This blog post of mine follows from an earlier blog article titled: NIC Recruitment 2011 Notification, Eligibility & Forms, in which I promised to provide you the prep materials (the exam papers & books ) for NIC Exam for Scientific Officer/Engineers Although I had searched on the net extensively for NIC exam papers and books, I found that the materials for NIC exams are very scarce. So whatever I could find I am presenting it below.

First the pattern of NIC exam.

NIC written test consists of a 100 mark test, which has two parts – Part-I (Objective) paper has 30 marks & Part-II (Descriptive) paper has 70 marks.

NIC exam paper Part-I consists of 30 questions, each worth 1 mark. NIC exam paper Part-II consists of 6 descriptive questions, out of which you have to attempt 5 questions, each worth 14 marks (hence 70 total marks in Part-II).

You can find the section-wise distribution of marks along with type of questions in NIC exam in the table given below:

Almost each year ISRO conducts two separate exams for recruiting its manpower – one for its technical stream for the positions of Scientists/ Engineers and the other for its administrative stream for the positions of Administrative Officer/Accounts Officer/ Purchase & Stores Officer. Where do you find the sample papers for these ISRO Scientists/ Engineers Exam and the ISRO exam for Administrative Officer/Accounts Officer/ Purchase & Stores Officer?

This blog post provides you the sample papers and previous years exam papers of ISRO post-wise. If you would like to know what are the eligibilities for ISRO Scientists/ Engineer positions and how to apply for the same, please visit my blog post titled: ISRO Recruitment 2012 Scientists/Engineers Notification Eligibility Forms. And if you would like to know the eligibilities and the application process to apply for ISRO Administrative Officer/Accounts Officer/ Purchase & Stores Officer please visit this ISRO notification for the Admin streams.

In providing you these previous years exam papers of ISRO, I am giving below the direct links to download these exam papers from ISRO website. But because these sample papers may be removed from ISRO website or may become unavoidable for change in ISRO server resources, I have also given below an alternative link for downloading these ISRO exam papers from box.net web server.

Download ISRO Exam Papers for Accounts Officer:
Click here to Download ISRO Exam 2007 Accounts Officer Papers.
Click here to Download ISRO Exam 2008 Accounts Officer Papers.

Download ISRO Exam Papers for Purchase and Stores Officer:
Click here to Download ISRO Exam 2007 Purchase and Stores Officer Papers.
Click here to Download ISRO Exam 2008 Purchase and Stores Officer Papers.

NPCC (National Projects Construction Corporation) Ltd. Has just yesterday issued recruitment notification 2011 for 105 managerial positions. These positions in NPCC is for experienced persons only and not for freshers. Last date to apply for NPCC Recruitment 2011 is 18.08.2011.

You can click here to download NPCC Recruitment 2011 Notification.

This blog post encapsulates the information contained in above notification to help you apply for the same as well as to archive it for future NPCC recruitment like NPCC Recruitment 2012-2013.

But before that a small write up on NPCC.

What is NPCC:
Established in 1957, NPCC Ltd., a Premier PSU engaged in Engineering Construction, Planning, Operation and Project Management Consultancy. It was created to provide the necessary manpower & know how for the construction of National Projects and also act as a price deterrent for the Private Sector. So far it has completed over 130 National Projects.

It has specialization in the fields of Industrial Infrastructure, Thermal, Hydroelectric, Tunneling, Railways, Highways, Surface Transport, Townships, Buildings, Dams, Weirs, Barrages, Public Health, Environmental Engineering and Border Fencing, Flood Lightning Works etc.

NPCC is manned by 822 personnel (344 Executives, 363 Non-Executives & 1115 workmen). You can find more about NPCC from this About Us page.

NPCC Vacancy 2011:
There are 101 managerial positions & 4 staff positions. You can find the post-wise vacancies of NPCC for the year 2011 along with the maximum age limitation in the table given at right.

