Strategy, Mocks, and Cracking the GDPI Process
Interviewer: Dr Rav Singh
Topper: Shuddho (GEM Fresher, SIBM Pune Convert)
SNAP Exam Strategy: 7 Days to Success
Dr Rav Singh: Shuddho, congratulations on converting SIBM Pune. I hear you did it with an intense strategy: seven days of hard work and 15 mocks, leveraging what we call the ‘123 Strategy.’ Can you tell us about that initial week right after CAT?
Shuddho: Thank you, Sir. To provide some background, I am a GEM fresher and was in the final year of my engineering, so all these MBA exams were new for me. My CAT honestly went well, but I was focused on SIBM Pune specifically for the brand.
Dr Rav Singh: So, what exactly did you do in those seven to ten days after CAT?
Shuddho: I focused much more on giving mocks daily. My main goal was finding the loopholes or the gaps in my preparation and making sure I improved upon those immediately. I built a solid strategy because the SNAP paper is so dynamic; it keeps changing.
Dr Rav Singh: What was the major difference in preparation between CAT and SNAP?
Shuddho: SNAP is a one-hour examination, but that makes it tougher, not easier. You need to strategize every minute properly. The biggest difference is the dynamism—the content changes not just yearly, but there are clear differences between Slot 1, 2, and 3. You have to be prepared for that variability.
Dr Rav Singh: So, if someone’s CAT didn’t go well, can they still crack SNAP?
Shuddho: Definitely, you can, with the perfect strategy. I honestly did it. If you have a perfect strategy for those seven or ten days, it is absolutely possible. SNAP gives you that opportunity to appear three times, so you can always improve and come back stronger in the next attempt.
Refining the Strategy: From Slot 1 to Slot 2
Dr Rav Singh: You took the first attempt after giving a mock every day for seven days. After Slot 1 was over, what went through your mind? What changes did you make for Slot 2?
Shuddho: What I figured out after the first attempt was the danger of wasting time on a single question. If you choose a wrong section or a single question and waste more than five minutes, it becomes incredibly difficult to crack the entire examination. I made sure I worked upon that and strategized my entire paper better.
Dr Rav Singh: How did you implement that time management strategy?
Shuddho: I divided the paper into three different stages:
- Level 1 (Easy Questions): I navigated through the paper and solved the easy questions first.
- Level 2 (Medium Questions): These were questions I knew how to do but needed some more time for.
- Level 3 (Harder/New Questions): Finally, I tackled the genuinely difficult questions or those from a completely new topic.
Dr Rav Singh: Did you set a fixed timer for these levels—say, 30 minutes for Level 1?
Shuddho: It basically depends upon the level of the entire paper. For example, my SNAP paper was particularly much more difficult compared to other slots. I figured out that the cutoff might go down, and I answered the paper accordingly. There was no specific, predetermined timer; you need to adjust based on the paper.
Dr Rav Singh: So, for students who are not well-prepared for the first slot, your advice is to treat it as a learning experience?
Shuddho: Exactly. Go for the first slot, observe the paper well, and then focus more on the second slot. You can see your scores for every exam, so you know which attempt is considered. Identify your weak areas after the first one, improve them, and you can definitely sort it out. My second attempt was better because I worked upon my mistakes and managed the time better.
GDPI Process: The Unique WAT Challenge
Dr Rav Singh: Let’s move on to the GDPI, which is the most difficult stage to crack for SIBM. What was your experience, and what was unique about the process?
Shuddho: As a fresher, SIBM Pune was my first interview in my entire life. I honestly had goosebumps! But the team made me feel comfortable. The process started with the WAT (Written Ability Test).
Dr Rav Singh: What was the WAT format?
Shuddho: I was given one picture and another word, and I had to connect them somehow and write an essay of 150 to 200 words in just 10 minutes.
Dr Rav Singh: Were the picture and the word related?
Shuddho: They were completely unrelated, but I had to invent a story to link them. For example, one task I heard about involved a picture showing children playing a game, and the word was something like “drought” or a distressed farmer, or maybe something completely different like “ice cream.” They are often concepts that seem to be against each other, and you have to merge them together creatively.
Dr Rav Singh: That sounds incredibly unique and interesting!
Shuddho: It was. I found the WAT process at SIBM Pune the most interesting and unique compared to the GDPI rounds for other big colleges I appeared for.
Dr Rav Singh: Thank you, Shuddho, for sharing your journey and these key insights!
Shuddho: Thank you so much, Sir.
