MICAT video - From Cracking careers
MICA PAT's interview:
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Resources for Word Association Tests!!
Word Association Test
There are 8 words, 4 in 2 rows. There is one word in column A that can be associated with every word in Column B. For example :
Apple ………….. Orange
Mango …………. Eye
Banana ………… iPod
Watermelon …… Orchard
Mango …………. Eye
Banana ………… iPod
Watermelon …… Orchard
Answer is Apple because:
1. Apple and orange are both fruits.
2. ‘Apple of my eye’ is a proverb. Banana and eye? Naaah!
3. Apple iPod!
4. Apple orchard.
1. Apple and orange are both fruits.
2. ‘Apple of my eye’ is a proverb. Banana and eye? Naaah!
3. Apple iPod!
4. Apple orchard.
It’s a really fun exercise. There are 20 of these.
How to prepare:
1. It would be good to know a lot of proverbs.
2. General awareness – not the capital of Uzbekistan and pi upto 17 decimal places types – but normal stuff. And good English helps here, obviously.
3. May sound silly, but try studying up phrases like a PRIDE of LIONS, a PACK of wolves, etc. You know what I mean…!
1. It would be good to know a lot of proverbs.
2. General awareness – not the capital of Uzbekistan and pi upto 17 decimal places types – but normal stuff. And good English helps here, obviously.
3. May sound silly, but try studying up phrases like a PRIDE of LIONS, a PACK of wolves, etc. You know what I mean…!
- Chuck
Resources from web that might help you to prepare for this section
Will add more links if i chance upon any other resource!
Cheers
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Compilation of various posts about MICAT
:: MICAT does not have a fixed pattern. It normally has couple of essays. Knowledge of Indian Ethos and culture would help. These are essentially meant to check your lateral thinking and writing skills. If I were to give you some examples from previous years, you could have a Q like, how would you describe a mobile phone to a tribal in remote area who has never been in touch with civilization. Or how will you explain importance of cleanliness to slum children...etc.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: MICAT comprises of objective and essay type questions and essentially checks your lateral thinking and writing skills. Knowledge of Indian culture, society and mythology will help. Keep yourself updated about what's happening in the media and ad world around. Simple things like which new national TV channels were introduced in last 6 months and what genre do they fall in to...
or channel by bennet, coleman and co? etc... General knowledge, pertaining to communications field.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: What is the structure of the MICAT?
The MICAT is designed to assess analytical and divergent thinking, written
communication skills and familiarity with the Indian ethos. MICAT is a classroom examination of approximately 90 minutes’ duration, designed to test the candidate’s aptitude and orientation towards communications as a profession. There is no special preparation required for MICAT. We expect our prospective candidates to be well-read, innovative and intelligent with an analytical bent of mind. We also expect them to be aware of contemporary social and industry issues. General awareness towards marketing, advertising and business issues will be additional advantages.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: The MICAT is designed to test the following:
a) Communication proficiency;
b) Knowledge of Indian culture and society and
c) Creativity/ divergent thinking.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: MICAT Could comprise of
A. Psychometric test. You need to be true to yourself and reply. No right or wrong answers here. Must complete this section. If you leave out even a single one in this, you could get disqualified.
B. Some analytical questions. Not half as tough as CAT and since CAT is still fresh, it should not be difficult.
C. Some essay type Questions...essentially to check your writing and lateral thinking skills. For example (Something that was in previous years' papers) how would you explain a mobile phone to a villager who has never stepped out of his village that is remotely located and does not have electricity or any means of communication. Or how will you explain the game of cricket to a woman who has no clue what it is all about
etc...
D. Used to be earlier - not sure if it would repeat...word association tests..
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: MICAT comprises of a psychometric test, a section on quant, a section on precise writing and couple of essays.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: MICAT has five components. one is psychometric - can't prepare for it. Has a section on quant, CAT will help there. Has a section on word association - need some preparation there and that can be done. A section of precise writing. Very much possible to prepare and lastly essays on various topics. Good reading helps a lot in that and so does practicing writing precisely and to the point.
- Lateral thinking is not intangible and given the kind of questions asked in MICAT, it is possible to judge. Also, it is an ability one can develop. Just needs training to think from various point of view and seeing beyond obvious.
For example, you may be usually taking one route to college. On the day of your exam, you realise that there is major traffic jam and you can't take the route. Normally you won't think of five other ways to reach college but given a critical situation you would. This can be applied to several situations!
