Truth About Entrance Exams !!

[kartik]

The Truth behind Entrance Exams!!
Author: Kartik Raichura, Founder, ManagementParadise.com


You name a career and the first thing that comes to your mind is entrance exams. Be it MBA, MMS, MBBS or any masters degree, you first have to clear a entrance exam. If that wasn’t enough, even at bachelor’s level, courses like BMS and BMM have a pre requisite that you clear entrance exams. The irony of the situation is that, so much so is the hype of entrance exams that even coaching classes make it a point to take a mock entrance exam before allowing a student to join their coaching classes.

What I fail to understand is..
What the hell is the reason to take such entrance exams??
Does it guarantee success??
Does it make your learning process in a B school any easier??
Does a high percentile mean that the person with a low percentile is in any way less competent?

I know Vada paun sellers who make more money than some people who graduated from IIM’s.
How are entrance exams any way related to practical thinking?
How does a good score in Math guarantee good decision making??

I have a laptop which can show me charts of the company and if not that I have a calculator which can tell me the longest of the multiplications in milliseconds.

Isn’t Management about smart work and not hard work??

If I can’t make out the meaning of few reaaaaalllllly long words in English, then does it make me a bad manager? Or does a bad reasoning ability between relations of my dad’s father’s grandfather’s brothers’ aunt in law make any difference in how I take key decisions of the company??

I and a friend of mine were having a heated discussion about this in a bus and we were fighting Cats and dogs.

My points are simple. I am of the opinion that every student should have access to any college they want to get into. It becomes the duty of the institute in which they study to make the young minds elite, to give food for thought and to ignite their minds with fuel of knowledge. As far as I know, there are enough institutes and enough seats so as to accommodate all the students who appear for entrance exams.

Why pioneer only IIM's or JBIMS or NMIMS?? Why can’t the government put in special efforts to facilitate the best of the education to every aspiring management student??

Doesn’t it increase the gap of potential managers when only people with high percentile get the best of the education and the rest aspiring ones have to wait for another year in the hope of getting into a good b school?

The ones who cannot afford to give the entrance exams again, suppress their desire and take up a job. Isn’t that as good as loosing a entrepreneur or a future corporate identity who could’ve made name for the county in the years to come??

There are too many questions and too many whys and ifs and buts in this article, but it does sound promising. India is a hub for managerial talent and the figures of number of people taking CAT and other entrance exams is an indicator of how many people if given the opportunity wish to turn the fate of India.

Concluding this article real quick, I am of the opinion that the govt should stop taxing students with entrance exams, form fees, Gd, pi and what not, take efforts to make all the institutes as good as IIMs and tap this booming educational sector which can take India to new heights.

[kartik]

Unfortunately I messed up while sending this article and did not put the reply link... so mails started comming in my inbox.. here are few so that you guys can put your views too

REPLY FROM RAJIV


Hi Kartik,

I read your article and these are my thoughts..

You are right its not a fair world out there..

Many potential entrepreneurs die an early death due to the system..

But do u know what you are asking??

You are asking why does a tiger eat a deer?

My dear friend the world works on a simple rule.. "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST"

And this rule is the law of nature...

So in the corporate world fittest means the smartest, richest and powerful..

So either u need to be smart i.e. (IIM,IIT etc) or need to be born rich or need to be powerful for example be a son of a politician or big businessman..

OR if you dont have any of the above acquire one of the three... i.e. acquire a reknowned degree or earn some or borrow money or build contacts with those who have power..

OR if thats too tough then you deserve to be mediocore and suffer.. Coz there aint space for people who dont do hardwork before they understand what smartwork is..

IM NOT SAYING AN IIM OR IIT DEGREE IS EVERYTHING.. NOTHING IS EVERYTHING.. THERE ARE HUNDRED WAYS TO REACH TO THE SAME DESTINATION AND A REKNOWNED DEGREE IS ONE OF THEM AND THE MOST WELL KNOWN AND SECURE WAY...

[kartik]

My REPLY to RAJIV

All I can say after reading your reply is that you did not understand the essense of the article.

Survival of the fittest.. ofcourse... but that means Indians should be enslaved.. compare india which is worse than a beggar with USA or for that matter even CHINA ..

I only emphasized on having quality institutes all over instead of centralising and limiting them to a couple which evenso dont even rank in the top 100 .

Warm Regards,
Kartik Raichura.

[kartik]

RAJIVS REPLY AGAIN

Hi Kartik,

Its a pity you being an Indian think India is a beggar..

Have you been to the US? or even China?

As far as Quality Institutes all over is concerned i have only one thing to say.. Even in the US there is HAVARD and there is a University if Ohio...

BOTH ARE CHALK AND CHEESE when it comes to quality..

Also please dont be in awe of the US education system.. or the americans.. If Indian education system sucked so badly then half of Silicon Valley wouldn't be run by indians who have completed schooling and college in India!


WHAT INDIA NEEDS IS BASIC EDUCATION (FREE SCHOOLS FOR YOUNG UNDERPRIVILEDGED CHILDREN) AND NOT MBA INSTITUTES LIKE YOU ARE SUGGESTING..


LEARN TO SEE BEYOND ISSUES CONCERING YOU.. AND YOU WILL APPRECIATE WHAT YOU HAVE AND WILL FOCUS ON THE RIGHT ISSUES.. JUST A SUGGESTION COZ I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR WORK AND BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE POTENTIAL TO CHANGE THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER..

