstanding verbal performance with a fair quant performance is so rare, the overall percentile and score will be much higher than the lower quant percentile. Another person, who scored 49 in verbal (99th percentile) and 37 in quant (56th percentile), received 710 (95th percentile), even though the quant performance here was a full 10 percentile points lower than that in the previous example. Again, an outstanding performance in verbal significantly offset a middling performance in quant.Does this work in reverse? That is, will an outstanding performance in quant so dramatically offset a middling performance in verbal? No. This combination is much more common, given the increasing number of international test-takers, who often have excellent math skills but relatively weak command of English. Even among native speakers of English, it is more common to see relatively high quant scores coupled with fair to middling verbal scores. Because these combinations are less rare, they are not rewarded as highly. For example, a test-taker recently received a 50 in quant (97th percentile) and a 37 in verbal (82nd percentile), but "only" a 670 overall (89th percentile). So the truly excellent quant performance was not enough to pull the overall score above 700.While an excellent verbal performance can indeed take up some of the slack from a weaker quant score, keep in mind that most business schools want to see strong skills in both sections. In fact, some of the top 20 schools apply the "80/80 rule", which requires that successful applicants reach at least the 80th percentile in both sections."

Interesting isn't it? So now all of you know that it's never to early to start preparing for any challenge...after all there can never be any end to question types and the early bird ALWAYS catches the worm!!! You can trust me on that!

Let the CET MOCKS Mock conventions!!!

For all MBA aspirants, MH-CET shall be the last option of getting into one of the much coveted B-Schools in India. Beyond February 15th, there shall only be MAT in May that might be of any help, however that excludes the Top 20 management programs in the country. Considering all the colleges in Maharashtra , the total number of seats is 6500+, however one has to keep in mind that a lot of these seats are reserved under various quotas.
MH-CET is a 200 marks, 150 min test with 200 objective type questions testing the applicant's aptitude in Math, English and Reasoning. Although a sound knowledge of Math and English is essential, a sharp aptitude for solving reasoning based questions is critically important to crack CET. A minimum score of 100+ is desirable to make it to the best schools accepting the CET score. From a bird's eye view, the paper has a considerable number of questions pertaining to vocabulary, grammar, number system, data interpretation and visual reasoning, with algebra and geometry taking a backseat, however the importance of them cannot be ignored.
Assuming that most of the test takers are already through with their basics of Math and English, it is now mandatory for every aspirant to start testing his competency in the various sections by taking the Mock Tests. The mocks are very effective tools to help the student gage his performance. One has to make sure that one is getting tested across various Math, English as well as Reasoning based questions of varying difficulty levels. Apart from giving the students a variety of questions in a stipulated amount of time, the Mocks also help them evaluate their performance against 3000- 4000 test takers from the State. At this point of time every applicant should be ideally writing 2 tests in a week that would prepare them not only for the actual test but also make them aware of their weak areas, if any, so that they can start working on them. The test taker should also make it a point that one of the 2 tests should be compulsorily taken in a simulated environment so that he can get the feel and tension of the actual test day. Apart from merely writing the tests, the most crucial thing is a thorough analysis of the paper once it is over. An effective analysis of 200 questions should not take less than 120 min , and every test taker should devote that time after every Mock so that the mistakes in concepts and strategies are not repeated in the remaining of the papers. Every student should make sure to discuss the paper with his peers or with a mentor so that better ways to solve a problem can be devised and learnt. A poor performance in any of the Mocks should not dishearten one, rather one should take the learning out of it and be careful not to repeat any of those mistakes in future. A student can however safely rely on the Mock scores and therefore should take every test very seriously.
Especially at Career Launcher, a very comprehensive and detailed web analysis of every mock is provided which is very helpful for a student since it points out critical areas of concern and improvement and also gives the student a ranking and percentile across a considerably large chunk of test takers. In fact apart from the Mocks, the Full length simulated tests' scores can also be uploaded on the web to get the analyses of the same. With 26 days and only 3 Sundays left to the actual test, every test taker can comfortably take 15 Mocks which shall arm them with all the necessary competencies. Mock CETs are indeed a very effective way to prepare yourself for the real challenge.
Rest a lot depends on your ability to deal with a nerve wrecking situation...keep a check on the clock and I am sure nothing can stop you from getting a good score.
All the best and go break a leg!