To help thousands of its readers, the MBA aspirants, MBAUniverse.com is conducting the Expert Online Chats on How to prepare for Computer based CAT 2009? The chats will be held on May 30, June 5 and June 6, 2009 on MBAUniverse.com. Mr Nilesh Sarawate, Director Test Prep, IMS Learning; Mr R Shiva Kumar, Director, R&D, Career Launcher and Mr Sai Kumar, Course Director, Triumphant Institute of Management Education (T.I.M.E) will be available for solving delimmas faced by MBA aspirants.

In the last article of this series you have learnt how to choose the right test prep institute. But enrollment to a good test prep institute alone is not enough. Personal preparation is the key. MBAUniverse.com spoke to CAT 2008 toppers on How to prepare for cracking CAT 2009. In the second part of the series, MBAUniverse.com discusses ways to master fundamentals and how to manage preparation time in run up to CAT entrance exam.

Dr KS Srinivasa Rao, who has had more than two decades of experience in management education at several Buisness schools, has taken over as the Director of Institute for Technology and Management (ITM), Bangalore on May 11, 2009.

ITM Mumbai, founded in 1991 by Dr. P V Ramana, the founding Chairman of the institute launched its second campus in 1992 in Bangalore. Today it has four campuses in total.

How you can excel your preparations by taking more and more mock tests

The test prep institutes, IMS Learning and PT Education are all geared up to beat the Computer Based Test that CAT will be from 2009. They held seminars over the weekend to assure the students that they are ready to help them bell the new format of CAT entrance exam.

The world has been making noises about the role the business schools, especially Harvard Business School, played in bringing about the global financial downturn. Doubts on the culpability of the B-schools began a long time back when the Enron being run by Jeffrey Skilling, an HBS product went bankrupt. Then came, John Thain, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch, and Christopher Cox, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission both products of HBS and mired in controversies.

The road to a good MBA schools is through entrance tests like CAT, XAT, MAT, FMS, IIFT, SNAP and JMET. Of these, CAT is the hardest nut to crack. MBAUniverse.com spoke to CAT 2008 toppers on How to prepare for cracking the CAT entrance exam. In this four part series by Sreetama Datta of MBAUniverse.com, CAT toppers share their success mantras with MBAUniverse.com readers.

Amity Global Business School and Max New York Life have stuck an alliance to offer a one year PG Diploma program in Insurance Sales Management at its Noida, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Indore and Kolkata campuses. After the end of the program, Max New York Life assures placements at managerial level which is a subject to meeting minimum eligibility criteria. The selection will be through a process of career counseling, written test or CAT/GMAT scores and personal interview. The last date of application for the course is June 1, 2009.

Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM K) is organising its annual alumni-fresher meet Sangam 09 on the May 23, 2009 in six cities across India.
Sangam is a platform where the IIM Ks alumni, current students and the incoming batch are brought together. The event brings the past, the present and the future of the institute together for an evening where stories are told, memories relived, friendship rekindled, dreams born and experiences are shared. This mega event is organised annually by the Alumni Committee of the IIM K and has been a huge success.

Sitaram Agarwal is a Commerce graduate from St. Xaviers College, Kolkata. Sitaram is also pursuing the Chartered Financial Analyst program offered by the CFA institute. He is currently a level 2 student of the same. Having appeared for CAT for the second time in 2008, he scored 146 out of 256 which gave him the percentile of 99.53. Sitaram was offered the final admission by IIM A.

MBAUniverse.com talks to Sitaram Agarwal:

Q: Which are the institutes that shortlisted you for GD PI and offered you final admissions?