Palak's Doodle-Odes: Tiss Net
Palak's Doodle-Odes: Tiss Net
Palak's Doodle-odes
a blog that speaks your mind! :)
Always being interested in HR, TISS is the Mecca for HR in India. With all
the wishes that I have behind me, I have been able to score well. I believe
my experience might be able to help a few people, hence I share it here. I
would love to hear from you, if this helps you in any way for your TISS
preparation. Do write to me at [email protected]
TISS NET –
The pattern of the examination changed one week before the exam and was
communicated in an orientation program conducted in TISS, Mumbai, held
for category students. The official notification of the change in pattern was
communicated over the website 3 days prior to the exam. The earlier pattern
Blog Archive
had 30/100 questions based on GK, while the new pattern had 40/100 ► 2017 (4)
questions based on GK. GK being my weakest section out of Quants, Verbal ▼ 2016 (6)
Ability and GK, this was a difficult change. ►
September
(1)
► August (1)
The preparation – As I was preparing for CAT, TISS Quants and Verbal
► July (1)
Ability was taken care of by this preparation. Ideally for Quants and Verbal
▼ April (2)
Ability – Arun Sharma books’ Level of Difficulty 1 was sufficient, Level of IIM
Banga
Difficulty 2 would be a safe practice if you have sufficient time, this would lore
PGP
make sure you score as high as possible in the final exam. For Logical 2016-
18
Reasoning questions like patterns etc, you can also try RS Aggarwal. I tried Intervi
ew
only a few exercises from it because of its huge size, and paucity of time. Experi
ence
My
GK – I was in the space where I could not name even the Vice President of experi
ence
India before the preparation, which is my sheer ignorance towards GK, as I for
Tata
have never been into quizzing since school. I started my TISSNET GK Institu
te of
preparation only after XAT which was on 3rd January 2016, one week before Social
Scien
ce...
TISSNET (9th January 2016). In the beginning the size of GK syllabus can
► January
be scary but if you keep going it works out, surely. After one week of 16 (1)
hours a day GK study, I could recite all PMs, Presidents, RBI governors, ► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (3)
important battles, state wise folk dances and other things in one breath.
► 2012 (9)
Material for GK –
Total Pageviews
1) I majorly referred Manorama yearbook (yeah finished the whole book in 6 50,906
days, still cant believe it). By mistake I had ordered Manorama 2014 instead
of 2015, but static GK remains the same. Quite a few facts in Manorama are
Follow on -
incorrect so you should keep checking it online or from other books. Followers (16) Next
3) The website – gktoday – they have monthly current affairs’ boosters, that
is indeed helpful. You can also subscribe to their Whatsapp messages on
GK
Follow
4) The website linked below– which has small MCQ sets on Quants, English,
There was an error in
reasoning and GK – This was good for revision as I was only studying GK 1 this gadget
6) The whatsapp and facebook group were really helpful for GK. Most
applicants from other MA fields are very well versed with GK and are kind
enough to share their notes or conduct quiz sessions. These sessions are
like a revision booster.
There were serious management issues with the exam. My exam started 2
hours later than scheduled time due to server error. After the exam started
there were no classification of sections. The questions were listed one after
the other, 1 to 100. This made it a little difficult to prioritize which section you
want to solve first. Even though all Maths or all English questions are listed
in one order, say 1 to 30 all Maths questions, there were still issues with the
questions. Especially for DI, the graph or pie chart was listed, then 2
questions based on it were listed and after 4 or 5 questions the 3rd question
on the same set was listed. As it is a 100 minute exam with 100 questions,
each second counts. So it is important to stay alert and focused. Some of my
friends said their test ended 5 minutes early automatically. So it is important
you take a few mocks for the speed. Giving NMAT for non-negative, speed
based exam is a good choice that is what I did. I will list the mocks’ links
below.
GK and even other sections can be easier with some presence of mind. For
example one GK question had a long statement based on economics, which
was taken from a book and the question was which Nobel laureate said this.
The options had all Indians. Among the options only Amartya Sen was a
Nobel laureate in economics.
