What To Do If You Have Low Marks In 10th/12th/Graduation | Tips From An IIM Calcutta Student

You will often get quizzed or grilled in interviews regarding your low grades. If you yourself are not clear about how you feel about your poor grades, it sends a very poor impression to the interviewer. You could express genuine regret or you could explain how your time was constructively spent on some other pursuit. But unless you truly believe in that answer, your nervousness will show.

Why, after all, do people have low grades? There are multitudes of reasons. Some very personal, some generic. There are instances where there is some personal tragedy or illness or other such cause, in which case there is a genuine cause. But usually, it is just a case of us having spent much lesser time on our academics than others. And the effects of this get magnified when you are at a highly competitive college of any stream. Nearly everyone is highly talented and hardworking. Even a slight drop in effort relegates you to average grades.

So rather than continually berate oneself for poor grades, it is better to look back to how one’s time was spent on the whole. For a lot of us, it was spent in fun. Be it sports, cultural activities, Positions of Responsibility or just spending time hanging out with friends, the memories are good. It is just that the time allotment to academics should have been less skewed. So yes, you do have low grades. But you also made the conscious choice to enjoy life in a particular manner, which is not something to regret.

Let us now look at how you can rectify this.

Scout For Those Colleges That Are More Forgiving When It Comes To Grades

The message is self-explanatory. This is the most important step. Different B-Schools have varying criteria. For instance, while IIM A lays stress on your grades at all 3 levels, IIM C focuses only on your grades in 10^th and 12^th. So for someone with a high very percentile and low college grades, IIM C offers an avenue. This scouring does not require a lot of effort. Some Googling would do the trick. Make a list of such colleges and their requirements. Then ensure that you complete those.

Build A Profile

Depending on the sector you are targeting, you can go about building a suitable profile. For instance, for someone targeting sales and marketing, market research internships are a good option. They are relatively easier to get as well. While that would not help you in getting a call from B schools, it will certainly help you in placements. Keep in mind that a poor grade during graduation hurts your summer internship placements as well. But if you do have something related to your sector on your CV, you could still get shortlisted for company interviews. For finance, something like CFA helps. Not to forget the exact nature of work that you have done in your job. A lot of interviews during placements here do dwell on your past work experience (if you are not a fresher). Hence you should ensure that you deliver a great quality of work in your company prior coming to a B school. For a fresher, there is honestly not much that one can do. I would know, I am one. But you can still part in activities, hobbies or any internships that help you in interviews. In my interview for IIM C, the interviewers were willing to overlook my average grade when they sensed my genuine enthusiasm in other fields like history and languages.

At the end of it all, there is certainly an element of luck involved. But you can rectify your poor grades to a large extent by controlling the controllable factors.

Have more questions around low academics? Ask them on the InsideIIM Q&A section and get your questions answered by B-school students and members of the MBA community!