CAT Topper & NTSE Scholar Speaks: Debanjan Dey

Name: Debanjan Dey
Exam: CAT 2008
Marks: 246 (356)
Quantitative: 59 (100)
LRDI: 62 (96)
Verbal: 125 (160)
Percentile: 100

Current Status: In the Final Year of Engineering at Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Question: Were you a fresh graduate when you appeared for CAT 2008 or did you work in some organization and gained some experience?
Answer: I am in my final year of Engineering college (Computer Engineering branch) at present. So definitely a fresher when I appeared for CAT 2008.

Question: Can you tell us something about yourself and your pre-MBA qualifications and work-experience?
Answer: I did schooling from Mother's International School, New Delhi, electing PCM with Computer Science in High School. I had a good academic record and am a recipient of the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) Scholarship. I applied to a number of Engineering Entrance Exams and cleared AIEEE, BITS and CEE. I joined Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, since it had a good reputation, was close to home, and I was getting my preferred stream (Computer Engineering.)

Question: When did you decide to go for MBA?
Answer: I was initially inclined towards getting placed with a top product company and working in the technical line first, before pursuing a higher degree. I got offers from Adobe, Aricent and C-Dot. My excellent result in CAT 2008 was the main reason I decided to try for an MBA as a fresher and make use of this new opportunity I had got. Furthermore, I had a department rank of 6/100 in college and a good academic record which would boost my chances of making it to a top B-school.

Question: Does this mean that you appeared for CAT 2008 without actually being serious about a career in management at that stage?
Answer: Yes, while appearing for CAT, I had not finalized any plan to pursue MBA immediately, as a fresher.

Question: Will an MBA degree add on to your existing career plan or did you decide to switch/start a career in management?
Answer: I have not yet decided on the exact field of management I am interested in. Since I am a fresher, I would like to get a better idea of the subject before formulating my final career plan.

 Question: What exactly were your reasons for pursuing management as your career?
Answer: Due to a number of reasons, many engineers pursue an MBA degree whether as a fresher or after a few years of work experience. The reasons are usually better and quicker career advancement, getting a broader outlook on the functioning of industry, and personal value addition. My reasons were similar but I had actually planned to try for MBA after a few years of work.

Question: Do you think money plays a great role in choosing management as a career?
Answer: It definitely plays an important part, but in the current job situation under the effects of recession and lay-offs, average placement salaries are dipping. The main reason to pursue an MBA right now would be that it is a good time to invest in education, when the job market does not have much to offer. Hopefully, the situation will be better in a few years' time.

Question: Which MBA Institutes and Programmes you have identified for your MBA?
Answer: I only appeared in CAT 2008, and have only applied for the flagship two-year full-time residential programmes of IIMs. If I don't make it to the IIMs, I would take up a job offer.

Questions related to Pre-MBA Preparation

Question: What was your first step in starting preparation for getting into the B-school of your choice?
Answer: I gave the GRE in April 2008, and the preparation I put in for that came in handy when I was studying for CAT later. I began with the word lists for the Verbal Section.

Question: When did you start your preparation?
Answer: I completed Barron's word lists and question sets over January-March 2008.

Question: How many months and how many hours daily did you devote for preparation of entrance exams? When did you start your preparation?
Answer: I could not prepare regularly for CAT due to campus placements at my college in summers.

Question: Did you take up some coaching institute or you believed in self-study?
Answer: No, I did not take class-room coaching for CAT. It was self preparation and plenty of reading (which is a hobby of mine). After clearing CAT, I realized the need for guidance for the GD/PI rounds and had joined week-end batch at PT Education, Delhi, in January 2009. It proved to be helpful.

Question: What was your experience with your coaching center?
Answer: My GD/PI sessions at PT Education were thorough and provided me with the inputs I required to build a strong base in MBA-related knowledge. Since I had a number of informal interactions with faculty, I was able to concentrate on the topics that I was lacking in.

Question: What was the best and strongest feature of your coaching institute?
Answer: I think all the faculty members I interacted with during my GD/PI classes and at the Boot-camp (SureShot) were very well-versed in their respective fields. The inputs I received from them after my mock interviews were comprehensive and of great help.

