How to Prepare for MBA Entrance Exams? - Section-Wise Tips, Strategy & Guide
SubscribeHow to Prepare for MBA Entrance Exams: Candidate who wants to join the Master of Business Administration (MBA) course is required to sit for the entrance examination. Instead of chasing competition, students who opt for a smart preparation strategy are ace in MBA entrance exams.
However, preparing for an MBA entrance exam presents some challenges that include the breadth of the syllabus, the difficulty level of the questions, and the level of the competition but they are not the only ones.
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Tips to Prepare for MBA Entrance Exams
Before starting the preparations, it is important to come up with a study plan to deal with the exam preparation, considering every aspect of the MBA entrance exam. This plan does not have to be perfect in every sense and you have to work hard enough to help you join the desired MBA colleges in India.
In this article, we have provided the best study tips and preparation strategies for MBA entrance exams. Take a look at these tips to see which of these can be incorporated into your study routine, how to prepare for the MBA entrance exams, and how to prepare a smart study plan for participating in the MBA admission process in India.
MBA Entrance Exams
Choosing the right MBA entrance exams for you is very important when preparing for MBA admission. It depends on personal decision and many factors:
Choice of MBA college
Suitable exam pattern
Familiarity with the syllabus or type of questions
The difficulty level of entrance exam, etc
Here is a list of the most popular MBA entrance exams conducted in India.
Name of the MBA Entrance Exam | About the Exam |
Common Admission Test (CAT) | National-Level Entrance Examination conducted by Indian Institute of Management (IIM). It is the most widely accepted choice by MBA colleges, but it is mainly taken to join Tier-1 MBA colleges. |
Management Aptitude Test (MAT) | MAT is again a national-level examination conducted by the All India Management Association (AIMA). It is conducted 4 times every year and is mostly accepted by Tier-2 and Tier-3 MBA colleges. |
Common Management Aptitude Test (CMAT) | Another national-level entrance examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). CMAT is conducted to enroll for AICTE and UGC-recognized MBA colleges in India. |
Maharastra Common Entrance Test (MAH-CET) | Also known as MAH MBA CET or MAH MBA/ MMS CET, it is a state-level MBA entrance examination conducted by the State Common Entrance Cell of Maharashtra and accepted for admission in MBA colleges within the state. |
Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) | XAT is an MBA entrance exam conducted by Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) in Jamshedpur. However, this exam is very popularly accepted by many MBA colleges across the country. |
Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) | GMAT is another popular entrance exam for MBA colleges. It is administered by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). This choice is often chosen by the candidates because it has a different overall approach to testing. However, it is accepted by a limited number of colleges compared to the many MBA entrance exams on this list. |
These are the popular exams for MBA admission. Many MBA entrance exams are conducted in India, in which specific institutes conduct their courses. Check out the schedule of MBA Entrance Examinations and go through our CAT vs other MBA Entrance Exam comparisons to choose the best MBA exam for your need.
Also check;
How to prepare for state-level entrance exam
Top Specialized MBA Entrance Exams
Exam Pattern of MBA Entrance Exam | |||||
Exam | Section | Duration | Question | Marks | Negative Mark |
CAT | 3 | 120 Min | 100 | +3 | -1 |
MAT | 5 | 150 Min | 200 | +1 | -1/4 |
CMAT | 4 | 180 Min | 100 | +4 | -1 |
MAH CET | 4 | 150 Min | 200 | +1 | No Negative |
XAT | 4 | 180 Min | 100 | +1 | -1 |
IBSAT | 4 | 120 Min | 140 | +1 | No Negative |
MBA Entrance Exam Pattern - Sections
The exact exam pattern for each MBA entrance exam is different. However, there are some basic elements that are common to every MBA entrance exam in India.
Section | Short Description |
Verbal Ability (VA) | This section tests a candidate's English language use and comprehension skills. Students must develop good grammar and reading skills to ace this section. |
Reasoning Ability (RA) | In this section, candidates should use their logical and analytical reasoning skills to solve questions. Questions test a candidate's ability to think out the box and solve complex problems quickly and accurately. |
Quantitative Ability (QA) | This section tests a candidate's mathematical ability. However, it is not a test to see if a candidate is familiar with complex theories in mathematics, but rather to check their simplicity and familiarity with numbers and number functions. |
MBA Entrance Exam Syllabus - Section-Wise
Often, the syllabus for the MBA entrance exam is very common. The table below details the section-wise syllabi of the MBA Entrance Examinations in India.
Section | Topics |
Verbal Ability |
|
Reasoning Ability |
|
Quantitative Ability |
|
Students should note that this is not a complete syllabus for MBA entrance exams. Take a look at the official syllabus provided by the MBA entrance exam you take to make sure you cover all the topics for the exam.
