Well! That was a terrific post Chandoo..... But..er........that raises the BIGGEST question! Is it really necessary to prepare for CAT? Am no kidding here guys....... Its been my belief that CAT is just an aptitude test and it requires no preparation!
All CAT does is test your 'basic' language and analytical skills.A majority of us would be able to answer most of the questions if given infinite time.So CAT just puts one under 'pressure' because you have 150 questions to answer in 120 mins.In a way,CAT just simulates the working condition one might face when he/she becomes a manager.So CAT does nothing but assess an individual's potential to work as a manager!So why prepare for it?
Again,look what happens when you prepare....(There are people who prepare for 2 years or even more!Please!Am not trying to demean their efforts in anyway!).......When you prepare for an aptitude test like CAT,you are continuously pushing youself to become something that you are actually not. You might even crack CAT.......but believe me!its not the 'real you' who has cracked it......you may not be able to reproduce such a result at all times!For those 2 hours you had 2 years of preparation.......you WILL NOT have 2 years to prepare for every two hours in your work as a manager!Preparation can only create a pseudo-aptitude to crack CAT on that day.....nothing more!It infact spoils the chance to assess ones 'real' aptitude!
So.......DONT PREPARE!
Btw,..... I got calls from ACLIK.........n i did not prepare for CAT.Absolutely nothing more than the 2 hours i spent taking the test.
Well!I would love to read the responses!
Rajesh
i agree.. just quoting this post, bcos this has some truth it...
DONT prepare might be a misleading advice.. but i feel that if our basics in maths and english are good, then we need not prepare to crack the CAT ...
IIMs are conducting CAT to pick those candidates with good aptitude and emotional quotient.. only if our preparation helps us to improve our aptitude and thinking ability, it will help..
i see a lot of ppl just putting loads of hours in solving Qs .. they say they want to increase their speed or accuracy.. i think thats immaterial.. what matters is the improvement in their thought process.. inspite of so much preparation, whats the use in getting damn tensed during the exam?? cant those nerds PREPARE TO STAY COOL AND CALM?? being too serious abt "preparing" for cat, only leads to disasters in most cases.. IMHO, our basic ability and character influences our CAT scores more than the "preparation" for it..
Its "success" (maybe after meticulous preparation or rise from ashes type) which has been the theme of inspirational stories all thorugh this "sacred thread".I feel my failure (although on this day , I am yet to have confirmed any admission offer - with final results to be declared although I am almost sure of making through the waitlists (thanks again to the domicile quota for Orissa candidates in XIMB) can be even more inspiring about what all can go wrong - to the point of frustration and even desperation. I know this is "save it for blog" stuff - but PG - rather this "holy thread"...i simply could not stop myself :D...here it goes...
Story before -
Decent enough grades till graduation (84.4% in CBSE Xth, 80.2% in 10+2), and joined Mechanical Engg in the "elite" "pedigree" "Oldest Engineering College" of Orissa - UCE, Burla (inception year 1956) , I thought it was quite an achievement. Although I joined Mechanical stream(year 2002), still the appeal of "MIT phenomena" (Male - IT engineer - this was and even today is predominant phenomenon in Orissa prompted me to be sincere enough to keep my "MIT" option open by changing my branch to either Electrical or Electronics. I did that with my scores in 1st & 2nd sems (again achievement no.2 - actually those who had changed our streams on the basis of sem scores had a sort of 'rockstar' aura around them - and I was no exception, I clung to that feeling). Planned for GATE exams , thought it would be a cakewalk.When 3rd sem i realised how much depth i had about my courses. I didnt ever cross the 70% mark barrier after 3rd sem till 8th (consistently scoring in 63-68% range whatever be my approach).These semester results provoked me to rethink about GATE plans, by 5th sem I had shunned the GATE idea completly...so what to do now then (i didnt knew since when, but that had been a subconscious urge in me that atleast I will definitely have a Master's degree, maybe family was the main motivator here, but it had been assumed and inherent all through)
Prep Stage -
Started off with CAT preparations by end of 4th semester, purchased those Abhijit Guha, Arun Sharma, M K Pandey (Banking Reasoning book) and subscribed to B&M; chronicle . Looks picture perfect. Now comes the loopholes - it was full time residential college, so hostel life is pretty cluttered (although the best enriching phase of anyone's career - same for me too). Make a routine, follow it for a day and flunk it the very next. Smoke and booze sessions fill up most of the timetables - bunking course classes, messing up assignments, additional memory devices - everything that can be expected from hosteliers (many puys would concur with me on this). But whatever be the 'masti' factor, I was determined to bell the CAT - atleast more determined than many of my batchmates with whom I shared those booze and smoke sessions. Scattered look at those chapters of the books (it was sort of a 'nobel prize' to solve couple of LOD 3 problems chosen by someone else after a booze/smoke session) , casual reading of magazines, even at times I was addicted to novels (thinking it would improve my RC skills), thought freecell & solitaire to be better at improving reasoning skills than any book - I had my own way of preparing - nothing systematic - no regularity - but I was to 'bell the CAT'.Seniors making through the IIMs were 'demigods' to me. I simply dreamt about myself in the same status (sometimes these were day dreams, sometimes hallucinations under 'smoky' influence). By start of 2005, I was almost done with my prep books (I thought it so). Purchased some old second hand TIME & IMS materials by Jan- Feb and showed the same sincerity level with my huge collection of materials (I was proud that I had the whole prep material at my disposal - and this was enough to push me into the IIMs - forgetting completely how messy was my sincerity with all those prep books).July- Aug 2005 CAT notifications out - bells started ringing - now I carried these TIME/IMS stuff to classroom and started rather showed off solving them there - escaping our prof's eyes. Naturally I shouldnt be hoping my sem scores to improve, rather thought CAT to compensate all my disgrace.
"Goof-Ups"
Here I missed another interesting mis-preparation aspect - TIME people were conducting Mock tests in college classrooms, I made it a point not to attend them ever (I did save some 3000 bucks - but I was of the belief that I can score more than anyone else who appeared for those Mocks) - this I would now say was my biggest mistake rather cardinal sin - but then I used to think this as my "confidence". Nov - CAT 2005 - around 60 attempts - I didnt know then there was something like section cut offs - overall cutoffs - nothing. I had been preparing my own CAT. When I came out one of my friends Somesh (he was another CAT..err MBA fanatic - he was determined ,of course not my type determination but in real sense, to join a b-school in 2006) talked to me about the sectional attempts, what could be the possible cut -offs - it was like I was listening to 'rocket science stuff in Chinese'. Further prodding revealed the facts about sectional /overall cutoffs.Then I realised the importance of prospectus' details. Still I had fared well enough by my standards. Although didnt expect any IIM calls still expected it to be around 96-97 odd. I had applied to MDI, NITIE, IMT & SPJIMR by then (next best insti to IIMs). CAT result out - final score 95.36 % - pathetic in VA section though(something around 40s-50s). QA & DI were decent (around 95 in each section). I thought I scored in my strength Quant Section (this was actually a self created demon which would destroy me later). I got GD/PI calls from IMT, but could just crawl through - confirmed HR.But I had a strong bias against HRs (maybe repeated rejection in campus selection interviews ignited this bias) - whatever be the reason I didnt join IMT- HR.