Interview preparation – After the shortlist, you are supposed to fill a DAF –
Detailed Application Form, which lists your extra-curricular activities, reason
for interest in HR and previous work experience in HR. I regularly read the
website – peoplesmatters (they also have a FB page), for HR related current
affairs.
Interview day –
You are supposed to report in the morning, the students of TISS HRM LR
program give a brief presentation about the program which clears your
doubts about it. The interview is very meticulously managed. The volunteers
are really helpful and help you cool down in case you are nervous.
You are supposed to write a small essay on one out of 2 given topics in
around 15 minutes. The topics for me were –
I chose the first one because it was the topic of one of the debate
competitions I had participated in, during school, and hence I had
statistics and quotes on it.
After the written test, you need to participate in a GD. The group of around
15 people, is given 1 minute to mutually decide which topic they want the
GD on. Luckily 8 to 9 people from my group wanted the 1st topic, so we
went for the 1st one. We were given 20-25 minutes for the discussion.
Specific pointers for TISS GD –
1) Make sure you talk about the social and political impacts of the topic.
2) Make sure you give enough time to everyone to speak. One of the
candidates in our GD did not speak a single word till only 5 minutes were
left. The moderators then asked her if she had any opinions to contribute. As
she had not spoken at all, we all let her speak for over 3 minutes
continuously, due to which we could not formally conclude. Thankfully all of
us were almost on a similar conclusion
3) TISS jury loves new points or examples from current affairs. One of the
candidates talked about the Paris attacks and how quick justice was
delivered, the jury liked it visibly.
The interview –
Dr. Zubin Mulla (apologies if I am spelling his name incorrectly) is quite a
famous faculty of TISS MA HRM and LR Program. Many forums said that his
interviews focus very specifically on “WHY HR?” and if you convince him
with your reasons, you are through. I had Dr. Mulla in my panel.
There were 3 people in my panel. Dr. Mulla (P1), one sir (P2) and one mam
(P3).
The mam was mostly observing and listening to my answers, she just asked
one question at the last.
P1 – So introduce yourself
P1 – Okay. So if I want to make the best bell, what material should I use?
PM – Sir maybe Aluminium because it has better formability and low cost
P1 – You didn’t get my question. Best bell means that gives me the best
sound. I do not care about the cost.
PM – Sir I can think about optimizing a set of properties but not sound
singularly
(bad start, I know)
PM – gave my reason
PM – Yes sir
P1 – which was the last book that you read? Brief me up about it.
PM – no sir, there are various others. All the employees contribute equally to
the job. All the employees have a clear idea of the vision which is customer
satisfaction.
P2 – Then why did you read the book if it cant be applied in India?
PM – No sir, the book is explicitly for Indian readers, but what I mean is it
cannot be applied as it is. It needs to be modified. For example, in
Southwest, if there is a quick turnaround of the flight that is scheduled, even
the pilots help in taking out the thrash. The ex-CEO was very commonly
seen distributing doughnuts during midnight working hours especially on
days like New Year’s Eve or Christmas. This kind of equality in job can be
the first step to implement in Indian companies. Similar is the case of
W.L.Gore and Associates, where no matter what your position is, you are
named as an Associate only.
P2 – Okay, what if you want to apply this to say a fire station? That would be
dangerous right?
(P1 asks me to pass the journal that I was carrying – It had the research
paper that I had published in HR, and was bookmarked)
P1 – Let me see why are you carrying this?
PM –sorry sir, I was saying, no, rather this would work wonderfully for a fire
station as all of them would be aware that extinguishing the fire is the prime
motive
P2 – Then you want all of them to hold hoses and stand? Who will lead?
PM – Sir, as all of them would be aware of the motive, even if a few firemen
are unavailable, the others would happily take their place. Also anyone who
is available can lead and others will follow because they know some day
they might have to lead. So it would be good team work.
P2 – Okay what did you do in this HR Internship at NItika that you have
mentioned?
PM – Answered
P2 – What are the qualities of a good HR person and how do you fit in?
PM - Sir, I have been able to work with people from different nationalities in
Japan and Harvard, and have been able to change my working pattern
depending on the situation.