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: Prepare for MICAT for yourself, not to beat others. The best way to do so is to practice writing skills and improve handwriting!!! It's human checking for some sections hence the tip.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: What is MICAT?
MICAT is a written test. Combination of objective and subjective questions.
We are not very creative and therefore we do NOT change the patten every year.
However, we learn and ensure that our mistakes don't get repeated. hence the paper this year will not be as lengthy as last year.
Way to prepare... word association...I am sure some experts on the net will help out with this.
For precise writing, you need to practice. Read complicated passages, while doing so, keep noting down main ideas and then restructure the thoughts in concise manner.
Also, for essays, practice. Learn to keep your answers precise and short. Idea is to communicate effectively and not leisurely. WE have moved from 5 day cricket to one day international to Twenty20. You know what I mean We are not looking for flowery language, but you should be able to convey in appropriate manner. Spellos happen, but try and avoid it.
Practice writing, guys... Bad handwriting are a major put off!
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: There are different types of psychometric tests. the one in MICAT is essentially to figure out creativity quotient (If I may use it roughly). Not about writing poetry or doing sketches but how do you respond to different situations in a creative manner to get a solution. And don't worry about or feel sorry about asking questions. There are no wrong questions.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Chuck's post about MICAT:
>> >> MICA Test aka MICAT << <<
Here is where you will start noting MICA's penchant for suffixing itself with anything starting with CA. MICAnvas, MICAmpus, MICAmpaign, MICAreers, and now I call Roxy the MICAnine
The MICAT is one of the most fun tests to take. A few years ago it used to be quite different and used to be called a relatively boring-sounding MET (links in a coming post). Anyways, I will deal with what happened this year (2007). The sections in the MICAT (1.5 hours) were:
A word association test. There are 8 words, 4 in 2 rows. There is one word in column A that can be associated with every word in Column B. For example :
Apple .............. Orange
Mango ............. Eye
Banana ............ iPod
Watermelon ...... Orchard
Answer is Apple because:
1. Apple and orange are both fruits.
2. 'Apple of my eye' is a proverb. Banana and eye? Naaah!
3. Apple iPod!
4. Apple orchard.
It's a really fun exercise. There are 20 of these, I believe.
How to prepare:
1. It would be good to know a lot of proverbs.
2. General awareness - not the capital of Uzbekistan and pi upto 17 decimal places types - but normal stuff. And good English helps here, obviously.
3. May sound silly, but try studying up phrases like a PRIDE of LIONS, a PACK of wolves, etc. You know what I mean...!
Psychometric Test
There are about 30 questions here. Basically, situations are given to you and objectively, you have to state your reaction.
This year (2007), we had two options ... A question, followed by 'Agree / Disagree'.
Last year (2006), we had 5 options.
Q: When a task is given to me, I prefer to start immediately not bothering to waste too much time mulling over the problems that may arise.
A: Strongly agree
B: Agree
C: Neutral
D: Disagree
E: Strongly disagree
The clever part is, some questions are fiendishly rephrased so that both sound like a positive attitude. Example, for the above question, strongly agree shows you are not much of a time waster. But then, take this:
Q: When a task is given to me, I invest time thinking of possible obstacles and how to tackle them before starting.
So you see? A 'strongly agree' here would be considered positive too - a thinker, a planner. But a person temted to mark A for both will obviously show a mismatch. While we do not know if a psychometric mismatch will actually lead to lessening your chances at MICA (unlikely, really!), why take risks?
How to prepare:
1. You have a year. Get to know yourself. Be honest to yourself. You'll find this is an enriching exercise. Accept yourself. It may be hard for you to believe some things. Like I didn't want to accept I was an atheist, but accepting it made me know myself better and all that. Similarly, be honest to yourself - find who you really are, how you tackle situations and all.
2. Search for online psychometric tests. There are tons. You'll get a feel of the thing, and also, you'll have a few questions to ask yourself (Ref # 1)
3. Remember, you cannot afford to miss one question (miss even one in this section, and your MICAT will not be evaluated) so learn to be quick.
Quant and DI
Easy to medium. Why they were introduced in a paper like MICAT seems asurd to me. MICA is an insti that prides itself on not being another engineer preserve, and somehow this exercise dilutes that image. Anyways, it's not all that difficult, and you should be able to do atleast half of it comfortably.
How to prepare:
1. This is one area where TIME and IMS can help you.
Essays
This year we had two, serious topics (forgot what they were
). Obviously good English helps. Search for the topics in the experience threads (will be posted soon!).
