Awareness, Original Views & Clarity of Expression, That's It !

Gaurav Shrivastava is from English Journalism batch 2004- 05. He started his career from Business Standard in Mumbai and later worked with Mid Day and Zee Business in Mumbai.  Currently, he contributes for Business Standard from Indore and runs a webite www.soybeanwatch.com dedicated to soybean trade in India.

Gaurav  Shrivastava is Co-ordinator of Indore Chapter of IIMC Alumni Associaton.

Dear IIMC aspirants, 5 more days to go. On 31st May, you will be in your chosen centers taking the much awaited IIMC entrance test. By now, most of you must be revisiting what you have already prepared. So, I think there is no use guiding you on how to prepare. But I will still tell you something on- how to revise in the end.

Written test:

Take it easy, writing IIMC entrance paper is an enjoyable experience. The first thing required when you sit there is a relaxed mind. A major portion of the question paper is to understand your thoughts on certain issues and how clearly and easily you can express the same. Awareness, examples quoting past incidents and your own analysis should be your answer. Stick to word limit and don’t be in hurry. Be original and write grammatically error free answers. Instead of trying to write beautifully, concentrate on writing clear and correct. That’s what I followed 10 years back and it worked.

Apart from the writing part, there will other questions to check your knowledge about people who were in news, major national and international issues in the past years, books, controversies etc. These questions will not bother you if you have been regularly reading news papers, watching television news and talk shows. 

Language questions will check your basic grammar and reading comprehension. People worried about being able to attempt and finish all the questions may go for these questions first and take the lengthy ones later. Still, start from where you are comfortable and at least take 2 minutes to plan your approach before starting.

What to do in the last 10 days:  While writing this I am also considering those who may need a 10- day crash course for the IIMC entrance. Assuming, you already write correct English/ Hindi and have a certain awareness level which was acquired gradually in the past years.

Starting today for the coming days:

Write 10-15 things which were in news last year in front of every item given below

Events | Personalities | Controversies | Bills | Incidents | Books | Contemporary and Discussed Issues | Words or phrases coined by media Etc:

You can take help of your friends, teachers and people whom you consider knowledgeable.  

This should not take more than a few hours. The moment you have this list, you can start gathering information about the same. Get some awareness and make your own view on the same.

Language: Do one reading comprehension passage exercise daily. You can take help of your friends who are preparing for CAT. Pick up a grammar book with exercises like filling blanks with appropriate words, differences between words and phrases, correcting sentences etc. Though this cannot be prepared in seven days but doing this practice may introduce you to some commonly asked questions. For example: In difference between similar words ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ is one of the most commonly asked questions.

Last three days:  Sit back, relax, go out watch a movie, read your favourite book, chat with friends etc. Be happy and relaxed.

Good Luck