“BMS is not rocket science and if you attend classes regularly you are on the right track” says Aadi Vaidya, St. Xaviers TYBMS Topper 2013

An Interview with Aadi Vaidya, TYBMS Sem 5 Topper, St. Xaviers College

• Being a topper from SYBMS, how do you feel  to be the College Topper again of Sem 5 Exams?

It feels good to carry the good academic performance in TY also. A lot of people said TY is comparatively more difficult than the first two years (though I am not very sure about that) so it’s a relief + happiness feeling to score consistently well in the 5^th semester as well.

• What’s the secret of your success? How do you manage to attain marks above 80%?

There is no success formula, I believe, in any walk of life except for hard work in the right direction. BMS is not rocket science and if you attend classes regularly you are on the right track. I was the chairperson of Malhar (inter college festival of St. Xavier’s Mumbai) and honestly, there was a lot of work. However, I made it a point not to bunk lectures. That helped big time. Our college has extra-curricular activities happening throughout the year. Though I am a strong advocate of taking part in these activities, it is extremely important to keep in mind that the first purpose of coming to college is academics and you have to draw the line at some point of time. Every person has different attention spans and learning capabilities. For me, as an example, I used to stop working for extra-curricular activities about a couple of weeks before exams started. Focus is just studies in these 2 weeks. This doesn’t mean however that just 2 weeks are enough. As I mentioned earlier, attending classes regularly is crucial and if you are able to take out even an hour to revise every day then you are more likely to score well.  

•  Share your study methodology and tips to crack every subject?

There is no particular study strategy. Attending classes regularly, revising everyday if possible and then as exams approach – refraining from extra-curricular activities with complete focus just on studies is a common methodology for all subjects.

In order to score well in subjects like marketing it’s always good to give live example, for subjects like finance or more math-based exams one has to be precise and for other theory exams it is essential that answers are to-the-point, easy to comprehend and inherently incorporate some practical aspects. Answers should not just be a display of bookish knowledge.

• You have visited many industries for projects and also completed internships at companies. How has it helped you for moulding your career?

Yes, this is the best part about BMS and this is what separates it from the rest. The field trips, industrial visits and internships make the experience wholesome, interesting and take the degree to a new level altogether. In my 6 semesters, I have visited, the Reserve Bank of India, Sahara City Homes, several BMC licensing offices (for a law project), Tata Voltas and many others industries and offices. This however doesn’t mean that you are kept away from reality as for my research thesis, I visited Dadar and Mumbai Central bus depots, interacted with passengers there, heard their grievances and gave MSRTC useful inputs to increase their quality of service. This helped me realize how different life is beyond college and the glossy MNC offices.

For my internship, I went to Metro Cash & Carry, Hyderabad. It is a wholesale supply chain and I worked with the marketing department there. Working in a new setup, different place, different language and different culture taught me how to adjust fast and give results in a short span of time.

Reflecting back, I realize how important all these practical aspects of the course were in shaping my career, helping me realize what I would “actually” like to do professionally and whether I would be able to do it well or not.

• What are the challenges in a BMS student’s life and how do you overcome them?

BMS was introduced by Mumbai University around 10 years back but even today there is a mental block and people don’t consider it equivalent to main stream courses like BA or BSc. This demotivates you at times and becomes a psychological challenge to overcome. Apart from this, every semester has new subjects, getting a feel of each and then excelling in them in a period of just 3 months is another challenge. There are a lot of group projects and sometimes you don’t get along with everyone, everyone doesn’t put in equal amounts of effort which is disappointing.

Overcoming the challenge of how the course is looked at by others was not very difficult. I put in hard work from the beginning, engaged in a lot of extra-curricular activities, led teams which had people from different courses of college and finally landed up with a good job. This slowly but surely helped me improve the image of BMS as a course.

With regards to new subjects, I tried to make a connect with the last semester always. For example – for Statistics in Sem 2, Mathematics of Sem 1 served as a base. Before starting Econometrics of Sem 6, I recalled my Micro and Macro-economics from second and third semesters.

And finally the group projects. One cannot be successful in life until or unless he or she is a team player, however skilled the person is. The group projects definitely are sometimes hard to manage but I always saw them as an opportunity to hone my people skills. I developed new ways of dealing with people and realized how every person is different in his/her own way. Faster you assess a person, easier it becomes for you to make sure he gives his best.

• What is your aim in life?

 I aim to be an entrepreneur in the long run though I would like to work with the corporate for some years and gain some experience to start with. I got placed with Citibank through college placements and would be joining their Graduate Management Associate Program from June this year. I hope to do my MBA after a couple of years.