Snapshots

Name: Akhil Sood
Graduation College : College Of Engineering Roorkee, (COER)
Course: B.Tech.
Graduation Aggregate: 79%
Pursuing/Pursued MBA from: Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur (VGSOM, IIT KGP)
Corresponding entrance test & score :
Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET)- 82.75 , Rank : 1085

GD/PI calls from:

• Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur (VGSOM, IIT KGP)
• IIT Kanpur
• IIT Madrass
• IIT Roorkee
• Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad

GD/PI calls converted:

• Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur (VGSOM, IIT KGP)
• IIT Kanpur
• IIT Roorkee
• IMT Ghaziabad

Entrance Exams appeared: CAT,JMET & FMS

Preparation:

I started serious preparation somewhere around May 2010. Before that I was clear with all the basics (I kept on revising them in regular intervals) and then i joined a test series.For course material :Initially i had some books for quant and Verbal but after the basics were clear i largely depended on Mock papers of different coaching institutes as the mix of questions really helped me to prepare for the real exam.Largely I used only the mock test papers for my preparation.Apart from that Coaching Test booklets were always there for some special areas where i thought i needed more preparation.Test series helped me a lot as with it I could compare my preparation level on a national level. I used to study for 5-6 hours daily on weekdays and 8-9 hours on weekends doing some Mock test on Weekends. I made it a point to do at least 3-4 mocks in a week and used the rest of the time to analyse the test in the weekdays.
I would just run from the office as soon as my work would finish with no time wasted in gossips or in Tea breaks, that way i was able to save lot of time.I was also working in an IT firm so maintaining the studies was a bit difficult but i tried to somehow find time for my studies giving them a higher priority over the work. Also proper rest is necessary so i never tried to burn myself in studies as it never helped (it even decreased the performance) so i usually had a small nap between coming from office and starting my preparation.

Advice to juniors:

Just try different strategies in the initial mocks. See what suits you the best. Build on your strengths but also look into your weakness till the time is on your side. Once you are short of time leave the weakness and concentrate on strengths only. Keep on changing them in the beginning even if you are good with one just experiment with others.
It all depends on you. I just joined Test series nothing else. I studied all by myself. Even my friends who joined top IIMs were also on thier own. So in all it depends on you

Experience in MBA Institute:

Faculty is good. We don't have a visiting faculty but our faculty goes to different colleges for lectures (like XLRI, XIMB, SPJain). But we have a series of guest lectures from the top leaders of the industry every thursday.
Campus is awesome. The best one can ask for. Gym, swimming pool, Lawn Tennis, T.T, squash, Basketball, Volleyball, Pool etc. Hostels are okay.
Aslo in VGSOM we have a wide variety of people with having 10 years of work ex to freshers. But on average 2-3 years of work ex.
All are youngsters and believe me the IIT crowd is the best when it comes to merry making and partying. The level of events that are held in IIT Kgp are beyond words.