"Catch up period"
April-May 2006 - My engineering honeymoon period was over (mandatory 4 years with no back papers - thanks to my booze/smoke sessions that destroyed all my sincerity with studies - helped India increase its unemployed 'qualified' youth poulation) - but I knew that I had to crack CAT - maybe the magical thought itself kept the hopes alive in me. Till June 2006 - I thought to stay back at home, prepare hard for a year and get through the ivy league insti. but then who would accept a engineer who had been doing nothing for a year but just preparing for stuff that he had learnt during school days - but those answers i would seek once i get the GD/PI calls - i thought so then. I was into serious preparation - May - June 2006 - joined coaching institute at Bhubaneswar itself, got myself completely into CAT prep mode - then I realised what all I had goofed in those prep books that I thought I had completed earlier. I hadnt even had a complete look of all varieties that a lesson posed. Anyway better late than never I thought. By June end 2006 I was done with all those prep books purchased two years earlier (this time i had a real feel of the lessons). But now what? The coaching inst materials neednt be read all day - I realised I was wasting my time - literally wastage of time devoting whole day for CAT. July 2006 - I moved out to Bangalore - to atleast try for job, i neednt make any excuses atleast in PI stage.CAT 2006 being the target - again joined full time classroom course with TIME (not sure what affinity with TIME folks) in Bangalore and started applying for Job interviews.By september I was through - got a job in an Indian IT company "Wipro Technologies"- my plan of MIT was successful now - but there was a catch - my joining date got delayed by 3 months - December mid . CAT 2006 in Nov. With having secured something - I went back to my messy ways - same hanging around, boozing, missing the TIME coaching classes (but religiously collecting TIME materials on schedule). Expectedly CAT 2006 - pathetic 78.XX percentile - but atleast something paid off this time - XAT 2007 - made it through for XIMB (Orissa domicile after all) & GIM...could convert none of them. But thought that picture isnt as bad - I still have a job , can try it once more
"CAT 2007"
Did quite well enough in job - couple of awards, customer appreciations - onsite assignment - it was all happening for me. "But I had to crack CAT" - only Mock Tests - AIMCATs (same TIME folks - they have earned quite few bucks from my failures). Same project pressure, meetings, code issues, incident /problem tickets (run-of-the-mill excuses , I never fell short of them) - in spite of these excuses - MOCK TESTS. Regular in attending AIMCATs (used to score around 90-95 range whichever tactic I tried) - but "consistently fickle" in analysing the Mocks. I never used to give a second look at the mock tests after those 2.5 hrs. But it was sort of a 'ego' issue now - "I had to make into the ivy league inst.". CAT 2007 was bound to be no different with such messy effort, in fact left for the onsite assignment on C-Day itself (Nov 18. Excitement of first overseas trip, 3rd shot at CAT - all happening on the same day. I thought I did well enough - even had no ime to discuss the paper with friends - finally by the time I was back after 2.5 mnths CAT was out - I had no idea till then about my expected percentile range - absolute blank. Hadnt applied anywhere else - only IIMs. Results finally out - 94.36 percentile. Thought that "providence has something huge in store for me" - I am meant for IIMs - maybe next time - even I have a couple of colourful feathers of Onsite work-experience up my sleeves, should be a cakewalk if I give another sigh at CAT 2008
"CAT 2008"
From Feb I had made up my mind, that this year (for 2009-2011) I "will" make it through. But same story again - AIMCATS with TIME . 5 days of work 9 AM to 8 PM at office, 8:30 PM to 11 PM TV,complete sleep, friday night booze, saturday - magazine, movies (or occasional look at lessons/formulae - whatever came in my grip) - this was in brief summary of the routine I had been following. But "I will crack CAT" - whatever be my activities, I will make it big on C-Day , I will perform couple of notches better than I do with Mock tests. All through the Mock Tests and even in the exam hall, I always start off with QA (i feel its a disgrace as engineer to have something else as strength section) - but due to the same "mental block" I fare pretty awful in QA section, while perform exceptionally well in VA section (be it CAT, XAT - all through I have never scored less than 90 percentile in any VA section in CAT or XAT - prompting me to believe that first attempt CAT 2005 VA score maybe was an aberration) . Now not that VA is my strength, even till date I think QA is my strength - but performance shows something else. There has been simply no resurrection till date - I consistently repeat same mistakes each time, I appear each exam with the same bias/prejudice. Finally Nov 16 2008, my performance was no different from the mocks - but with the "mock effort" i wasnt cracking CAT, I tried something different "guesswork". I attempted 5 VA questions with "blind guesses" - 'RAM, LAKHAN, SITA type' - all 5 of them were wrong. Checked performance with few tutorials' , I was getting in the range of same 90-95 percentiles "wondered the story might have been bit brighter, had I not tried "something different""...but I was strong willed - its enough now, whichever inst i get through, I am definitely going for it this time. Enough is enough. This was my fourth attempt, I was getting impatient at the same CAT stuff (well words arent enough to describe impatience - many puys would have gone hrough the same themselves) Applied for a couple of inst in the 90-95 percentile range (final score CAT 2008 93.66 percentile). Screwed up IIFT big time, thought JMET went well enough (until results said I had not qualified), thanks to Orissa domicile quota in XIMB - XAT score of 91.66 percentile also gave me a GD/PI call. Finally gd/pi calls from IMT (nagpur), TAPMI, MICA, SIMSR and XIMB - nothing spectacular performance in any of them - but neither bad ones. Now confirmed with IMT (N), Waitlisted with XIMB , rest results awaited. Almost confident of getting through XIMB, i value this much much more- it means a lot to me. I couldnot correct my flaws/habits - inspite of which I made it through, i certainly feel I have acheived something "finally got rid of this CAT stuff" - my routines are my own "no more section bias, no further mocks" - its all over this time - finally.
Guys after so much of "pakaoing" strict no-no 'learning from my failures' , all this shouldnt be done ever -
1)Never mess up your schedules - fun is part of life - not the complete picture - right word would be "DISCIPLINE" 2)Too much preparatory material isnt an asset - rather practising whatever one has is the most important 3)Never take the Mocks lightly - these are actual confidence builders, and its where the real preparation bears fruit (atleast it gives one a chance to 'fail' - which the real CAT doesnt) 4)Regarding CAT sections, never have any prejudice/bias for any section - all sections can be equally rewarding, equally easy - never does one get kudos for proving one to be strong - its bottomline "CAT score" which matters 5)Never flunk your priorities - setting and identification of priorities is the foremost aspect 6)Its never late, impatience isnt going to help - work out what you want, rather than compromising what you get 7)Finally never never never evr make any wild guesses , calculated guesses after elimination of options is fine (but that wont work with CAT now coming with 5 options per Q).
Enough of "bakar" now PUYs...do PM me your comments/groans whatever you feel...
This Post is not to gain any sympathy J.The Incidences mentioned here were all written on the same dates on which they happened.. This post is all about some facts which many of us would have faced. This is just a post for people who want to say Let me give up. Things around me are bad. I cannot focus on one more struggle called CAT. This CAT has ruined my Life badly. Some of us might also think, why this guy is writing all personal stuff here. Believe me, this is just to let some of our friends help themselves with handling all other issues in life along with CAT. Well, there was a movie which got released in 2000, the theme of the movie is that, the hero tries to become a music director & till the climax he keeps trying... One classic dialogue, which I liked in that movie is as follows:- Heroine's Dad: Mr.Hero, Decide between my daughter & your Music Director dream.. Hero: When somebody offers a toffee, a kid will go to him/her, but 2 minutes later, the kid will search for its mom & starts crying if the other person stops... Where am I directing you now using the above dialogue....You will understand by the end of this post... XLRI chucked me without offering me a seat, 10 minutes I was speechless as my arrogance of a sure shot convert was thrashed...But there was this usual stupid feel, CAT 2008.....here I come... But what the heck...How many more years..No No No..No more CAT...This is the end of the so called emotion, dream, exam called CAT... 5th April:The day we had the south India PG meet..After couple of drinks, Soham, Hameed & Raghu (Obsessed about MBA), took me aside & started asking "Why not CAT again?".I was thoroughly confused, I kept on saying " no no..Not anymore ...Soham didnt leave me, till evening he was talking only about this..I drove back with a heavy heart...Heart saying Yes for CAT & mind saying "No" May 1 2008:CAT final results were out and I was in Mumbai, when the results were declared, Soham was desperate reaching me....SMS, SMS , SMS.."Bhai kahaan ho, mera C convert hogaya..hurray"..This is what it read, as soon as I switched on my phone after the flight landed at the Mumbai Airport..Second SMS from Mac..C converted..Immediately called up everyone, I could feel their happiness actually getting transferred to my heart. By end of the day, I was happy to know that my best buddies have converted one call or the other IIM calls they had, Soham: CLIK Anir: ACLIK Nithin: K Mac: CLIK JustLikethat (Manish): BLIK Eshnil: L Viggy123: LIK most importantly Harshad: LIK... I was very very happy, at the same time there was this uneasy feeling of me loosing out & it started spreading inside my mind & heart..Yet again, heart started saying "CAT, CAT,CAT"...Couldnt decide, kept quite.... End of May 2008: This is the same time I was working on the Laptop deal for the fresh batch, so I had to meet the IIM student council guys repeatedly & most of the times at IIMB..This time mind along with heart started saying CAT CAT CAT...Every now & then this feel started eating me & every phone call from my friend updating me about their admission status, fee payment, laptop, train reservation etc etc..started dragging me towards CAT ...... Soham on the day he reached Calcutta, called me to say how he was feeling travelling towards IIMC (Anir too was with him"..For whatever he said, I replied "I can understand that", but out of the blue one line came out of my mouth.."Will I ever get this feel, Soham"..Soham caught this line & said " Bhai, Between Will I ? & I will its just one shuffling which is needed & its in the faith you carry..You are giving CAT"... I was 100% convinced..I DECIDED TO Go on.. Now, I didnt want to reveal it to any one,...One clear thing, I understood was more than Hardwork CAT requires luck, more than an exam CAT has become an unpredictable game & so on..So I really didnt had enough reasons to give CAT except but the fact that it is an unfullfilled dream... But eventually told about my decision to my best buddies...From there the Journey started... Joined the mock series (TIME) along with amrutesh.. Mock History so far; 920-96.5% 919-98.5 918-99.54 917-95.32 916-75 :-( 915-97.3 914-88.98 913-99.75 August 10, 2008: This was the most crucial day, when I went about screwing a Mock very badly...Concentration went for a toss, Time management went for a toss..Did every possible thing to screw this Mock. I was humiliated, when I came to know that my students have beaten me comfortably by miles. I was hurt to say the least.Soham called me & enquired about the mock..After listening to the comedy, he started laughing sarcasstically..Sinchan was screaming.. August 11, 2008: Got up with a fresh mind. Decided to go the 2006 way..Preparing hard.. Sat down & jorted a plan... Percentiles were out & it hit the lowest of this season 912: 69%ile Had a decent Mocks from here on with scores moving out of the MAC graph 911: 93.5%ile 910: 96.5%ile 909:98.97%ile September 9, 2008: Dad's Birthday & my Death Day... I was very happy on September 9th morning, It was my Dad's Birthday. The person whom I admire the most in the world. The happiness just existed for a while, before I reached the office. The moment I stepped in my TL called me & said, " lets sit down for a meeting". It was pretty unusual for me because, every half an hour I keep updating him about the developments though in an informal way. My mind started hinting that something is horribly wrong. We sat for the so called meeting at 7.30 PM.. My TL started asking for the performance report & then he started the long speech which shook the earth below me.. "Well Prem, Report is OK, but we feel that you lack the passion in life. We are actually surprised, how come a person with your experience can lack the Multitasking Capabilities. You dont fit into this transaction business rather you might shine in the presales role/ Software Sales role. You are a Cultural Mismatch" I asked directly, "Is there something, you wanted to communicate, if so, say it straight" My TL replied with a stiff voice, "Look out for a Job & do let me know, if you need any help in that" I dont know what was passing through my heart, was it the uncertainity about the future or the humiliation, I didnt know.. With a feel of a death blow I said, " Shall we end the meeting?" That night, I was totally drunk..I called up Greenspan at 12.00 which was very unusual. He said " haan bhai, bhol, kya hua?" I said "Dont talk, I wanna cry'..I didnt allowed him to talk & I kept on crying .After 1o minutes , I told him what has happened..He tried consoling me, but I was beyond the stage of getting consoled..Yet again, the feel about Life going to be screwed started haunting me.. September 10, 2008: Boss says "Bye Bye" I couldnt believe what I heard was true. I wanted to speak to my Boss on this & my Boss too parroted the samething..He started talking to me as if it was my last working day, wishing me all the best for my next job. I didnt had an option except but saying "Thank You Sir'. Politics has did what could do to me. My TL was due for a promotion & my TL wanted me to learn all the skills (in 7 months) which he had learnt in the past 7 years of his stay. When I couldnt do so, they wanted to look at somebody else and oust me out though I had acheived 97% of my target in 4 months & with balance 3% in 2 months to go... 908: 80.78%ile..
September 12: Lehman brothers declares bankcruptcy & My company declares the Layoff of a huge number of people.. I met my Boss accidently in the Cafeteria & he projected that they were sending me out as a part of this Layoff.. They could have saved me, IF THEY WANTED..But, as I said, Politics finds Justifications rather than reasons.. September 15: AIMCAT 907 With all these things happening, I went to give the AIMCAT 908...The results were astounding.. I could see myself keeping the Bad/Sad feelings out of my mind for 2.5 hours & the result AIMCAT 907: 99.04% clearing all three Sections This exam is worth mentioning, reason I got a new feel that I can do well under pressure.. The following few (sleepless) nights, I was worried about my future (Jobwise)...Sent my CV to loads of companies & contacts...Every alternate day, there was only one question from my TL, " Could you get a Job?". This was not out of concern. This was because, my company had started thinking that Iam a liability. September 20, 2008 Competitor comes for Rescue I called up an Account Manager at Company X (an Indian Major), who knew me as a competitor. I told him that I was looking out for a Job & that guy actually helped out by speak to his boss immediately & fixing an interview meeting in the afternoon. September 21,2008: With Company X showing some positive signs & couple of coaching institutes offering me some role or the other, I started getting the so called positive feel towards life, but still there were lots of ifs & buts. An Uncertain mind questions a lot: Yes I had loads of questions appearing in my mind. If I get into the Coaching Institutes (worst Case), I will have to forfeit my 8 years of Sales/IT experience & convincing people during the B-School interview or the next interview in an IT firm is going to be extremely difficult. If I convert Company X, then I will be happy to an extend that I will be in the IT industry, but my brand value goes for a toss. I was confused, scared , worried & what notI said to myself, "Beggars don't have Choice" That night I went out for a drink. Over the drink, I started thinking as to how to make this worst situation into a better / best situation. Now getting a dream Job or even the rescue Job is not in my hands. But CAT is definitely in my Hands. Something flashed in my mind, "Anyways my Current employer is not going to look at my performance, so why to worry about performance in the office at all?". So the next day I called up my TL & told him that I need time for searching a Job & will be irregular to office. Even he said Ok. From that day, I started being irregular to office ie 1 day in a week to office & 4 days at home preparing for Cat, 2 days part time teaching..This was my life for the next one month or so.. October 12: miracles do happen This I never believed in. But, it actually happened. I never trusted consultants. But a consultant actually fixed an Interview call with one of the world famous Engineering Software Company. Interview went well & mind started dropping Company X/Coaching Institutes & started praying/expecting this Job. Four rounds of Interviews. Every interview lasted for 2-3 hours. With every Interview, I had to hide my feelings, learnt the art of hiding my desperation. Except but Hopes & Prayers, I wasn't sure about the next sunrise ie what is in store, the next day. October 23: First Offer-Company X released its preliminary offer which was humiliating as they gave a 2% hike over my Last salary . In a way I was happy that I got a reason to reject Company X's offer as the other company's offer was expected by next day morning.. Mock Results till then: AIM906: 91.74%ile AIM905: 95.61%ile AIM904:97.19%ile AIM903:93.07%ile CL MOCk1: 66.36 M0CK2:96.06 MOCK3:90.32 MOCK 4idnt appear MOCK5: 80.13 MOCK6: 99.30 MOCK7:95.73 MOCK8:97.02 MOCK9:93.77 MOCK10: 99.73 October 24: One of the Happiest days of my Life Received the Offer of the other company with a 70% hike & a better role. Also they had a plan to send me to the US on Dec 7th for a training followed by a trip to Mexico on January 31. Resigned my Job that day. Night 8 PM: The joy & happiness were yet to sink, I got the next heart attack. The Company X HR called me & started blasting me left right centre, saying that there were some obscene mails, which have come from my ID & she is going to escalate the same. I tried convincing her saying that Iam a genuine person & someone has hacked my email account , also having sort an opportunity with Company X, no person with common sense will do such a third rated thing & that too given my marital status & my responsibilities. I tried hard to prove my innocence. Even she hanged the phone down as ifshe has understood that Iam genuine & did as she said. October 30:I came back to office after the Diwali vacation. Saw a mail from Company X saying that the offer has been withdrawn. I was feeling "OK. Now I needn't have to feel sorry for saying a No to the people who came for my rescue by offering me a role" My Manager called me over a coffee & told me that Company X's legal has asked my Company's legal to take some action against me else they wanted to take route 2, which was filling an FIR with the Police. The Earth under me had slipped by then. My legal cell replied saying that they cant take any action against me as the next day was my last working day. Whole night I couldn't sleep. So many things came into my mind. With just 16 days to go for the exam. Mind was screwed up totally.Mind was totally Void & thoughts of CAT had disappeared by then. October 31: Met the Legal Cell head & he knew me personally.Had a lengthy talk & he told me what can be Company X's next move & the repercussions. It was scarifying to say the least.Heart was throbbing at 100+ beats a minute. Sat at the smoking zone, thinking what needs to be done. Garnered all my courage & energy to prove my innocence. Called up the DGM legal of Company X. He was reluctant to talk to me in the beginning, but I pleaded him to hear my version. He started hearing & as we spoke for about 20 minutes, he appreciated my courage & admitted that I might be innocent & he said he will try his level best to protect me & will recommend to the HR not to proceed any further. The emotions were evident from the results AIMCAT 902: 87%ile MocKCAT11: 76%ile November 2: Truth always wins My friend who recommended me at company X called me up to say that the HR had decided to drop the case. That minute I was happy/relieved to say the least. The 2 by gone months had thought me so many things & had made me much more stronger.Before every CAT something had to happen & for this year, this is what has happened, but this time I could handle it.. There was a period, when I had lost my Job. Almost for 2 months I was at home with out proper salary. I had learnt cooking by then. I was blamed for something, which I would not even have thought in my weirdest dreams. Still I could survive that 2 months with Just one feel,"Even this will change, I need to believe that its all passing clouds". Rather I told this to rik_12, Soham & Greenspan that if everything goes well this situation would be a blessing in disguise. On September 12th I told rik exactly these words & , " I should get an offer after Oct 16, so that I can join by Nov 17th after CAT". Except but the spine chilling experience with Company X, everything happened as planned. Started waiting for my Birthday errrrr my D-Day. Soham/ rik were there for me in this period to ensure that I come out of the shocks & get ready for the D-day. My mentor (Soham) helped me to keep my mind away from CAT & rik prepared my mind ensuring that I treat CAT 2008 as AIMCAT 900. AIMCAT 901: 96.19%ile MOCK12: 99.81%ile The season ended with an AIR 12. So it was all set. November 15, 2008 One of my ex-colleagues called me to say that he has a friend who is physically challenged, who has difficulty in talking, walking, writing & what not L. He also added that, he is trying to crack CAT for the past 3 years & needs some motivation as it is D Day the next day, & asked if I can please talk to him. I said "OK". His friend called me. His voice was shacking, for sometime it was very difficult for me to comprehend, but his emotions, yes I could understand even the unsaid. Whenever he said, 3-4 of us (Physically challenged) prepared together, tears started rolling down . I motivated him to the extend I knew, but to be frank I was motivated looking at his determination. We are nothing infront of these special children rather the GOD's own kids. These feelings have been haunting me since then..
