CATIIMATALES has now got a website!!!!

CATIIMATALES has now grown up.... it has got a cool website.
Check it out!
CATIIMATALES

Which one to choose: TIME or IMS?

I recieved a lot of enquiries on TIME vis-a-vis IMS. I mentioned earlier in one of my blogs that majority students come here from TIME. So, I had a few interviews from IIMA students about TIME and IMS. Their honest opinion is in favour of TIME.

TIME is ahead of IMS in terms of:

• Personal Attention
• Good faculty
• SIMCATs similar to actual CAT

At IMS they offer much more advanced stuff absolutely not required for CAT. IMS students felt that they wasted considerable efforts in learning difficult stuff which would never come in CAT.

Materials of TIME are better in a sense that you study more focused. TIME test series package is by far the best. So, suggestion from IIMA students is that Even if you join IMS, you should also practice from TIME test-series package.

Now city-wise variations are there - in some cities IMS coachings are better whereas in some others TIME is ahead. Just enquire from the present students about IMS and TIME, they can give you an idea.

Keep putting in your questions.
Boss@IIMA

Catiimatales in DNA Newpaper, Mumbai

Hi all,
You all will be glad to know that catiimatales is on the DNA News - on the DNA blogs section http://www.dnaindia.com/

Recently I put a post on Lalu's lecture at IIMA. It got listed there as Lalunomics. So far so good for CATIIMATALES. Hope it will grow bigger.

Cheers
Boss@IIMA

In response to the article on TOI on Caste & IIMs

Hi all,
A slightly disturbing article appeared on 12th Sept. in The Times Of India, Dalit IIM students get less moolah, I present my views. Please visit
http://hothotboss.googlepages.com/issue-casteandiima

Please send me your feedbacks.
Boss@IIMA

VSEDEX crossed 10,000 marks

Remember I told you about Stock market game by Mitanshu. The equivalent to sensex is VSEDEX there. Now it has 393 active users. Learn more about it in Stock.Gyan.

Keep the catiima forum busy.
Cheers
Boss

How to crack Quants?

Well...well..well ... Quants/QA in CAT. Simply put, it's a killer section. If you want to crack CAT, you need to crack Quants! There's no short cut here. Throw away your maths phobia, believe me - no need to be a quants wizard to solve the CAT questions. Come on - it's not rocket science or high funda maths. I am a biology student and I scored 99.99 percentile in Quants.

Definitely I'll tell you about my strategy. It's nothing unique or extraordinary - it's very simple. You all know about the areas in CAT: number theory, geometry, mensuration, arithmatic and algebra. Now follow what I say:

• Practice basic level in each and every area. Keep things simple. Don't ignore any area, especially the basics.
• Practice algebra, number theory, mensuration and geometry. You can expect majority questions from this section.
• Don't leave any area untouched. You can't avoid anything here - otherwise CAT will avoid you.
• Try to identify SITTERS in Mock exams. Yeah I said SITTERS. Atleast 50% questions here are sitters - takes less than a minute to solve. You need to identify them through practice. Remember, sitters depend on your level of practice and sitters vary from aspirant to aspirant!
  
• One way of identifying sitters is resolving the quants section once the mock cat is over. Take a note pad - keep a note of the way you solved specific type of problems. That note will help you identifying quickly specific types and solving them within a minute - because you know the strategy.
• If your calculation precision is weak - like mine - do onething. Suppose 54.6*75.8 and your answer choices are 2789.88, 3588.88, 4557.66, 4138.68. Multiply the last two numbers - 6*8 = 48, hence the answer should end on 8, one option eliminated. Next multiply the first two, 7*5=35, hence the answer would be > 35 in the first two digits which leaves us with the option 4138.68. Problems won't be this simple but this will give you a clue how to intelligently use limited maths ability to the maximum extent. Why I need to go for complex calculations when a two simple calculations can do it faster?
• Try to identify the shortcuts. I remember thoroughly reading a book for banking services - Magical Mathematics. It was a good help to a math-phobic person like me.
• Don't overstudy sections like ratio proportions, simple and compound interests, permutation-combination and probability - only basic knowledge will do in CAT. If you see a differential or intergral problem in one CAT paper doesn't mean you need to mugg through entire diff-integral calculus! That thing may or may not come - a high chance of not coming is there. So, don't lose your focus. Rather keep your basics clear.
• Go through time and work section thoroughly. I tended to avoid this section because of its length. But, in actual CAT I got a known problem - an absolute sitter here. So, while solving papers post-exam don't avoid it - you never know when you get a sitter. If in the exam you feel that the question is direct or a sitter - do it otherwise leave.

