FOR TCS OFF CAMPUS ATTENDEES

Hello friends,

I was so excited to write about Tata Consultancy Services and its interview process, because it is like my first love, the first company which I attended after my engineering life and got my first offer.

And this week, TCS is going to recruit people in the off campus interview arranged by Anna University, Chennai.

I faced only two rounds 1. Aptitude test, 2. HR interview.

The aptitude test will be a Computer Based Test (CBT). You have to fill your DT number and personal details and then login using the username, password given by the instructor in the room. Then you can start your test. As the test is a CBT, there are a lot of questions in the database that comes in random for you. So it is difficult to predict the questions or the pattern..

Anyhow like others you have to prepare aptitude questions that include numerical aptitude, reasoning and verbal.. R. S. Agarwal is sufficient. But don't forget to go through the old questions since I heard that many questions are repetitive as they have a common database full of questions.

Beware of TCS as they filter most of the students in the first round only. During my off campus, the no. of ppl attended may be 2500 to 3000 or more.. Out of them only 350-400 were selected for the second round and only 250-300 received offers. So be well prepared with the aptitude.

I dint prepare anything or take a look over old questions. But after getting my offer, I searched net to get questions for my friends attending in the following week and I found nearly 40% questions which I got in my interview. So better go through the old questions in the following link.

http://kprawin.blogspot.com/2010/08/sharp-your-aptitude.html

An important tip to clear the aptitude test is time management. The question contains a lot of unnecessary information. For (eg) I got a question, like this.

Ferrari SPA is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari SPA in 1947. Throughout its history, the company has been noted for its continued participation in racing, especially in Formula One, where it has had great success. A model of Ferari car was introduced in the year 1999, Mike brought the car in the year 2000. The Ferari car can get a max speed of 105km/hr. He loved his car so much and he used to go out for a long drive every evening. His brought his car in red color and painted his car black later. Like Ferrari, Porsche is also a leading racing car manufacturer. Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE, a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury high performance automobiles, owned by the Piëch-Porsche family. Porsche SE is headquartered in Zuffenhausen, a city district of Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. And Ben brought a Porsche car which can go 125km/hr speed. He is fond of road racing and used to participate in race every Sunday. He is a car lover and ususlly changes his car every month. One fine day Mike and Ben decided to race. Mike started one hour before Ben. Ben started at 12PM. The race distance 788kms. Calculate the time at which Ben crosses Mike.

So how did you read this question? If you read it completely, how much time did you lose in reading the unnecessary data? Most of the questions contain a lot of unnecessary data. So initially read the last 2 or 3 lines and therby you can understand what is asked. Then search the numerical data in the paragraph and then solve it.

Go with 2 pens or pencils, they provide with rough papers. Moreover a few questions require calculators. But they won't allow you bring a calculator or use your mobile phone in the exam hall. But you can use the calculator application in your computer. So before starting your exam open the calculator. The exam screen will be of full screen and so use Alt + Tab to switch over the test application and the calculator.

Use of calculators, pen or pencil and paper, reading the full questions will eat up your time. So be aware of it. The questions will be easily and if you are fast you will be able to attend the maximum no. of questions.

The computer only evaluates your answers. They mention that there are no negative markings for wrong answers but I think (not sure) the evaluation will be based on the hit ratio (No. of correct answers to the total no. of questions attended). So try to attend the questions only you know. At the end try to answer the other questions though you don't know.

And there is a good way to practice before you write the test. You can take up a mock test from TCS directly. As TCS conducts an online based test, it also provide a mock test for the people who are eager to join TCS family. You have to register yourself and create your own profile here and book a test in your convenient timings and take the test. Note that you can take the test twice only. Before attending your off campus take up the test as you might get a good experience. (It was introduced late after September, 2010 and so I haven't took that mock test.)

Click Here to goto the page

All the Best !

Feel free to post comment or write to me, if you have any queries…

You can chat with me online if you have any queries. I will be available online in kprawinmail@gmail.com from 9.00PM to 1.00AM every day..

Now, Signing Off,

With regards,

KP

(Why Be Ordinary When You Can Be Extra – Ordinary ?)

