I have been thinking on this idea for quite a some time now. It would be good to have this idea discussed over here.
The plan is to have the study material for management entrance exams (like CAT/GMAT) made available through some software, both online and offline. If we look at the candidates who take these exams, most of them come from the IT background and spend most of their time in front of computers. These candidates are always on lookout online for something to study . But they need to wade through the clutter of websites to reach the properly aligned study material. Other thing is even if the material is found online its really not put up in an user-friendly manner. They just get to read the problems and their answers. And for the candidates of GMAT having the study material on computers is very important thing as the exam that they finally take is on a computer.
For the success of this idea I think we need a few things mentioned below
1. Good study material in soft format
2. A software that is user-friendly, intuitive and can give the feeling of a virtual class-room. (e.g. a facility like scratch pad)
3. Pricing strategy that attracts most of the IT professional to go for the service.
I would be grateful to hear your suggestions, advices and doubts.
Suhas
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Mohit
I can give you an example. You get 1000 SC questions for GMAT in a word document. But how easy is that word document to use or to study?
I get to see all the answers all at once or none at all. This becomes cumbersome compared to the softwares you get with the Princeton or Manhattan books. Thats the area I’m planning to work on, provide best of the user experiences. Have you seen the Microsoft virtual labs? they have something innovative to offer for Microsoft technical education, through online services.
But I also agree with your point that something that is free always beats something that is paid unless the paid one has something innovative to offer.
Continuing the last comment
@Jason
That’s my ultimate plan, innovative online learning solutions that seek to simplify concepts and enhance curiosity.
@Mukul
Thanks for throwing light on the statistics
It would be very premature to comment like this, but I think why the offline players won’t venture into online services is their inclination towards the offline business model and comparatively lesser revenues from online business model. I think, there are ways to control piracy through innovative online models.
The other thing is, my plan is to target the people in IT or people who spent most of their time on computers and are planning to go for management tests.
@Raghu
Very nice point Raghu. AS I said earlier I’m working with an institute to strike a deal for content and legal issues.
Do you have any relevant software ready? It will be nice to talk about that.
@Bipin
Yes, I do agree that we also need some innovative advertisement drives to get in mass users. Any comments on that front are welcome.
@Deepak
Thanks again for such an elaborate statistics. The growth with my initial plan would be slow but my future plans don’t limit this venture just the GMAT/CAT online tests. There is a lot more to be offered through online services.
@Ankur
You hit the point.
The times have changed and so are the people’s perceptions towards internet and online services and the time have come that we should start delivering more and more services online as it makes your life easy.
It would be nice to hear your marketing experiences at e-gurucool, I have heard a lot about it.
I have had a thought of building just a benchmarking service — people land up at these exams not knowing where they stand in relation to competition — and then everything around that is frills… people would pay for that imho, and it is piracy proof…
Suhas,
You are right . Those free materials are way too deep hidden in forums. But its also because those are mostly copyrighted ( compiled best questions from various resources ) so they have to be distributed through these anoynomous channels. And even these forums are not safe anymore as one of the owners commented he has been approached by ETS ( they hold the GMAT ) regarding copyright issues.
And even the paid material is available freely if they dig deeper.
Again I dint spend anything online .. and I had every material on my computer that could be there for GMAT.
Thanks all
I am delighted to see your responses.
I will try to provide an answer that I have thought of for some of the comments.
@Vicky
Talks are on with a coaching institute to provide support through an offshore centre. I can’t divulge the name of the institute as nothing is on papers yet.
About videos, I have those plans in my mind but not to start with.
@Deepak Shenoy
That’s what the plan is in phase 2 or 3 of the business.
@Mohit
I have been seeing the material available online against payment as well free, but the major problem with this material is the organization. I had difficult times in organizing the material collected from online forums. Some of the online forums have a good deal of questions and comments but you have to wade through a lot of unnecessary comments to reach to the official answer with digestible explanation.
The other thing that all the online forums and software lack, I think, is the user experience. I haven’t gone through the Indiatimes mindscape, but I hope I have surely one of the best user experiences to offer.