As we approach the half-way mark to the end of yet another academic year, there seems to be no end in sight to the global pandemic situation. This brings to mind a significant amount of uncertainty, which adds to the natural anxiety about placements and the questions regarding the same. The Student Council has thus brought forth an initiative addressing these issues, particularly aimed at the benefit of students in their fourth year.

The Centralised Placement Training Platform was created for the sole purpose of helping students ace the on-campus recruitments at MIT, Manipal. It must not be confused with the Placement Portal of the Institute. This platform is strictly for performance improvement, as initiated by Harish Pawar, Placement Secretary of the Student Council.

The website has a ‘Test’ section wherein students have access to a number of practice tests for their recruitment, pertaining to their respective departments. The papers are a repository of questions from subjects ranging from the third to sixth semesters. These have been set after consultation with seniors from each branch, with due regard given to key points mentioned by recruiters. There are 80-100 multiple choice questions in each 90-minute mock paper. Furthermore, the website contains a link to a compilation of descriptive type questions with answers.

“These tests strive to simulate the online assessments that are conducted by recruiting companies. They are purposed to equip students with the aptitude needed to successfully pass the technical rounds of the placement process. However, the students should be mindful of the fact that not all questions listed in the portal are exhaustive in nature and, therefore, may not reflect the actual technical interview process during the recruitment,” said Harish, in dialogue with the Post.

Interested candidates can register to give the tests in the ‘Test’ section of the website. Upon choosing their branch, they will be directed to a HackerEarth portal for a four-step process–logging in, detail entry, instructions, and finally, the test itself. Questions are categorised as ‘easy’, ‘medium’, and ‘hard’ and negative marking exists in accordance with the same. A candidate can only give one test a week. The next attempt can be made only after one week has elapsed.

HackerEarth only passively monitors the test–there is no live proctoring. Clicking outside the test window–including on any pop up generated by your system–will issue a warning, after which the session will be terminated. While the tests are configured with basic security settings, it is important to remember that the recruiting companies are bound to have more advanced proctoring settings.

“The ideation behind this platform stems from interactions with corporate executives, who have expressed their desired expectations from young employees,” explained Harish. “By the usage of this platform, students can assess the areas for improvement, bettering the chances of their selection. The elements of resilience and motivation is what recruiters seek and I hope that by virtue of the users’ hard work, this platform will play a part in their successful recruitment pursuits.“

This is the first edition of this unique initiative and is currently only available to the incumbent batch of 2021. Questions will be added and updated as and when the process of a recruiting company finishes successfully. Subject to student response, the portal will be made available to 3^rd-year students, and is expected to be followed by subsequent editions.

Featured Image: Giphy