The IIMs are in a transition phase from being an engineering college ( oops..the fact that almost 92 percent of the intake are engineers say so) to global MBA college. Coming up with 'glitch full' and some 'weird normalization' of online scores is giant leap in this direction. But even a small step to change does come with such issues ( but only problem in this case is that it came at the cost of 2.41 lac of IIM aspirants minus the ones who got atleast one call....oh..that's negligible compared to India's population). Making the entrance test online (at the mercy of Prometric) has made it 'Global' as aspirants from abroad can also appear for the test.. (wow thats 'cool' .. Indian Education system coming at par with Global standards)
Let's not get into the intricacy of the way the entrance exams has been conducted this year and raise eyebrows. Rather, let's focus on the big picture i.e the changes and impact of the surprised cutoff criteria, increased weightage to Xth ,XIIth and work-ex have brought this year. Definitely, unlike other reputed MBA 'Factories' ( producing MBA grads) outside India having mix of students from various backgrounds, Indian "Factories" are dominated by 'engineering illiterates' ( may be that's why most of them directly joined MBA college after completing their engineering). When an engineer directly joins an MBA after completing his/her degree, how would he/she justify his/her contemporary engineering aspirants who might not have got as good a college or might even not got an engineering seat. I know there are still engineering colleges where the placement is not good and some students might not get placed and end up going to an MBA college.(But the question is whether they would have contributed to engineering field). Bringing work-ex as a selection criteria will surely close this loop hole in the education system.
Increasing the weightage in Xth and XIIth is just another measure is get hold of the students who are consistent through out their life. But there are states where its difficult to score high marks in these board exams. For this , IIMs are following some 'sensible' normalization process ( I guess so !!) to bring all boards at par.
Getting hold of more undergrads from other field will still be a challenge for IIMs as engineering grads will keep appearing and getting through the selection process ( though with work-ex atleast) whatsoever be the criteria. It might so happen in future that IIMs might start shortlisting students on the basis of fields (like technology,medical,journalism,art,etc) of work-ex rather than 'just' work-ex in their attempt to become a global college and meet the standards set by some of the best business schools in the world.
But one thing is for sure.. IIMs have become more 'unpredictable' than before and thereby reaching to higher standard of "Uncertainty for Aspirants" .
3 comments:
Indeed, V thoughtful...Completely a different Perspective...
Moreover to support your point of view, by increasing the weightage for class 10th and 12th they are indirectly cutting the engineering students, who basically concentrate on engineering entrances and thus can't usually score high in boards..
I guess they have to take some other measures also to really raise it to the global level.. For example, apart from academics and work-ex, check what the aspirants have done throughout..
@Anu
Rightly said
Hi Chandra,
Regarding your statement,
Indian "Factories" are dominated by 'engineering illiterates' ( may be that's why most of them directly joined MBA college after completing their engineering)
,
I am not sure how you have assumed that people who join MBA immediately after engineering are "illiterates".
On the contrary, I feel the opposite. People who are in engineering colleges get placed easily via campus placements and these are the guys that land up in MNC's and these are the same guys who did not have a good academic record in their semesters.
On the other hand, people who are
determined to do a MBA, would have been preparing for it, right from their pre-final year and people who get in MBA college in the first attempt are the ones who are really talented. It is something on the lines of "people clearing IIT for the first time".
Generally, the people who are not selected in GRE, MBA, GATE and who don't consider themselves as competent enough for these national level exams take the escape route of joining a company and then when asked "Why not MBA?", would reply with an attitude "I want to get some work-experience and then do a job as MBA is best done after a job". These same guys will keep trying for MBA's year after year (trying to compromise office appraisals with study and coaching) and then finally may be successful to get a college or get married and continue with existing job.
Now coming to the issue of IIM's changing the criteria of selection towards filtering out engineering graduates, I think this has been there in IIM's selection process all throughout. IIM wants a good mix of freshers, engineering graduates and work-ex guys so that the atmosphere is quite diverse over there and to cater to companies that come for placements which might have a need for different profiles.
If IIM seriously wanted only one type of profiles, they could have directly stated or changed the exam syllabus.There have been colleges that need mostly work-ex guys like "ISB", "Great Lakes".
I welcome the weightage given to 10th and 12th boards, but again I believe it has been there since a long time, although it was never mentioned explicitly.
The recent changes like "Essay writing" instead of GD might lay stress to the fact that they are more keen to check the English.
CAT is always full of surprises. so if IIM comes out with surprising selection process or with a surprise "Normalization", then it should hardly be a surprise.
HAVING SAID ALL THESE, I just want to add that because of this "normalization" factor, one can never be sure of his/her score based on his/her performance in the test on that day. Truly the score becomes really unpredictable, unlike the days when one used to get an fair idea of their percentile after matching the answers with the solution keys at the end of CAT exam.
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