Hey guys

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Ankush Arya this side

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Welcome to the Konversation

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I am here to talk to today about how MBA is a great option for commerce students and how to approach CAT

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I am also open to any other queries you have.

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As for my profile: I joined IIM Udaipur in 2016 for the PGDM after completing CA.

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I am a member of the Media Committee here at IIM Udaipur

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Awaiting your questions now :)

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I see a dearth of question even though 24 people are viewing

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Anyway, posting some general observations that I have on the said topic

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Commerce in general and CA in particular suffers from a drawback in my opinion. Most of the knowledge we gather is in theory with very limited practical angle to it

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MBA helps us commerce students overcome this roadblock and see things from a very different perspective

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In my first trimester my grades went down the chute and I scored a CGPA lower than almost 50% of the batch even when I had done most of the subjects in under graduation

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It was only in the second trimester that I realised that my approach was flawed and I need to start being more practical and less of a theorist

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Hi Ankush

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I covered ground and now stand in the top 15% of the batch now at the end of first year

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Hey Vartika

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I am also a CA working with pwc and graduated from SRCC..I have just started preparing for CAT

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Is 4 months enuf to crack cat with job

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Very confused if this much time is enuf or should I focus on job only

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Hi Ankush

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Frankly Vartika I studied for CAT for 12 days and that too after the CA finals on 16th Nov 2016

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And appeared for exams on 39th Nov.

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29th

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Oo that's inspiring

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So put it squarely, for CAT it does not matter how long you study, what matters is how smartly you cover topics and play at your strengths

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Hey Divyashree

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Also some People are advising me to for GMAT instead...How will u advise cat vs gmat from a point of view of a CA

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This is Divyasree. I am a CA and CS finalist. I took CAT 16 and scored 88.89 percentile with no calls. This is my profile - General Non Engineer, Female X - 89% (CBSE), XII Commerce - 87% CBSE, b com (distance education) - 58%. Workex - Nil.

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Depends upon your interests. There are many courses in India and abroad that accept GMAT for eg. The Pgpx course here at IIMU accepts GMAT

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I would like to know if they consider CA inter marks for AR scores in addition to B com. I am planning to take CAT 17 . I see my chances of getting into top 10 b schools clearly depends on CAT scores. I am trying to understand where I stand with this profile.

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CAT is the only medium if you want a full two year MBA from an IIM

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Hence I would advice you to understand what you want to pursue first. Both exams give you very different opportunities

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Divya. In the interview you will have a lot to talk about with that qualification but no marks are awarded for incomplete degree as far as my knowledge goes

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What are the differences in the opportunities that are offered by GMat vs cat ..can you guide

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Also, CAT percentile is very important but so is the profile. I advice you to get a workex of more than a year to enhance your profile in CAT. Also you need to score more than 97 if you plan to get into a reputable IIM

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Vartika. GMAT gets you into executive programs in India but you also need 3 years of worked for it

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CAT gets you into regular 2 year MBA program

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And are opportunities after them significantly different

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Yes I would say so.

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Can you elaborate plz

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Executive programs are very specific while MBA is a general program

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You can get into any field once you complete PGDM whereas you specialise in a field in an executive program

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Ok thanks

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You mentioned that you gave CAT 16 after CA final exams last year. So you would have been a semi qualified while registering for CAT. What was your CAT 16 score and what were the calls you got ? Have you blogged about your interview experience anywhere ? I would like to take some pointers from your experience.

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Score 97.4

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Yes I was semi qualified and hence ABC did not give me a call

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Got a call from Lucknow, Kozhikode and Shillong among older IIMs and all new IIMs

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Amazing Ankush!

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You can reach me at Ankush.arya.2016@iimu.ac.in

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I can share whatever you need to know

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Sure, thanks!

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What were the other exams you gave ?

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I say for only CAT as I had only IIMs as my aim

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Sat*

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Okay! Is ABC really out of my league even with a very high percentile ? Cause i am a semi qualified ?

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I cannot push CAT for another year. CAT 17 is my last shot. So i just want to understand what my chances are.

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I would advice you to compete CA as it adds immense value to your CV

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There are hardly 2-3 CAs in a batch even at an IIM and hence cracking interview becomes easier

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Your chances are dependent upon your profile which is made up of

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Cat score

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Work ex

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10th

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12th

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College marks

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Gender diversity

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Se diversity

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Academic diversity

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The weightage is different for different IIMs.

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I am not quitting CA. I am giving exams in November.

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And, Noted!

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Great. Best of luck with it. Pay special attention to Audit and ISCA

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Thanks. Will do! I am actually planning to split my attempts this time. Group 1 in November and Group 2 in May. so that i have more time for CAT.

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Play at your strengths in CAT. I knew I was decent in English so I aced it and scored 99.8 in that section

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That compensated for low quant marks

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So find out your strength and ace that.

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Group one in CA is critical. Once you clear that, group two happens

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Hmmm okay. I need more practice with DILR. Quants and VA are sorted.

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How many CAs are there in your batch ?

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3 complete and two one group clear semi CAs

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Awesome! How hectic is life at IIMs ?

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Depends upon you. If you want it can be so hectic that you sleep less than 4 hours everyday and if you want you can have a gala time

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I am in the media cell here and my life is a rollercoaster

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It's a constant competition between academics and other responsibilities

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But the last one year has been the best one of my life!

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Haha ! Good to know :D

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What are the electives you are planning to choose in the second year ?4

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I have taken a mix of finance, marketing and strategy

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My current electives are

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Banking and financial systems

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Corporate valuation

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Consumer behavior

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B2b

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Product strategy management

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Industry and competitor analysis

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Strategy in practice

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Awesome! You think you have an edge over your peers being someone with a strong finance background ?

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Yes that helps. Both academically and from placement point of view. But mind you engineers are very sharp and they know ways to acquire our expertise very fast

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So you have to constantly upgrade yourself to stay ahead

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Great! What are your plans for summer internship ? IB or VC or ?

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I am in second year and have already done my internship at GE

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I will sit for final placements this winter

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It's time we wrap up this talk. I'll be back Monday evening probably for any other thing you want to ask. You can always write to me for any query :)

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Adios :)

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Oh oh ! That's great to know. All the best!!

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Sure! Nice talking to you Ankush! Hope to see you on the other side.

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