I observe that a huge chunk of student community preparing for CAT and other MBA entrance exams joins coaching institutes of various hues and color in the hope that they would get the best quality faculty, best quality material, excellent experience of service delivery, very good management where their grievances if any would be redressed the moment they mouth the complaint, and the list of their wants goes on.

Did you notice that the entire focus of the students and even most of the coaching institutes is upon improving the above mentioned variables to the maximum extent possible, little realizing that the success of the student (here, securing admission to the B-school of desire, after clearing all the hurdles of the admission process of that B-school) depends only on one person: the student himself (without prejudice to the female gender, for ease of writing). By saying so, there is no attempt on my part to undermine the importance of all the variables. No doubt they are important, but unless the ‘receiver’ of that service is mentally prepared for that, all the efforts of the ‘deliverer’ (which includes all the variables mentioned) come to a naught. And none of these outside variables has any control over the germination of the seed of the mental preparedness of the ‘receiver’.

So, the first requirement for a student to learn anything in any coaching institute (or any educational institute, for that matter) is his mental preparedness. And so the first question which any aspiring student should ask himself is:

Is he mentally prepared for management education and all that it takes?

Only when the student answers it in the affirmative can the next step of learning begin. As a next step, the student after some basic research joins a coaching institute. Once he joins, there is a risk that he may leave the entire efforts of learning to the coaching institute and its faculty, and the moment this happens, his learning immediately stops and what begins is his focus on what is being delivered to him and its quality. If he likes it, he savors it like some sweet fruit; otherwise he starts complaining and expects the organization to fulfill his demands in the next minute. Would it not be pertinent here to ask the big question: WHERE IS THE LEARNING?

Whatever a student gets from the coaching institute are the resources for him and he should utilize those resources to the fullest extent possible. And for that, he must learn the art of learning. That brings us to the next question: How does one LEARN? A faculty teaching any concept in the best possible manner may not necessarily lead to learning of a concept by the student. Student’s learning happens when a particular concept hits him in the deeper recesses of his mind to that extent where he experiences a sort of ‘Aha’. It’s a pleasing experience! The deeper this experience of ‘Aha’ is, the stronger the probability of learning and heightened retention power. To gain this experience of ‘Aha’, one has to spend adequate amount of time with the concepts and this means that merely reading a particular chapter n number of times may not yield desired results. One can understand the importance of this experience when one realizes that such an experience is a result of creation of new networks between nerve cells of our brain. Each new network created means newer and newer learning. Moreover, the stronger the experience of ‘Aha’ is, the stronger the strength of this network and hence longer retention power. At this point, I would also like to mention that such creation of networks between nerve cells is always painful, which explains why any kind of new learning always entails a baggage of pain associated with it. Consciously neglecting this pain with the sole objective of gaining the pleasure of having learnt something new and fruitful is the real clue to the art of learning.

To experience this experience, besides mental preparedness (as already mentioned), one must be genuinely interested in that topic at hand. The interest in that topic may or may not be there already. A faculty teaching that topic in the class usually tries his best to generate interest for that topic in the minds of the students, but may not always succeed for the simple reason that getting interested in that topic lies completely in the hands of the student and not the faculty. If one is disinterested in a particular topic, then no amount of reading that topic or a faculty teaching that topic can create interest in that topic. Student’s interest in a particular topic or subject is either inbuilt or has to be created by himself. And in case the student is not able to create interest by any of the means, it becomes a major impediment to his learning quality for that subject and he continues to remain relatively weak in that area.

There is one more reason why one should be genuinely interested in any topic at hand. By being so, one’s thinking process gets naturally activated which goes beyond what is being written or taught. This step helps a student to experience mental growth with respect to that topic. Once this process happens across various subject areas, the overall growth is achieved and the student takes off to a different platform built on strong foundations. It is this strong foundation which creates scope for further learning and gaining higher level of skills required of in all the management entrance tests.

While we are talking so much on the various aspects of learning, how can we forget the importance of ‘common sense’ which plays an important role in the learning process? I can vividly recall an instance when I was in grade V and in my final terminal exams was asked the following question of Math:

 Q.         Find the value of 23 × 57 × 79 × 0 × 53

 I first multiplied 23 with 57 and the result with 79 and then got stuck with what to do with 0. Nobody taught me how to multiply a number with ‘zero’! Nobody is taught the table of ‘zero’, ain’t it! I had practiced numerous questions on multiplication in my fifth grade in order to gain good marks, but despite that I could not attempt this question and had to leave it as it is. You must be wondering what the big deal in this question is and that the answer is simple: ‘zero’. And when you say so, you are missing the whole point. I am trying to bring out the difference between learning Math and having common sense. The above question is not at all Math question, though it looks like one. If you see Math in the above question, you would never be able to get the answer and will be always stuck up where I was stuck up. But with simple common sense, one need not even do any computation and can easily speak the answer. There is no substitute for common sense in any area of study, leave alone Math. And ‘common sense’ is not and cannot be taught in formal education at all. It can only be appreciated and learnt from experience.

Therefore in any learning process, one must always look inwards, taking all the inputs from outside resources because the responsibility of success or failure in any endeavor rests completely with the person himself and not at all on external agencies.

 Ashu Jain

Ashu is an engineer from the prestigious Punjab Engineering College (PEC) and an MBA from the Pune University. One of the most experienced CAT mentors in the country, Ashu is known for his passionate yet objective approach to student relationship and for his exceptional Quant mentorship skills. At MBAGuru, INDIA’s Fastest Growing CAT Coaching Institute, Ashu anchors Academics.