Question: Do you think there is scope for improvement in your coaching institute? What would be your suggestions?
Answer: I did not join any coaching for CAT 2008, so I can not comment on that. But still, I got the impression from my peers that most institutes advise MBA aspirants to rely a lot on short-cuts and formula-based thinking, especially in the Quantitative Section. I think cramming up rules makes one slower and proves detrimental. All the questions in CAT 2008 could be solved by elementary techniques.

Question: What are the others books and tests that you used for your MBA preparation, besides the study material provided by you coaching institute?
Answer: I took a few mock tests of various coaching institutes.

Question: Can you tell us which your favorite books were - books that you used for preparing for entrance, books for self-development, and books for pure relaxation?
Answer: I think Verbal Ability is a section which cannot be improved much by class-room coaching, especially in CAT which gives greater weightage to application of grammar rather than vocabulary. Reading more is the best way to prepare for it. Some authors I enjoyed reading include Ayn Rand, Arundhati Roy, O'Henry, Jane Austen, Alistair MacLean, due to their unconventional style of writing and story-telling.

Question: What were your strongest and your weakest areas while preparing for MBA?
Answer: My strongest area was Verbal Ability as I had a good grasp on the language since my school days. I was not too confident about the Algebra Section in Quant.

Question: Some tips which you used for mastering Quantitative Aptitude, Reading Comprehension, etc.
Answer: I feel that practice is of primary importance in the Quant Section. If you attempt enough questions, you can get an immediate idea of how to proceed even when faced with a different kind of problem. LRDI is generally the tough section but it can be attempted well as long as one has enough time to devote to this section. Reading Comprehension consumes a lot of time unless one can improve one's reading speed. I practiced by reading magazines and editorials.

Question: Which all Entrance Exams you appeared for and your score / percentile in each?
Answer: CAT only. I scored 246 (356), with a break-up of -
Quantitative: 59 (100)
LRDI: 62 (96)
Verbal: 125 (160)

Question: Give some handy tips regarding the MBA written tests that would be of great help to MBA aspirants.
Answer: I think one needs to find one's weak points and devote maximum time to improve on them. Since there are sectional cut-offs, it is not enough to score on one's strengths. A balanced preparation is required.

Questions related to Group Discussion

Question: How did you prepare for Group Discussions? What all resources did you use for preparation?
Answer: I joined PT Education for GD/PI preparation. My GD/PI sessions at PT Education were thorough and provided me with the inputs I required to build a strong base in MBA related knowledge. The self study I put in included brushing up on current affairs from newspapers (The Hindu, Indian Express), reading financial and management basics from magazines and Wikipedia.

Group Discussion Experience

IIM A - No Group Discussion. Essay on "India's Space Ambitions are Misplaced"
IIM B - Case Discussion on "Need for Self Governance in Cities"
IIM I - Case Study on an ethics issue in a company
IIM K - Group Discussion on "Recent Ban on Chinese Toys - Health Issue or Economic Issue?"
IIM L - Group Discussion on "You have to Break a Few Eggs to make an Omelet"

All GDs had 2 panelists. The number of participants varied from 7-10. The GD at IIM Indore and IIM Lucknow included writing an essay on the topic (20 minutes time), before proceeding with the discussion. IIM Bangalore asked us to write a summary (10 minutes time) after completing the GD.

Overall, the group discussions at IIMs were orderly and barring one or two members, everyone got a chance to speak. However, occasionally they lacked structure as people switched from one line of reasoning to another without completing their point. Thus, the flow of the discussion was not continuous, although attempts were made to bring it back to the point. The panelists at my GDs were very attentive and continually keeping notes regarding the progress. They did not interrupt before completion of the discussion time (20 minutes in all, except IIM Kozhikode which gave us 10-15 minutes). We were not made to summarize the GD, but at IIM Lucknow, one group member was specifically asked to present his views, at the end.

Personally, the positive in my GD experiences was the fact that I was able to bring up new and unique view-points. However, I did not open the discussion and feel I could have benefited by entering into the discussion earlier than I did. The GD/PI at IIM Calcutta is next in line and am currently preparing for that.

Questions related to Personal Interview

Question: How did you prepare for the interview?
Answer: PT Education's Boot-camp (SureShot) helped me a lot in my interview preparation as the feedback was very helpful. Since I had a number of informal interactions with faculty, I was able to concentrate on the topics that I was lacking in. My interview preparation further consisted of revising curriculum subjects, general knowledge and reading up matter pertaining to my hobbies.

