Campus Placement Round 1: The Aptitude Test

This week I am writing about ways to ace the campus placement interview rounds

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Hopeful of a better future, I choose to talk about hacks to clear interview rounds of campus placement. Soon it will be September, commencing of placement season and you need to start preparing today.

The interview rounds are different for each company but I have taken standard ones that you might have to face. In this article, I talk about preparing for the aptitude test.

What is Aptitude Test?

An aptitude test is generally divided into three sections, quantitative questions, logical reasoning, and verbal ability. These sections cover a wide range of questions on grammar, para jumble, probability, time, speed, distance, seating arrangement etc. Now, you might find the tests unnecessary to judge your skill as a marketing professional or an operations guy. But the company is trying to assess your ability to respond in specific situations. The subjects are what you must have studied in school and now you need to prepare for the test.

Step1: Practice 

Do not take the aptitude test for granted because it is a preliminary elimination round and is there to reduce the number of applicants. You might be very good at what you do but failing the aptitude test will end your journey before it begins. Begin by solving mock questions. There are plenty of websites online like faceprep.com and testbook.com where you can register for free or pay a nominal fee for mock questions. I recommend searching online for mock question papers by the name of a particular company or check discussion forums for sample papers. You can get a cue of the major topics from these sample papers. Rather than covering all the topics, you can choose to focus on a few and be thorough with them. 

Step 2: Consult

In case the company visits your campus every year then your seniors, alumni, professors will be able to help you. If you feel that you need help in maths or logical reasoning then you can go for online or offline exam preparation classes. These are especially helpful in preparing for the logical reasoning section and for managing time. 

Step 3: Time Management

Managing time is very crucial during the test. The aptitude test papers are formed in a way that it is unrealistic to expect that every single question can be solved. Ideally, go for the questions that you are confident of and mark the unsure ones to be reviewed later. You can set time for each section. For example, out of 2 hours you assign 45 minutes for quants, the next 45 minutes for reasoning, and remaining for English. Divide your time and stick to it so you can cover maximum questions.

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