How to prepare for BBA entrance exams?

In this article, we are going to focus on the preparation tips for BBA entrance tests conducted in India. So, if you have completed your 10+2, and are interested in business administration, then read on.

Note

BBA stands for Bachelor of Business Administration. In this course, students learn the art of running a business, e.g. finance, marketing, systems, etc.

After completing their BBA many students go for an MBA, which is Masters of Business Administration.

Table of Contents

• BBA Entrance exam Syllabus and Pattern
• BBA Entrance exam Strategy

BBA Entrance exam Syllabus and Pattern

Though syllabus and pattern of various BBA exams will differ a bit. However, there’s a lot of similarity in all these BBA entrance exams. So, let’s see the general trend. If you will cover the following topics, you will be able to attempt almost any BBA entrance exam.

• Reasoning - Series, Syllogism, Analogy, Puzzles, Blood Relations, etc.
• Quant – It’s 10th level Maths. For example, Percentage, Ratio, Profit & Loss, Interest, Average, Number System, TSD (Time, Speed, Distance), Work & Time, P&C. Probability, Mensuration, Data Interpretation (DI), etc.
• English Language and Comprehension – RC, Fill in the blanks, Sentence Correction, Sentence Improvement, Vocabulary, etc.
• General Awareness – History, Polity, Economics, Current Affairs, etc.
• Business Aptitude – Business related questions, Communication, Factual questions like full forms of Banks, famous bankers, and other finance related people, etc.

For Reasoning and Quant sections, you may refer to any good MBA/BBA preparation book, e.g. Arun Sharma’s CAT preparation guide, MBA/BBA material of TIME coaching, etc. The best way to prepare for Puzzles and Data Interpretation (DI) is to give mock tests and go through their explanation.

For English section, you may refer Wren and Martin for Grammar, and Norman Lewis or Baron’s guide for GRE for vocabulary. The best way to prepare for Reading Comprehension (RC) is to give mock tests and go through their explanation.

Also, reading a good quality English paper is essential for many reasons:

• Reading a wide variety of topics will help you improve your reading comprehension skills, as well as vocabulary.
• It will help you in Current Affairs part of General Awareness section. Focus more on Economics, Polity, and Science & Technology related news (i.e. the news that we generally do not want to read!). Questions will generally not be asked from political kind of news. Also, keep an eye on Business news for Business Aptitude section.

You may refer to newspapers like Indian Express, The Hindu, Times of India, etc. You may read them online too. Many people ask students to avoid papers like Times of India and Hindustan Times as they are more focussed on “Entertainment”, which can distract students from the more “boring” topics they need to focus on. Also, keep in mind that many of these newspapers may have a left-leaning bias. So, whenever you read a news report or an editorial, always questions the intent of the writer – it will help you develop critical thinking abilities too.

However, if you have not followed any newspaper, then you may also read current affairs for BBA exam from some coaching’s website or their current affairs magazine.

Note

You may also refer to material of other coachings such as CL, IMS, etc. But TIME coaching focusses a lot on content research and creation. In my experience, their material and test series is the best.

There will be Reasoning, English Language, and General Awareness sections in almost every BBA entrance exam. However, that’s not the case with Business Aptitude section. This section is present in some tests, and absent in others.

Business Aptitude section is present in the following entrance exams:

• Delhi University JAT (DU JAT)
• Indraprastha University CET (IP University CET) for BBA, etc.

Quant section is present in some tests. While it’s absent in others. For example, there’s no Quant section in the following exams:

• Indraprastha University CET (IP University CET) for BBA

But Quant will be there in the following exams:

• Delhi University JAT (DU JAT)
• Christ University BBA entrance exam
• Symbiosis University BBA entrance exam

In most of the BBA entrance exams, you will find 100 objective type questions, each carrying 4 marks. There will be a negative marking of 1 mark for every incorrect answer.

Note

If you want to know about the various BBA entrance exams and colleges in India, you may read this article of ours.

BBA Entrance exam Strategy

To get selected you should be average or above average in all sections. And you should be excellent in 1 or 2 sections. This is true for almost all types of entrance exams.

This is something you have to decide. You should know your strengths and weaknesses. For example, if I am good in English, and Reasoning, then I will try to maximize my score in these sections. These are the sections that I will probably attempt first. These sections will get me selected, or probably make me a topper.

