Anisha has done MBA in Marketing from NMIMS And Executive Management(PMNO) from Harvard Business School. She has been instrumental in growing CATKing Digital with her experience with Marico and Henkel in the past.
All you need to know about MICAT: Exam, GE & PI
What is MICA?
The most noteworthy thing while preparing for MICAT is that one never knows what really works for MICA. Their scoring patterns, group discussions, and personal interviews have incredible secrets stored within them. Furthermore, the unpredictability of the test is the benchmark for its formulation and hence it leaves very little room for preparation, but what remains in our hands is to practice and make it perfect. Let's get on with all you need to know about MICA!
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About MICAT:
Also read: Why is MICAT different and how to prepare for it
MICAT is an MBA entrance exam conducted by MICA, Ahmedabad for admissions into their two year Post Graduate Diploma (PGDM) or Post Graduate Diploma in Management Communications (PGDM-C) program. The exam is conducted every year in two slots, one in December and one in February, through an online mode. The Phase I registration will usually start in September. There are around 140-150 questions in MICAT with a duration of 165 minutes.
Eligibility Criteria:
The primary eligibility criteria for MICAT is:
- A valid CAT/XAT/GMAT score (You need at least 80 percentile or above in CAT/XAT to be eligible.)
- Bachelor's degree in any discipline or equivalent qualification from a recognized university.
- Final year students can also apply.
What are the sections in MICAT?
There are 3 main sections in MICAT namely:
- SECTION-A: Psychometric test
- SECTION-B: This includes 4 parts namely Verbal ability, Quantitative ability & Data Interpretation, General Awareness, and Convergent thinking.
- SECTION-C: Descriptive Test
Section Wise MICAT Exam Pattern
This year (2020) MICA has made a change in MICAT Paper Pattern. The duration of MICAT has been reduced from 2 hours 45 Minutes to 2 Hours 15 Minutes for the current year. Refer Table below for the Section Wise Breakup [table id=215 /] Free mentor-ship by experts
SECTION-A: How does one go about the Psychometric Test?
- The Psychometric section is a compelling feature of the MICAT. Students are given 30 questions (MCQs) to comprehend their Aspirations, Motivations, and Behavior.
- The purpose of this section is basically to understand your thought process and views, and especially the stability in your thoughts.
- You will be given small instances and asked how you would react to them, or what do you think of such instances to check how consistent you are in your thoughts and reasoning.
How to crack this section?
- The best way to crack this section is through honesty and early introspection. Students should practice writing 20 good and bad things about themselves and take a firm stand while attempting this section in the exam.
- Try avoiding neutral as the choice. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers and this test in only to understand how you think.
- Try not to manipulate your answers or be diplomatic for every answer. They don't want you to tick the 'right' option for everything, but how much you know yourself and accept it.
*Just be careful while attempting your psychometric test; if you do not clear this, you are automatically rejected. They wouldn't even consider your other scores/credentials. A lot of free psychometric tests are available online, so you can give it a try before the final exam day.
SECTION-B: How to prepare for the four sections?
Quantitative ability:
Also check: How to save time in quants and DI
- If you are preparing for CAT/XAT, the Quant portion becomes easy, especially relevant is the fact, the Quant paper in MICAT is easier than CAT.
- The Quantitative Ability section has a total of 25 questions, with a 0.25 negative marking for wrong answers.
- The section mostly includes Arithmetic related topics including Time and Speed, Time and Work, Average, Allegations, and Mixtures.
- Other topics include Profit and Loss, Numbers, Venn Diagrams, Functions, Probability, Mensuration, and Equations.
- Try to go through the basics thoroughly, as most questions would be very basic in nature and to maximize your attempts for this section, as it is very scoring.
Verbal Ability:
- The verbal section of the paper has 25 questions on topics like para jumbles, reading comprehension, statement-assumption, statement- conclusion, etc., there is a negative marking of 0.25 marks on every wrong attempt.
- Again, if you prepare for CAT and other exams, you should be able to solve these. These are usually of moderate level difficulty, so try to increase your accuracy in this section.
*In addition to this, one important hack for verbal is to prepare well for ‘statement assumption and conclusion’. Most of the students lack preparation for it. There are games available online that can help you test your word power and make it enjoyable too.
Divergent and Convergent reasoning:
- This section consists of 30 questions, again with a 0.25 negative marking for wrong attempts where it tries to judge the logical and analytical abilities of the candidates.
- These are usually tricky questions, so ensure you read the question thoroughly and attempt them. Verbal reasoning and word association form an important part of the Logical Reasoning part.
- There is one hack to Word association hack: you must know a lot of proverbs and phrases like a Pride of Lions, a Pack of Wolves, etc.