Salary for NPCC Recruitment:
Post-wise salary for NPCC vacancies is given below:
i) E.D. Rs.93,390/- approx.
ii) G.M. Rs.67,380/- approx.
iii) JGM Rs.60,767/- approx.
iv) DGM Rs.54,040/- approx.
v) Sr. Manager Rs.46,590/- approx.
vi) Manager Rs.38,970/- approx.
vii) Dy. Manager Rs.31,530/- approx.
viii) Sr.Asstt. Gr.I(Legal) Rs.20,500/- approx.
Above is the Gross Salary at Delhi and they includes BP+DA+HRA+TA+Outdoor Medical etc.


NPCC Recruitment Eligibility:
You can find the grade-wise eligibility for these positions from page1-4 of the notification. Age eligibility (i.e. maximum) is as on 01.07.2011.

Selection process for NPCC Recruitment:
The selections would be based on Interview only, date and details of which would be sent to the shortlisted candidates.

NPCC Recruitment 2011 Form:
You can find the application form for NPCC Recruitment 2011 in Annexure-I of the notification (Page-9). How to apply for NPCC Recruitment 2011 is given in section “19. How to Apply:” of the notification (Page-7 onwards).

In short the application fee is Rs.125/- for SC/ST and Rs.500/- for others. This has to be submitted in the form of a DD in favour of “NPCC Ltd” payable at Faridabad (Haryana). After filling up the NPCC application form, you have to send it with enclosures to following address:

The Chief Manager (HR),
NPCC Ltd.,
Corporate Office,
Plot No. 67-68, Sector-25, Faridabad–121 004 (Haryana).
Tel. Ph. No.0129-2234760. EPABX No.4062856 to 59, Extn. No.210 & 218.

Hope with above information you can apply confidently for NPCC recruitment.
Best wishes!

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This blog post of mine follows an earlier blog article titled: TCS Freshers Recruitment 2011-2012: How to apply and prepare which not only informs you that there is a huge job opportunity to join TCS as a fresher in the year 2011-2012, but also tells you how to apply for it. Focus of this blog post is to provide you the prep materials for TCS exam – to enable you to download the TCS placement papers of previous years and also list out the prep books which can help you prepare for the exam.

And let us begin that by an analysis of the exam pattern of TCS recruitment.

TCS recruitment selection process:
The pattern of examination/selection process of TCS varies from exam to exam, depending on size of applicants and also the target vacancies for which that specific recruitment is done. However, for campus recruitment, following is the usual process of TCS selection:
1.0 Written test.
2.0 Group Discussion.
3.0 Psychometric test (Not an elimination round)
4.0 Technical Interview.
5.0 Management Interview.
6.0 HR Interview.
Depending on the time available for TCS recruiters, they may organize all these tests or may skip some of them (e.g. GD, Psychometric test) or may club them (e.g. MR & HR Interview). But it is better to know about each of them and therefore the description of the same in brief is given below.

Written test pattern of TCS:
The written test of TCS most commonly follows the pattern given at right.
Brief description of the three test sections are given below:
Verbal Aptitude:
It consists of about 10 synonyms, 10 antonyms, 5 sentence completion and 5 passage comprehension questions.
Quantitative Aptitude:
It consists of about 35-40 questions on Time & Distance, Age, Ratio, Compound interest, Probability etc.
Test of Reasoning:
It consists of about 3 passage and 4 questions in each passage (i.e. 12 questions) on Seating arrangements, marriage problems etc.

TCS GD topics:
From what I could gather from the exam experiences of previous TCS recruitments, the GD topics given in TCS are either Factual or Controversial GD topics. What are Factual & Controversial GD type of topics? You can find it in my previous blog article titled: Types of Group Discussion Topics. You can prepare for the TCS GD based on the topics given in that blog post.

TCS Psychometric test:
What is a psychometric test? Mostly held over net (sometime also held pen-paper), it actually tries to find out the personality in you by cross-questioning you through a rapid-fire quiz round (about 150 questions to be answered in 30 minutes). This is not an elimination round and hence you should not be un-necessarily worried about it. You will never fail a psychometric test even without preparation, provided you do not fail yourself by giving contrasting answers to same question asked at two/three places.