I can just read a little about General Awareness, and Business Aptitude. My aim here will be to perform just good enough, so that I do not get a lot behind others.

You will have to decide your own strategy depending on your strong and weak areas. The ground rule is that you should play on your strength. Attempt the section you are good in first. Within a given section, attempt the easiest questions first.

Note

Make sure you do not leave any easy or medium difficulty level question unattempted in the exam. For this to happen, you will have to follow a Two-layer attempt approach. We will discuss this approach soon.

In the following two sections, you should not invest too much time.

• English Language and Comprehension - either you know the concept of you don’t. It should not take much time in either case. If you are good in English, then you can really score good marks in this section. Try to score over 90% marks in it within 15 minutes. If you can do so, you will get a lot of time for Reasoning section.
• General Awareness - either you know the fact or you don’t. So, you should try to attempt this section within 15-20 minutes. Here, you are not expected to score 90%, but any above average performance will be enough.

If you can pull this off, i.e. if you can attempt the above two sections within 30-35 minutes (with good accuracy), then you will probably not only get selected, but will also be one of the toppers.

Two-layer Attempt Approach

Students who do not get selected, even after preparing very well, generally do one of the following blunders:

• They leave some very easy questions.
• Their accuracy is low, i.e. they make a lot of mistakes under stress and in a hurry.

So, this is how you should attempt an objective type paper, be it BBA or MBA, or any other aptitude exam. This is the approach that I used to follow, and I sure cracked a lot of aptitude exams. Let me share it with you.

Always try to attempt a paper in two rounds. Aim of the first round should be to attempt all easy or easy-medium difficulty level questions. So, if our BBA paper is of 2 hours duration, with 4 sections, then devote 15 minutes each for every section. This way, you would have solved all the easy questions in the entire paper in the first hour itself. You would also get an idea of the various sections. Now, you will not be under a lot of stress.

In the second round, our aim should be to maximize our score by attempting the questions in our strong areas.

For example, if I am giving a BBA exam, and my English and Reasoning/Quant is good, then this is the strategy I will adopt:

• I will start with English – My aim will be to score 90-95% marks within 15 minutes. I may leave a few lengthy type questions for later, e.g. RC questions. I will mark the questions that I need to attempt first in the second round.
• Then I will attempt General awareness and Business Aptitude questions – In such questions, either we know the answer or we don’t. So, I will invest 10-15 minutes on each of these sections and solve all the easy and medium difficulty level questions. I will mark the questions that I need to attempt first in the second round. My aim is to leave a lot of time for Reasoning section.
• Now, I have around 1 hour and 20 minutes left for Reasoning / Quant section. I know I am good in this section, but these questions take some time even if you are good in them. But I will not get relaxed. I will first of all try to solve all the easy questions in this section, within 15-20 minutes. I will mark the questions that I need to attempt first in the second round.

So, within an hour or so, we have solved all the easy questions. Now, in the second round I will solve all the questions that I marked in the first round. Also, now my aim will be to maximize my score in my strong sections, i.e. Reasoning and English.

Keep the urgency level high throughout 2 hours. Sit straight up in your chair, not in a relaxed pose. The way you sit in exam hall, makes a lot of difference. Believe me!

Our aim should be to attempt any question of English, General Awareness or Business Awareness section within 30 to 45 seconds each. In Reasoning and Quant sections, you should not waste more than a minute or two on a question. Specially, in the first round – move on if a question is taking more than a minute. It’s really important that you follow this rule throughout. Getting struck on a question for 5 minutes mean that you have already made a big blunder. You can do so at the and of the second round, once you have attempted most of the other questions.

BBA entrance exam preparation online free

If you do not want to join a coaching, and you want to study for BBA right from the comfort of your home, you can do so. You may refer to our online Aptitude preparation guides for free:

• Website for Aptitude Preparation (In English)
• Website for Aptitude Preparation (In Hindi)

These websites should help you immensely in your preparation. Though you may refer to many other sources too. Believe me you will find many good websites and YouTube channels that will guide you. There’s no need to attend any coaching as such.

We hope, now you know how to prepare for BBA entrance exams at home (or for any other Aptitude based exam).