Check out the courses and success stories by MICA converts
GK (General Knowledge):
- The GK section consists of 25 questions with a 0.25 negative mark for wrong answers. Questions cover current affairs to business news to advertising agency trivia to global brand awareness, etc. This is where one can beat the crowd and score, as most of the students fail to prepare for this one.
- General Knowledge is a thing that does not come all of a sudden, and even if you know something, it does not mean that you will remember it.
- Keep an eye for all major events and happenings in the marketing domain as well. If you have been up to date with the current affairs for the entire year, you should be able to score well in this section.
- You can read up more on Campaign India, AFAQs, Bizquizzard, and Exchange4Media.
SECTION-C: How does one prepare for the Descriptive test in MICAT?
What is the descriptive test?
- A fascinating section of MICAT is Essay Writing and Story Writing, which includes 4 questions with a duration of 35 minutes.
- This section is especially important since MICA wants to check your creativity, which can be showcased in plenty through this section.
Tips for this test
- You can follow simple instructions to ensure that you excel in this section. first, note down your points briefly to decide on a flow for your essay.
- Once that is established, go ahead and write the paragraphs. secondly, stick to an argument that you have chosen, do go about shifting between your views because inconsistency in thought is highly frowned upon by them.
- Finally, build a tempo to your writing, a good writing piece is when you follow the AIDA model. It should capture the reader's attention and maintain it until the end.
- In order to do all this and excel in this section, you have to practice writing at least 2 to 3 months before the exam.
- Even though you think you’re good at it, keep reading some short stories to get inspired. The portion of essay writing is to test your thought process, your perspective, and your craft on topics based on you.
*Keep all these major tips in mind, and most importantly practice a lot! Section B can be easily handled by you because you might be already prepared with it from you passed exams. Focus more on descriptive writing practice and verbal ability, you have to ace them to get a good score! Click here to access past year's MICAT papers
How to prepare for a Group Exercise Round?
- Once you get through the MICAT exam, now comes the difficult part. Every one of the candidates you have with you would be super passionate to get into MICA, so you have to give your best!
- In GE, the panel judges you on what role you pickup and how active you remain throughout the whole exercise. Let's look at some of these roles in detail:
Action-oriented Role: Leader
- This would be the one shaping the entire plan for the GE, the one coming up with ideas like "Hey, let's segregate into 3 teams and take up this task." This shows the panelist that the person has great communication and leadership skills.
Action-oriented Role: Implementer
- This one would implement the ideas. They would first stop the flow of ideas and urge people to start with the work. The team will be motivated to get on with the work because of this. This role shows that you are practical and organized.
People-oriented Role: Team Worker
Check out the important topics of G.K. to crack this section
- This would be the one who segregates tasks and keep the team glued. They would be guiding everyone, giving them a chance to speak and work which shows off their great teamwork spirit.
People-oriented Role: Resource Investigator
- This is the one to identify the right resource for the right job. They would be asking questions like "Hey anyone has any idea around advertising, Who knows craft?" etc. Basically, a great communicator and problem solver.
Thought-oriented Role: Monitor-Evaluator
- This person will evaluate and monitor all activities, make sure that if you do anything wrong he points it out as these are signs of a good manager indeed.
Thought-oriented Role: Specialist
- This is the one who is good at anything you propose, whether it be acting or painting, he is the one to shout out that they fit for the role because they are 'specialists.' While this shows active participation, you don't want to sound too eager or demanding.
Thought-oriented Role: Plants
- These are the silent shy ones, they just work in the background or basically do nothing. The give a caring shade to the protagonist . and saves him from the rain. Try not to fall into this category.
Thought-oriented Role: Time KEEPER!
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- If nothing else, be the timekeeper! It actually works out in a lot of instances.
- Overall, try to cooperate with others yet assert your presence. Come up with ideas and be receptive to other’s opinions. Be a team player, don’t try and cut people off. Keep a track of the time limit and strategize.
How does one prepare for a Personal Interview Round?
- No, it is not as extreme as roadies! One thing you have to do is to have clear reasons as to why MICA and not another B-School.
- You must have a clear understanding of why you wish to pursue a certain career path, and what you wish to gain from MICA. The institute is very particular about this unless they are convinced that MICA is your one and only choice, they will not let you in. The likes and dislikes section in the interview form forms quite an interesting part of the interview process and hence knows it in and out.
Conclusion:
Half the battle is won with clearing the psychometric and getting good scores above 50. Focus on practicing a lot from the very start, don't keep your preparations for the last moment. Your creativity is the key here, always try to stand out from the crowd and show your passion at every step of the way during your GEPI. I hope you liked this article on all you need to know about MICA. Now let's win the war to make it to MICA!
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