NOVEMBER 16: My Birthday/ CAT. Reached the Centre just on time due to traffic Jam. Sat in my seat, was allocated with the first seat in the hall. So no diversions. Till the last minute tried recollecting, what my mentors have told me throughout the yearThe Five Rules: 1.Its just an exam ie AIMCAT 900 2.Dont look at the fielders , look at the gaps 3.Strick to basics ie 45-45-45, 15 minutes buffer 4.try attempting more if the paper is easy else if its tough go for accuracy 5. Try solving questions individually without emotions. I just recollected this 1 minute before the paper was handed over. 10:15: Paper was givenChange in pattern, with which my point no 3 had to be tweaked.. Decided to start with QA (40 Mins), followed by DI (40 Mins) , Verbal (55 Mins) & 15 Mins buffer. Started the exam. QA: wasn't appearing easy, hence it has to be a low attempt-high accuracy game..40 Mins over & I had shaded 9 ovalsFor a minute tension started creeping..Tried remembering point 4 & 5 of my rule book..decided to move on to DI.. DI: Set 1 - cannot touch, Set 2- Don't even look, Set 3 - What was that..15 mins over , 0 ovals shaded. Surprising wasn't tensed..Moved to LR 11 attempts 15 minutes..then tried Set 3 of DI..40 minutes up with 14 attempts. VA- what was that Crap. 40 questions should have been like CAT 02-03.But it was more like CAT 06/07 with more questions. VA took 25 minutes with 13 attempts & RC took 35 minutes with 13 attempts. 1 hour over with 26 attempts.. Last 10 minutes: was sure about where to go..Obviously QA..2 more questions & time up was the call Came out with a neutral feel..Knew that Paper wasn't that great but wasn't that bad as well QA-11 attempts DI-14 attempts VA-26 attempts Total-51 attempts Everybody said QA was easy & DI was tough..I had a neutral feel..Went for the PG meet to celebrate my Birthday . Nov ember 17: 3*5*5*5= 500 L Couple of mistakes like the one above had made my QA to be in the border & it turned out as if it is going to be the decider DI was safe with a score of 51 & VA was dangling between 44-59.. Next 15 days there were lots of predictions & every institute assured atleast one call with my score Was in touch with every other fellow competitor whom I know & my buddies in IIMs..Everyone felt that Iam safe. So the next phase started with the expected frustration Meanwhile the tought of opening a coaching class for the special kids started eating my head & I finally jorted down a plan to roll it(With the help of PG/Career Launcher) December 23, 2008: Passion Vs Reality The question ie what if I get or convert only calls from L or I or K started eating my head..More than IK (which I might reject), the question about L becoming extremely confusing. Infact had a lengthy talk with many who are in the IIMs..Whenever I spoke about this, I also remembered that my Passion can turn the table completely down inspite of people saying not to Join Januar y 8, 2009: Nervous Minutes By 3 PM, Shabad pinged me saying that the link published in PG is the actual one & he has got CLIK.. Now, now I was really nervous..Mind kept on praying..GOD, don't force me into a situation which will confuse me yet again & was praying hard that I should see C, when I get my results Wanted to check the results of my friends so that I can see where Iam going to land?? Gave one registration No after the other to Shabad Rik_12: Lone C Kamalaandi: BLACKI Yogsconnect: LI By now I started feeling that Shabad is the angel in disguise as whosever results he is checking, they have callsGave my number now & was waiting (literally tensed ) with phone in one hand & cigarette on the other..After few seconds Shabad said "Bhai, L sae call hai".I said thank u & it took 10 minutes & 2 more cigarettes to accept the reality..For a minute I thought, look at this, I could predict my result almost 15-20 days back & GOD has given me to analyse it & get mentally prepared rather than me getting shocked at the result As I said my passion helped me to decide what should be done..Whatelse, convert it & Join J
January 9, 2009: Hard Facts - Sad Memories for a Life time In 1995, when I missed my MBBS seat by 3 marks or 0.3 %ile..It hurt & its hurting even today.. But today I got a new episode to erase the old one Came to know that through Live2Die I missed out my dream institute this year, IIMC by 1 mark & that too in QA Also it was a shocker when I learnt that I have cleared all the cutoffs given by IIMK & had a good workex too..Still no call January 12, 2009: It tooks 3 days to come to terms with the reality that yet again I have got a lone call..But this year the resolution was to convert it..I was all set to gooooo Joined TIME as well as CL and was very irregular in the beginning..Reason: Lots my Students got > 4 calls.I was feeling bad & the memories of loosing C by 1 mark started hitting me hard. That's when Soham said "Be proud bhai. It proves that you are a good teacher". The actual realization came, only after the CL boot camp, when I realized, where & what Iam lacking from converting a call.. February 1 -10: Yet again I went to US and from there to Mexico. Zero preps during this period & was enjoying every single minute. Jan 17: SPURTI takes her first step.. Finally I decided to go ahead with opening an institute to help the people who with little support can Crack CAT. This institute is for people who have disabilities & economically weak. This was the happiest day in my life as I started it after a lot of struggle (see the link attached in my signature to know the details) March2: XLRI PI. I would say that it is one of my best interviews... Meanwhile I started focusing more & more on work as well & every week I was travelling for atleast 2 days (Out of Bangalore) March 12-25 Four rounds of Mock Interviews with Live2Die.. PI 1: 1.5 hours, result- zero in current affairs, stammering when cornered..Got 5.5/10 from Live2Die PI 2: 1.5 hours, ok current affairs, fine tune why MBA..Got 6.5/10 from Live2Die PI3: 1.5 hours, Good Current affairs & Voice Modulation..Got 7.5/10 from Live2Die PI4: 1.5 hours, Excellent PI-ready for the Interview..Got 9.5 from Live2Die Infact I became so good at current affairs that I went about telling this which L2D, Sinchan didn't know March 25: IIML PI & XL results The greatest MBA Interview..Everything went wellPI was solid XL results out : I converted my firstever MBA call - GMP programme.. March25-April 9: I wasn't nervous this time around, I was enjoying everyday April 9: Journey ends with a Shocker.. Around 1.30 got to know from L2D that L results are out & he also checked my results and said "Sorry Bhai"
Now that I couldn't get through" L"..One obvious question woud be..Iam I joining XL or not.. My answer is a big "NO"I cant risk my life for a 1 year program What's my next plan of action: Now my focus will be to ensure my Students at Spurti getting into an IIM this year :-) What did I do for the preparation? If some one has to ask me, what was the difference between the yester years & now, I would say, I had a controlled emotion this year, I started believing that CAT is just an exam, I started treating Mocks seriously (only in terms of the learnings- After every Mock, I used to store the mistakes, learnings, good things etc in an XL sheet), I started enjoying Life & I took the exam with the minimal possible emotions..Rather I have understood the art of cracking CAT.. So no hardwork only smart work Having read this story, now you know what it takes to hold nerves.. Today I agree completely with HARSHAROCKS that CAT is not an emotion , its an examLet it be that way, that's when you wont feel bad when you loose Dreaming about doing an MBA is always good, but don't make dreams your master In this journey I have learnt so many things, which I have been sharing with all of you whenever possible. Will keep doing that but without an MBA J In this time, I want to thank couple of people here Bengali Bhondhus I always share a good rapport with Bhabhumoshais...My best in college was a Bong bhai..CAT 2007 gave me Anirban Das & 2008 gave me 2 Bong friends.. Soham:My driving force this year has been Soham & Soham only....Every moment he keeps saying "Bhai CAL aajavo"......Every day keeps calling me to check, whether I have read my Newspaper or not.... Sinchan (rik_12): This guy has been my Guru at times..Happy that he is joining JOKA Kamalaandi: Cribbing but a nice soul.Joining JOKA again Live2Die: My Interviewer J..Joining JOKA again Amrutesh666: My Financier, who sponsored for my CAT form..Joining JOKA again Karanmaroo: Marooo, whenever you say "Prem Bhai"..I feel so good Greenspan:Mera Bhai, Hum dononko Naukri jaada fit hotha hae J People from IIML Eshnil Viggy123 VIKAS Malik People from IIMB Justlikethat Prahalad85 All these guys have played a Major role in my Life as such (sorry If I have missed out some names).. Now you know IIM is a means and not the end..CAT is a beautiful journey..agonising though, but worth traversing..So if you feel you can, keep trying..Nothing will stop you.. May GOD bless you all & give the Patience, enery, emotions, strength, aptitude and attitude to get through your dream institute, one day or the other in Life.. All the Best Guys
