Since it operates from its temporary campus where the hostel facilities are outside the campus for boys, the institute does not promise the same level of rigor one expects from an IIM. The scope of surprise quizzes and assignments and preponement of deadlines is very less because of the lack of necessary facilities provided by the institute. However, on the bright side, this story is expected to change once IIM Sirmaur shifts its operations to the newly built permanent campus.

My Profile: Fresher, 9/8/8 Academics, Graduation in Computer Application.

There were two panelists and one of them was from a tech background. My interview started with a question about my introduction. Since I was a BCA graduate, my follow up questions were mostly like: Why is python widely used in the companies? Why do companies prefer Python over JAVA and C++? What is a List and a Queue? Basically, if you are a fresher, you should be well versed with the syllabus of your graduation. Later, I belonged to Jalandhar, so the rest of my questions were: Give me one USP of Jalandhar? What is Jalandhar famous for? Few of the most prominent questions asked to me were: Why MBA after BCA? Why not MCA?

So, I suggest all the students should at least prepare their syllabus from the graduation, thoroughly research about their city, state and about their interests, and must be very clear with the goals for pursuing an MBA.

At IIM Sirmaur and for that matter, in most IIMs, a following sample structure of grading is followed: - 

Component	Marks
End Term	25
Mid Term	15
Group Projects	30
Assignments/Quizzes	20
Class Participation	10
Total	100

Please note that the marking scheme varies from faculty to faculty but the above mentioned components are the most used components used by the faculties to award marks to the students. Sometimes, when more than one faculty member teaches a course, the marking scheme splits into two or three and individual professors will have an individual marking scheme with the respect to the total marks bifurcated between the faculty members.

To be honest, it requires more effort by the student to fail a course than to pass a course. The reason being that a majority part of the grading system is mostly qualitative. This means that if a student completes his assignments, takes part in his group projects and actively participates in a lecture will never fail a subject. The term exams constitute very less and even if a student scores a 0 in his term exams, provided he is an active participant in the rest of the grading schemes, will still not receive even a D. The students suffer mostly because of the lack of enough attendance (which leads to a grade drop) and lack of listening and participation in a course.

IIM Sirmaur like most B-schools follow a relative grading. However, each student is required to score an overall 35 marks out of 100 at the end of the course. The grading system varies from faculty to faculty and is relative to the highest marks scored in the course. If a student is below 35 marks, he is considered a failure and awarded an F in the course. A student securing 2 Fs in a year is required to repeat the year. A student securing D, which is basically the lowest grade offered to a student based on the grading scheme, can have utmost 2 Ds in one year. A 3rd D will mean a repeat year. However, Ds are rarely awarded while Fs are common amongst the students.

All the exams are practical application based where almost every exam has a case-study and certain questions are asked on the respective case study. The student is required to read the case study in a period of 2.5 - 3 hours and simultaneously answer the questions asked on the case-study. The questions asked are mostly strategy and analysis based and the exams are usually open book. The students are required to use theoretical knowledge and use it to answer the questions within the stipulated time.

Since IIM Sirmaur still operates from a temporary campus, it does not offer as much rigor as other B-Schools. Every term is of three months and typically, in the 1st year, every term has 9-10 mandatory courses. Every course has a unique grading system set by the faculty member. Almost all the courses require a student to prepare a final group project. The guidelines of the group projects are circulated within 2-weeks of the commencement of the course. Every course has a Mid-Term which takes place after 1.5 months and an End-Term at the end of the term. The marking scheme varies from faculty to faculty. During the term-exams, the students are not given any holidays in between the exams and every day, at most two exams take place. The final week of the term is extremely hectic as the deadlines of all the group projects are scheduled in the final week along with presentations of almost all the projects. Hence, it is advisable to complete the projects 1-2 weeks before the deadline. The second year is less exhausting as each term has only 6-7 courses while the 6th term has only 3 courses. Midterms are usually not held in the second year and the volume of classes per week is also very less.

If we look at the past trends, most students get placed in the Marketing specialization. Also, the current Director of IIM Sirmaur is one of the most reputed personalities in the country when it comes to Marketing. The top Marketing roles offered at IIM Sirmaur are Area Sales Manager, Marketing Research Associate, Leadership Trainee, Advertisement Operations Specialist, Digital Marketing, etc. The top companies hiring students for the Marketing roles are: Amazon, HCL, Cognizant, TATA Power, DS Group, Affinity, etc.