So by now you've understood the importance of getting sitters in QA. Practice now for sitters - this is the opportune time! Start identifying the sitters in mock and actual CAT papers - it'll help you in identifying the easy questions and solving them with a brisk pace. Keep minimum 30 minutes for Quants in CAT. If you haven't made a notebook of sitters yet - start today! Believe me, 50% questions are sitters which won't take more than 30-40 seconds to solve.

I have started a discussion forum on my blog, keep putting in your questions and suggestions there. Plus you can chat there too!
Keep mugging!
Boss@IIMA

Lalu's Lecture at IIMA

You all must be interested to know how Lalu took our class. Here's a glimpse. I can't write the details as it would be against institute norms. But I can write how he charmed a hall full of students.
Find the lecture here
http://hothotboss.googlepages.com/lalu%27slectureatiima

Keep mugging
Boss@IIMA

For GD-PI: How to understand SENSEX?

http://finance.gyan.googlepages.com/sensex

In easy words I have discussed about SENSEX, without any technical hi-fi terms - it's easy to understand and perfect for the uninitiated.
Have a look and give me a feedback to improve it.

How to crack CAT? An average student's story

Hi all,

I received 100s of mails and scraps from students all around the country last week. Main theme of a majority were “I am a real average student, will I be able to crack CAT?” Here I present the interview of my colleague, whose name I won’t disclose. Because it may hurt his sentiments as many IIMA students also read the blog with interest.

Now he is an average guy from a middle class family in Mumbai. He did his engineering from a state engineering college with average results. Everyone in his college were appearing for CAT, he also took a coaching like them and sat for CAT 2005. He had prepared well, with his own unique methods. Only one student out of 200 appearing from his college cracked CAT – and it was him!

He himself admits he is no genius and so, I asked him definitely there must be some reason for which he got 99.5 percentile.

CAT is not a test of mathematical and verbal aptitudes, he knew from the very beginning. It’s a test of managerial ability. He followed certain distinct plans for each section.

Verbals:

Ø He started reading Reader’s Digest, Business India and Business Online. Everyday for 2 hours his main routine was to browse them thoroughly. He did this for six long months.

Ø He read the editorials of TOI and The Hindu. This improved his sense of sentence construction

Ø He did not waste time on vocab building. (Interesting, I wasted a lot of time there!)

Ø The materials provided by his coaching (TIME) was good enough for him. He couldn’t browse through all.

Quants

Ø Here he followed the usual approach. He relied on the coaching materials and did not think of consulting anything else. He just brushed up his basics.

DI

Ø He rigorously practiced the materials provided by the coaching. “Who’s got the time to consult other coaching materials? Anyway, it’s not the test of how-much-you-know, it’s a test of how-much-you-apply!”

Everyday he had the regular gossip sessions, regular girl-watching sessions as usual. CAT did not disturb his daily routine. He did not bog himself down ever thinking of how tough and competitive the exam is.

Two days before the exam, he stopped studying. He went for a movie, drank a beer or two, helped dad in his office work, surfed net, etc. that is fultoo enjoy.

On the D-day he woke up early, offered his respect to the family God and went to the exam centre 10 km away.

Now on reaching the centre his main thinking was, “Wow! These guys/gals must have prepared so hard! That’s why they are so serious.” He did not have any pressure on him. It was just an average preparation.

Exam story:

Surprise! It’s a 90 question paper! How many he is going to attempt? 15-15-15 will be enough? He started searching for the easy kills!

