How to crack interview at ISI

76-07-2023 1389 words 7 minutes

Contents

How can one crack the interviews at Indian Statistical Institute and for that matter possibly any academically oriented Interview.

Introduction

Interviews are daunting, especially the first one. Many students have to go through interviews during the admission process of various institutes. Here, I will provide a general guide on how to prepare for such interviews, specifically targeting the ISI B.Stat. interview. This guide is based on my personal experience and numerous reviews I found on the internet, such as those on Quora, quoted as sample answers.

Pre-Planning

Wear formal attire and be humble while answering questions without making any pretensions (as advised by my seniors).
Upon reaching the institute, your documents may be verified by an official. After that, you will be called for the interview, which may last up to 30 minutes. They asked me about my drop year, my interests, and why I wanted to opt for this program.

During the Interview

Expect 5–7 interviewers of all age groups.
TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF: Talk about your achievements, hobbies, and interests.
Sample Answer : Quora
- If you are not proficient in English, it doesn’t matter. Ensure that what you say is what you mean. They asked about my ambition and goals, to which I spontaneously replied, “I will pursue a career in Maths, no doubt about it.” They will ask about other entrances you took this year or last year (if you’re a dropper), why you took a drop year, and what you did during that year. Make them realize that you love maths and are eager to join ISI.
How did you feel about the difficulty of the UGB paper?
Sample Answer : Quora
- They asked about my expected UGA/UGB score and the number of right/wrong questions. I said that in the exam hall, I found the paper really tough, but later discovered that 2 or 3 of the 4 problems I left during the exam were quite solvable. Upon saying this, I was asked to solve the 1st problem of the UGB paper. Here, disaster struck. I was prepared to face my unsolved problems, but I got stuck in the last part of my solution. I was not very confident about my UGB score and, as I got stuck, the professors waited for about 30-45 seconds before telling me to leave that problem.
Green board and firing questions
Sample Answer : Quora
- They were giving hints and were quite helpful.
- They asked, “Your favorite topic of interest is Calculus, but why did you choose B.Stat over B.Math?”
- I told them my little story about why I chose Statistics as my prime interest.
- They started asking me subjective questions I didn’t solve or got wrong in the exam. Therefore, I suggest you be prepared for such questions (they take away the question paper, so be aware).
- They asked why I chose ISI over other colleges, why B.Stat/B.Math, and why I think I deserve to be in ISI.

Suggestions

Learn how to draw graphs of functions/equations. They might ask you to sketch such a graph roughly.
While solving problems, keep informing them about your progress, even if you haven’t solved the problem completely, so they can keep assessing you and understand the difference between you and a student who couldn’t do anything.
General interview tip: Don’t carry the success/failure (especially the latter) of the preceding question to the next one. Stay calm. They are not there to scare you; in fact, quite the opposite. Also, don’t try too hard to find out what they asked others; there is little/no chance of repetition.
Be cautious on the blackboard. Take care with mods and catch their hints if they emphasize something.
Know the definitions and derivations well, like the limit of a sequence, what it means for a function to have a limit at a point, to be continuous at a point, or to be differentiable at a point. Keep calm and try to solve the problems they pose. If you have experience in problem-solving, you won’t have trouble with the ones they ask, as they will mostly ask you questions from the basics, such as how you would find the derivative of log(x) with respect to x. (They won’t ask what the derivative is; they will ask you to derive it.)
Timing of Interview:
Quora
- My interview lasted barely 10–15 minutes, which astonished me. But it depends. A guy before me lasted an hour, leading us to believe the interview hadn’t started yet. The girl after me had a 10-minute interview and got selected. She was asked only from calculus. The guy after her had a 50-minute interview and, as it seems from the list, was not selected. A senior I talked to at lunch had a very short interview and was sent back after 3-4 minutes. He was asked his name, JEE rank, and if he wished to study there, to which he said yes. That was all! It all depends on your subjective test performance, willingness to study there, and attitude. Be confident and respectful; that should suffice!

Possibilities you should consider (from Quora)

“Your solution is correct, but it’s lengthy. Can you prove it by contradiction?”
The third question was on calculus, something about asymptotics, a term I had never heard before. Needless to say, I could not figure out the problem. Then they told me the interview was over, lasting probably 20-25 minutes. I was sure I wouldn’t get in.
I got confused in a Permutation and Combinations question—why am I adding and not multiplying my selections? (A simple question, but in an interview, you might get confused whether they are checking your confidence or pointing out a mistake?) My suggestion is to be confident as they might attempt to confuse you to check your fundamentals.
They asked if I knew number theory. I simply said, “I’m sorry, sir, I know nothing about it,” so they skipped it and moved back to calculus.
Wrong questions may be asked: It might be a trap, or they may be expecting “does not exist” as an answer.
One of the professors quoted something I had written earlier and asked if it was correct. I was prepared for this and told them I wrote the statement intuitively in the exam hall but could now prove it logically. They told me to proceed, and I successfully completed the proof within 3-4 minutes.

My Experience

They will judge you based on how you react to hints and whether you can catch the main idea in the problem using their hints, which are quite useful.
They may ask only one question from your favorite topic and another from your second preference, but they may also ask about any topic, including ones you are weak in.
They may not point out mistakes in your answers or attempts and sometimes even praise you for the idea, even if it is wrong.
Usually, early interviewees and those with strong UGB scores are asked only about the unattempted or wrong answers in the UGB. Sometimes, they may not ask you anything about your UGB scores, answers, or approaches.
Questions are usually typical and not that tough (UGB level). They want to know how you approach a problem, how responsive you are to hints, and how well you understand and know the concepts you are using (be ready to prove whatever claim you make).

Now I want to share with you some interview problem sets I found over the internet. Note:- All the credits goes to the authors who gave their time crafting those pdfs, I am just sharing with the ones who might need it.

HERE is the draft of this article. You can download this to keep it for later, when you would have cracked the exam and needed some final tips for the interview.

You would like to check my other articles on ISI Preparation and NOTES, Problems and other important resources to follow. Also before even trying to go to ISI and CMI like colleges, check out this article to know if it is even for you or not and what is my story behind saying this.

Hope it helps, Thanks !