My interview at the BSBE Department, IIT-B was on 9th May, 2016.
I reached the venue well in time. We were given a list of projects available with their brief descriptions.
After some announcements, we were moved to the BSBE seminar hall where we were asked to wait for our turn for the interview.
My turn came after lunch.
In the interview hall, there were four professors.
They checked my PhD application and immediately remarked about my GATE (BT) 2016 score of 803. They asked me about my AIR which I told them was 17.
They seemed to be really happy about it and started asking questions –
Professor 1: Tell me about different structural levels of proteins
Me: (I described primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary proteins and described them.)
Professor 1: Name an example of quaternary protein
Me: Haemoglobin.
Professor 1: Can you explain the structure of haemoglobin?
Me: Sure. (answered)
Professor 1: How can you isolate the different subunits of haemoglobin?
Me: We could do SDS page analysis which would give us the alpha and beta monomers (plus a little bit more detail in the answer)
Professor 1: How would you know that there are two alpha/beta monomers and how would you separate them?
Me: (Got stuck here a bit but they hinted me and I was able to answer) They can be separated using gel chromatography.
Professor 1: Draw the gel and how would the separated bands look like? (Gel electrophoresis)
Me: (Went and drew it on the board correctly)
Professor 2: (A question on permutations and combinations) There are 8 teams and each has to play with one another until a winner is decided – how many games would be played between them?
Me: (Tried to solve on the board using combinatorics but struggled to arrive at the solution)
Professor 2: Your approach is right.
Professor 3: Draw any graph from enzyme kinetics
Me: (Drawing the Michaelis-Menten graph) Sir this is the Michaelis-Menten graph.
Professor 3: If another substrate is added with higher value of Km how would the graph look like?
Me: (Managed to redraw show him the changes on the board which he seemed to be satisfied with)
Professor 4: If there is 1 µg per ml of substrate and you another another mg so that now there’s 2 µg of substrate, how would this change the graph?
Me: (I was confused and could not answer this)
With this my interview ended.
I felt I struggled a lot with the questions and came out very dissatisfied from my 20-min long interview.
The same evening, results of the interview were declared and I was really happy to see myself shortlisted for the second interview which was supposed to be held two days later.
Continue to read my experience of the second round of Interview
Hi Ma’am,
Your blog is very helpful and thank you for sharing your interview questions. Can you please tell what is the paper pattern for the written test for PhD and also what is the lab allotment process for PhD in the bsbe dept. at IITB?
Hi Puspita, they usually have PCMB, Engineering and Physiology – so 6 sections but you’ve to attempt any 2 out of these. This might change though. Lab allotment process is floated after your interview and you can give your preference but the final allotment depends on your ranking among other candidates and the mutual agreement between the guide and the students.
Hello Ma’am, thank you very much for the detailed information.
Hello ma’am, how are you doing? Can you please tell us about your PhD experience?
Hey, I wanted to ask you that I have got an interview for spring season in iit b department biomedical and bioengineering for phd, so would there be any written test for that and if it is there then which types of question would it contained, would you help me with that????
Hi Yamini, how was your interview? Its really difficult to say what kind of questions they’d ask, but similar to GATE/NET questions in the corresponding field probably.
hello, i am a biomedical engineering graduate and been called for m.tech test+interview in bsbe iitb. what is the scope for masters in biomedical in iitb in terms of learning and placement. also what type of questions should i expect?
Hi Sagar,
I am sorry I have no idea as to what kind of questions are asked in the M.Tech interviews. I had applied for PhD and hold an MSc degree. But all I can advise you is to be thorough with your concepts taught in your bachelors and you will be good to go. The scope is pretty good and placements are assured. So you don’t have to be apprehensive about that part. Just prepare yourself well and you can hit it. Yes, one thing I can tell you is that if you had a biology background before then you will have to appear for a mathematics written test and conversely, if you have had a maths background then you shall have to appear for biology test.
All the Best!
Hello,
I got the PhD interview call from Chemistry and BSBE Dept. I have completed M.Pharma in Pharmaceutics from Jamia Hamdard. Really i don’t know how to prepare for written and interview. Could you please explain the pattern of written test if they will ask. Should i focus for Pharma or brush up with life science too for Interview. Humbly request to you please reply soon. You know that our written and/interview will be on 9 to 11 may.
Hi Abdul,
I am sorry I have no idea as to what kind of questions are asked in the written test in chemistry department, since I had applied only in BSBE department where only interviews form the basis for PhD selection. But from what my common sense says you need to focus on core chemistry for both written test and interview in the chemistry department. I am not sure as to how much your knowledge in pharmaceutics will help. But my advice is brush up on your fundamental chemistry concepts. As far as BSBE is concerned, you do need to revise on life science basics such as enzymology, cell biology and molecular biology. They may even ask you your favourite subject and question you on that. However, do not neglect your own strength. Do brush up on pharmaceutics.
Hope this helps!
All the best!
Hi dear,
Thanks for sharing your experience with us.Iqualified gate 17 with Air 192 with life sciences, and i got a call for interview from IITbombay .Should there be a possibility of getting selected as i have not a biotech background? ?
Hi Monika,
It depends a lot on the interview and the requirement of the professors who are taking PhD students at that time. PhD selections happen according to the available projects.
HELLO,maam do u think there are no good jobs available after Msc microbiology?
Hi Deepika,
There are certainly some good jobs available in pharmaceutical companies, food industries for food technologists, medical coding, content analyst to name a few. You need to tap on the right one. You can get yourself registered in the job offering sites and keep looking for the jobs that might interest you. Apply for them, keep giving interviews as it is next to impossible to get a job with the very first interview. However, the pay and the subsequent hikes are not quite high. So you need to do either MBA or PhD to get a desirable salary.
Thanks,
Ritu
Thanks for the reply 🙂
Did u take any gap after msc for preparing for net and gate?
Hi Deepika,
Thanks for checking out my posts. Yes, I had taken a year’s gap for the preparation, although not with an intention to appear for the exams. Eventually it happened and I subsequently applied for PhD at 2 institutes. I chose IITB. 🙂
Thanks a lot for sharing. loved the way you summarised the interview. The solution of the permutation problem is 28. 🙂
Thanks for sharing the answer 🙂
Thank you for reading my posts. Hope you will find it more informative as more posts come up!
Hi, This is so kind of you please put a column on GATE and CSIR preparation too.
Iam a bit weaker in chemistry part, so please tell me how many questions one should answer correctly in GATE- chemistry to get a decent AIR. ( please mention no.of questions in microbiology and biochemistry papers too ). thank you
Hi Pinke!!
Thanks for checking out my posts. I will definitely take your suggestion into consideration and come up with a post on CSIR-NET and GATE preparations as soon as I can. It will be my pleasure to help you out. In my post I will help you strategise on attempting the paper smartly. I would kindly request you to keep checking for any such updates regularly on my site.
Thanks,
Ritu