Already he decided, he’s never going to try the difficult ones. First half an hour was slow for him. He started with verbals. He couldn’t answer more than 15 in the first half an hour. Reading comprehension suddenly seemed very difficult for him! The answer choices were so close!!!! It was hard to leave the two marks questions for him! He answered some and left others – “anyway, I won’t get a call” he thought.

Ø Quants was the next section he attempted – he took 35 minutes there to answer 20 questions which he thought were quite easy.

Ø In DI, he had a difficult time, it took 45 minutes to answer him 18 questions. He didn’t wish to spend more time there.

Ø He had only 10 minutes left. Surprisingly, on a second look at verbals he could answer 10 more! All were one mark questions.

So, in total he attempted 25-20-18! Total out of 90 questions. He believed he did everything right. But, will it be enough! “All others must have answered more than me!”

He came out – he saw everyone depressed there. No one expected CAT like this. He saw everyone so depressed – he felt happy! Yeah, sadistic happy. Anyway, he won’t get a call.

He didn’t bother to check his CAT score. His father checked and gave him the good news – 99.5 percentile, call from 4 IIMs. He did not apply for IIMK, I.

How he converted his GD-PI will be a different story. Wait for it.

Do let me know if you found something useful.

Keep mugging.

Boss

CAT verbals: Top strategies

By now I hope your build up of stock of words is complete. You have gone through the grammar portions provided by the coachings – thoroughly I hope. But some of you may be still facing difficulties. What’s the way out of it?

In every CAT, some 25-30 marks questions are there in the verbal section. In CAT 2005, they were mostly 1 or 2 marks questions. Getting a decent score there is utmost important to crack CAT, everyone reading this blog knows it.

I’ll suggest you some strategies that helped me a lot! If they help you too, nothing like it. Below are the variations that come in CAT vocabs:

1. Vocabulary based: Since CAT 02, no such questions came in CAT main paper. Again even if it comes it will come with four alternatives. If you don’t know the meaning, try to make a sentence with the word. See if any of the alternatives fits there. Probably two alternatives will be a bit close, chance your luck if you can’t guess correctly. Anyway, this vocab based questions are antiquated now and hardly any chance of them coming in CAT 06.
2. Sentence correction: This section is currently the favourite in CAT. Sometimes, it may be misleading and confusing. I found the IMS guideline a great help to identify the correct ones. If you are not able to grasp as yet, follow the steps:
1. Read the basics again from your coaching material.
2. Look at the sentence construction. Try to analyze grammatically and try to recollect if you have read it somewhere. If you have had a good reading habit, you can link it up with some sentence that you read before.
3. Otherwise, try to understand the meaning it conveys and construct the sentence in your own words. Have faith in yourself, and check the sentence with similar construction – if you find it mark it as correct.
3. Paraphrasing: One easy way I found was, instead of carefully reading each line and then trying to make a coherent paragraph, I first would read the para’s very quick, almost within 20 seconds and then look at the alternatives. By then, I have the total text in mind. Now looking at the alternatives say BACD, ADBC, ACDB and CDBA. Reading the first sentence of each alternative, I could easily eliminate two. Then read the paragraphs as arranged in 3^rd and 4^th alternatives and see which one makes better sense and is more coherent. That worked wonderfully well for me and that too took nearly 40-45 seconds!

Let me know if the strategies work.

Keep mailing with your suggestions and queries. Tomorrow I’ll present before you:

“How an average merit guy cracked IIMA?”

This guy is of average merit, and even his performance here is not so cool. But, the truth is even with average merit he cracked IIMA. Even I want to know how he did it!

Keep tuned in!

Cheers

Boss@IIMA

Stock.Gyan & Stock.Mitanshu: Learn & Play with stocks

To all the people interested in stock markets, here's an exciting opportunity for you.
Log on to Stock.gyan (right click to open in a separate window)
http://stock.gyan.googlepages.com/

It is a comprehensive module for stock market beginners - what you know and don't know about Share Markets. It's developed by Arindam, a student @ IIMA based on the stock market game of Mitanshu I mentioned earlier.