I always heard people saying 'dream comes true' and wondered why it never happened with me. My CAT story started in 2006. Common frustrations after working for a couple of years in IT industry gave me the first impetus of preparing for CAT. Did not get enough time to prepare but fared decently on the D-day. Just after taking the CAT, I got the coveted onsite opportunity. Thanks to the keys released by the coaching institutes. I was getting 5 in VA so did not bother to stay back and went to the UK. One month later CAT came up with the result and I had 97 percentile in VA. Got call from B and I. After a lot of fight with my PM, I got a leave for 5 days just to attend these two interviews. Unfortunately I flunked on both. Back to normal life again. This time I was not that averse to my work. Did my work very sincerely for the next one year. Could not get release from my onsite engagement in 2007 as well and finally after another round of fight with my manager, managed to come back home in the mid 2008. As expected my manager paid me back with a poor appraisal. Started preparing for CAT again. This time much more seriously. Now, I'm not taking CAT just because I don't like my work. The long journey towards CAT has now taught me exactly why I want to do an MBA from a premier institute. Now, I also have the confidence and I know I can achieve what I want. So, any new onsite opportunity or a better job offer will not be able to lure me. I know that because of this, I've come back early from onsite, I've got a poor rating and more importantly I did not get the growth in my job which I would have got otherwise. All these sacrifices have to be worth now. Prepared for CAT really well this time. Finally the D-Day comes. Again coaching institutes are showing a poor score in VA. But this time I know how to ignore them and concentrate for the next exams. CAT result came up with a 99.53 percentile and 4 IIM calls for me. The rest of the path was comparatively easy. I had my longest interview in IIMB. The panelists asked me almost all kind of possible questions. I had a good feeling after the interview and have been waiting eagerly for the verdict. Finally, IIMB came out with the list today with my name in it. Now I know that dream just does not come true for nothing. I now truly believe what Paulo Coelho said. 'If you desperately want something, the whole world conspires in helping you achieve it'. Dream comes true only when we really want to make it true and give our best effort for it.
IF U THINK U CAN, U CAN ... I had a decent profile throughout.. maintained 80+ record throughout 10th and 12th , and managed to get into an NIT... but was never too ambitious or so I thought... Dec 05- I was in the final yr of my college when I decided with a few other friends to give CAT 05.. joined IMS for coaching during my project training and decided to give it my best shot.. I knew from the start that I lacked in maths, but I decided to turn a blind eye to it... I trudged on with the coaching and after August started taking mocks...at that time we had just about 8 tests or so... I used to get a city rank of 2/3 , but considering that the city was Jalandhar it hardly used to mean much as the test taking population there might have been very less... my percentiles used to range b/w 75-85 and I was actually not getting anywhere... I got this CTS job offer at the same time, but despite that it didn't do much to ease the pressure.
I thought of CAT as a matter of life and death, and before the D'day didn't sleep at all.. was downright nervous and `unable to think clearly. CAT came and went and it was clearly a disaster..I went home with the belief that I had screwed it up big time,and shed copious tears when I saw my results in jan..I had ended up with a meagre 78%ile . I was ashamed to say the least... XAT was even worse with only 70%ile.... Now that I look back I realize that CAT is such an exam where we sacrifice a lot-our sleep, movies, fun,peace of mind...just to make sure we get that coveted IIM seat, so it tends to rule our mind, becomes our master and we get emotionally involved with something that is just an exam.Another mistake I did was not concentrating on my weak points..ignoring maths only made it worse..
Anyway, coming back to my story, I decided that I really was not interested in an MBA and took up my job with CTS in 2006.. was happy and excited the way people generally are with a new job. In 2007, many of friends who were taking CAT ,coerced me to take CAT again.. I visualized that i didn't have enough conviction or time to prepare as it was already sep..so I just let it go, but bought the XAT form nevertheless... I started preparing for XAT in december , and as a part of prep took NMAT and SNAP exams too.. In xat 2008, I ended up with 83%ile..not much , but still a vast improvement considering the efforts I had put in which were negligible.. Here , the one thing which helped me was my less prep... since I hadn't prepared well, I expected less of myself , and thus was under lesser pressure to deliver..the other thing was PG ..I followed all threads relentlessly, don't know why but something just kept pulling me back to where I thought , I belonged..
Come 2008 may and I decided I wanted to take CAT one last time,I decided that this would be my last try as my parents back home were contemplating my marriage.I had to fight and convince at home that I really wanted to take the exams this season..It was difficult, but I managed.. I decided not to join any coaching as I believed that I could do good on my own if I tried hard.. I joined the TIME test series and IMS series as well.. it was difficult to give both tests the same day,... I usually ended up doing good in the first test i took and fared poorly in the second due to lack on concentration or mental fatigue.
I got a few books and started self study...I must say some of friends were the real motivating factors for me to go ahead and give a good try, one thing was for sure--I had no support from home, they thought I was only wasting money and rather should get married as I was about to turn 24 (which is kind of right for a female acc to them ) .. during all this , my Dad resigned and they shifted to chn.. I tried for a transfer from Pune to chn where i had been working so I cud support my family till my Dad got a new job.. those were testing times for sure when I almost felt like giving up. If dad hadn't got a new job in oct, i dunno wht i wud have done cos it wud have not been right for me to leave my job and take up higher studies then..
Oct-Jan 08-- totally hard pressed for time.. too much of work at home, at office... almost nil time devoted towards studies except the weekly TIME tests..stopped taking IMS tests as the test centre was way too far...the TIME scores plummeted ... cud hardly manage b/w 70-80's.. I still didn't lose all hope.. took a week's leave before CAT and took several mocks.. had invested some time in maths in the early months so on that front situation was not downright bad.. On the D-day , I reached the test centre and took my seat.. I, who was feeling confident till then , broke down in sweat wondering what I wud do if I did not make it this time.. that's it, I was done for.. when the paper was distributed , I knew I had lost the battle even before fighting it.. even Verbal and DI which were my strong points had taken a hiding and refused to help me out when I tried to work them out.. came home and attempted all those Q's which i cud not do sitting in the exam hall..I believe each one of us can attempt those q's , ultimately it is not how hard the Q is, but how hard your brain is prepared to work in those 2 hrs.. result was a meagre-70%'ile..(it is self deprecating to even quote this ridiculous figure on this sacred forum but am only quoting this in the hope that when you read this you will know that this is but a score, and you shouldn't give up just yet!!) , because of my poor preps, I had not applied to any of the colleges under CAT... which I should have done as it simply translates into not believing much in myself.. lose everything, but never self belief!
One week before XAT, and I was working in office for more than 12 hrs each day.... 3rd Jan,Sat-instead of revising my fundas, I was in office mailing the client till night 9 pm.. I rushed to my test centre on Jan 4th , went thru the paper , gave my best shot.. (not literally..there were a no of attempts that I got wrong as i didn't read th options carefully).. and then rushed back to the office again..(what a Sunday!) ..when results came I had 90%'ile, was quite disappointed... I hadn't applied to XL, but had thought I might still be able to make it to XIMB.. but I couldn't complain... I was happy I had turned up at least this much given the circumstances at home and office.., BTW, by this time my parents had already started searching for grooms and I was left with no peace of mind at home... I knew that once I got married an MBA would only be a distant dream...
