CoolAvenues.

com has compiled MBA resource guide on Faculty of Management

studies (FMS) which is going to help students who are seeking admission in FMS Delhi
(Faculty of Management Studies). In order to get real insight about the MBA admission
process at FMS, Delhi, CoolAvenues.com decided to speak to Sushant Bahadur about
his experience about getting in FMS, how to tackle exam, choosing coaching Institute
and managing GD/PI and life at FMS post admission.

Sushant Bahadur, who is an Electronics Engineer from NIT, Surat decided to go for an
MBA around third year of his engineering. He worked for about 14 months with IMS
Learning Resources, Surat as a faculty member before joining FMS. “One of the reasons
why I opted to go for an MBA degree was that I was not too happy with my engineering
course which had a more theoretical orientation. I wanted to do something which had
practical implications, and an MBA, with real life as your case-study to learn from, was
the optimal choice,” explains Sushant.

About FMS ( Faculty of Management Studies)

The Faculty of Management Studies is one the oldest and top B-School in India. FMS
lays a special emphasis on management education rather than just being focused at
business management. Started in 1954, The Faculty of Management Studies, University
of Delhi, apart from running its 2 year flagship MBA program, made a remarkable
beginning by starting a three year part time Post graduate management programme in
Business Administration for senior and middle level executives.

FMS has the unique privilege to be part of one of the premier universities of world – the
University of Delhi - with some of the finest departments in Economics, Law, Sociology,
Commerce and Operations Research. The success of its alumni who are in positions of
leadership in industries & governments across the world narrates the success story of
FMS. The network of more than 9000 alumni gives students unmatched access to
information, mentors and careers.

As part of our MBA Insider Series, we are bringing to you the inside-out of admissions at

FMS—preparations, Written Test, Group Discussions, Personal Interview and much

more.
Sushant Bahadur, a student of MBA( Management of Services) batch 2009-2011 at
faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi throughs light on the quality and quantity of
preparation required for getting into FMS.

Q. What was your first step to start preparation for getting into the B-school of your
choice?
A. Probably like everyone else, I joined a coaching institute, IMS, at Surat as the first
step towards an MBA.

Q. When did you start your preparation?

A. At the beginning of my third year of engineering.

Q. How many months and how many hours daily did you devote for preparation to
entrance procedures?
A. I appeared for the MBA Entrance exams for the batch of 2008-10, couldn't do so well.
Had prepared for about 14 months for the same. Then I prepared for about 9 more months
before writing Entrances for the batch of 2009-2011. A rough allotment was of 2-3 hours
on an average daily, exclusive of the mock tests.

Q. Did you take up some coaching institute or you believed in self-study?

A. I chose IMS Learning Resources as the institute to guide me in my preparations. I was
enrolled in the Surat Centre.

Q. What was your experience with coaching?

A. My experience of coaching institutes, both as a student and subsequently as a faculty,
made me realize that an important role of coaching institutes, apart from teaching the
fundamentals to the aspirants, is about ensuring that various misconceptions are removed.
Subject based as well as MBA-based myths are prevalent everywhere, and a coaching
institute dispels them by provide correct, precise information and knowledge.

Q. What are the others books and tests that you used for your MBA preparation,
besides the study material provided by you coaching institute?
A. Apart from the study material, I used a lot of online material from websites like
pagalguy.com, tenaday.co.in, totalgadha.com, tcyonline.com etc. One specific book that I
referred to for Maths was: Quantitative Aptitude for CAT, by K. Kundan and P. Pandey

Q. Can you tell us which are your favorite books, books that you used for preparing for
entrance, books for self-development and books for pure relaxation?
A. My favorite books were, and are:
Buyology, Six Thinking Hats, Blink, Freakonomics, Escape from the Benevolent
Zookeepers, Losing my Virginity.

Q. What was your strongest and weakest area while preparing for MBA?
A. My strongest area was Mathematics, while English grammar was a weak area.
 Q. Some tips which you used for mastering Quantitative Aptitude, Reading
Comprehension, etc.
A. For Reading Comprehension, I had decided to go slow with the reading, try to
understand it in one go, and then attempt only those questions which I was very sure of.
That helped me build accuracy in this section, even though the attempts remained a bit
low.