Also know;
How to prepare for CAT 2021 along with other entrance exams
Preparation Tips for MBA Entrance Exams
Now that we have gone through the exam system and syllabus, here are some preparation tips for MBA Entrance Examinations in India.
Preparation Tips for Reasoning Ability
The Reasoning Ability section is considered very difficult by the majority of MBA candidates. This is an area where tricks fail and students have to trust their skills to solve questions.
Here are some preparation tips for reasoning ability in MBA entrance exams.
Training is important when it comes to this area. The more questions you solve, the better you will be at identifying important information and developing the right ability to solve these questions.
Solve puzzles. Solving puzzles enhances your ability to think out of the box and sharpens your analytical skills. Developing a daily habit of solving puzzles will increase your speed and accuracy in this section.
Find your own hacks. Many candidates create their own ways of creating useful maps or codes to solve these questions.
Avoid what needs to be avoided. For each candidate, there is a title in the reasoning section, which proves to be very difficult. Avoiding such questions in the exam, it is better to spend the saved time judging others.
Preparation Tips for Verbal Ability
Questions in the Verbal Ability section can ask a student to find an error in a particular part of the sentence, fill in a paragraph with the correct parts of grammar, answer questions based on a paragraph, and other tasks.
Here are the best tips for the verbal ability section in MBA entrance exams.
Study the rules of grammar from books to the high school level. You can correctly identify different parts of speech in a sentence and find any errors in sentence structure.
Develop the habit of reading. The faster and more accurately you can read, the faster you can navigate through this section.
Identify the types of questions that will appear in the exam using the previous year's question papers. Often, solving questions helps you to read clear ideas faster.
Increase English usage in your daily routine. Changing small habits like using proper English in texting, listening to English music, watching English movies helps a lot in understanding the language.
Preparation Tips for Quantitative Ability
Quantitative Ability questions in MBA entrance exams are based on the basics up to class 10. However, questions are made more difficult by the use of a number of tactics, including adding unnecessary information to the questions and presenting questions with long or difficult numbers.
Below are some tips to help you prepare for the quantitative ability section in the MBA exams.
Reduce calculations. The questions in this section are often confused with adding longer or harder numbers. However, there are many tricks that allow a candidate to solve questions without doing any calculations.
Work on mental mathematics. There are some questions that inevitably lead to calculations. While some choices provide a basic screen calculator, doing mental calculations always proves to be fast.
Do not use traditional methods. Traditional methods taught in school to solve these questions often fail in MBA entrance exams. Instead, use alternative methods to help achieve the answer faster.
Hide the entire syllabus. Even if you are the best at a topic, it is easy to change questions to stump even the best candidates. Therefore, it is very important to include all the topics in the quantitative ability section as it enhances your exams.
Related Articles;
Best Books to Prepare for MBA Entrance Exams
The table below contains the best and well-known books that you can use for MBA entrance exams.
Section | Book | Author |
Verbal Ability | Wiley's ExamXpert Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension | Captain AK Kalia |
How to Prepare for Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension | Arun Sharma, Meenakshi Upadhayay | |
Word Power Made Easy | Norman Lewis | |
Reasoning Ability | A Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning | R S Aggarwal |
Complete Guide for MAT and Other MBA Entrance Exams | Disha Experts | |
Koncepts of LR - Logical Reasoning for CAT & Other MBA Exams | Gajendra Kumar | |
Quantitative Ability | How to Prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT | Arun Sharma |
Quantitative Aptitude Quantum Cat | Sarvesh K Sharma | |
Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations | S Chand PublishingR S Aggarwal |
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Questions related to CAT
450 score, obc cat, MD anaesthesia, low budget college, good govt/ Pvt college, any chance??
Hi,
To get a government seat one must score above 525. With 450 you can get in to a private college. As your NEET score is 450. Your Overall Percentile is: 93.39 - 93.89 and when it comes to rank, your Predicted Rank is:89930 - 107080 . Also depends upon last years cut-off. Adding it with 15% All India quota and 85% state quota seats in government colleges.
As per the last year result of NEET UG ,General category aspirants need minimum 147 marks (50 percentile). On the other hand General-PH(129 Marks 45 percentile) and SC/OBC/ST requires 113 marks (40 percentile).
Hope this helps
Wish you luck
Answer latermy jee rank in obc cat. 29192 can I get cse in hbti
Hello, Ravi
First and foremost,
congratulations on achieving an 29k rank in the JEE . According to recent reports, hbti may not accept admmision through Upsee. HBTI KANPUR is moving its intake to the Jee mains, which is wonderful news because it means more intake. And, based on your ranking, you will very certainly be offered a spot in the second round of counselling.
Visit http://hbtu.ac.in/ for further information.