How to prepare:
1. Read a lot. Editorials, magazines, blogs, novels, autobiographies, porn, whatever. Anything that exposes you to writing. Recommended for CAT aspirants too.
2. Try to write, or type. Bloggers usually do very well in the MICAT essay. Develop a style. Make sure grammatical errors are weeded out.
3. As trivial as it may seem, good handwriting is a plus.
4. This may sound crazy, but practice writing for a week before MICAT. Software engineers, tell me, when was the last time after Exam # 6 of S8 that you wrote something at length with a pen on paper? And doesn't your hand hurt when you try to write a formal letter? I knew this would be a problem - and just wrote - arbit crap, yes, but it was good practice. Otherwise you'll find that your hand really hurts in the exam and you can't afford to waste time. This exam requires more than shading a few ovals, mind..!
and an important one:
4 hvns sake lrn 2 wryt propr Englsh n not shyt lyk dis whch no kmputr in d wrld cn decifr. use prpr grmmr n nt sms lingo n shrt frms n slang.
Take the pains to type out your IMs, your emails, your scraps, your PG posts in proper English. Even your SMSes, if it doesn't cost you. It may seem a fuddy-duddy idea at first, but it helps. Believe me, it helps.
Fill-in-the-blanks.
24 H in a D (hours in a day)
365 D in a Y (days in a year)
11 P in a FT (players, football team)
These are the easy ones. Among the tougher ones were:
DS of the M (Dark Side of the Moon. I got this, thank you Mr. Waters!!!
)
12 GB, S on the W (12 Great Bumblebees, Sitting on the Wall)
How to Prep:
1. Well, nursery rhymes will help
2. I'll give you the link to a post that has a lot of these puzzles - someone took the pain to search for them online!
3. Proverbs and anything related to such numbers. But such prep is limited and this section is likely to change next year.
Archie comic
No, really
They gave us a three-panel Archie comic, with the bubbles erased - we had to fill 'er up.
How to prepare:
1. Close that Engineering college textbook / Quant by Agarwal and get yourself a stack of Archie Double Digests
2. Don't fill the damn thing in haste: Space is limited in those bubbles.
3. Be funny, goddamnit! MICA is one insti where humour is appreciated!!!
ChUcK
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: MICAT comprises of objective and essay type questions and essentially checks your lateral thinking and writing skills. Knowledge of Indian culture, society and mythology will help. Keep yourself updated about what's happening in the media and ad world around. Simple things like which new national TV channels were introduced in last 6 months and what genre do they fall in to...
or channel by bennet, coleman and co? etc... General knowledge, pertaining to communications field.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: What is the structure of the MICAT?
The MICAT is designed to assess analytical and divergent thinking, written
communication skills and familiarity with the Indian ethos. MICAT is a classroom examination of approximately 90 minutes’ duration, designed to test the candidate’s aptitude and orientation towards communications as a profession. There is no special preparation required for MICAT. We expect our prospective candidates to be well-read, innovative and intelligent with an analytical bent of mind. We also expect them to be aware of contemporary social and industry issues. General awareness towards marketing, advertising and business issues will be additional advantages.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: The MICAT is designed to test the following:
a) Communication proficiency;
b) Knowledge of Indian culture and society and
c) Creativity/ divergent thinking.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: MICAT Could comprise of
A. Psychometric test. You need to be true to yourself and reply. No right or wrong answers here. Must complete this section. If you leave out even a single one in this, you could get disqualified.
B. Some analytical questions. Not half as tough as CAT and since CAT is still fresh, it should not be difficult.
C. Some essay type Questions...essentially to check your writing and lateral thinking skills. For example (Something that was in previous years' papers) how would you explain a mobile phone to a villager who has never stepped out of his village that is remotely located and does not have electricity or any means of communication. Or how will you explain the game of cricket to a woman who has no clue what it is all about
etc...
D. Used to be earlier - not sure if it would repeat...word association tests..
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: MICAT comprises of a psychometric test, a section on quant, a section on precise writing and couple of essays.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: MICAT has five components. one is psychometric - can't prepare for it. Has a section on quant, CAT will help there. Has a section on word association - need some preparation there and that can be done. A section of precise writing. Very much possible to prepare and lastly essays on various topics. Good reading helps a lot in that and so does practicing writing precisely and to the point.
- Lateral thinking is not intangible and given the kind of questions asked in MICAT, it is possible to judge. Also, it is an ability one can develop. Just needs training to think from various point of view and seeing beyond obvious.