Also, please note that psychometric test is not held in all TCS recruitments. So may be if you are lucky, you may escape it. But it is better to remain prepared and hence to know more about it, please visit my earlier blog article titled: Psychometric Test for Jobs.

TCS Technical Interview Questions:
Questions asked in TCS Technical Interview mostly surrounds your final year projects and also few questions on topics such as OS, Router, C, Java, SQL query, Data structure etc

TCS HR Interview Questions:
Questions asked in HR Interview in TCS are very simple and straight forward: tell about you, your family, your strengths, weakness, hobbies, are you familiar with the TCS service bond? Willing to work any where in India?

TCS MR Interview Questions:
Questions asked in the TCS MR Interview are again very simple and are targeted towards finding your confidence level, your capability to manage a team or a given situation i.e. your leadership capability. MR Interview may be clubbed with HR Interview or may be held separately.

Screening process of TCS:
How does TCS screens candidates in each stage, e.g. how many candidates who appears in written test qualifies for TCS interview? How many qualifies interview and are finally selected? I did an analysis of same and found that in written test, most of the person qualifies – highest was 96%, lowest: 47% with an average of 77%. This is because TCS written test questions are reported to be predictive – they are repeated from previous years and also proper study of few chapters of Baron’s GRE guide helps you to qualify for TCS written test.Percentage of candidate qualifying in TCS Interview is also quite good – on an average 40%-60% of persons appearing the interview. You can find the detailed analysis of TCS screening process from the graph below. The data for this sample was taken from candidate feedback from this yuvajobs compilation of TCS papers.
TCS Placement Papers – Previous years/Sample Papers :
Unlike scarcity of placement papers for other companies, the previous years TCS placement papers are abundantly available on the internet and you can find them very easily with Google. However to reduce your effort, I am pointing you to the following two rich sources of TCS Sample/Previous years papers:

Click here to download Yuvajobs collection of TCS Previous years papers in .doc fomat.
Click here to find placementpapers collection of TCS Previous years papers.

Prep Books for TCS Placement:
There is one book which has been recommended by all previous TCS written test candidates for the “Verbal” & “Quantitative” aptitude test sections: Barons GRE guide. For the “Test of Reasoning” section you can buy the book.

These books are available in most of the bookstores, but you can also order them online by clicking the links below, from Flipkart.com which offers huge discounts upto 30%, apart from free shipping/postage in India if the order exceeds Rs. 100/=. You can choose to pay through Credit Card/Debit Card/Internet Banking. You can also choose to pay through “Cash-on-Delivery” i.e. you pay in cash only when the same is delivered at your doorstep:

BARRON'S GRE by Sharon Weiner Green Publisher: Galgotia
List Price: Rs. 475; Offer Price:Rs. 333; Discount: Rs. 142 (30%)

NIC (National Informatics Centre) has just today issued recruitment notification 2011 for 62 Scientific Officer/Engineer-SB (Programmer). Last date to apply online for these positions is 5th August, 2011.

You can click here to find the NIC Recruitment Notification 2011 for Scientific Officer/Engineer-SB (Programmer).

This blog post tells you in a nutshell about these NIC Recruitment 2011 – the exam/application form dates together with the eligibility. The contents have been reproduced from the original NIC recruitment notification, so that even the future NIC job hopefuls can get idea about the NIC exam eligibility & forms – say for NIC Recruitment 2012.

But before proceeding further, let us know about NIC with a small summary on NIC.

Established in 1976, (NIC) is a premiere science & technology organisation of Govt. of India in informatics services and information-and-communication- technology (ICT) applications. NIC is a part of Indian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology's Department of Information Technology.

It has played a pivotal role in steering e-governance applications in the governmental departments at national, state and district levels, enabling the improvement in, and a wider transparency of, government services. Almost all Indian-government websites come under NIC. As a part of its support to the Government, NIC has established extensive ICT infrastructure having satellite based network at more than 3,000 locations across the country, Video Conferencing facilities in 490 districts and Nationwide network including 1,00,000 (approximately) Local Area Network (LAN) nodes in different offices of central/state governments.