Best wishes:)
sir as punjab democile cat. gen sroce 471 can i got best ptv collage in punjab
Hello Yatin. I hope you are in good health. You mentioned your marks but didn't mention the exam you are talking about. Assuming that you have a query regarding NEET UG 2021, I will give an answer based on that. You mentioned you belong to general category. Well, based on your marks, your overall percentile may end up somewhere around 91.59 - 92.09 while your AIR may lie somewhere around 127893 - 160043.
Well, it is quite difficult to predict whether you have any window of opportunity to get government quota seats in private medical colleges in Punjab. Although based on your performance you have less chance to grab a seat for MBBS via All India Counselling as well as State Counselling.
Moreover, you may get chance to grab a seat for B.D.S. under government quota at private dental colleges in Punjab via State Counselling.
You may get admission for pursuing B.D.S. in the following private dental colleges:
- B.J. Singh Dental College Hospital & Research Institute, Ludhiana
- Dasmesh Institute of Research & Dental Sciences, Faridkot - https://www.careers360.com/colleges/dasmesh-institute-of-research-and-dental-sciences-faridkot
- D.B. Dental College & Hospital, Mandi Gobindgarh - https://www.careers360.com/colleges/desh-bhagat-dental-college-and-hospital-mukatsar
- SGRD Institute of Dental Sciences & Research, Amritsar - https://www.careers360.com/colleges/sri-guru-ram-das-institute-of-dental-science-and-research-amritsar
To get detailed information on cutoff marks vs rank for Punjab medical and dental colleges, follow this link:
https://medicine.careers360.com/articles/neet-cutoff-punjab
To know your admission chances in medical/dental colleges with NEET Score, to get a personalized report with Top MBBS & B.D.S Colleges and to check course & counselling wise cut-offs of NEET for various state quotas, caste groups etc., I encourage you to use NEET UG 2021 College Predictor:
https://medicine.careers360.com/neet-college-predictor?utm_source=qna&utm_medium=neet_rp
I hope you find this information helpful.
Thank you and good luck!
for cat exam which is going to held on november 28 2021 is 2 months home preparation is enough to get good score. please suggest me
Hello,
Home preparation or we can say Revision or Practice is more than enough to score good marks for any competitive exams. You should have a proper schedule and syllabus that is to be cover you should go through last years paper for knowing the pattern of questions, you should go through atleast 10 sample papers for proper practice. Be focused and set a target of how much you want to achieve, so that you can atleast give your best to achieve near to that target. The most important thing while writing an exam or while preparing is to be calm and focused. So be calm and don't panic.
Hope this helps you.
All the best for your exams.
Give your best
Thank you!
I got crl 37412 in jee mains i am from gen cat ews what are chances for me to getting any nits or iiits
Hi
With 37412 crl, your ews rank would be roughly around 6k - 7k, if not do let us know.
Making prediction is difficult as cutoff depends upon various factors like :-
-----------) number of students/ candidates that appeared in the jee main exam,
-----------) number of available seats,
-----------) performance of different students in the examination,
-----------) the branch you want,
-----------) the category you belong etc.
-----------) your rank in jee main
But yes,
When we go through previous year trend then
>>>>>>>>> With 6k-7k ews rank
Yes, you have chances in NITs and IIITs
You have chances in following which are listed below along with their closing rank in 6th round of josaa counselling 2020 under other state/ all india quota :-
---------) NIT Agartala :- civil engineering :- 7572 ews rank.
---------) National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar:-Industrial and Production Engineering:- 7486 ews rank
---------) NIT Durgapur :- Biotechnology :- 7788 ews rank
--------) Indian Institute of Information Technology, Agartala:-Computer Science and Engineering:-7001 ews rank
---------) Indian Institute of Information Technology Manipur:- ECE :-7916 ews rank
And more
You can check the closing ranks at official website of josaa by going through the link given below
https://josaa.nic.in/Result/Result/currentorcr.aspx
Or
For previous year cut offs of top colleges like NITs, IIITs , you can also refer our page at :-
NITs :- https://engineering.careers360.com/articles/nits-cutoff-for-top-btech-branches
IIITs:- https://engineering.careers360.com/articles/jee-main-cutoff-for-top-iiits
Above prediction has been made considering past year cut off data but closing rank for colleges varies every year depending upon many factors like jee main question paper difficulty, number of students writing the exam etc so
To have a personalised report on your chances of getting a college you can go through our college predictor, it will give you complete list of colleges which you can get on the basis of the category you belong to, your home state, your gender etc, the link for jee main college predictor is provided below
https://engineering.careers360.com/jee-main-college-predictor?icn=QnA&ici=qna_answer
To help you further,
Minimum percentile in jee main 2021 to qualify it to be eligible for jee advanced 2021 is given below :-
--------) general :-87.8992241 percentile
--------) EWS:- 66.2214845 percentile
--------) OBC-NCL :- 68.0234447 percentile
--------) SC :- 46.8825338 percentile
--------) ST:- 34.6728999 percentile
--------) PWD :- 0.0096375 percentile
Thank you
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