IIMC 2012 Entrance: Experience by an Aspirant

Somesh Jha, a third year student of College of Vocational Studies (result awaited), Delhi University, is currently graduating in the course Marketing Management and Retail Business & is an IIMC 2012-13 aspirant.

It is first such piece on our blog. Target audience is targeting the readers. We thank Somesh Jha for this wonderful suo motu contribution.
- Moderator

I will go one by one. First, English Journalism. To be quite frank, I know the competition this time around is going to be really tough because the more the question paper is easy, the more competition you face. The question paper was very much expected as the major issues was the basic motto behind setting up the question paper. There were questions which were doing all the talking in the news recently be it NCTC, Agni V, Maoists, Presidential Election, Poverty Line, Unstable Indian economy, UP elections, Syrian crisis to name a few! Moreover something on the Grammar part was quite obviously expected being it the English Journalism exam. If one stuck to the word limits, the question paper was not at all lengthy! The question which asked to differentiate between the two words was a bit tricky one for me!

Coming to Radio and TV Journalism, I would like to thank the IIMC blog for this as there were almost 80 percent of the questions that the expert anticipated that would come in the question paper. Again, the question paper highlighted the need for awareness on major issues. Again, the Internet restriction was one question which was expected that it being one of the most talked about issue in the Government offices! Satyamev Jayate couldn't be ignored and so there was a question on the same too! So I think it wasn't only the awareness that mattered but how well you utilize those word limits to convey your thoughts to the examiner! Radio and TV Journalism was again not at all lengthy assuming that one adheres to the word limit!

Now, let me come to the most unexpected of the lots. The Ad-PR question paper! When I got it, I thought there is a fault and a wrong question paper has been circulated because mathematics in the question paper was itself a shocker! Though it was just a single 15 marker but then it had 5 sub parts. The only thing that relieved me was that the math part was very basic and objective too hence quite scoring if you see the good side of it with questions coming on Mean, Median, ROI, Profit and Loss etc. No wonder it is written in the instructions clearly that the question paper tests the "analytic skills" as well! The paper was a bit lengthy and required a bit mental exercise as well. There were questions on general awareness keeping in mind the current issues as well.

Topics such as Global Warming, Malnutrition, Sex ratio in Urban areas, Trademark, SEBI, RTI, WTO, Digital Media, Bio-diversity, judicial activism, IPL sought to test the general awareness and the clear vision of the writer on the topics. Other such as Presidential elections in US and PM coming on FB was meant to test the current issue awareness! The question which required mental exercise as mentioned above was the one in which one was asked to make an advertisement on IIMC and there was a question which asked for alternate taglines of various brands such as Kingfisher, Amazon, Big Bazaar, Philips, Nike, The Indian Express to name a few with their current taglines already mentioned. Hence it was a balanced act to be honest with the examiner clearly testing the analytic ability, awareness, communication and creative skills of the candidate!

The question paper was on a bit satisfactory side. Fingers are now crossed and the results are eagerly awaited. I hope God is on my side this time. All the best.

Somesh Jha

IIMC Aspirant