How to Prepare for BBA Entrance Exam: Focus on time allocation strategy to maximise attempts, says Manek Daruv

How to Prepare for BBA Entrance Exam – Management aspirants who are aiming to pursue their Bachelors in Business Administration are wondering how to prepare for BBA entrance exams right after Class 12 board exams. Students are preparing for the BBA entrances to secure admission in a top BBA college. Right now, their minds must be buzzing with various questions like how to balance preparation of board exam with BBA entrance exam, which are the top BBA entrances to apply for and how to prepare for the exams in terms of sectional and time management strategies.

To answer more such queries, Careers360 brings to you expert interview on how to prepare for BBA entrance exams. In this interview, Manek Daruvala, Director and Founder of T.I.M.E., shares detailed preparation strategy for each section of BBA entrance syllabus and talks about the importance of mock tests in BBA Entrance preparation. According to him, to get into the top BBA colleges, one has to start at least a year or so before the actual exam dates. The top BBA entrance exams include DU JAT, IIM Indore IPM Aptitude Test, GGSIPU CET and SET BBA among others.

The expert also points out that since each student is unique, the same allocation of time may not work for all candidates. Leaving questions that are beyond the abilities of an aspirant can save the much-needed time that can thereby be used in solving other doable questions. He also stresses on building reading speed which can save a lot of time and be utilised in other sections to maximise the score. Read on to know more tips on how to prepare for BBA entrance exams by the expert.

How to prepare for BBA entrance exams – Excerpts from the interview

Know all about top 5 BBA Entrance Exams in India

Careers360: When is the right time to start preparing for BBA entrance exams?

Manek Daruvala: The BBA entrance exams of IP University, Symbiosis University, NMIMS School of Business Management, Christ University etc. are generally conducted in May and those of Delhi University in mid-June. Therefore, an aspirant has around a month and a half after the 12th board exams to prepare for these entrance tests.

Given the intense competition in these exams, one needs to start as early as possible. A large number of students start preparing for these exams once they enter class 12th. So, ideally speaking, to get into the top colleges one has to start at least a year or so before the actual exam dates.

However, there are quite a few students who feel that they need to focus on the 12th board exams and would not want to dilute their preparation. For these students the ideal preparation time for the BBA entrances would be post the board exams with the caveat that they would need to put in longer hours to compensate for the late start. The BBA entrance exams test students on areas like English, GK, Reasoning and Quantitative Ability.

Careers360: What should be the initial preparation strategy?

Manek Daruvala: A good starting point should be to understand the ‘syllabus’ covered in these entrance exams. Those who start early – say, a year or so before the exam, have a natural advantage in terms of their ability to cover all tests areas. Test areas like English and GK require a lot of time to develop accuracy. So, one can start with developing a reading habit and going through 10 to 20 new words daily. For Quant and Reasoning, one needs to practice a lot and one should be conceptually very sound. So, going through NCERT Math books of 8th, 9th and 10th can be a good idea.

Moreover, these tests are definitely about informed decision making, rather than making wild guesses. Intelligent guess work may work sometimes for English section where Vocabulary and Grammar questions can be solved using root methods and common sense. Reading comprehension and Logical reasoning are clearly skill-based areas and the aspirants need to practice a lot of questions to reach a good accuracy level.

General knowledge and Current affairs questions can be dealt with properly, only if a student has given enough time to daily newspaper, GK capsules, monthly GK snapshots and magazines.

Careers360: How to prepare for the major BBA entrance exams in terms of specific strategy?

Mr. Daruvala: Major BBA entrance exams are IIM Indore IPMAT, DU JAT, GGSIPU CET BBA, SET BBA among others. Let me share discuss in depth for each of these exams.

IPMAT (IIM Indore)-

IPM Indore, till last year, conducted an Aptitude Test for admissions into the Five-Year programme. The test had two sections: Quantitative Ability which consists of 60 questions and Verbal Ability consisting of 40 questions. However, there has been a change in the pattern from this year onwards. IPM has introduced an additional section on Quantitative Ability which will have ‘Short Answer Type Input based’ questions. The Verbal Ability section tests students on Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, Para-Jumbles and Vocabulary.