Go through the site, it's in easy language and very precise. It will give you vital inputs about stock market which you may even need in your interviews.

Get the knowledge and apply it in Virtual stock market (again right click to open in a separate window)
http://stock.mitanshu.com

The combo will remove your apprehensions and doubts about stocks.
Enjoy!
Boss@IIMA

How work experience helps in CAT & IIM A?

Hi CAT aspirants,
I received many queries on the WORK EXPERIENCE and if it is important! Moreover, some CAT aspirants asked me how WORK EX helps in IIMA life. Here is a post on WORK EX!

Yes, WORK EX helps! At least 20% have work ex of more than 2 years every year here. With quality work ex from a reputed company (like HLL, HCL, Cognizant, etc.) you can crack CAT personal interviews of IIM-A, B and C even with a 98 percentile score. Cracking IIMs with 98 percentile is next to impossible for a fresher!

How does Work Ex help to crack PI?

Well most of the questions asked will be restricted to your work experience. Hence you can give quality answer to the questions. For a fresher the range of questions that can be asked becomes very broad. Hence, strategically work ex provides an advantage to the IIM aspirants.

Moreover, if the work ex is entrepreneurial in nature, the more are your chances.

How Work Ex helps in IIMA life?

It helps in class participation. Here the evaluation mechanism is a continuous one. In every class you have to take part in class discussions of the cases and your marks are based on the quality of your arguments. If you can relate your personal experience with the case being studied, nothing like it!

But, freshers need not to panic. I provided you the stats in a previous post. Nearly 80 are either fresher or with 1-3 months of work ex. Moreover, being a fresher helps in getting into investment banks. I haven't seen till date people with over 2 years of work ex getting into ML, DB, or LB. These investment banks have a fascination for freshers.

In consultancy jobs, however, the game is in favour of work ex holders. They are hired more as consultants and that too with a good reason!

The highest salary-holders you come to read in newspapers are mostly work ex persons. Last year one IPS officer with over 7 years of work ex got a 30 lakh plus domestic salary offer! But, if you consider his age - by the time you reach that age, you too would be earning that salary. So, in the long run, freshers are not losing out to the work ex holders - that's the bottom line!

Keep sending your suggestions and questions. I am really overwhelmed by the wonderful response I got!
Cheers
Boss@IIMA

Accuracy Vs Speed - Views from three 100 percentiles

Hi all,
We interviewed three students last night who cracked 100 percentiles in their CAT last year. None of us who run the blog never scored 100 percentile! So, it was a learning experience for us too - who thinks about CAT when everything is over. Even if we are in the same batch, we never discussed about it earlier!

Amazingly we found strange similarities between the three:

1. Amazing time management skills: All of them had a plan in mind - a time limit for each and every section - most importantly they stuck to the plan! In two hours exam they divided their time to three sections meticulously. One guy, for example, was very good in the quants part. He gave himself 10 minutes extra there to answer more than other sections - playing to the strong point!

2. Skills to pick up the easier ones: Their rigorous practice sessions enabled them to choose the easy kills and not even attempt the difficult ones. Thereby, they could save valuable time and answer more questions.

3. They answered over 120 questions: The way they picked up the easier ones enabled them to answer more than 120 questions. They went for speed; they had the confidence the answers will be accurate.

4. Deciding which one to attempt and what not on the first glance itself: If the question seemed easy at the first glance, they answered; otherwise they skipped! Never even bothered to take a second look at it. Thus, they could answer 10-15 more than rest of the candidates.

I hope this piece will be useful to you. I'll keep adding more.
Cheers!
Boss

Virtual Stock Market game - A good way to understand the actual Stock Market

My Friend Mitanshu Garg, a IITR student, has developed this wonderful game - a hands on experience of stock market trading. I found it very good and closer to the actual market.
http://stock.mitanshu.com - A Virtual Stock Market Game

Within one month of launch, the site has attracted over 175 visitors from IIMs, IITs and even EU.
Hope this game will increase your understanding of the trading dynamics before you actually start playing with stocks!
Cheers!