With its headquarter at New Delhi, it has country-wide network with offices in all state capitals and all districts. You can find more about NIC in its About us page.

Category-wise vacancy positions for Scientific Officer/Engineer-SB (Programmer) is:
SC : 6; ST : 9; OBC : 16; UR : 31, Total: 62.

NIC is offering salary for these Scientific Officer/Engineer-SB positions pay scale of Rs. 9300-

Design, development, implementation and maintenance of software and systems for various Government Departments / Organizations. Technical support to various areas relating to Data Centre Management, such as System Administration, Database Administration, Storage Systems Management, Networking, Data Security etc.

You can find the NIC online form for Scientific Officer/Engineer in the recruitment notification page given at top.

TCS has announced its recruitment plans for 2011-2012 and this is surely going to light up your day – it plans to go for a massive recruitment of 60,000 heads in FY 2011-2012, out of which it will recruit about 20,000 in this quarter (July-September) alone. I quote below TCS CEO MD N Chandresekaran in this regard:

"The company during second quarter is expected to hire 17,000 to 20,000 people, The company plans to hire about 60,000 people in the ongoing financial year (2011-12)..”

You can find the details of this news in Times of India article dated 14th July, 2011 This massive manpower requirement in TCS is because it is chasing 12 large deals in the US, UK and in Europe and additional deals in emerging markets.

Among the 60,000 to be hired, it is expected that bulk of the TCS recruitment (close to 55%) is going to be for freshers and hence this blog post is dedicated to tell you : How to apply to TCS as a fresher? Where is the TCS application form? What is the TCS eligibility criteria for freshers? What is the TCS selection process for freshers? In another blog article titled: TCS Placement papers & Interview Questions I would tell you how to prepare for the TCS selection process.

Bur before that let us know TCS as an organisation – since the knowledge of an organisation always helps to answer those questions in the HR interview.

This blog post is therefore being made to help the freshers know what is the selection process in a Infosys campus/off-campus interview – the exam pattern and would point you to the sources where you can find the Infosys exam/Interview questions so that you can base your preparations for it. You can also read my previous blog article: Infosys Careers for freshers 2011-2012: How to apply & Prepare which tells you what are the eligibility for a Infosys fresher and how to apply for it.

The selection process in a campus interview session normally kicks off with a 20 minute PPT (Pre-Placement Talk) presentation by Infosys HR guys in which you are told about the company, what it looks for you and what you can expect after joining it. You should pay proper attention to these presentations, as you can answer many HR interview questions from the information gathered from this PPT presentation.

How does a PPT presentation looks like? You can experience it from the NEPIF you-tube video below (WIPRO BPO PPT on 25th aug, 2007 at Guwahati univeristy, Assam):

Thereafter, the Infosys Campus Interview selection commences in following two stages:

What is the cut-off in Infosys selection process? This is the most asked question by freshers vying for a Infosys job. Well let me tell you that no one can tell you what is the cut-off at various stages, as the cut-off depends upon the relative performance of fellow-freshers, with whom you are competing for the Infosys job. Till the exam is completed and the marks are assessed, no one have any idea who would score how much.

So depending upon the relative performance of all freshers for that particular Campus Interview and also how many positions are open, the cut-off is decided on the spot by Infosys HR guys on that day. Your task is therefore very well defined – try to score as much as possible in all the stages.

Let us go into details of the Infosys campus recruitment process.

There are 70 questions in 2 sections of the Infosys written test –Test of reasoning and Verbal aptitude, with distribution of questions as below:

What sorts of questions are asked in these Infosys written aptitude tests?

Syllogism,Data Interpretation,Data sufficiency,Puzzle (blood relation, pictures). etc.

Reading comprehension, Sentence Completion/correction etc..

