IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) All Questions

Hello,

Anurag Kashyap is one of the Alumina of IIM Ahmedabad, he has done his Post Graduate Programme In Food and Agri-business Management (PGP-FABM) graduation in 2018. He is currently working as Senior Procurement Manager with FRAAZO. He is very much Agribusiness Passionate, Philanthropist, Blogger and Poet.

Hi,

Frisbee has been played at IIMA since time immemorial.  However, it started getting to be a really popular thing from the 2006 - 08 batch onwards.

It had a modest start with just with a few guys from batch (2005 - 07) who were throwing a frisbee around on LKP - these were people who were playing just for fun, and didn't really know about (or care about) ultimate. A few people from batch (2006 - 08) joined in, and this became a sort of semi regular thing. Frisbee under the lights of LKP at night, followed by Nimbu Paani at CT.

Hope it helps.

Hi,

While the batch majority is dominated by IITs & NITs, IIMA has students from many different colleges that you might not have been exposed to.

Here are some REAL examples from the IIMA batch of 2021:

• Mulund College of commerce
• SASTRA Deemed University
• Government college of commerce & business administration
• Faculty of Commerce, Banaras
• IIS Jaipur
• Francis College

This clearly shows that IIMA does not care about your past institution and all you need is the ability to work hard and have a clear vision about your goals.

Hope it helps.

Dear Aspirant ,

PGPX( Post Gragduate Programme in Mangement for Executives) is a very career defining course . It is our country's and infact globally one of the finest and most prestigious course .

It is a full time 1 year course. The batch is carefully choosen to ensure diversification and well balanced class. The eligibilty criteria is as follows

1. An Undergraduate degree or equivalent

2. Good GMAT/GRE scores which are not more than 5 years old from the date of application. If you wish to apply for the 2022 -2023 batch then the earliest acceptable GMAT/GRE scores would be -Round 1: august 2016 , round 2: october 2016, round 3: december 2016

3. You should be 25 years of as  on 31 March , 2022

4. Minimum 4 years of work experience after completion of graduation .

So you see, since a Work Ex . profile of minimum 4 years is required , you've got a plus point of having more than that . With good GMAT/GRE scores and work ex of 10 years it will be worth it and would be a great boost to your career profile.

Hope this helps

Best of Luck!

Hello,

To answer your question first you need to understand that there are several reasons for that. I am trying to give the brief idea of main reasons behind this.

PGPX program placement is for mid and senior level roles of the company. Previous job experience play a very important role in placement of PGPX so the participants which have not valid background they struggle to find right placements.

Many of the students rejects their early offer while expecting a higher package from another company and end up not finding anything. This is also the one reason behind this. Many of the student applied for many companies which are coming to the campus even if they don't have relevant experience for that job and because of that they loose their concentration on those few companies which are related to their background.

One thing you need to understand is that many company will visit IIM-A for placements and it's the participant responsibility to crack those opportunities.

Hope it helps!

Hello,

The life at IIM Ahmedabad is awesome in terms of everything. You will develop many of the skills there and you learn various aspects of business and much more. And yes in the end definitely you will get a good salary package. Now let's deep dive into this. At IIM-A you will have peers from different domains and everyone has their own skill and knowledge of their domain. You will learn a lot from each other. Apart from that you will have excellent faculties and a beautiful campus. You will be in touch with alumni network and trust me there alumni network is huge and very good. Course curriculum is perfectly defined and suitable for your learning.

There will be several college competitions and by participating in that you will explore yourself.

In short if I have to summarise this then the life at IIM-A is full of fun, learning and developing yourself.

Hope it helps!

Hi,

This a case which has two situations. Lets get by them one by one:

Summer Placements

While most of the firms are open for all students at these institutes, there are some roles/firms that require some minimum work experience. Some of the names include LEK Consulting, Alvarez and Marsal. These firms put a minimum work experience criteria of around 20 months. Though the entire process for these firms is the same, the students not meeting the work experience criteria simply can’t apply through the internship portal

Final Placements (Laterals)

During the final placements, many firms bring multiple roles on campus. The roles that are meant for students with work experience are offered during the Lateral Placement drive, which is separate from the Final placement that is open to all. There are many firms bringing in senior roles at this stage and the process of laterals is different from finals. Some institutes even provide the flexibility of salary negotiations, role discussions etc.

Hope it helps.

Hi,

A very interesting story I found online:

Scene: Understanding People and Organizations, known as UPO (a course that contained way too much theory for most people to stomach, produced several agents for the "sleeper cell") taught by Prof Vishal Gupta. The guy sitting behind me had been deep asleep for the last fifteen minutes, and we had all been stifling our laughter at the sight of it.

Background: This prof was exceedingly friendly, and would never lose his temper. Even if the class was breaking out into chaos, he'd just raise his voice ever so slightly and we'd all quiet down in moments - you could say he was firm yet friendly.

He glanced at the sleeper behind me, then told the person next to him with a seemingly alarmed smile:

Please wake him up before he falls off his seat!

When he woke up with a start, the prof genially smiled at him and sent him to wash his face. Henceforth, in every class of his he would cast a quick glance at him and ask him whether he was awake! :P
--------
Scene: Marketing-II class (which was to be taught by Prof Dheeraj Sharma)

Exactly on time, instead of Prof Sharma, in walks Prof Sanjay Verma.
Background: Prof Sanjay Verma was from the information sciences department.

For a few seconds, we all sat silent, trying to understand the anomaly. He looked around and announced nonchalantly:

"You were expecting Amitabh Bacchan, instead you got Prem Chopra!"