CAT: The issue of Accuracy versus Speed

Hi all,
I am back from term break and with new topics. I received 45 emails from you and I am still going through the mails. A few mails are on the issue of accuracy and speed.

Today I'll address the most important one for CAT exam: Accuracy Vs Speed. Which one to choose? Accuracy or Speed? We are really confused on the subject. Now, what I can do is tell you my experience here.

Well it's not
Accuracy + Speed = CAT

It is
Accuracy*Speed = CAT

Since it is a multiplicative model, so things needed to kept flexible here. Accuracy alone can't crack CAT for you unless you're very naturally gifted! I am not that gifted. So, I generated my OWN MIX - THE CRACK CAT mix!

You need both, otherwise your score will be low. That's very easy to say! But to get both is one of the most difficult things to do - all CAT aspirants cracking their brains over Mock CAT papers understand it very well. In the actual exam, it'll be most difficult thing to do with surprises, time limits, probably a new type of paper with the arrangements changed, etc. etc. No, it's not a horror movie - you never know what may come in CAT! Already 2.5 hrs thing is a surprise to all of us!


Well, enough of surprises - to hell with them! Now accuracy-speed mix - I went for THE RIGHT MIX on the D-day. What's that? Wait! I mean, I went for less accuracy and more speed to answer over 100 questions. The rule is quite simple - apply this even in practice.

Don't go for detailed calculations unless absolutely essential. If a question requires detailed calculations, skip it unless it has the highest weightage. Go for the easy kills. CAT is a TEST OF ELIMINATION - I mean it! Eliminate the difficult ones and kill the easier ones.

Rough estimates will do good for many questions. I noted in previous 10 years CAT papers that for many questions 2 answers would be close to the rough estimate and the rest I could eliminate. Moreover, among these 2 close answers, one would be closer than the other - you can make a guess. Take a good look at the quants in CAT papers. I know majority of you perhaps have discovered it already - but no harm in telling. Practice with this strategy in Mock tests - 99% of the cases you'll be very accurate without doing precise calculations.

In stepwise solving of a problem, you don't need to do all the steps if you can solve the problem midway. Leave it and circle the answer. Thus you can save time to answer 2-3 more questions.

Under pressure, getting an accuracy of over 90% depends on luck too. So, believe in your luck a bit and don't get stuck on a single problem. Try to answer over 80-90. Even if you answer 50 with 100 percent accuracy you may get calls, depending on the level of difficulty - but over 90% accuracy is difficult to get in the actual exam! Go for speed! Trust your intuitions that you have cultivated giving one mock CAT paper after other.

If you feel that certain section seems very easy, - say quants, understandably the cut-off there will be higher. Hence answer max that you can from that section. Don't stop after answering usual 35 from there.

Moreover, from last CAT the IIMs have started to clearly state the negative marks and marks for individual questions. Now if one question has high marks and you are not able to answer, check the negative marks and you can take your chances and go with a probable guess as the expected returns are greater if your answer is correct.

BUT, I am not ruling out accuracy here - I am talking about decreasing the accuracy level by a small margin to increase speed by a big margin. Every one with whom I talked, who scored over 98 percentile, had answered more than 80 questions - so speed is very vital.

Try in practice tests - go for speed and answer minimum 100 questions in the stipulated time - as many as possible. See your accuracy levels - give tests for continuously 7 days, now see the difference! For me accuracy went from 50% on the first day to over 75%. What worked for me will definitely work for some of you - I was a bit slow in the beginning few months to concentrate on accuracy.

One advice - while you are taking these mock tests prepare the environment as original. Give tests with partner(s) - it increases competitiveness and you can't lax. One highly competitive test per day is enough. Take the rest of the day to analyze where you went wrong.

Now, while doing this way - u'll find that within two weeks or so, you have reached a balance - the perfect mix of speed and accuracy. If you are answering over 80 with 95% accuracy in last 3-4 years CAT papers, that is good enough to pull you through. That's how you develop the right mix - that is very essential for CAT.