I got calls from SCIT, Welingkar and XIME... I converted SCIT , so am not going for the WE interview... I have an IT experience of almost 3 yrs so I believe I might as well specialise in this stream, my parents who had been almost against my getting into an MBA this yr are now willing to let me study... :p
I would not have written this post today if not for the great difference PG has made to my life..I feel like I know a lot of people here though I have never personally interacted with them.. It has kept motivating me to get better every time and helped me stay focussed when I was down and ready to give up..I hope that for all of you who have problems and have often thought of giving up, this post shall in some way help to keep fighting till the end for your cause, no matter what...
I have read most of the Posts on this forum, and see people here have a lot to offer in terms of advice that really needs to be followed..so I won't repeat them again..but a few of my learnings which I think may help others:
Well, this is my first post on pagalguy. Never thought that I would be writing my first post with such a grim face and a remorse and grief-stricken heart. But then thats life. Not everything comes out the way we want it to... But frnz r frnz, and I dnt have any left as of now. May be only successful people get friends and "losers" are not entitled to any companions, especially in tuf times...
Hope to get sum support from whoever possible, it will be very welcome. Thanks.....
To b continued for a happys endingssss
Don't want to spam but it was necessary. Sorry prem bhai.. Please forgive me.
Sir, I appreciate the courage you have displayed in your post. But, i strongly disagree with the part mentioned above. (Highlighted in bold).
Kindly remember that you, as on 10/04/2009, have 298,273 friends. Friends who don't judge each other by 'wins' or 'losses', who don't get influenced by labels like 'winners' or 'losers'... These are people who might meet each other on the pretext of their goal of an MBA but become friends united by the spirit of this sanctum sanctorum called PG...
Friends who will always be there.. whenever you need them.. whether you are an IIM or not.. Whether you have a GF or not ...
And we people don't share a goal.. we share a journey... A journey through ups and downs.. fun and misery.. anxiety and desperation... converts and rejects
Always remember sir.. you have us PUYS...
God bless our disgruntled and wicked souls...
Amen.
For people who don't know what or whom i am referring to, click below:
Before I begin my Cat story. This is my profile X: 93.44 (Karnataka State Board) XII:90.16(Karnataka State Board)
B.E: 77.8 (VTU, SJCE Eand C) CAT 08: DI 98.11 Quant 97.84 Verbal 99.09 Aggregate 99.76
2005: I barely knew anything about CAT. I was wondering what's the fuzz about MBA?I was thinking well when we finished XII none of us were (IMHO) interested in joining B.Com, then why do some of my friends now want to study MBA? There was one guy, Spandan, who was regarded as the most brainy guy in our branch, he started this. I did not know what do I do after finishing Engineering. I simply bought the CAT application form. Then I came to know even though CAT is a kind of aptitude test we need some prep. I blindly subscribed to Brilliant-tutorials. Never got interested in studying those materials and did not study anything. CAT 2005 came(I was in 7th Sem). I attended the test and got an overall percentile of around 65.6 . Hmmm now I kind of got interested in cracking this test which embarrassed me (Again there was no direction and determination apart from this)
2006: This time around Time were conducting a scholarship test. I simply attended the test and got a scholarship . Three of us attended it Spandan,Sharath, and I. Sharath, who was our EC branch topper and who had no inclination whatsoever came second in this mysore district level test. I was kind of schoked at how this guy who hasn't solved any apti questions get this? He idea was simple, you don't need to solve every problem to arrive at the ans. You assume the ans and see whether it comes correct, and have a clear and calm mind. I had not warmed up to this concept yet. Anyway I got 50 % discount for coming in at 8th and joined time. Did not attend classes because I thought they were too boring. Tried to solve a few questions. But got bored the questions in the basic material were too easy. Still it had not occured to me that to ace CAT u need a plan and work hard to execute it. Later in July 2006 I joined Lucent as a software engineer and started learning all new languages like JAVA, XML, XSD, etc etc and stopped preparing for cat, but hey I had bought the application form again. I gave CAT 2006 but as expected failed to clear any of the sectional cut-offs. Got around 89 percentile. But it increased my confidence. I told to myself with some amount of preparation I should be through in 2007. 2007: Around August I really started thinking interms of what do I want to do? I did not like the job I was doing. Just coding something wasn't challeging enough for me. Then it dawned to me decision making is something that I enjoy, CAT gives me an opportunity. So i should be serious about it. I got IMS material now (was clueless about materials by this time ). Still was lacking in effort. So there it went another spineless performance. Surprise of surprises it was quant which spoiled it I had scored only 2 marks in quant (Shamed all the Engineers ) but I had 98.5 in verbal and cleared DI cut-off. So I thought I must be doing something right in these at least.
2008: This is the year I told myself that I need to study MBA if I think so whether in an IIM or another college. One of my friends at office, Kapil, who got into IIM B advised me to give as many different tests (apart from cat ) as possible. I decided to write GMAT. Then I came to know about PG. Had never entered PG before that (the name was not appealing ). But decision to take GMAT was not planned well. I applied in march and fixed april 18th as the date. Then I underwent an ear operation and hoped to study while on medical leave. But the tablets I was taking and that bulky bandage around my ear were such a nuisance.So when I took the test finally I scored just 670 ( QA-51, and VA-2 was dissapointed . But GMAT proved I was not hopeless in quant. In fit of rage I booked another date June 6th but again there was no plan in place.This time I started contributing in GMAT sentence correction and critical reasoning thread. I wanted to test myself. It helped a lot. I got to know a lot from the explanations of other successful PGs. June 6th came my second GMAT attempt scored an ok score of 700 this time (QA-50, VA-34) . Decided to try my luck with ISB. Spent a month on writing essays and getting it reviewed by my friends( Pradeep and Spandan). Had hopes on ISB (don't know why but I had a feeling that I would go to study MBA this time my best bet was institutes other then IIMs). But got rejected in ISB just two weeks before CAT 2008. November 16 th came. I was having fever couldn't sleep all night was almost on the verge of skipping cat (I am glad that I didn't ;)).I was alone in the room and was very tired But somehow mustered enough strength to reach the test center. Got my adrenaline going by looking at some pretty faces there . The rest is history. Now I will stop boring you and take you through my strategy which may be of great help to you. Strategy 1: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Write different tests and be ready to consider other good universities apart from IIMs. This gives you a fall back option and keeps your mind relaxed and calm. This is needed in CAT Strategy 2: Write GMAT. The tests help you to manage time. The verbal part is very good you can easily ace cat VA if you prepare for GMAT VA. I was confident in VA because of this (I used to clear cut offs in mocks most of the time in VA while I failed in others 😃 don't know my mind may be designed for this kind of VA questions). In actual CAT I was confident of doing well in RC, Sentence correction and critical reasoning kind of questions. I am also a great fan of short stories. May be analysing them helped me inadvertently in RC. I got 3 out of 4 sentence correction things right and many RC questions. Strategy 3: Attend Mock cats people. It is the training ground. I did not attend Mocks prior to 2008 with any sincerity and it cost me. I faired poorly in 12 of the 14 mocks that I took in 2008. only in 2 of them I had over 97 percentile rest were pretty bad ranging from 60-90. But never cleared all the cut-offs in any mock (joined time Mock). But mocks are not about scoring they are about experimenting, I experimented different strategies and finally settled on this format. 50 mins for each section. Start with the section in which I was good (VA). 40 mins of quant then 50 mins of DI (because I couldn't fix 50 mins always for DI ,as it is sometimes more n sometimes less time consuming). Then I would come back and finish QA Strategy 4: Cat is a diligence test more than an intelligence test. You need to work towards it. I realised my forte was not hard work. I usually got serious about cat only in the months of August or september. The questions in basic materials were not Mock cat or CAT worthy. So I decided in solving previous mocks. Wrote in a book all questions that were different, in the sense that these questions required me to know a particulat concept or a formula without which I couldn't solve them. I used to come back home after Mocks and solve questions again ( I usually experimented during mocks so would to solve it again at home). Solving Mocks is fun and more helpful than basic materials. The notes I prepared help me solve 6 -8 CAT quesions in 2008 within a reasonable time. Make your own strategy solve as many mocks as u can. I solved questions in CAT that were to my strength (not the ones the institutes said easy) The real cat has many common sense questions. In the last week I solved previous CAT papers and what I found out was I could really solve them. This gave me the confidence. Also compare real cat papers. There is always some similarity when it comes to the kind of answers they pick for questions I identified a lot of them. Puzzle kind of things were what I liked in DI so I solved those kind og questions I think IMS basic material gives a good explanation in these kind of questions . The basic material on methods to solve puzzles like arranging something matching a profession with a person, city etc is better described there. Also para jumble quesstions are well explained in it. Now let me tell you what happened after writing CAT. I got the results and came to know I had BLACKI calls. Now I searched through PG threads and made a list of maths and E and C related questions (particulary telecom , my domain) in PG. Also made a list of other why MBA and osuch general questions. Prepared answers for them asked my friends to conduct mock interviews. Attended 2 time mock GD classes. The PG questions were a great help especially I got Maths questions in A that were there in my prepared list . Thanks PGs, without it I wouldn't have made it to IIMs today. April 10th : By now I was suffering from Insomnia. Had seen the leaked list of IIM B PGP list. My name was not there. I was greatly disappointed as I thought it was one of my better interviews. Didn't sleep all night. Then came L shock (this I considered my best interview) I was rejected there too. Not even waitlisted. Then around 8.30 came C results. Again a reject (expected it was a bad interview). Was totally depressed by now. Came to know around 10 that IIM A results were being announced didn't wanto open it as I feared the worst. Didn't want another reject. But somehow mustered enough courage to open it. To my disbelief I had made it That was it for me. I am still in disbelief. Later came to know I got rejected in K and selected in I from one of friends.To all of you my suggestion is write cat for youself not for your GF or for others but for you yourself. Remeber emotions simply put pressure on you and make you weak. I would like to end it by quoting a dialogue from Shawshank Redemption (something that I always used to keep saying to myslef whenever I needed inspiration)
Hope is a good thing,may be the best of things and no good thing ever dies. Excuse me for any grammatical error. I am writing this post half asleep Feel free to PM me.
