• Are you done writing your CAT (MAT, XAT, SNAP, NMAT) exam?
• Are you waiting for the call from your dream college?

It’s time to convert those dreams into reality. If you have cleared the cutoff of your favorite college, you must start preparing for MBA WAT Essays and polishing your writing skills. IIMs and all top MBA colleges conduct a writing ability test (WAT) or Academic Writing Test (AWT) to check your – General Awareness and Language Skills

The popular IIM WAT Topics 2021 are mostly related to social issues, current affairs and business and economy. MBA Rendezvous has listed all the burning WAT Topics for MBA 2021 that can be asked in the WAT round, and the Key WAT Tips to keep in mind while preparing and appearing for the round. Checkout the Writing Ability Test Sample and popular writing ability test topics 2021.

What is Written Ability Test

MBA aspirants positively put forward a puzzling query that what is WAT ? For the benefit of smart aspirants like you who has cleared a cut off list of prestigious institute of your choice post toughest competitive MBA entrance exams, fact of the matter is that written Ability Test is akin to Essay writing and WAT is being conducted with single objective to test your language skills in areas of expression, way of writing, grammar, articulation of ideas as per topic given and most importantly a conclusion with a take away for the audience.

There will remain a thin line of demarcation between Essay and WAT that body part of Essay can be generalized but in WAT you would't get that liberty and you have to write in flow strictly to tune with assigned topic.

Choice of topics in WAT will be mostly of current affairs so to put aspirants at ease but pinpoint is that WAT is only a language skill test. It is difficult to come up with best of expressions in WAT overnight hence, experienced students of yesteryear have advised to read Editorials of Two National News Papers including one Business daily and we too add that it would be worthwhile to listen to AIR News Analysis program by 9.15 pm daily as that will give food for thought for great practice to ace WAT !

IIMs plan to replace GD with WAT

As per the latest news, new IIMs plan to replace Group Discussion (GD) with written test (WAT) and they may use the older scores of IIMs for admissions. The new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) started since 2010, following some of the older IIM’s like IIM-A, B, L, etc. will replace the group discussion (GD) stage of their admissions with a written essay test.

They also plan to use the score of WAT taken by older IIM’s, i.e. if a student has already appeared for the written tests of some of the older IIMs, he or she will not need to take the written test separately for the new IIMs. Either way, the personal interview will still be taken by the new IIMs.

Over the years, GD is gradually getting shunned by the IIMs and WAT is being conducted before PI.

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Now that essay writing is gaining importance in the admission criteria of IIMs’ the main concern is the time limit. While writing an essay for admission to a top B-school, the focus should be on the time. IIM Bangalore gives 30 minutes to write the essay, while IIM Lucknow gives 15 minutes and the time for writing the essay is as little as 10 minutes in IIM Ahmedabad.

Here, the key will be to write as fast as possible in order to finish the essay. Don’t waste much time on thinking and planning the structure of the essay, else you will not be able to complete it. For this, you will need sufficient practice.

According to a student of IIM Ahmedabad, the best way to practice is by picking up one current-affairs topic every day and writing as much as you can for 10 minutes. Your focus should be on starting the essay and putting in as many important points as possible. There is no compulsion to present the matter in impressive or flowery language. Instead, accuracy and correctness of spelling and grammar take precedence. The essay’s evaluation is based on the number of new ideas or points you can produce in the given time, the different angles from which you can analyse the topic and the logic behind each argument.

It is important to develop the ability to think and articulate quickly. For B-school panellists, essays are tools to see how you structure your thoughts and produce them in the least amount of time. Apart from IIMs, other prominent B-schools like XLRI and IIFT also use Essay Writing to assess candidates.

Read More : Respect your elders

Weightage for GD, PI and WAT

The weightage to the PI and Written Ability Test at IIM Lucknow will be as follows:

(The minimum requirement for getting a pass in Personal Interview is 12 out of 40 marks.)

Weightage for CAT score, Class XII, graduation and work experience for PGP

The weightages are as follows:

Final Merit List

IIM-L’s admission policy document states: “The sum of the scores in all the eight components will be taken as the final score of a candidate for arriving at the merit list(s) for final selection to the PGP/ PGP-ABM of IIML.

Read More : Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow

Top B-schools have inculcated WAT as a part of PI round. It will begin in the last week of January or the first week of February 2022. The round can proceed till April 2022. The final admission offer will be made in the last week of April or in the starting of May 2022. Candidates do not need to attend WAT and PI separately. Both WAT and PI will be conducted on the same day.

1.Don't Use Company Jargon:

As a prospective business student, you have probably spent the past few years in a corporate environment with its own in-house terminology. Remember that you are writing for a reader who hasn't attended your company's meetings or contributed to its products. You should certainly describe various aspects of your professional life--your leadership skills, your career trajectory, your triumph in the face of obstacles, and so on--but do so in language that is as accessible to your reader as it is to you. Imagine that you are composing a document for a customer who must decide whether to buy a particular product: you. Write clearly and personably.

And if you are a fresher, go for the common language you have been using in your school days rather than the jargons you came across while a conversation with your friend who is corporate now or any of your relative.

2. Don't Bore the Reader. Be Interesting.

Admissions officers have to read hundreds of essays, and they must often skim. Abstract rumination has no place in an admission process essay. Admissions officers aren't looking for a new way to view the world; they're looking for a new way to view you, the prospective student. The best way to grip your reader is to begin the essay with a captivating snapshot. Notice how the blunt, jarring "after" sentence creates intrigue and keeps the reader's interest.

Before: I am a compilation of many years of experiences gained from overcoming the relentless struggles of life.

After: I was six years old, the eldest of six children in the Bronx, when my father was murdered.