For CTS attending students through Anna Univ OffCampus

Hello friends,

While searching for a new topic to write on, I heard about the off campus interview arranged by Anna University, Chennai in this January and Cognizant Technology Solutions is recruiting the people.

Fine. Our batch (2010passed out) also experienced the same company first in Anna University off campus. But I couldn't find myself in the participation list. . (Oops! The thing is I dint meet the academic eligibility criteria.. CTS expected above 80% at that time... I was only with 72 in my 8^th semester)

But that was not my end. . I got chances to attend Wipro, Accenture, TCS and HCL immediately after my 8^th semester exams through Anna University, but I ignored it.

And after that, I personally applied to Wipro, HCL, TCS, Infosys and finally CTS. . I got calls from TCS, HCL, Infosys and then CTS. (I got offers from TCS and Infosys.. I couldn't attend HCL test, and I cleared CTS aptitude test but don't want to attend the next rounds and so ignored it…) So, don't worry friends, who didn't get the chance to attend the off campus now, upgrade yourself and when you come out you can get the best, because no company wants a blunt knife. So sharpen yourself.

I think my story goes boring. So let me get into the subject of this post.

The following two links will help you to know about the pattern what my friends faced in the written test. Each company has its own test pattern and follows it. Here the test is a paper based test and you can know about the types of question in each section through the following links.

[Link 1]

[Link 2]

And in the test which I faced, the pattern is as follows…

Total 55 questions (30 analytical + 25 verbal), 50 minutes paper based test (30mins for analytical and 20mins for verbal)

And they gave both question papers separately. First I received Analytical paper which contains 30 questions that include mathematical as well as logical questions.

That contains simple aptitude questions and I'm sure that I could get 28 out of 30 marks in that. I'm not a genius in problem solving, but it was simple for me. And it took only 18-20minutes to solve those 28 questions. The remaining 2 are cryptography type questions, and I don't know how to solve it.

There are a few simple problems like find the odd figure out, what is the next figure in the series… These will be easier to those who try out such type of problems in daily magazines.

Mathematical will be as usual, that requires simple calculations. Ratio, percentage, average type questions are there for me. A tabular column containing scores of 4 cricket players in 4 matches are given and asked for highest avg in runs, highest avg of score in a match etc..

And logical was more simple, but requires little thinking.

I got this type question. There are 5 movies p,q,r,s,t played in a hostel in an order such that it satisfies the following conditions.

1. p always comes after r
2. s always comes after t
3. only one film is played in a day. No film on monday and Friday.

And there are a few questions for the above given data.

It include, which of the series is not possible ?

    a) rpqts b) rpqst c) qrpst d) rqtps

It is clear that rpqst is not possible.

Another one is like, what is the position of r is q is played 3^rd and p is played 4^th. The answers will be like first or fifth, first etc...

And also questions like,

Given: All dogs are cats.

Some cats are men.

Then which of the following is true?

 a) Some men are cat b) All men are cat c) All dogs are men d) All men are dogs

It is clear that (a) is answer, but do match all the 4 conclusions with inference statements and then get a conclusion.

And same like, Data sufficiency questions.

1. All dogs are cats
2. Some cats are men

Conclusion: Some cats are dogs

The conclusion can be obtained by,

      a) I only (b) II only (c) neither I nor II (d) both I and II

The answer is (a)

These logical questions suck your time. So be careful with them and do think fast.

They collected my papers after 30mins and then I got verbal question paper. It was not difficult for me but I'm not sure about my answers. I think I might have got 20+ out of 25 questions. And it took the whole 20mins for me to answer all of them.

There will be big paragraphs. Though I dint go through them completely, I took my time. There are jumbled sentences, and select the word that match the meaning. A word will be underlined and 4 options will be given to choose a word that matches the meaning of underlined word.

Fast reading is required. For frequent book readers, it is easy to follow the technique. Make fast eye movements along the paragraph to catch some important words. Then read out the questions. You'll find any of the words you caught in the eye reading in the question. And now, locate the paragraph with that keyword and you'll easily find the answer. But if you sit and read the passage completely, you won't find time to answer the other questions.