You can refer the following books for preparation of Infosys written test:

This is the final hurdle between you and the dream Infosys job. But do not worry much about the Infosys HR Interview. The questions asked are very general and if you maintain your cool and be confident, you can clear the HR interview very easily. As told before, you can answer many HR interview questions from the information gathered from the PPT presentation.

Following are some sample HR interview questions:

1) How was your technical interview.

2) Tell us about yourself

3) What do you know about Infosys

4) Why should we hire you

4) What difference do you bring if we hire you.

5). What is the first thing that you are going to do after joining our company.

Hope with above Infosys Campus Interview Exam Pattern, Interview questions and prep books you would be able to crack the placement event very easily. I would be on the look out for more information on Infosys placement event and post the same here. So keep checking this blog.

IGNOU OPENMAT is conducted every year in the month of February & August for selection of students for IGNOU MBA distance education program. How do you prepare for this exam? Where to find the Sample/Previous year’s exam papers of IGNOU OPENMAT and which books to study for this exam? This is the subject matter of this blog article, to provide you the prep materials for IGNOU OPENMAT with an analysis of IGNOU OPENMAT Exam Pattern.

If you do not know what is IGNOU OPENMAT but would like to know, please go through my previous blog article titled: IGNOU OPENMAT 2012/2013/2014 Exam Date, Eligibility & Forms which tells you why to appear for it and how to apply for the same.

IGNOU OPENMAT Exam Pattern:
Exam pattern of IGNOU OPENMAT has been consistent for last 5 years, with a single paper consisting of four test section, section-wise question and mark distribution of which is given in tabular form at right.

These 200 questions worth 200 marks are to be answered in 3 hours – roughly 1minute per question (54 seconds to be exact). Questions are reported to be basic and hence you should not have any problem in answering OPENMAT questions.

As you can see in above exam pattern analysis of IGNOU OPENMAT, maximum weightage has been given in the Test of Reasoning (35%) and the least in General Awareness (only 15%). So you must prepare yourself accordingly – put the maximum emphasis on doing Reasoning paper well.

IGNOU OPENMAT Exam Pattern is very similar to two other MBA entrance exams in India – MAT & ATMA as you can see in the following comparison of the two exams and tally the same with that of OPENMAT pattern given above:The topics are similar and hence you can use the sample papers & books for MAT & ATMA to prepare for IGNOU OPENMAT as study material.

Download Previous 5 years Exam papers of IGNOU OPENMAT:
To give you samples of what type of questions are asked in IGNOU OPENMAT exam, I had searched on the net for previous years exam papers of IGNOU OPENMAT – I had a hard time in finding the right web page in IGNOU website. Equally harder was locating the IGNOU OPENMAT exam papers of past years as that page is cluttered with previous years papers of other IGNOU exams.

Anyhow, I could find all the available old exam papers of OPENMAT and you can download it from following direct links of IGNOU website:
Click here to download OPENMAT-XX Exam Paper 2006
Click here to download OPENMAT-XXI Exam Paper 2007
Click here to download OPENMAT-XXII Exam Paper 2007
Click here to download OPENMAT-XXIII Exam Paper 2008
Click here to download OPENMAT-XV Exam Paper February 2009
Click here to download OPENMAT-XXVII Exam Paper February 2010

In addition to above old OPENMAT papers you can also use the following downloadable solved MBA entrance exam papers of MAT:
Full length solved paper of MAT February-2008 exam
Full length solved paper of MAT December-2007 exam
Full length solved paper of MAT-2007 exam
MAT Mock Test-3
MAT Mock Test-2
MAT Mock Test-1

Prep Books for IGNOU OPENMAT:
Which are the recommend books for IGNOU OPENMAT – this question has no single answer - it depends on which area you feel you are weak at and also how much time you have, to prepare for OPENMAT.

The general thumb rule for preparation for any exam is: if you have time, go for in-depth study topic-wise. But if you are short of time, go for a single guide book that covers all the topics. Therefore based on this thumb rule, you can use following books to prepare for IGNOU OPENMAT exam.


Prep Books for IGNOU OPENMAT specific test-sections: