Gyaan, Gyaan and More Gyaan

As you become accustomed to all things MBA and CAT, there are a few things that become routine. Like saying just ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’ and expecting the others to understand that you are referring to that IIM. You often forget that this confuses other people. Someone even (rightly so) thought that ‘K’ meant Kolkata and was quite unsure what ‘C’ was. (Cochin? he asked meekly.)

Another such thing is what is termed loosely as ‘Gyaan’. This is the free, abundant and effusive advice that flows in from all those who are supposed to know better. As you go along the journey of “prepping”, Gyaan often becomes a pejorative – used in statements like

“What was the senior saying? Did he say something useful or was he just putting Gyaan?”

So when the time comes for you to supposedly know better, and give out such doses of advice to others one wonders if we are falling into the same traps. It becomes very difficult often for me to separate the real advice from the mundane/obvious and a lot of this is due to the fact that I myself don’t remember the mistakes other people made while advising me.

This whole issue of giving “useful advice” came to a head recently, when I and 3 others who were supposedly “achievers” were asked to speak to an auditorium filled with folks hoping to do the same the next year. So I made a quick mental note of things that I would follow while giving out (often unsolicited ;) ) advice :

• Be as specific as possible. Don’t say stuff like “read a lot”. In stead tell people exactly what to read (economist.com or The New Yorker)
• Give out figures and facts as far as possible. I remember being frustrated with things like “is xx percentile good enough” or “how much exactly do you need per section?”. Eventually I should have known that the sectional cut-off for IIMA for the year 2007 was 95.4% and that it was likely to go up.
• Explain from the ground up. Often people do not know the basics and explanations are given assuming a that they know a bunch of things that they might not.

I think, I was making these points as the session went along, so I dont think I was able to execute them as well as I should have. Sorry, if you are reading this, and were there that day and got bored!

Apart from that, I am really stunned by guys I meet who claim to have really put-fight in order to get in. True, luck is quite important, and so is decent level of hard work. But if this was the “hardest exam in the world”, then it certainly did not feel that way. I had a really horrible day in the English section and still ended up with a 95+ percentile. I’m still surprised by that fact.

Apart from that, while I still have to start seriously packing or anything (I think “incorrigible procrastinator” should go right at the top of my weakness table!), the trip I was hoping to make seems more and more unlikely. It would require the thing I most lack – initiative as my friends seem to have let me down in this regard.

Stay tuned for more. I hope to make a few useful blogposts for people taking the CAT this time. It’s for you guys to tell me if it was useful “gyaan” or not!

May 27th, 2008 / 1 Comment / Trackback

Done it!

We’ve won it! I’ve never felt so awesome in a long time! Man Utd all the way!

May 22nd, 2008 / 0 Comments / Trackback

Fingers crossed

This should probably be on twitter or something, but anyway, before I get back to ignoring Burridge and fawning at Sheringham, I have never ever been as tense for United as I’ve been today.

I hope and pray that we win, but to all the players, be afraid of Chelsea, very afraid. And my man to watch? Ballack!

More reporting once I get back.

May 21st, 2008 / 0 Comments / Trackback

IIMC Fresher's Meet

Saturday 17th of May served as the date for the Mumbai edition of the IIMC fresher’s meet hosted by the generous interning seniors. The venue was a certain mid-sized air conditioned hall in South Mumbai (Marine Lines if you insist) – and the food was mainly snacks and a posh sister of bambaiyya chaat.

The point was of course always meant to be to “meet and greet”. Get to know the people who are going to be looking down upon you from academic if not seniority heights, and people whose help you will eventually need at each step of the first year journey. It was also meant to be a first rendez-vous for people from the same batch to get to the know the people from the area.

In then end, it did not quite turn out that way. Financial District or not, a LOT of the IIMC folks found themselves in Mumbai, summering. The freshers however did not seem as keen to turn up. Most agreed that the amount of people from Mumbai and surrounding areas had taken a hit this year, leaving the party with a bunch of about 15 of us freshers, and hordes of seniors seeing each other after probably a month.

Cut to the chase, we were surrounded, literally by tens of seniors willing to help out – un-peeved by questions about things as inane as the kind of mosquito nets one needed and as important as amount of studying required to qualify for summer term, and if it was possible to get bikes on campus.

The seniors helped out of course, but they also seemed keen to not deny us the process (and the joy perhaps) of self-discovery. I wholly subscribe to the idea. Curiosity killed the cat, they say – so I stick to asking questions, answers to which had immediate repercussions. I shall discover myself, how the food is – and what people do on weekends.

On a more personal note, I did find a few quizzers – much to my delight. One of them had that awesome RVCE/IITM accent that for me completes a quizzer. They even talked about widening horizons with a “sex and undressing” quiz. I (with much delight) told him that we at the Boat Club Quiz Club, had already done an “adult quiz”, and I would be more than happy to contribute my share to the mêlée.

People reading this, who had other fresher meets (in other cities, or for A/B/L/I/K/S etc are urged to used the comments to pitch in.) Until next post, keep reading and I’ll keep clogging!

May 20th, 2008 / 6589 Comments / Tags: freshers meet, pre-college / Trackback