Aptitude tests don't need bigger brains to solve. It just needs little thinking and shortcuts to do faster. This can be achieved only by practice. So practice practice and practice…

Follow this link to get some sample papers of CTS and also other companies.

http://kprawin.blogspot.com/2010/08/sharp-your-aptitude.html

Go through them too… After aptitude you'll be having a technical HR interview and an HR interview (2 separate interviews). If you are bold enough to talk (even if your English is not so good), then you can easily crack them. But, you have to crack the written test as most of the companies filter the people in first round only. The post goes much longer and so I shall write about the interviews later.

All the best !

Feel free to post comment or write to me, if you have any queries…

Now, Signing Off,

With regards,

KP

(Why Be Ordinary When You Can Be Extra – Ordinary ?)

GATE QUESTION PAPERS for CS/IT, EC, EE from 1991 to 2010

Hi friends,

As I have mentioned in my earlier posts, I have uploaded old question papers (some with solutions) from the year 1991 to 2010 for the following departments.

• COMPUTER SCIENCE / INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (CS/IT) – Click to download CS/IT syllabus
  
• ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING (EE) - Click to download EE syllabus
  
• ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION (EC) - Click to download EC syllabus
  

You can download the question papers in the following links. . . Click the icon to goto download page. . .

1. Computer Science/Information Technology
   

   
   

2. Electrical Engineering
   

   
   

3. Electronics and Communication
   

   
   

 

Happy Learning !

With regards,

KP

(Why Be Ordinary When You Can Be Extra-Ordinary?)

 

GATE – What is it and How to crack it?

What is GATE?

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all India examination administered and conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science and seven Indian Institutes of Technology on behalf of the National Coordination Board - GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India.

So, GATE is simply an entrance exam to pursue your Post Graduate programme.

Why GATE?

Taking GATE has several benefits. I can list a few here.

1. If you want to get into the top colleges including IITs (Indian Institute of Technology), NITs (National Institute of Technology), IISc (Indian Institute of Science) and other top universities and colleges all over India, surely the first option is to clear GATE.
   

   Im sure you all know the difficulty to get into IIT and NIT for your under graduate programme itself. Like IIT take BE students based on IIT-JEE, IIT takes M.E/M.Tech students based on GATE only. I shall explain little later how to get admission into IITs and NITs with a valid GATE score.
   

2. Top colleges in Tamilnadu, like SSN college of Engg, St. Joseph's college of Engg, PSG college of Engg etc. . gives more preference for GATE cleared candidates for filling up management seats. So not only you have options to try only IITs and NITs, you can try the other top colleges in all states.
   
3. An important point is, if you have cleared GATE then you are eligible to get a monthly stipend (of nearly Rs. 8000 per month) and yearly grant of Rs.10,000 (per year for book allowances etc. .). Besides these you can get many other scholarships and funds (if you do a great project, you can get funds from the government) too. . But this stipend and yearly grants and scholarships are applicable only if you are admitted in a Master Degree programme (Full Time)
   
4. And finally, that really lend hands in your interviews too. . You can easily impress your HR if you have a line 'I have cleared GATE' in your resume. (I have a cool experience twice in impressing my HR in interviews.).
   
5. GATE has two years validity and so if you have missed the college you wished, you can give a try in the next year too.
   

And there is a lot more to list, but I think this summary is enough.

How to crack GATE?

The magic is simple. 'Be clear with what you know.'

Yes. That is the real magic. GATE consists of simple questions that checks you basics. The main trap where the candidates get caught is at 2 things.

1. 4 options for a question seem to be right one.
   

   (Oh hoooo, we can't even choose correct one out of two. Here 4????? )
   

2. There is negative marking for every question.
   

   (Oouuuchhhh... Trapped!!!*:-[&*-\|)
   

But cool. That is not going to be much difficult to crack GATE, as I have cracked it not even preparing for a single day (as I don't have any idea to write GATE. I applied since my classmates applied).

Let us have a look at the question pattern of GATE, mark distribution and negative marks too.

There will be a total of 65 questions carrying 100 marks.

Q.1 to Q.25 (25 questions) carry one mark each (sub-total 25 marks). Q.26 to Q.55 (30 questions) carry two marks each (sub-total 60 marks). Questions Q.56 - Q.65 belong to General Aptitude (GA). Questions Q.56 - Q.60 (5 questions) carry 1 mark each (sub-total 5 marks) and questions Q.61 - Q.65 (5 questions) carry 2-marks each (sub-total 10 marks).

Questions Q.48 - Q.51 (2 pairs) are common data questions. Question pairs (Q.52, Q.53) and (Q.54, Q.55) are linked answer questions. The answer to the second question of the linked answer questions depends on the answer to the first question of the pair. If the first question in the linked pair is wrongly answered or is unattempted, then the answer to the second question in the pair will not be evaluated.

NEGATIVE MARKING: For Q.1 - Q.25 and Q.56 - Q.60, ⅓ mark will be deducted for each wrong answer. For Q.26 - Q.51 and Q.61 - Q.65, ⅔ mark will be deducted for each wrong answer. The question pairs (Q.52, Q.53), and (Q.54, Q.55) are questions with linked answers. There will be negative marks only for wrong answer to the first question of the linked answer question pair i.e. for Q.52 and Q.54, ⅔ mark will be deducted for each wrong answer. There is no negative marking for Q.53 and Q.55.

Questions on Engineering Mathematics will carry about 15% of the total marks.

Tips to crack GATE

1. As I said earlier, Be clear with what you know is applicable to nearly all the questions. Since the options may confuse you, be clear with the concepts what you know so that you can answer the questions faster.
   
2. Don't try to answer all the questions in the first try. Read the question first, if you are unsure or don't know the answer just skip and move on to next question.
   
3. If you are unsure about the answer, don't try to solve it again. You can solve it later. Even though there are only 65 questions, 3 hours won't be sufficient to solve all the questions.
   
4. Never make blind marking. Since there is negative marking, it affects your score more. So if you don't know the answer, just leave it. (I answered only 26 or probably 27 questions. My score is 24.00 which made 88.265 percentile)
   
5. Try to get complete 15 marks in the general aptitude question. As these 10 questions are pretty easier to solve and it will help to get a good score.
   
6. Problems in Maths (15%) will be based on simple formulas and simple calculations. Questions on Probability, Set theory, Permutations and Combinations, Numerical methods, prepositional logic etc.. will be more simpler. Only 1 or 2 questions on Integral calculus, Maxima, Minima etc seems to be difficult. But you can manage easily.
   
7. The remaining will be small problems that can be solved in one or two. And of course there are theoretical questions too.
   
8. While doing calculations check to convert the values into appropriate units for calculation. (Unit conversions like seconds, hours, minutes, meter, kilometer, millimeter etc). Because if you forget or mistakenly convert such a thing, then that will produce an answer which will be present as one of the option. So be careful and read such questions.
   
9. Don't forget to bring a scientific calculator. Ensure that you know to operate the calculator regarding logarithms, squares, square roots, powers, n^th root, binary operations and base conversions.
   
10. Regarding preparation, Just take your own time and solve as many as GATE old papers on your own. Refer your books, write in paper and solve it. Searching in internet or memorizing the questions with key will never be useful as you won't know the method to solve the problem. If you solve it by your own through a book (or probably your staff may help too), you can get an idea to solve such a kind of problems.
    

I think this may help somewhat. The post goes much longer. So if you have any more doubts, feel free to contact me.

Now, signing off..

With regards,

KP

(Why Be Ordinary When You Can Be Extra-Ordinary?)

GATE Previous Year Question Papers

Hai everyone. .

This time Im not going to write more. .

I have listed a few links to download previous year Question papers of GATE for CS discipline. .

Download it, solve it and it shall be more useful in cracking GATE. .

Download Questions. .

GATE CS & IT - From 1998 to 2010
GATE CS & IT - 2006 (With Solution)
GATE CS & IT- 2007 (With Solution)
GATE CS & IT- 2008 (With Solution)
GATE CS & IT- 2009 (With Solution)
GATE CS & IT- 2010 (With Solution)


All The Best!

With regards,
KP
(Why Be Ordinary When You Can Be Extra-Ordinary ?)

GATE 2011 - Notification Released

* ATTENTION FINAL YEAR AND Pre-FINAL YEAR STUDENTS *
and Aspirers who wish to do M.E/M.Tech in IITs or NITs or TOP COLLEGES IN INDIA (Along with monthly stipend during study period from MHRD-Ministry of Human Resources and Development, India)

Notification regarding GATE 2011 has been released. .