Question: How many interview calls did you get and from which institutes? How many and which ones of these could you actually convert to a Final Call?
Answer: I received calls from 6 IIMs - A, B, C, I, K, L. I have appeared in 5 interviews so far and results will be declared in the upcoming months. Only GD/PI of IIM Indore is still remaining.

Personal Interview Experience
Questions asked were related to -
IIM A - Academics (Computer Science - DBMS), hobbies (poetry and tabla) and GK
IIM B - Reading interests, discussion on hacking, interest in MBA
IIM I - Academics, hobbies and GK
IIM K - Sorting algorithms, maths, hobbies
IIM L - Hobbies (table tennis), processor chips, discussion on laptops

Question: How many Interviewers in each interview so far?
Answer: There were two members in each interview panel. The interview panelists were the same as those who had moderated the group discussions.
Interviews were 10-20 minutes long. Generally the process began with one interviewer quizzing me on academics (Computer Science related), followed by the other who asked me details regarding my extra-curricular activities. In IIM Kozhikode and IIM Lucknow interviews, I was asked to introduce myself first. Management related questions were not asked, except at IIM Bangalore where I was told to explain my interest in this line, and whether I considered my lack of work experience to be a handicap.
Overall, I found that if the academics related questions were handled well, one could lead the interview from then on, because the panelists asked you questions based on your previous responses. For instance, one of my college-mates was asked a question related to round robin algorithms in Operating Systems. Though he had not covered that subject in his curriculum, he mentioned that he knew the meaning of round robin in terms of football tournaments; thus, taking the interview on to his hobby, football.
General knowledge was also important and a number of questions were asked regarding West Bengal (my mother tongue is Bengali) and my school. So I had to go well-prepared with respect to my hobbies and background.
My interviews were pretty relaxed and there was usually not much grilling. At IIM Kozhikode, they first discussed the GD for some time because it had been rather unstructured. Also, at IIM Lucknow, although few questions were asked, I was grilled on each for quite some time. I consider IIM Bangalore and IIM Kozhikode to have been my best interview experiences since the discussion with the panelists proceeded on a very smooth note. An area where I could have improved included current affairs related to my hobbies, as I missed out on a few questions in this field.

Questions related to CAT 2009 Paper

Question: How did you find CAT 2008 paper? Was it tougher or easier than your expectations?
Answer: CAT 2008 was easier than I had expected, especially in Quant, as compared to the mock-tests I had practiced. However, the surprise was the increase in the number of questions in Verbal Ability from 25 to 40. Time management became crucial and it was important to stay calm throughout the paper.


Question: Which section you found most tough and most easy to handle?
Answer: LRDI section was tough as every set required a different approach, and it was time consuming as compared to the other sections. Verbal Ability was my strength and I found it easy to handle. I tackled it first and completed it in 30 minutes so as to make enough time for the rest of the paper.

Questions related to Your Future Plans

Question: Give names of three B-schools as per your order of preference to join and the reasons for your inclination to join them.
Answer: If I get calls from IIM A, B or C, they would be my preference, due to brand name, excellent faculty and scope for overseas exchange programs.

Question: At this stage, do you have any particular specialization in mind, like Finance / Marketing / Operations, etc., that you would pursue in your second year of MBA? Or have you kept that decision for later?
Answer: No, I would make that decision only after my first year of MBA when I would gain exposure to each of these fields.

Question: What are your career aspirations?
Answer: Since I was prepared to join the technical line, I have not yet formulated any long term goals in the field of management. Nevertheless, I would like to remain in connection with the IT industry.

Question: What do your attribute your success to?
Answer: I feel that my good result in CAT 2008 might be attributed to my interest in puzzle solving, strength in language, and confidence in the preparation I put in. However, I still have to clear the interviews so I am working hard for the same.

Question: Any general tips you might like to give MBA aspirants that might prove helpful to them?
Answer: Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, so it is more important to judge yourself than follow a routine someone else sets down for you. More practice leads to more confidence. If MBA is your priority, you must maintain focus over a long period of time. At the same time, having a good academic record is crucial, because it plays a major role in the interviews.