Send me your feedbacks. I'll check the rest of the mails and come up with another relevant discussion pretty soon.
Keep mugging and reading my blog till then.
Boss@IIMA

Courses offered at IIM Ahmedabad 1

Hi all,
I received queries on the courses offered at IIM Ahmedabad. I'll give you the course list in this blog, term-wise. First year courses are quite structured and all compulsory. I'll concentrate my discussion on first year courses mainly. Second year courses I'll discuss sometime later.

First Year
Term 1: It's the toughest term and fortunes are made or broken here only.

1. MAC: Managerial Accountancy - starts mainly with credit-debit, balance sheet and income statement, etc. Also called MANAC, and is one of the terror courses here. It's also flooded with quizzes (6-8).
2. QM I: Quantitative Management I - Mainly LP, integer progamming, transportation problem, etc.
3. OM I: Operational Management I - Another terror! Mainly deals with mathematical part of operations - cycle time, lead time, etc. You have to read Goldratt's The Goal in this course. Quite interesting actually but the evaluation is quite tough.
4. EA: Economic Analysis - mainly microeconomics - supply-demand, ISLM, etc. Quite an interesting course to the uninitiated.
5. IC: Introduction to Computers - Starts with excel and ends with VB covering excel and access. A terror to the non-IT poor chaps! It's also flooded with quizzes but not like MAC.
6. HRM: Human Resource Management - Soft course. I never understood utility of studying HRM, personally speaking.
7. WAC: Written Analysis & Communication - Teaches you to write business reports. WAC format is quite interesting! But becomes stale after writing one or two reports. WAC-run is quite an amusement to the tuchhas :).
8. ID: Organization Behaviour - Another soft course but good! It's very interactive and we had fun doing it!

Term 2: Seems easier when you are through with flying colours in the first term!

1. MAC 2: Again accountancy but kind of qualitative with stress on interpretation of the various ratios and managerial implications thereof. A very very good course indeed! But, again the quiz menace - that makes it tough!
2. FIN 1: Now starts the most interesting subject of all - the FINANCE. Half of the junta come here to acquire this knowledge only. Finance faculty here is one of the best in India. If you haven't been to Prof Ajay Pandey's class you're really missing something!
3. EEP1: Economic Environment and Policy: The macroeconomics starts! I found it interesting. GDP-PPP-Indian economy, monetary policy, fiscal crunch - all in a nutshell very good!
4. QM 2: Another QM - this one deals with probability and it's good.
5. MARKETING 1: The other half junta come here to study this course. Starts with basics of marketing through cases - good course! Again, if you haven't been to Prof Jain's class you've missed everything! He's probably the best! Be prepared to do a lot of marketing assignments and group meetings!
   
6. OD: Another organizational behaviour course. Soft course!

Term 3: Again a bit tough!

1. FIN 2: Now comes the finance for the I-bankers - FIN2! Great course! But no manac this term - so you have become a mini-CA by 6 months of coming here. Indeed, many non-CAs score more than CAs in MANAC & FIN - that's the beauty of this place.
2. QM 3: This one deals with hard-core statistics - parametric and non-parametric. I enjoyed this course. All the chi-sq, t and z-test - I want to do it again!
3. OM 2: The terror - this one is more managerial in nature. Again a great faculty will take you through this course - if you haven't attended RaviC's classes, you have no right to live! The best of the profs! He has his own fan club. Search RaviC on net, you can get a glimpse of this great man!
4. MARKETING 2: Full of group meetings and assignments. Had fun doing it!
5. EEP 2: Macroeconomics again - this time GATT & WTO. I had a great time here. Prof Morris can talk with you for hours on the subject.
6. WAC 2: Now company reports! Again useful initially - once you get know how to write becomes very boring!
7. MIS: Management of Information Systems - for the ERP stuff. Even the non-IT guys do well here. Ends with a project implementation which is quite interesting. Mainly group work here.

So, in a nutshell, this is what first year represents. It encapsulates all aspects of management - you are now jack of all trades. We remember implementing MIS for pan-walas even! The first year courses never give mastery over any said area but offer competence do a multi-dimensional analysis of a single case. One of the best part of pedagogy here is you do the things yourself and learn - management is, in nutshell, common sense and I don't believe books, jargons and models can teach you that.