This time IIT MADRAS is going to conduct the exam. .

The exam is on FEBRUARY 13, 2012 . . . (5 more months to go. . .)

For more info,
check,
http://gate.iitm.ac.in/gate2011/index.php

For Important Dates, Check
http://gate.iitm.ac.in/gate2011/importantdates.php

For Syllabus,
http://gate.iitm.ac.in/gate2011/syllabi.php


ALL THE BEST FOR YOU ALL TO CRACK GATE 2011. .

Signing off,

Regards,
KP
(Why Be Ordinary When You Can Be Extra-Ordinary ?)

Sharp Your APTITUDE

Hi friends,

APTITUDE is really a vital thing that always follows the life of an Engineer. . All IT companies require the professionals to clear an APTITUDE test to get into their firm. . The most candidates are eliminated in the Aptitude round itself. .

I have seen many students from Anna University, Chennai, SSN college of Engg, St.Joseph's College of Engg has been eliminated in the first round itself in the TCS interview. This is due to poor aptitude. . (I cracked that somewhat easily). .

Even now, from GATE 2010 they have included 10 marks (out of 100) for General Aptitude. And no way, other competitive exams also have aptitude questions. .

Even though you can solve aptitude easily, timing is required. You should have the ability to solve aptitude questions within short period of time. This can be achieved with practice only. .

So go ahead. .Check the links and start practising. .

Mixture problems

http://way2freshers.com/aptitude/aptitude-alligation-or-mixtures-complex-problems.html

http://way2freshers.com/aptitude/aptitude-alligation-or-mixtures-problems.html

Ratio and Proportion

http://way2freshers.com/aptitude/aptitude-problems-on-ratio-and-proportion.html

http://www.careersandplacements.com/testresources/ratio.html

Profit and Loss
http://way2freshers.com/aptitude/aptitude-problems-on-profit-and-loss.html

http://way2freshers.com/tag/problems-on-profit-and-loss-in-aptitude

Train problems
http://way2freshers.com/aptitude/aptitude-problems-on-trains.html

Some More formulas
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8351187/114-Handy-Formulae-for-Quantitative-Aptitude-Problems


For TCS
http://www.recruitmentpapers.com/tata-consultancy-services-tcs-placement-paper-pattern-2010/

http://www.placementpapers.net/helpingroot/search/node/TCS

http://entrance-exam.net/tcs-placement-papers/

http://way2freshers.com/placement-papers/tcs-papers/tcs-placement-paper-30th-jan-2010.html

http://www.freshersworld.com/placementweek/company.asp?cid=108


For HCL
http://way2abroad.com/placement-papers/hcl-interview-procedure-hcl-technical-questions-hcl-interview-questions/

http://cyberqbank.com/hcl-interview-questions/

http://way2abroad.com/placement-papers/hcl-interview-format-hcl-interview-candidate-experience-hcl-interview-procedure/

http://way2abroad.com/placement-papers/hcl-plamcnet-papers-hcl-interview-pattren-hcl-whole-test-paper/

http://www.chetanasinterview.com/articles/2802/1/HCL-PATTERN-amp-INTERVIEW---25-JUL-2007/Page1.html

http://www.exforsys.com/forum/interview-process-and-patterns/574-hcl-technologies-interview-procedure.html

For ACCENTURE
http://forums.sureshkumar.net/accenture-placement-papers/58009-accenture-placement-paper-accenture-placement-paper-2009-latest-accenture-placement-paper-accenture-aptitude-paper-2009-accenture-aptitude-placement-paper-2009-a.html

For Cognizant
http://way2freshers.com/placement-papers/cts-papers/cts-placement-paper-pattern-2010-cognizant-technology-solutions-placement-paper-pattern-2010.html

http://placementpapers.net/helpingroot/cts

http://www.placementpapers.net/helpingroot/CTS/CTS-Placement-Paper-January-2010-Reasoning-Ability

http://hamararesults.com/jobs/cts-placement-papers-2010-cts-placement-sample-paper-august-2010-cts-latest-placement-papers-cts-previous-placement-solved-papers/

Wait for more. . .

Now signing off. .

With regards,
KP
(Why Be Ordinary When You Can Be Extra-Ordinary ?)