Interview Exp : IIM B : http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/37585-2009-2011-iimb-gd-pi-8.html#post1486130
IIM L : http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/37587-2009-2011-iiml-essay-gd-9.html#post1486134
So my dear fellow puys here we go. Bas gali mat dena lambi post ke liye. I am writing my heart out as I would do to my best friend. Wish this thread was made of paper. This is also my 100 post and I have stopped posting in PG for some days to make this my 100th post. Prologue/Epilogue (whatever it is called) --- I scored a decent 90.67 in X and got admitted to the best junior college in Orissa. I was on top of the world in terms of arrogance and trust me I did not even speak with people below this percentage of marks. Yeah I was that arrogant. 2 years went by and my arrogance only swelled up. Come my 12 standard and I hit a rock bottom. Scored a meager 78.9. But the greatest frustration was that I did not even clear IIT JEE screening. Took a drop of one year and prepared hard with FITJEE. Aced the screening with a rank of 876 and then I lost focus. I got overconfident and chilled out. Started getting into wrong kind of movies (yeah u guessed right. Forum rules don't allow me to be explicit). The inevitable happened. Got booted out of mains. My rank was 8076. Nothing much just a zero changed its position in my rank from the screening rank. 0876 to 8076. Now I knew how imp the value of zero can be. My parents whose support I could have expected said the following to my younger brother's friends "I am wasting money on an idiot who is a liability and can't get a single act together". Well he is my hero and a great man. He must have been very frustrated to say this. This was one of many instances though. I could not take this mental trauma anymore. I was just hounded around and was the black sheep of the family. For two days I thought of ending my life. Then as if manna from heaven I got an NIT Silchar Electrical Engg seat. I was happy that I will not see any of my family members for 4 years. This feeling was like the one I had when I had my first candy in mouth. Lessons Learnt -- 1. Never ever be arrogant. 2. Never ever be complacent. 3. Never be frustrated Fast forward 4 years and those were the best days of my life. One particular incident of note was en route from college to home once I saw a particular school friend of mine who was in IIT KGP in a restaurant. I still had a lingering low self esteem and hence I could not even think of talking to him. So I avoided contact and moved on. The scar was fresh wasn't it? CAT2005 -- I was still in college. I was placed in IBM.I was on course for the silver medal and I was committed to a gal. Don't think a lot puys. She is happily married to some one else and yours truly has moved on. Some people from college were preparing for the exam and I too joined the bandwagon. After all I had something to prove right. I did not prepare much. 10, 12 ka maths kya padhna yaar. I am an engineer right. You see complacency again but on a milder form. D day --- Reached the venue in Guwahati and saw some people from IIT Guwahati also joining in. All the memories came flooding back about my failures with IIT JEE. The words of my father. How worthless a creature I am? How can I compete with IITians. I was worthless wasn't I? I started getting nervous and with this feeling I entered the exam hall. By the way I had my end semester exams in another week and I had not studied anything for that either. The paper was given to us and on opening it I went to mathematics straightaway. There comes the bouncer. The quant section was not that easy for the unprepared people that year and I did not know that there would be variable marking. So screwed up quant royally. Only did decently in some geometry questions and started thinking after all my father was right. I could not do mathematics decently considering that it used to be one of my favorite subjects. I jumped to the DI section and found that it was tough too. Yeah everything was tough for me that year. But I was not perturbed as I was in maths because I had an open mind. Aced the section and moved to English. Huh I will never understand the section ever. I did well I thought. Result --- OA 96.5 with a meager 88 in QA and a 90 odd in VA I did not care much. It was enough to impress my girl and who wants to do an MBA anyways just after passing out. CAT2006 Nicely settled into a job. I still had a feeling of proving something to myself and that is when it seriously started. I was staying as a Paying Guest and was very busy in office. After office I used to meet my girl so had a happy life. But I had one eye on CAT. One fine day enrolled myself in IMS test series and started to prepare. Staying as a Paying Guest did not help much though since I had to study in all kinds of disturbances. Mocks came and went and my scores went from great to worse and worst. I had serious problems on the personal front as well. You guessed right. Parents having problems with their children's relations etc. I was really in doldrums. Only one thing remained constant. My mock scores always dipped from the last one. Sometimes it as VA. At other times it was QA, DI. I could not analyze what my problem was. Was I mentally disturbed or was I just plain stupid. Or was I not adjusting well to exam conditions. All these analyses were done mentally. I never came back and alaysed the mock papers. This was a serious problem I had. So you see I was not doing my homework seriously although I was serious about CAT. Therefore there is a difference between commitment and directed commitment. I had commitment but I lacked in direction. This is where a forum like PG or a study group or your favorite teacher from your coaching institute can help you with. D-Day Reached the venue on time and was quite relaxed. Don't know why. Booklet was handed over to us and I skimmed through the pages. Overview gave me the knowledge that QA, DI was easy and VA was dicey. I was very confident that I would do well. Went through QA and solved 13 odd. Moved to DI and got stuck after some time. Ruminated a lot and then it struck like a matchbox. Wow solved the set I was stuck up in. By then I had just 30 minutes of my time left for English. Now anyone will tell you VA in 2006 was damn dicey. Still I thought I did well in the last 30 minutes and hoped to clear the cutoff. This CAT also had a wrong question in Maths as all other subsequent CATs and I wasted a hell lot of time there as it seemed to be one of the easier ones. After coming out I was happy about it and then suddenly something came to my mind. I thought about a couple of silly mistakes in my Maths and then a third and fourth. So I lost 20 marks starightaway. I cursed the question setter for the wrong question although I was the only one to be blamed. In DI I had also committed silly mistakes of 20 marks and now I had lost all hope. Huh. Yet another failure. How many more do I have in my share? There was a silver lining in all this though. I had converted XIMB. Result: OA 95.4. Ideally had I not committed silly mistakes this should have been my last CAT. I had an XIMB convert this season. Decided not to join and take one more shot. I consulted my parents and decided to take one more shot at CAT. I asked her 'I am not that bad am I'? My gal said NO. Well at least one soul still believed in my abilities when even I didn't. CAT 2007 I had no friends in Kolkata. I could not interact much with my office colleagues since I used to rush out either to study or to meet her. So I was a stranger there too. I could not visit my parents often coz I had this mocks every Sunday. So all in all a pathetic existence sans the preparations time which I used to enjoy. I had joined TIME this time for the AIMCATS. So preparations started all over again. All this while I had quite a fractious personal life. U must be guessing why. Yes girlfriend and the parents. The mocks started all over again. MY first mock score was the best one and after that I reached one nadir after another. My personal life took one rough turn to encounter another. She found some one else and I was quite in the dark till one day when I was let known that I was unwanted. Huh One more. No issues bring them on I am used to it. I don't blame anyone but I had taken her permission before preparing for CAT. Maybe she did not know the road was so rough. Anyways it is her life and she is free to do whatever she wants. I wished her all the best from my heart and we broke of after 2 and half years. End of an era for me. Needless to say my parents were over cloud number 9. This happened some 2 months before CAT. I was desultory now in Kolkata with a very bad shape as far as preparations were concerned. But all these and many more failures had taught me to be strong. So I dived head along into preparations forgetting what had happened. But the incident took place at a very inopportune time. I kept on doing badly in MOCKS. This time the reason was something different. TIME DI was so tough for me that I could never succeed in solving 2 sets correctly in any given AIMCAT. This led me to allot more and more time to DI and that killed my other sections as well. Whatever I tried I could never master TIME DI. My confidence took a real battering. Probably the worst battering ever. I remember scoring 40, 60, 54, 67, 87, 63 %tile in lots of mocks with only one 90%tiler. This was my state of affairs D-DAY As usual I reached the venue on time and entered the hall. Paper was handed over and I went to the DI section and thought about finishing it off for once and for all. This section was just a cakewalk for everyone in 2007. Well almost everyone not me. I thought I was doing well and after an hour I
