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Vanyaa Kansal

CAT on Hot Bricks - IIM Calcutta

Pre-Interview testing – 01 February, 2021, 4:15pm

They verified my identity through a Govt. proof (Eg. PAN, Aadhaar Card), tested my video, audio and internet quality, and the background in front of which I sat.


Personal Interview – 10 February, 2021, 3:15pm

Venue - Zoom


About me - General Non-Engineer Female Fresher

10th - 10 CGPA, 12th - 96.5% (Commerce), Grad - 89.87%

Final year BMS (Bach of Management Studies), Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, University of Delhi

CAT Percentile – 98.83


Interview Transcript -

Q. Give us a short intro, anything you want us to know that isn’t on the form?

- Spoke about my background, my hobbies, my objective of doing MBA (I was very careful of not mentioning things like my acad scores, college etc. as was asked by them)


Q. Okay, which course are you in? (Oops, he could’ve asked for the standard intro itself!)

- Answered


Q. You are interested in art, so can you name some famous painter and their painting?

- Mentioned some foreign artists


Q. Any prominent Indian painters?

- Answered

Q. Do you think this skill of yours will be useful in the industry?

- Spoke about personal qualities like creativity, patience, focus, attention to detail which art taught me that I can use in my management career


Q. I mean to ask, could you name a company which can allow you to use your art skills directly, on the front-end?

- Mentioned ‘Chumbak’ – I wasn’t sure whether they had understood the name correctly, so I casually mentioned how you mostly see their stores on airports etc.


Q. So what exactly do they do?

- Designing/graphics of common objects like laptop covers, magnets etc. – strong USP, customers identify their products etc.


Q. So is it a start-up or a well-established company?

- Sir initially it began as a tiny start-up, but now it has been in the market for more than 10 years, have strong revenue figures and many brand-wide collabs, so it is quickly pacing towards becoming a prominent company.


Q. What are angel investors?

- Answered


Q. How are venture capitalists different from them?

- Answered, but not very concrete


Q. Have you heard of AntInvestor?

- No sir, but I’ll surely read about it


Q. No problem. So have you studied stats in your graduation?

- Yes sir.


Q. Tell me about the Chi Square Test

- Answered


Q. What are type-1 and type-2 errors?

- Answered


Q. Are you sure? Isn’t it the opposite?

- Thought again, then said “No sir, as far as I can recall, this is correct.” (I later checked to find that it was actually correct!)


Q. Did you have any Math subjects?

- Sir not explicitly, the closest to math we did was stats.


Q. Okay, but are you comfortable with Math?

- Sir the last I studied Maths was in Class 12, but this year due to CAT I have revised quite a bit, so I believe I can answer basic stuff.


Q. Okay then, you have a pen and paper right, please note down this equation: 2x^3 – 18 = 0. Help me find the Minima for this?

- Sir we will have to find double derivative for this. So, the 1st derivative will be 6x^2 = 0. And the 2nd derivative is 12x = 0. (I then got confused because I was getting x=0 as the critical value, and was not sure how to proceed.)

- Sir I’m not sure, but I think the minima would be at x=0.


Q. Okay, let’s see if you are right. Can you roughly draw the curve of this function on the graph?

- Drew the standard cubic curve (Thankfully I had looked at the shapes just an hour before my interview)


Q. Yes, so now tell me what will be the minima from this graph?

- Sir according to this it should be minus infinity.


Q. But just a minute back you said it will be 0?

- (Sheepishly) Yes Sir, I’m sorry I was not very sure as I had lost touch.


Q. Not an issue, just never let go of calculus as it comes into use quite often. Now, do you read the newspaper?

- Yes Sir, I try to keep myself aware of the major happenings around me.


Q. Okay, so tell me about the NEP

- Started answering about what it is


Q. Just tell me any two main points of the NEP

- Told about 5+5+3+4 pattern, opening of new medical colleges, lateral entry and exit in college.


Q. All right Vanyaa, thanks a lot, you can log off.

- Thank you so much for your time Sir!

 

Right now, I'm eagerly waiting for the results with all my fingers and toes crossed, hoping for the best! I’ll surely update you all on it. Best of luck!

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