For example, you may be usually taking one route to college. On the day of your exam, you realise that there is major traffic jam and you can't take the route. Normally you won't think of five other ways to reach college but given a critical situation you would. This can be applied to several situations!
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: Prepare for MICAT for yourself, not to beat others. The best way to do so is to practice writing skills and improve handwriting!!! It's human checking for some sections hence the tip.
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: What is MICAT?
MICAT is a written test. Combination of objective and subjective questions.
We are not very creative and therefore we do NOT change the patten every year.
However, we learn and ensure that our mistakes don't get repeated. hence the paper this year will not be as lengthy as last year.
Way to prepare... word association...I am sure some experts on the net will help out with this.
For precise writing, you need to practice. Read complicated passages, while doing so, keep noting down main ideas and then restructure the thoughts in concise manner.
Also, for essays, practice. Learn to keep your answers precise and short. Idea is to communicate effectively and not leisurely. WE have moved from 5 day cricket to one day international to Twenty20. You know what I mean We are not looking for flowery language, but you should be able to convey in appropriate manner. Spellos happen, but try and avoid it.
Practice writing, guys... Bad handwriting are a major put off!
__________________________________________________________________________________
:: There are different types of psychometric tests. the one in MICAT is essentially to figure out creativity quotient (If I may use it roughly). Not about writing poetry or doing sketches but how do you respond to different situations in a creative manner to get a solution. And don't worry about or feel sorry about asking questions. There are no wrong questions.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Chuck's post about MICAT:
>> >> MICA Test aka MICAT << <<
Here is where you will start noting MICA's penchant for suffixing itself with anything starting with CA. MICAnvas, MICAmpus, MICAmpaign, MICAreers, and now I call Roxy the MICAnine
The MICAT is one of the most fun tests to take. A few years ago it used to be quite different and used to be called a relatively boring-sounding MET (links in a coming post). Anyways, I will deal with what happened this year (2007). The sections in the MICAT (1.5 hours) were:
A word association test. There are 8 words, 4 in 2 rows. There is one word in column A that can be associated with every word in Column B. For example :
Apple .............. Orange
Mango ............. Eye
Banana ............ iPod
Watermelon ...... Orchard
Answer is Apple because:
1. Apple and orange are both fruits.
2. 'Apple of my eye' is a proverb. Banana and eye? Naaah!
3. Apple iPod!
4. Apple orchard.
It's a really fun exercise. There are 20 of these, I believe.
How to prepare:
1. It would be good to know a lot of proverbs.
2. General awareness - not the capital of Uzbekistan and pi upto 17 decimal places types - but normal stuff. And good English helps here, obviously.
3. May sound silly, but try studying up phrases like a PRIDE of LIONS, a PACK of wolves, etc. You know what I mean...!
Psychometric Test
There are about 30 questions here. Basically, situations are given to you and objectively, you have to state your reaction.
This year (2007), we had two options ... A question, followed by 'Agree / Disagree'.
Last year (2006), we had 5 options.
Q: When a task is given to me, I prefer to start immediately not bothering to waste too much time mulling over the problems that may arise.
A: Strongly agree
B: Agree
C: Neutral
D: Disagree
E: Strongly disagree
The clever part is, some questions are fiendishly rephrased so that both sound like a positive attitude. Example, for the above question, strongly agree shows you are not much of a time waster. But then, take this:
Q: When a task is given to me, I invest time thinking of possible obstacles and how to tackle them before starting.
So you see? A 'strongly agree' here would be considered positive too - a thinker, a planner. But a person temted to mark A for both will obviously show a mismatch. While we do not know if a psychometric mismatch will actually lead to lessening your chances at MICA (unlikely, really!), why take risks?
How to prepare:
1. You have a year. Get to know yourself. Be honest to yourself. You'll find this is an enriching exercise. Accept yourself. It may be hard for you to believe some things. Like I didn't want to accept I was an atheist, but accepting it made me know myself better and all that. Similarly, be honest to yourself - find who you really are, how you tackle situations and all.
2. Search for online psychometric tests. There are tons. You'll get a feel of the thing, and also, you'll have a few questions to ask yourself (Ref # 1)
3. Remember, you cannot afford to miss one question (miss even one in this section, and your MICAT will not be evaluated) so learn to be quick.
Quant and DI
Easy to medium. Why they were introduced in a paper like MICAT seems asurd to me. MICA is an insti that prides itself on not being another engineer preserve, and somehow this exercise dilutes that image. Anyways, it's not all that difficult, and you should be able to do atleast half of it comfortably.