------
Last one
------
Scene: There was once a meeting organised between the PGP1s, the PGP2s and Profs Pavan Mamidi and Ankur Sarin. This had been to discuss difficulties we had been facing in the rigorous system WIMWI is so notorious for (yes, the struggle is real.)

Background: One of the complaints, in simple terms, was that the PGP1s and 2s were not bonding well enough despite many activities intended to improve this camaraderie. Also, for those who don't know, Gujarat is a dry state (so liquor is officially illegal)

Prof Mamidi, upon hearing this complaint from the PGP2s, did a facepalm and remarked to the PGP2s present:

How hard is it to bond with someone? Just get together, smoke up, have a drink and everyone's peaceful!

Hope it helps.

Hi,

While there is no clear cut comparison between the two institutes as both institutes are really good in every aspect, there lies a few distinct things about each you should know:

IIMA’s flagship program is 2 year PGDM whereas 1-year PGPX is not the flagship program of IIMA. Hence if you are comparing ISB's flagship one year MBA program with 1 year program of IIMA, it is not a logical comparison. Generally, non-flagship programs are not given that much importance as compared to the flagship program.

Although the choice is simple, If you're a fresher and looking for an MBA, you should go for IIMA. But if you have 2–3 years of experience ISB would be a better option.

Hope it helps.

Hi,

The following experience is by Risabh Baldi, a student of IIMA '13 batch.

"The interview started with the customary questions (Why MBA, Why Agribusiness Management) moving on to the achievements and ended with a rapid fire session of Mathematics.

The Customary Questions

So, why do you want to join IIM Ahmedabad?

Because I preferably want to stay in India, the fees is low as compared to the foreign institutes and there are only a few colleges for Agribusiness Management in India -IIM A being the best among them.
(I had written in the form that I had offers from other universities- totally downplayed this one. I was never in awe of IIM A but even if you are, I guess you should not show that to the interviewer )

Why Agribusiness Management?

I have studied Food Engineering for four years. I have come to realize that although I like Agri/Food sector as such but I am not that much interested in the technical aspects of it. I find it difficult to understand. Also, when I did my internship I was given an Operations project which I found much more interesting and thus....blah blah

Why an year gap?

(This was the most difficult and expected question. I took an year drop for JEE preparation after screwing up JEE (https://www.quora.com/How-is-life-after-failing-in-the-IIT-JEE-examination/answer/Rishabh-Baldi) .)
Because when I saw the brochure for JEE while applying, I saw Agricultural/Food Engineering and I was intrigued by it. I had a very strong intuitive feeling that I should be in this sector. I researched, found out good colleges for it and only IIT and UDCT were my options. And therefore, even though I had offers for CS/ECE, etc. I took an year drop.

He stared at me and said "I cannot believe it". I said nonchalantly, "I can't do anything to make you believe but that is the truth"

(This is by far the biggest bullshit I have pulled off ever in my life. The nonchalance to his reaction worked I guess.)

Achievements and CGPA

What is your most significant achievement till now?
(Many people screw up here. They say I was a gold-medalist in this that subject and when they are questioned on that they have already forgotten it)
I don't give that much importance to academic achievements and so I would say that being chosen to work for the most important project of the year for Cadbury in 2010 is my major achievement till date.

Tell something more about this project.
Explained in detail.

Your CGPA (68%) seems to be on the lower side. Isn't it?
No, it is not.
It is average. In my institute, percentage system is followed and the topper gets around 78%. I understood the concepts but my retention level for technical concepts was low. If I was good at engineering, I would have never come for MBA at the first place. Considering the fact that I had no interest whatsoever in engineering, I would say I have done a very good job.
I am satisfied with what I scored.

Rapid Fire Round - Mathematics

(This was a Mathematics prof which I came to know later)

Interviewer: You scored 800/800 in GRE. It seems that your Maths is very good.
Me: Yes Sir.
Interviewer: What are your favourite topics?
Me: Mmm..I like Calculus.

1. Calculus

Interviewer: Give an example of a function where ∫10f(x)dx.∫01f(x)dx. is 0 and f(x) is not equal to 0.
Me (did not remember the function): Drew a graph of y= -2x+1
Interviewer: Is this the only function?
Me: No, there can be many such functions.Whenever the area above the x-axis and the area below the x-axis is same this will be 0.

Interviewer: Isn't area a scalar quantity?

Me: Nope. Vector.

2. Triangle
Interviewer: What is the sum of angles of a triangle?
Me: Interior angles or Exterior angles?
Interviewer (smiling): Interior.
Me: 180 degrees.
Interviewer: Sure?
Me: Yes
Interviewer: 100%?
Me: Yes
Interviewer: Even if it is on the surface of the earth?
Me: Yes, yes, Sir. Anywhere it is 180 degrees.
Interviewer: Draw a triangle on a ball and measure the sum of angles. It won't be 180 degrees.
Me: Obviously. Because it won't be a triangle then.
Interviewer: Why?
Me: The three sides will not be in the same plane.
Interviewer: So, how would you define a triangle?
Me: A closed figure formed by three non-parallel straight lines in the same plane.
Interviewer: Ok, good.

3. Parallel Lines
Interviewer: Can there be two lines which are parallel but not intersecting?
Me (thinking that all parallel lines are not intersecting but still answered in one word): Yes.
Interviewer: Sure? Draw and show me.
(puts a pen and paper ahead)
Me: I can't. I need a scale.
(starts laughing)
Interviewer: Can there be two lines which are not parallel and not intersecting?
Me: Yes.
Interviewer: When?
Me: When they are not in the same plane. Skew lines.

Interviewer: Define skew lines.

Me: I don't know the exact definition but when two lines are not in the same plane they are skew lines."

Hope it helps.