3. Do Use Personal Detail. Show, Don't Tell!

Good essays are concrete and grounded in personal detail. They do not merely assert "I learned my lesson" or that "these lessons are useful both on and off the field." They show it through personal detail. "Show, don't tell" means that if you want to relate a personal quality, do so through your experiences without merely asserting it.

Before: If it were not for a strong support system which instilled into me strong family values and morals, I would not be where I am today.

After: Although my grandmother and I didn't have a car or running water, we still lived far more comfortably than did the other families I knew. I learned an important lesson: My grandmother made the most of what little she had, and she was known and respected for her generosity. Even at that age, I recognized the value she placed on maximizing her resources and helping those around her.

The first example is vague and could have been written by anybody. But the second sentence evokes a vivid image of something that actually happened, placing the reader in the experience of the student.

Also Read - Essential Points to be considered while writing essay

Values Challenged

One has to understand sub-continental culture regarding marriage in order to understand this particular crisis. Marriages are classified into two groups: 'settled' marriage and 'love' marriage. In a 'settled' marriage, the groom's family chooses the bride, and if bride's family accepts the groom, the two families get together and fix the marriage. The bride and the groom may or may not meet each other before the marriage.

In a 'love' marriage, two persons fall in love and get married, with or without the permission of their families. This is considered a social crime, and the newlyweds are forced to leave their families.

After I came back from the US, I met my sweetheart who was attending medical school. We courted each other for years, and when she graduated we figured it was time to marry. I asked my family to select the woman of my choice so as to marry the woman I love without upsetting social norms.

When my mother proposed my fiancée's family, her mother wanted to see me personally. I assumed she would consider me a suitable candidate for her daughter's husband since I come from a good family and since I am qualified to maintain a family.

However, rather than looking for qualities in me that might make her daughter happy, she demanded that I possess an MBA degree before I marry her daughter. Apparently, all of her relatives' and friends' daughters got married to either MBAs or Ph.D.'s.

I was dumbfounded. I would have gladly given the moon to her daughter, but I was not about to earn an MBA to satisfy this woman's irrational craving. How would an MBA help me to become a better husband? Even though I intended to pursue an MBA anyway, I could not agree to her demand. I told her that I would never earn an MBA. As a result, I couldn't marry the woman of my dreams.

I stayed true to my personal values, and it cost me the woman I love.

Read More : Water Resources - Essay

Media Influence

CRITICALLY ASSESS THE WAYS IN WHICH THE MEDIA CAN BE SAID TO INFLUENCE OR HAVE EFFECTS ON SOCIETY.

The Mass Media is a unique feature of modern society; its development has accompanied an increase in the magnitude and complexity of societal actions and engagements, rapid social change, technological innovation, rising personal income and standard of life and the decline of some traditional forms of control and authority.

There is an association between the development of mass media and social change, although the degree and direction of this association is still debated upon even after years of study into media influence. Many of the consequences, either detrimental or beneficial, which have been attributed to the mass media, are almost undoubtedly due to other tendencies within society.

Few sociologists would refute the importance of the mass media, and mass communications as a whole, as being a major factor in the construction and circulation of social understanding and social imagery in modern societies. Therefore it is argued that the mass media is used as “an instrument”, both more powerful and more flexible than anything in previous existence, for influencing people into certain modes of belief and understanding within society.

The question of media’s influence on society and its cultural framework has often been debated upon from leading theorists to anyone with any form of media connections, but to contemplate that the character of Chulbul Pandey from Dabang or student group of Rang De Basanti can have an influence on an audience members attitude, beliefs or interpretations of society is a very simplistic and debatable version of the truth.

The media does influence, but using more diverse and subtle roles of impact. Some theorists suggest that it is even a case of society influencing the media and not the more widespread and presumed version.

• Institute Name: IIM Ahmedabad (AWT-WAT)
  Time Frame: 20-25 minutes
  Word Limit: 300+ words
  Suggested Topics: Current affairs, Economics, socio-political, Finance and abstract topics
• Institute Name: IIM Bangalore (WAT)
  Time Frame: 30 minutes
  Word Limit: 400 words Appx.
  Suggested Topics: National, International Affairs
• Institute Name: IIM Calcutta (WAT)
  Time Frame: 20-25 minutes
  Word Limit: 400 words
  Suggested Topics: Current affairs, business, science, abstract topics
• Institute Name: IIM Lucknow (WAT)
  Time Frame: 15-20 minutes
  Word Limit: 200+ words appx.
  Suggested Topics: Mostly Abstract and National
• Institute Name: IIM Kozhikode (WAT)
  Time Frame: 25 minutes
  Word Limit: 300 words
  Suggested Topics: Current affairs, economic, abstract, National, International
• Institute Name: IIM Indore
  Time Frame: 20-25 minutes
  Word Limit: 250 words
  Suggested Topics: Current affairs, economic, abstract, National, International
• Institute Name: IIM Shillong
  Time Frame: 20-25 minutes
  Word Limit: 300 words
  Suggested Topics: Current affairs, economic, abstract, National, International
• Institute Name: FMS Delhi
  Time Frame: 20-30 minutes
  Word Limit: 300 words
  Suggested Topics: Current affairs, economic, abstract, National, International
• Institute Names: IIM Kashipur, Raipur, Ranchi, Rohtak, Trichy, Udaipur, Amritsar, Bodhgaya, Sambalpur
  Time Frame: 25-30 minutes Common Admission Process (CAP) for 9 IIMs with WAT
  Word Limit: 300 words
  Suggested Topics: Current affairs, economic, abstract, National, International
• Institute Name: IIFT
  Time Frame: 20 minutes
  Word Limit: 300+words appx.
  Suggested Topics: Current National, International

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