Q. How much time did you put for MBA preparation everyday? In case you were
working, how did you manage this preparation while working full time?
A. About 2 hours of individual study. Apart from that, my work-experience at IMS was
practically also a part of my preparation.

Q. Which all Exams and B-schools you applied to?

A. CAT, FMS, XAT, SNAP, NMIMS, MAT.

Q. Your present B-school and programme. What made you opt or this particular
institute and programme?
A. The FMS MBA(MS) course was focused on service sector. That, coupled with my
experience in the education sector and desire to go back to it on a long-term basis, made
the course attractive to me. Also, my functional area interest was in marketing, for which
FMS is well-known all around. Additionally, the excellent social and industrial exposure
provided in Delhi was also an additional factor.

Q. What procedures your school has for admission to its MBA program?
A. Written Test Shortlisted Candidates called for Group Discussion, Extempore and
Interview.

Q. What is the range of score for students who are admitted in your B-school?
A. The written test scores of students in the FMS MBA (MS) course range from
98.505%ile to 99.977 %ile.

Q. What was your score?

A. 99.977 %ile.

Q. Give some handy tips regarding the MBA written tests that would be of great
help to MBA aspirants.
A. For English specifically, I would recommend practicing a lot of verbal reasoning
questions. These questions (like finding conclusions, inferences etc, everything apart
from grammar and RC), build you reasoning skills if you discuss and dissect them
properly amongst your peers. These days, English is shifting more to the reasoning part
than the grammar in many entrances.
Group discussion and Personal Interview is the next hurdle to cross once a candidate
has cracked the written test. Sushant Bahadur, a student of MBA (Management of
Services), batch 2009-2011 at faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi share his
experiences on how he sailed through the GD and PI making it to FMS.

Q. Was Group Discussion or Group Exercise part of selection process?

A. Yes, Group Discussion was a part of the process.

Q. What was your GD topic?

A. Job Satisfaction in the modern-day industry (or something on these lines).

Q. The duration of Group Discussion, size of the group, number of panelists, etc.
A. 15-20 min GD, 10 members, 6 panelists.

Q. Were there any set norms of Group Discussion?

A. We were told to refrain from excessive aggression.

Q. Do write a brief about your Group Discussion experience.

A. A generic topic, it was a mildly aggressive GD, wherein everyone pitched in, although
there were 2 people who were very strong and dominating over others. But everyone was
allowed to contribute and project himself suitably.

Q. How was the environment during discussion?

A. Mildly aggressive.

Q. How would you rate your performance in Group Discussion?

A. Probably a 7/10. Of course, the perception of the panelists matters more than mine.

Q. Areas where you could have performed better in your Group Discussion?
A. Perhaps I could have been a bit more assertive with my points.

Q. Give some handy tips regarding Group Discussion or Group Exercise that would be
of great help to MBA aspirants.
A. One should be well-aware and ready with opinions and not facts about different topics.
It is not the facts that they are looking for, but your analysis. Read newspapers and online
websites like Knowledge@Wharton to build that.

Q. How did you prepare for the interview?

A. Prepared a CV, and then dissected it as to what questions could be asked from them.
Asked my friends to do the same. Then I prepared sample answers to the same. Also, had
some mock interviews at IMS Surat as well as the Achievers Workshop conducted by
IMS.

Q. How many interview calls did you get and from which institutes? How many and
which ones of these could you actually convert to a Final Call?
A. IIMs - A, B, L, I, K - Converted IIM Indore
NMIMS - Converted
SCMHRD - converted
MDI - did not appear
SIBM, IMT - did not appear
FMS, MBA and MBA( MS) - converted MBA (MS).

Q. Date and location of Interview. Were you given the option to choose? Was the
interview date fixed or rescheduled couple of times. Was the interview venue changed
or scheduled as per your convenience?
A. Delhi, at FMS. There was no option for changing the place. Although flexibility was
provided that the dates could be changed if there is a valid reason cited for the same. I did
not need to ask for any changes. Also, students who had calls from both courses were
accommodated on the same day to facilitate travel and other arrangements.

Q. Can you tell us about the panel that interviewed you?

A. The panel of 5 was led by Dr. H.V.Verma. They were all very intent on making me
feel comfortable and relaxed, allowing me to present myself as best as possible.

