These are the most important things to consider when applying to an MBA program. If you do nothing else, focus on these twelve things:

1. Show self-knowledge. If you know who you are, where you’re going, and why it requires an MBA, you’re more than halfway to getting in.

2. Show past success. Admissions committees have to rely on your past successes and referees, as a shorthand indicator of your future success.

3. Show leadership experience and aptitude. Leadership is the ability to motivate and coordinate others to achieve a common goal. It is the key management skill and the key to management success.

4. Prove it with evidence. You think you’re great, and you surely are. But what counts is the evidence. The strongest evidence is concrete: promotions, awards etc, but stories and anecdotes will do the trick too.

5. Position yourself away from competitive categories. Look for ways to separate yourself from the herd.

6. Have clear, interesting, ambitious goals that fit with your past record and require an MBA.

7. Focus on telling your own story and don’t try to give them what you think they want to hear. If you get your profile right you can get in anywhere.

8. Don’t praise the school. They are fully aware of their value and their charms. What they want to know is why you are valuable and how you will add value to them.

9. Don’t try to be too competent. Success is good. Perfect is highly dubious. If you are too good, not only is it suspicious, but you leave them no role to add to your skills and build your profile.

10. Be personal. Give the admissions committee a real insight into your character, passion, personality and self-understanding.

11. Be unique. If what you say could be said by the next applicant or the one after that, it’s generic. If what you say could only be have been said by you, it’s unique.

12. Be likeable. People always choose people they like as colleagues and co-workers and the admissions committee is no different.

MBA Entrance Exam in India is also no cake walk. You need in-depth knowledge, analytical mind, sharp memory and above all, systematic planning and preparation. Needless to say that the candidates cannot and should not attempt preparation for his MBA Entrance Test overnight. Since the competition is amongst the best available talent from all disciplines, meticulous and long term preparation are required to get admitted to the MBA program. Although the syllabi in the admission/entrance test differ from university to university, there are certain common aspects that appear in most of the entrance test, CAT, XAT, MAT, XLRI, SNAP and MBA Entrance Exams conducted by State Universities in one form or the other. These aspects include tests on quantitative aptitude, reasoning, intelligence, comprehension, case analysis, relationships, word power, synonyms, antonyms, general knowledge/awareness, etc. It is therefore, essential that the candidates start preparing well in advance on all the above aspects. If one can get hold of previous year’s papers or at least the pattern, this would go a long way in guiding the candidates to prepare properly for the test.

Here are some tips to prepare on important aspects which are common to most of the MBA entrance examinations in India:

(1) Quantitative Aptitude: A candidate seeking admission to MBA programme is expected to have aptitude for basic and elementary accounting as well as the knack of solving the simple arithmetic problems. This is one of the areas in the admission test which, if properly prepared and practiced, is likely to put the candidate ahead of others, as one can hope to score even 100% marks in this part.

(b) Logical Reasoning: Questions on logical reasoning may be of several types and in several forms. These could include a statement on which the candidates are asked to draw correct interference out of the given choices. There could be questions on series of words and figures, arrangement of alphabets, brain teasers or even such questions as only call for drawing logical inferences. Just like quantitative aptitude test, this portion of admission test also needs special and detailed preparations and practice.

(c) Comprehension Test: Comprehension test is aimed at gauging the understanding of English language by the candidates. Usually, a paragraph is given which the candidates are required to go through carefully and then answer the question by choosing the correct answer. To attempt this part speedily and correctly, the candidates must practice reading with a quick speed and understanding the entire passage.

(d) General Awareness: As the name suggests, the test of general awareness aims to judge the general knowledge of the candidates. Basic facts about all aspects of general knowledge like Science, Geography, History, Economics, Polity, etc are essentially required to be known.