P1 – So you are a fresher. Why do you not want to try a core field, or even
other fields of management like marketing, finance etc? Why restrict to HR
directly after college?
P1 – Smiles and says – do you not sleep at night? When do you find the
time to do all this? Japan, Harvard, all these interns and research paper?
PM – Sir Japan was after Class 10, so that was before college. BARC and
the HR internship was during 2 month ling summer break after 2nd and 3rd
year, and for Harvard my HoD was kind enough to grant me a week long
leave from college. J
P1 – Hahaha alright. Do any one of you want to ask her anything? (looks at
P2 and P3)
P3 – yes. You spoke about the airlines case study. So can you tell me what
impact these changes in aviation industry have?
P3 – No, no I do not want a specific impact, tell me about the social impact
PM – Mam there are 2 major impacts. First, due to privatisation, air travel
has now become accessible even to middle class Indians. Earlier air travel
was perceived as an upper class luxury. Apart from that it has opened up
jobs, for example my house-maid’s daughter is working with Air India, which
is a great jump for her family.
I was smiling about the last “Don’t you sleep” comment for long after I
walked out J
Total score – 83.40 Even though the institute does not explicitly mention
that the converts’ list is in order of merit, my name is the first on the list J
Scoring around 80-85 in TISSNET is a safe bet. This would give you an
edge in the final selection as TISSNET has 40% weightage at the end.
My teachers had been telling me all along that I have a fair chance to be
shortlisted for S.P. Jain profile based interview call and I had begun to
believe it. Exactly one day before TISS, the S.P.Jain shortlist came out and I
was rejected. The same day CAT results came out and it wasn’t as good as I
had expected. Rather I believed I would not get any calls at all. All this 24
hours before TISSNET.
They say the night is darkest before dawn, I guess as difficult as it might
seem to believe it, this is true. I had truly lost hope and thought I will have to
take a drop year, something I never wanted to do. But turns out there were
better plans for me. I will be joining IIM Bangalore for PGP 2016-18 this June
J
I would specifically like to thank ARKS Srinivas Sir and VistaMind. He has
been the force behind all my converts. Archit Chandak was the guy who
gave me a great pep talk a night before TISSNET because I had lost all
hope due to SPJain and CAT. Also the friends that I made over TISS prep
who have helped me a lot with GK Aratrika, Maanushi, Dr. Avhad, Shiladitya,
Pratik, Akshaya and so many others J
Thank you! J
58 comments:
being curious hv a question,how Do you Do all This.. :'( ?? Would you like to give credit to ur Various kind of book
reading that you are doing since long ?
I really wonder how you get time for all this stuff I mean daily routine + studies + friendzone+reading
ANY TIPS ? You can text me wherever possible here or whatsapp or any other platform..
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I have send you my query email. Request you to kindly reply please
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Anu April 24, 2016 at 9:57 AM
If your CAT score wasn't good as you expected ,then how come you are joining IIM B in june..? Anyway congrats..
Your profile is simply Inspiring.. All those internships..Hardward, BARC, Japan and IIM A.. Seriously?? Awesome
profile..
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Regards :)
Manish
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bhagyashri April 30, 2016 at 8:38 AM
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Hi Palak,
This has been the best blog i have gone through till date! All the very best for your future :)
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Nikhil Madaan December 19, 2017 at 9:32 AM
Thank you for sharing your insights :) It would help me a lot and apart from this reading about your profile is very
inspirational.
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I have a question.
Where do you think people go wrong in the Group Discussion. Also, considering time is limited and everyone must
speak, how many valid points do you think a candidate must make in the discussion.
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I took a year drop, and did 2 HR internships in the drop year. One with a recruitment firm, other relating to
organisation change. I feel this may be a differentiating factor between me and other candidates. I have a feeling that
I will be definitely grilled more intensively than other candidates, especially on these topics. What is your take,
considering you too had done an HR related internship prior to the entrance?
Thanks!
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Thank you
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Palak Marwah December 28, 2017 at 11:42 PM
You dont need to read HR books, thats what the course is for :)
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Thanks
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