[kartik]

MY REPLY


Dear Rajiv,

Basic education system has been free from forever .

I have been to US and I am impressed by the way it has progressed.. .. It might have university of ohio but it has HARVARD too ..

If Indian education system dint suck then why is silicon valley outside india . Why do we face issues of brain drain ??

Ofcourse I will be concerned about issues which affect me.. and write about it because I have the know how.. I cant talk on brain surgery or rocket science.. that is not my expertise.

As for the suggestion.. it is noted

[kartik]

DHARA's REPLY


hello mr raichura,
i read ure article on the truth of the entrance exams and belive me i felt that u have just stolen thoughts from my mind. I am a BMS grad and currently pursuing my MBA from IES management college and have gone throught this tedious process of plethora of examinations which has always made me feel that does these entrance exams anyways help me in becoming a better manager. Well it is no point u and me discussing these issues because we are at grass root level and i think the whole systems need to be changed. I hope surely some day in future the system would understand and give equal oppurtunity to students irrespective of their percentile in CATS and DOGS.
regards

Dhara

[kartik]

REPLY FROM PARVEZ


hi kartik
im Parvez Memon and m grateful 2u for orgainising a platform like
management paradise 4 our fraternity. i have done my bms frm rizvi in
markting n wann pursue mms by next yr. few obstacles in betwn but
hopefully road wuld be smooth. i m workin 4 a corporate reseller of
sony india n have seen the professinalism of our India Inc.its a
mockery of our text books and knowledge.
i justw an turn ur attention 2 the recent reservation in the medical
field and felt ashamed that we management guys werenot ther 2 support
them. dont wait 4 wave hit it before it lashes us.

i agree with ur article above but our competency frm childhood in our
educational field is so rote driven that we fail 2understand that
careers r not raise from exams. anyways its india ! lets make things
better
tnx
bye

[kartik]

REPLY FROM RAHUL


Definately a nice idea n quiet aduacious but i think kartik must look at other side of story also..its not abt selection its all abt rejection..or more officialy streamlining the whole process..n chauffeing the floor...exams r simply a tool to look atleast some prerequiste in the candidate who is aspiring to b a manager..if one cant handle the exam blues then how can you expect tht person to cope wid the corporate pressure when he becomes manager.
so exam can thus b looked upon as candidates first rub wid high pressure scenario..if everybody starts getting admission so easily there would b dilution in quality of the premier management institute..we cant keep blaming govt all the time..infact one must take responsibilty of there ownself..did govt asked citizens of india to conceive tht much to reach to this staggering manpower..did then sumbody hold govt accountable for tht??no so why now..govt is there to make sure tht sufficent resources are available..thts to bridge the demand supply gap..but you only imagine tht if the idea suggested is implemented then u will find every nxt person to b manager..so will that b suitable for economy?? no..so in a nut shell i want to wrap by saying tht definatley its a bold initiative for gud discussion..but still my point is tht exams shld b taken as a tool to sort out the serious one
well i may b wrong at sum point wrote my points which came to my mind..nice article by kartik
so keep pouring ur ideas
rahul

[Nitin1987]

Hi frnds,

Entrance exams serve a double purpose in the system of our govt.

Unfortunately we live in India where ever damn thing is bad because of poor development and There is low develpoment due to lack of proper infrastructure.

Similarly in India also the infrastructure needed to support millions of students that come out every year cannot get into the courses they want - bcoz there arent enough seats for them. Seats at the most run into thousands and number of students runs into lakhs.

Entrance exams first purpose is to chuck out big numbers of students - entrance tests in India ARE NOT MEANT TO HIGHLIGHT THE BEST FOR A PARTICULAR COURSE BUT INTEND TO REDUCE THE HUGE NUMBERS TO A MANAGEABLE FEW.

The SECOND and the most logically reason is the sumwat more basic - the money.

three years back Maharashtra state had come under a huge debt - it had become from one of the wealthiest states to the among the poorest. how? god only knows.

However, MHCET - the entrance test for medicals in Maharashtra forms were being sold for Rs. 500 only. And the number that appeared for the exam that year was over 80 lakhs. That comes to roughly about more than Rs. 40,000 Lakhs in terms of revenue for the educational ministry - from one exam alone. add to them engineering whose form were for Rs. 700 only.

Thats more than one crore lakhs earnings - per year. THEN HOW DID THE DAMN STATE MANAGE TO STAY POOR?????
Simple, this money vanished into unknown pockets while in transit to the state coffers.

Thus, I feel that entrance tests are more of a scheme for minting money - not for the country but for private purses.

- Regards Nitin

[gaurav200x]

ppl have have given gr8 insights on the topic. I would just like to add a small point... True that entrance exams conducted currently, arent the true indicator of one's aptitude... however, they act as an elimination source. The pressure in the best B-schoolsis such that u require a certain level of persona. You need to be fast thinking and should have greater perception of topics. Is not about being a manager, but about handling pressure which u would have. When u r a manager, u can afford to lose 2 seconds.... but the same isnt true for entrance exams.

I do agree with people above.. that we need a more facilitating infrastructure to improve the quality of education and produce better capable managers.