As has been for a few years now, the Quantitative Ability section is the more challenging section as compared to the Verbal Ability section. This is on account of the higher weightage given to difficult areas like Numbers, Algebra, Higher Math. The Questions in this section are from topics like Geometry, Mensuration, Probability, P&C, Progressions, Matrices, Functions, and Complex Numbers. The relatively easier Arithmetic questions are from topics like Time & Work, SI/CI, PPL. This section also has a few questions on Data Interpretation which requires a student to be proficient in speed math as some of the questions require lengthy calculations.

Students preparing for IPM should focus on this section more than the other on account of the higher weightage given to the Quant section and the fact that Time management is the key here as only 40 minutes would be allotted for the 40 Quant questions (objective type) and 20 min for the 20 short answer questions.

DU JAT

Delhi University colleges are some of the most sought after in the country. The entrance to DU is through the DU JAT which is conducted in the month of June. For this exam, one has to focus a lot on higher level Math as almost all the questions are of the class 11th and 12^th level. For the GK section the focus must be on Business GK and Economics although questions from other areas also appear under this section.

GGSIPU SET BBA

For the IP BBA one should focus less on Math as there is no specific section on this area. However there is a special section on Communications and Management skills, where questions are based on business GK and basic understanding of communication.

Symbiosis Entrance Test (SET BBA)

For the Symbiosis entrance test equal attention should be given to all the test areas – English, Quantitative Ability, General Awareness & Reasoning. The level of the questions is of moderate difficulty level and hence it is important that all topics in Math and Reasoning must be covered and should be revised a fortnight before the exam. For General Awareness one must prepare for both Current Affairs and Static GK. Taking regular sectional tests and full-length mocks can help aspirants sail through these exams.

Careers360: Please share sectional preparation tips for the areas like Quant, Verbal Ability, Reasoning and General Awareness.

Mr. Daruvala:

For Quantitative Ability-

The level of preparation required is different for various exams. BMS(DU) requires a thorough revision of all the chapters of class 11th and 12th whereas Symbiosis BBA entrance is a step lower where one must go through just the 9th and 10th Math syllabus. One should practice more of Arithmetic, Arithmetic (Profit, Loss, & Discount/SI CI, Time & Distance, Time & Work,), Permutations & Combinations, Mensuration, Algebra, etc. There is no Quant section in IP BBA CET but some basic Math questions are often seen in the Reasoning section.

For English-

For English section one should do a good mix of Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability questions regularly. Practicing RC passages, para jumbles, para completion, critical reasoning, fill in the blank, should form the bulk of the preparation. Vocab building with a bit of focus on idioms and phrases should be done every day without fail. Basic grammar rules should be learnt and practiced occasionally. Reading newspapers everyday can help in both English and GK sections.

For Reasoning-

For Reasoning one should go through questions based on Arrangements, Series, Coding-Decoding, Visual Reasoning, Clocks & Calendars, Analogies, Odd one out, Ordering/Ranking, Direction Sense, etc.

Careers360: How should the preparation strategy change as a student approaches nearer to exam date?

Mr. Daruvala: As one nears the exams the focus should shift from working on the concepts to taking sectional and full length mock tests. After every mock test a thorough analysis of the test must be done to identify weak areas and to plan improvement. While taking full length tests the focus must be on having a right time allocation strategy in order to maximise the questions attempted.

Careers360: What should be the time management strategy on the exam day?

Mr. Daruvala: As time management is very crucial in these entrance exams, students should take 10 to 12 mocks to get the feel of the actual exam and try different strategies for solving the paper. Allocating almost equal time to the 3 main sections namely English, Quant and Reasoning and comparatively lesser time to GK section is a recommended approach.

Analysing the mocks and identifying the strengths and weaknesses should be done regularly to identify weak areas for improvement and the strong areas to maximize the overall score. As there are no sectional cut offs, more time should be given to a strong area and less time to a weak area.

As each student is unique, the same allocation of time may not work for all students. Leaving questions that are beyond the abilities of an aspirant can save the much-needed time that can thereby be used in solving other doable questions. This habit is something very different from the board exams where a student is advised to do every question. Reading speed is a key skill which can save a lot of time which can be used in other sections to maximise the score.

Careers360: What is your advice for the BBA aspirants who are planning to write the exams and enroll in a top BBA institute?

Mr. Daruvala: Most of the aspirants must be very busy with their board exams now. As soon as the boards are over, the focus has to shift totally to the entrance exams and the gear of preparation should be changed as boards and entrance papers are very different. So, don’t waste any time after the boards are over. You will get a lot of time to enjoy after these entrance exams are over as most of the colleges commence their course only in July.

All the very Best!