How to prepare:
1. This is one area where TIME and IMS can help you.
Essays
This year we had two, serious topics (forgot what they were
). Obviously good English helps. Search for the topics in the experience threads (will be posted soon!).How to prepare:
1. Read a lot. Editorials, magazines, blogs, novels, autobiographies, porn, whatever. Anything that exposes you to writing. Recommended for CAT aspirants too.
2. Try to write, or type. Bloggers usually do very well in the MICAT essay. Develop a style. Make sure grammatical errors are weeded out.
3. As trivial as it may seem, good handwriting is a plus.
4. This may sound crazy, but practice writing for a week before MICAT. Software engineers, tell me, when was the last time after Exam # 6 of S8 that you wrote something at length with a pen on paper? And doesn't your hand hurt when you try to write a formal letter? I knew this would be a problem - and just wrote - arbit crap, yes, but it was good practice. Otherwise you'll find that your hand really hurts in the exam and you can't afford to waste time. This exam requires more than shading a few ovals, mind..!
and an important one:
4 hvns sake lrn 2 wryt propr Englsh n not shyt lyk dis whch no kmputr in d wrld cn decifr. use prpr grmmr n nt sms lingo n shrt frms n slang.
Take the pains to type out your IMs, your emails, your scraps, your PG posts in proper English. Even your SMSes, if it doesn't cost you. It may seem a fuddy-duddy idea at first, but it helps. Believe me, it helps.
Fill-in-the-blanks.
24 H in a D (hours in a day)
365 D in a Y (days in a year)
11 P in a FT (players, football team)
These are the easy ones. Among the tougher ones were:
DS of the M (Dark Side of the Moon. I got this, thank you Mr. Waters!!!
)12 GB, S on the W (12 Great Bumblebees, Sitting on the Wall)
How to Prep:
1. Well, nursery rhymes will help
2. I'll give you the link to a post that has a lot of these puzzles - someone took the pain to search for them online!
3. Proverbs and anything related to such numbers. But such prep is limited and this section is likely to change next year.
Archie comic
No, really
They gave us a three-panel Archie comic, with the bubbles erased - we had to fill 'er up.How to prepare:
1. Close that Engineering college textbook / Quant by Agarwal and get yourself a stack of Archie Double Digests
2. Don't fill the damn thing in haste: Space is limited in those bubbles.
3. Be funny, goddamnit! MICA is one insti where humour is appreciated!!!
ChUcK
Communications Management
Communications Management, as the name suggests is a course in Management. Post liberalization (1991), the markets are flooded with several categories of products and several products with similar properties. Like so many toothpastes and soaps and detergents...
Hence the industry needs more than product and marketing managers because now they need to sell 'brands', not products. Brand is more than a logo or packaging or name. So you need people who can create association in the minds of consumers about that specific product. For example, even though both Colgate and Close-up are toothpastes, you buy close-up because you need 'total protection', I buy close-up because I believe it gives me 'confidence to come closer'.
So we have 'BRAND MANAGEMENT' No one can create brands without understand consumers without proper 'Marketing Research'. And hence at MICA besides Brand Management you learn Marketing Research.
Once you have understood the consumers and created a brand, you need to communicate that to the TARGET consumers and so comes in picture 'ACCOUNT PLANNING' function of Ad agency where the agency person works in close association with brand team and creative team and helps create appropriate communication.
Having done that, they now need to know where their TARGET audience is and choose appropriate media to communicate their message. That is Media Planning, buying and strategies. You can understand how difficult this would be with more than 200 TV channels, so many newspapers, Magazines, outdoors, events, radio etc...so this is an equally critical component of managing business.
Supporting the above four functions are foundation courses in management like marketing, finance, accounts, Quantitative Techniques, Organization Behavior etc. Then there are communication courses like
Theories of mass communication and mass media,
consumer behavior,
language,
culture and communication,
semiotics,
metaphors and
narratives etc...
narratives etc...
You also have courses in Urban and Rural Retail and marketing, social and development communication, business ethics and strategic management. I hope this clarifies what do you learn at MICA.
Where do MICAns work and in what kind of profiles??
OK...as you see, there is no business that does not need 'communication'.Even cable companies like Finolex are in to 'brand building' and need to communicate with customers who never knew what cables did to their lives...So opportunities are plenty.
MICANs are in to 'managing communications' in several businesses and if you see the list of companies where MICAns work, you will find that.
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