Many of you asked me how I prepared for IBA(DU) admission exam. In this blog I will try to give detailed guide on it.
I prepared for Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka, MBA admission exam all by myself for one and half months only. Needless to say, success did not come from just one & half months efforts. I had my basics covered because I was preparing for BCS and Bangladesh Bank AD exam. I was enrolled in Eclectic Education BB AD batch and Shakil Chowdhury bhai gave me guidelines. These helped me a lot in long run but I was not in any IBA admission batch.
Lesson#1 Dedicated Hard work with sincerity always pays off, One way or another.
Section Wise preparation:
MATH: AGARWAL (RELEVANT CHAPTERS) + IBA PREVIOUS QUESTIONS.
Practice even for a small time every day to reduce errors and time.
Lesson#2 Math everyday keeps the rust away.
VOCABULARY: GRE HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS.
DO NOT JUST MEMORIZE THEM. Learn to use them in sentences with antonyms, synonyms and proper spelling. IBA gives a lot questions related to confusing spelling and meaning. Remember vocabulary is marathon not 100m sprint. Glance them every other day, over and over again.
Lesson#3 Keep the Spelling Bee Humming
READING COMPREHENSION: GRE BIG BOOK.
IBA Usually give one or two 1000 words passages which consumes a lot of time. Practice them to enhance efficiency in reading and answering, even if you are confidant about your reading skill.
Lesson#3 Consume to Comprehend
GRAMMAR: CLIFFS TOFEL + IBA PREVIOUS QUESTIONS
I had my basics covered so did not spend much time on grammar.
IF you are uncomfortable with TOFEL format and want to improve basics then you can also try any of these books
1. Highschool grammar and composition by Wren and Martin
2. Chowdhury and Hussain
3. English grammar in use by Raymond Murphy
Lesson#4 Learn for Life
ANALYTICAL ABILITY: GRE BIG BOOK ONLY
STRICTLY AVOID locally published guides. There are plenty of mistakes and logical fallacy in them which will only confuse and lower your confidence.
Lesson#5 Terminate the Trash
WRITING: PRACTICE IBA PREVIOUS QUESTIONS (20 MINUTE TIME) + READ DAILY STAR EDITORIALS
Many students and coaching centers completely ignore writing and fail in the exam only for it. You do not need to write at length. Most important things in writing are cohesion and coherence. Keep it neat and clean without spelling and grammar mistakes. Use the newly learned vocabularies to create profound impression. Try to avoid lazy English riddled with quantifiers.
Lesson#6 Less is More.
Lastly and Most Importantly,
I believe that solving IBA previous year questions like real exam simulation has the highest efficacy among model tests. Give yourself 110 minutes to solve one question (including written section) daily in the last month. Mark the wrong and unanswered questions and go through them in the last week.
Lesson#7 Simulate to Stimulate
If you are confident then, yes, preparing all by yourself is enough. But there is no harm or shame in taking help.
Best wishes
Inam Ahmad ©
63D intake, IBA regular MBA(DU),
Ex-Banglalink, BBA (KU).