Keep pouring in your suggestions and mails. I really enjoy reading them.
Cheers
Boss

Life@IIMA Part 1

Fachha Life:

Fachhas are the First Year “Bachhas”. Seniors lovingly call them fachhas/fachhis depending on gender. Fachha life is a bit monotonous, not much extra-curricular things to do. But, every year we get some happy-go-lucky dudes who manage to do everything with moderate success.

Student life here has 8 very important things:

1. Study: Referred as “Mugging” here. In first year you’ll hear a lot of “Muggo Fachhon muggo” to the level of irritation. Bear with it! Because next year will be your turn to shout and torment people. Study hours are generally from 2 PM to 4 AM. Next morning you need to wake up by 8-15 AM to attend classes. Only respite are Friday nights, if there’s no WAC assignment. Otherwise it’s study time only. Each class requires about 3 hours of preparation (standard and not meant for memory whiz-s!). So, total 9 hours you need everyday to prepare for tomorrow’s class. Here advanced preparation is required for every class to pour in CPs or Class Participations. Sleep is a scarce economic good here and be prepared to sleep less for at least three months. Then surely you’ll adjust your schedule or simply give up!
2. Classes: Every week from Monday to Friday, and sometimes Saturday too, you need to attend classes from 9 AM to 1 PM. Total three classes are scheduled each day; each class for about 1 hour 10 min with 20 minute breaks in-between. Your yesterday night’s preparation will be reflected by the CPs. Classes are fun once you get used to them. Classes are compulsory and you can’t bunk them at any cost, unless you’re really sick and admitted.
3. Quizzes: They are the most tormenting part of fachha life, at least initially! Starting from first week itself, there’ll be quizzes based on the current classes. Quizzes generally range from 20 minutes to 1 hour and are all unannounced. There’s a Quiz notice board outside student’s mess where you get to see the dreaded notices of “short quizzes”, much to the amusement of tuchhas (second year students). Fortunately, quizzes carry less weightage, generally 2-2.5% for each quiz. Each subject generally has 4-5 quizzes. Be on your toes everyday is the hidden objective!
4. CG: or the grade points. Our grades are allotted on a 4.33 scale.
1. A+ =4.33,
2. A =4 to 4.32
3. A- =3.67 to 3.99
4. B+ =3.33 to 3.66
5. B =3 to 3.32
6. B- =2.67 to 2.99
7. C+ =2.33 to 2.66
8. C =2 to 2.32
9. C- =1.67 to 1.99
10. D =Below 1.67 (I won’t discuss below it in the hope that you won’t get a D)

Here being a 3+ pointer or a I-schol (Top 20 students are lovingly called I-schols) is a matter of pride and a guarantee to future good placements. Hence, CG bothers a lot to the fachhas, more than their girl-friends or boy-friends.

5. Movies: We have a great movie repository here. A special electronic notice board (MAD NB) serves the purpose for notifying all about the movies in campus and DC++ hubs helps students to download. All genres of movies you get here to satisfy your taste. Movies are a welcome break here.
6. Ramp-Party: Every alternate Saturday, the cultural club@ IIMA organizes a discotheque in the mess building. Earlier it used to be on the IIMA ramp, hence named Ramp party. Now it has shifted to the Mess building. Ramp parties are fun!
7. D-babble: The lifeline of IIMA community, the intranet message server. You get to see all notice boards here and can communicate with friends and alum. It’s a welcome break to gossip and have fun.
8. Counter-Strike: Another welcome break from studies. Every night, from 10 PM our counter strike server is up and you can satisfy your sadistic side by killing a few. I love it!

Tuchha or Second year life is almost the same, minus studies and quizzes. Here movies, ramp, dbabble and counterstrike take upper-hand. Classes you can bunk but need to keep at least 80% attendance. Here CPs and CGs don’t count for future employment. So, a chilled life!

Mail me how do you like this intro about IIMA life. I'll discuss about the courses offered and studies in future posts.
Keep mugging for CAT.
Boss