INTERVIEW WITH XAT TOPPER: ARINDAM ACHARYYA….1

IN CONTINUATION TO CONSTANTLY HELP STUDENTS PREPARING FOR MBA ENTRANCE EXAMS LIKE CAT & XAT WE ARE PROVIDING YOU AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH TOPPER OF XAT-2007 ARINDAM ACHARYYA WHO WITH HIS PERSISTANT EFFORT AND FOCUS HAS ADDED MANY SUCCESS STARS TO HIS CAREER. WE ARE VERY THANKFUL TO ARINDHAM WHO SPARED HIS TIME IN THE MIDST OF THE EXAMS TO HELP STUDENTS PREPARING FOR XAT-2009 AND FURTHER. LET’S GET SOME INSIGHTS FROM HIM……

TELL ME SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND AND YOUR BRIEF INTRODUCTION

I am a fresher and a B.Tech in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Kalyani Government Engineering College, West Bengal. Prior to that I did my Schooling from Don Bosco School, Bandel

WHAT PUSHED YOU TO JOIN MBA?

When I was in the third year of my engineering, I had two choices before me: to get a job (which with nearly 100% probability had to be in an IT firm) or go for higher studies. The real motivation to opt for higher studies in general was that I did not wish to see myself amongst a million IT professionals struggling to get a project and living a life whose quality according to me was not compensated by their salary. I never worked in an IT firm and I cannot say that I have sufficient evidence to substantiate my point-of-view. The fact however remains that I felt that way at that point of time and wanted to differentiate myself from the lot.

Having chosen whether to go for higher studies or a job, the next choice before me was whether I wanted to do an M.Tech or MBA. This choice was much easier as I wanted something which would mould my personality and widen the horizons of my knowledge. Another important reason why I chose MBA is because I do not believe in second chances and I was surer to crack an MBA entrance examination than GATE.

WHAT MADE YOU TO WRITE XAT AND HOW DID YOU MOTIVATE YOURSELF TOWARDS THE EXAM AND THE INTERVIEW?

I had made up my mind to study in one of the top B-schools of the country and XLRI is one of the top B-schools of the country besides it is free from the quota system. So I made up my mind to write XAT.

Self-belief and desire to excel motivated me enough to clear XAT and the interview as well.

WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL?

There were and are many good people in the world whom I respect but I can’t claim any one to be my role model.

WHAT IS THE SECRET OF YOUR SUCCESS?

Strength of character; passion to challenge my limits; courage and dedication to live up to my goals.

WHAT WERE YOUR STRATEGIES FOR CRACKING XAT?

The strategy wasn’t anything very elaborate. When I first browsed through some sample MBA entrance questions, I felt that with sufficient preparation I could crack such an examination. Based on this thought process I practiced a lot of questions, previous year question papers, mock papers, puzzles and anything which was appropriate and I could get my hands on. I appeared for 8 SimCATs and designed the way I should approach each section, found out which section was my strength, how many should be attempted and what was a good score.

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU GOT CALL FROM XLRI?

Elated.

COULD YOU PLEASE ELABORATE HOW YOU PREPARED EACH SECTION OF WRITTEN TEST?

I practiced a lot of sample and previous years’ questions. However as I could not get my hands on too many XAT type papers, I kept practicing CAT questions. I even referred to some models of question which were never asked in XAT or were very rare in CAT/XAT. For each section I found out my areas of strength and weakness and worked accordingly.

For quants the difficulty was in choosing the correct question, often the longer questions had easier solutions. So I browsed through the questions and whenever I found some question to be in my area of strength I attempted it. One advice here is do not linger on with a question even if you like it if it takes longer than normal. Your heart may mislead you in such competitive exams.

For DI/LR the graphs take a lot of time but are rewarding, so you have to attempt them keeping this constraint in mind. Frankly in XAT I did not attempt a single question involving graphs and charts even if I liked solving them. For LR I tried solving George Summers’ puzzle book and similar books. Still unless some question is highly similar to one known to you solving LR in XAT may take away precious time. XAT has plenty of variety in this section so you can get away without solving graphical and LR questions.

Verbal section in XAT is a mix of grammar and RC. Like most people I hated RCs still I practiced some 70-80 or more RCs. Grammar part is pretty straightforward (not synonym, antonym necessarily). Explaining how to solve RCs in a few words is very difficult, however I learnt to read between the lines and read the questions repeatedly to understand the fine difference between the correct and the incorrect. This again requires practice and evaluation.