Q. How long was your interview?

A. About 25 minutes.

Q. What kind of questions were you asked? Were they specific to any particular area?
A. Questions were mainly originating from the form that they had asked us to fill at an
intial stage. They were based on interest areas, work-experience, Surat city (I am from
Surat), etc.

Q. What was the first question? The most interesting question? The most difficult
question?
A. For me, probably the first, most interesting and the most difficult question were the
same. The first question was: What do you think of the interview panel?

Q. While facing the panel, were you confident, did you feel prepared?
A. Yes, I did.

Q. Write a brief about your Interview experience.

A. The Interview was a brilliant experience, especially because the panelists took the
efforts to make me feel at ease and tried to bring out the best qualities in me. They asked
me questions which I felt I should know, even if I didn't at that time. They probed deep
about certain topics to understand my opinions and perspectives. I felt happy because in
my opinion, I had been properly evaluated.

Q. Was any feedback given to you? What feedback did you receive from the panel at
the end of session?
A. No feedback was given.
Q. How would you rate your performance in the Interview?
A. Probably a 7/10 again.

Q. Areas where you could have performed better in your interview?

A. Nothing specific, there were certain answers that could have been rephrased, and
certain points that could be added. But the rating above is just a general perception of
how I did, and not based on anything specific.

Q. Give some handy tips regarding interview that would be of great help to MBA
aspirants.
A. Know your CV very well. Circulate it around your friends to see what questions pop
into their minds, and regardless of how stupid you might think it to be, prepare an answer
to that question and write it down. Prepare answers to generic interview questions like
Why MBA, Tell me about yourself and write them down as a ready reference.

Q. Were you able to get the school of your choice or did you compromise and opted for
the best option that was open/available to you?
A. FMS was among the few top choices I had, and am happy to be here.

Q. Did work experience help in getting the choice of your school and also in dealing
with the curriculum?
A. Yes, to some extent. In dealing with the curriculum, work experience allows us to
connect and relate better to some of the examples and cases presented in class, putting
them in perspective of our own experience.

Sushant Bahadur, a student of MBA (Management of Services), 2009-11 at FMS

share his views on life at FMS.

Q. After joining the school, did you ever wish that you should have known certain
more things about the school before you became part of it? What are these ?
A. No, nothing specific.

Q. What are the toughest area to handle in your studies?

A. Coming from an engineering background, accounting was an obviously tough area to
handle because of unfamiliarity with the subject.

Q. Which one is your best subject?

A. Right now, it is too early to say which subject is my best subject. I could probably say
that Interpersonal Skills and Team Building, and Marketing Management are the two
subjects where I feel slightly comfortable.

Q. Is there stress level during studies?

A. Not stress per se, but the schedules are hectic and make us work under pressure of a
lot of deadlines. But it is not stressful at all, and working in groups with friends makes it
easier and more enjoyable.
 Q. What's the best and most admirable feature of your institute?
A. The campus and the crowd is probably the best feature of FMS. The campus is
beautiful, and full of lush greenery and is very quiet and serene. And the crowd is
composed of people from all walks of life, be it freshers or people with work-experience,
from fields ranging from Education, IT, Finance, and many more. The variety of
opinions, perspectives, approaches that you get here is simply amazing.

Q. Scope of development in your existing curriculum.

A. A bit too early again to talk about curricular changes for me, given that I don't have
much idea about the second year course.

Q. Getting into and sailing through a B-school is easier for a Science graduate than
for someone from Humanities background. Your comments, please.
A. I would say that getting into a B-School is not too difficult for a person from
Humanities background. Of course, he would need to justify his area shift, like a science
graduate is needed to do. I believe that the problem a Humanities graduate might face is
more on the lines of sailing through the B-School. The subjects, almost all of them would
be very different from what they are used to, in terms of content as well as approach. Of
course, with hard work, anything can be done.

Q. Tips for those who wish to do MBA from your school.

A. In the written test, understand the importance of having no sectional cutoffs (FMS
only has a sectional eligibility at 50%ile in each section). Hence, it is very important for
you to maximize your scores in the section where you are strong, giving lower proportion
of time to weaker sections, just enough to clear the 50%ile barrier.