Contddd**** had done a lot of questions. I was happy. But just then it struck me that I had committed silly mistakes in 2 sets or 8 questions. You must be wondering by now does thus guy never learn from the past. I would say LEOs are slow learners. :). Bas poora mood off ho gaya. Coz I knew even if I aced the other 2 sections I would never do well enough to get through. I dragged myself for 2 and half hours and all those memories came flooding back. I came out of the exam hall and went home Results... 40%tile in DI, 90 odd in maths and 70 odd in VA. Overall 81 odd. Yes you are reading right. It was just 81. As usual the heroes anir_iim(my ideal for the season. He is in IIMA now.), prasant_iit_iim, basilsk, parulbajaj made great in CAT and deservedly went to the places they wanted. I was dejected. Special thanks to Prashant from IIT KGP here. He is one of the best guys I have ever seen in my association with PG. I had calls from IIFT and SPJAIN this season and even after a fantastic PI (my thoughts) I could not convert IIFT. My GD was very bad though. Was asked to summarize at the end. In my ignorance I thought I had spoken the best that's why I am being asked to summarize. Poor screw head Srinibas. Life in between CAT2007 and CAT2008 So 3 attempts and 3 botches. I decided that I won't take CAT ever again since a person with 81%tile cannot ever clear CAT. I told the same to my parents. They were dumbstruck by my decision and did not tell anything. By this time I was staying alone in Kolkata. CAT had taken out a lot of things from my life. I decided by now that all insanity (yeah that's what I call my obsession with the exam) must have an end. I had to stop. Come on Srini this cannot go on for ever. What more do you want to loose. Then I was asked to go on business work to Switzerland and Germany. Wow Germany my favorite soccer team. I readily agreed. Before that just to make more fun of myself I went to take the first TIME free AIMCAT. Yeah guys that was the aim. Just to see how lower I had fallen in aptitude. I was just relaxed. Went through the paper and came out. Never bothered to look at the solution and I just flew off to Europe and my dream country (Germany). It was EURO2008 time. This was held in Switzerland only. My flat was a stone's throw from the French and the Dutch team hotels. Germany reached the finals yet again in a major tournament and it was due to sheer grit and tenacity. I was so impressed that I read all of German football history in Wikipedia. Then I thought of taking a look at the AIMCAT scores. Surprise of surprises I had scored 98.**. A first in any exam related to CAT. Thought it was a fluke and went back to work. After some days one of my friends told me on a separate context of course 'People quit when they do not realize how close they were to winning'. On the same day we had a discussion on 'When the going gets tough the tough gets going'. One of my very close friends also told me 'To take a longer jump you need to take 2 steps backward'. All these were healthy discussions and happened within a span of a day. Maybe fate was taking me for a ride. Then I thought maybe I am a ****head not to catch the hint. I said to me 'You don't have any right to be a German team fan if this is your attitude'. But hell yeah I am true German fan. I have the spirit. Come on Srini you can't just quit. That will so UNGERMAN. The fire started burning again and I was longing to get back home to take AIMCATs. I came back but I had missed 5 AIMCATs by then. Yes I was also given a waiver in the AIMCAT fee coz of my decent score in the first AIMCAT. First real profitable venture of a wannabe MBA.I told my parents of my decision and they were dancing in the isles. Slowly but steadily I aced one AIMCAT after other. DI was a gray area though. I could never solve DI properly in the mocks . I had a sub 90 score in 2 AIMCATS and 96+ in the rest and 4 top rankers list. Well it's not great as a karanmaroo, sahilbansal, kamalaandi, varung, implex, anilgora to name a few but I was happy. Kisko phodu banna hai yaar. Ek seat hi to chahiye. I am happy if I am given the last seat. I had also joined Carrer Launcher for a second series of MOCK CATs. People say that its stupid to join 2 AIMCAT series but I beg to differ. I think it is absolutely fine to join two and practise from diverse resources. Yaar proper analysis karne main 3 din se zyada kya lagega. Baki 3 din hai week main to analayse the second MOCK as well. So if you are serious you will find time for everything. Remember a busy man find time for everything that is important. Bahut funde ho gaye.Lets get back to the plot. D Day (CAT 200-- My most relaxed CAT. Went to the centre calmly in tracks and a loose T shirt and sandals. People were staring at me. I was looking like a fool. Paper was handed out. First section -- Maths -- 17 questions done in 50 minutes. I was sure I had attempted 13 correctly. Second Section -- DI -- My bete noire -- First 10 minutes were wasted. Could not solve a single question. Then all thoughts started creeping in. Again I said to me 'Not a worthy German soccer fan'. There was a miracle. Next 50 minutes was like knife through butter. 15 questions done. I was sure about 12. DI was tough this year. I knew it was a 98+ score. Time to move on. VA -- I always was pretty confident about my English and thought that I will easily clear 96 percentile here within 40 minutes and my QA and DI will boost my overall. VA had 40 questions this year compared to 25 each in QA, DI. I attempted 25 questions in 40 minutes and was happy by the time the paper was over. Came back and checked the solutions. Had committed some silly mistakes in QA, DI. But my decent number of attempts saved me. VA was different though. I was scoring somewhere between 45 and 50 from various keys. 50 was safe but I would definitely have missed out A and C with 45. Fingers crossed I waited for the results. Finally some hours before the results were due they came out with the official keys. I got a rude shock that I had scored only 35 in VA. That meant a sub 90 %tile and all IIM dreams out of the window. Fate had other ideas this time around :) My score card read QA -- 98.72, DI -- 98.66, VA -- 87. ** 😞 OA 98.66 I had been called by my dream college along with IIM Lucknow and IIM Shillong. The dream college was IIM Bangalore (I would have joined B even if I had an A or C convert). Well so far so good ain't it. Started preparing or the GD/Interview processes. Each one came and went. But you know what I always had the low CAT score at the back of my mind. How can a person with 98.66 get into IIMB? Special thanks to karanamroo who was the person I used to look up to for comparing DI scores. Alas on the D Day meri hi sayad nazar lag gayi usko. He did not do well in his strength area (DI). But don't worry Karan you are damn good and will make big in life. The day of the results:- I had an XIMB and NITIE (merit list number 2) convert by this time (2/2). Hoped to make it 4/4 on April the 10. Moral from NITIE experience. -- In NITIE my rank was somewhere around 480 after the CAT scores. But when the final merit list was announced I was 2 (A senior had confirmed that the merit list was actually in order of our merit standings). So you see the importance of a good GD/PI. Don't ever loose heart after a poor written score. Just remember if you are good enough to be called you are better still to convert. So give your best shot. April the 10 2009 First I went to IIML website. Typed in the registration number and my DOB. The message appeared 'Sorry you are *******' I could not believe it was happening all over again. It seems like I am not ever going to an IIM. Then I rechecked my TR number and found that I had typed the wrong one. Typed in the corrected one again and I got the best message of my life. 'Congratulations. You have been --------------'. I sat down; hands numb and read the message again and again. Seems like an eternity had passed and I started to pinch myself to believe that it was all happening. How could it be true? Was I being drafted into IIM Lucknow. Well heck I was, and wow I was, and yes I was, and truly I was. Phew. Thanked everyone from birds in the sky to the fish in the deepest parts of oceans and moved on to the real biggie. Yes my dream college IIM Bangalore. So now its 3/3. How it wanted it to be 4/4 which will ensure that I will move into IIMB. Fate had another twist here too. Could not make it to my dream college. On hindsight theek hai I got a call from them right. Can't wait to go to HELL (For those of you who are unaware that is what they call IIML affectionately). If you are not into GERMAN soccer one can take inspiration from Goran Ivanesevic and his quest for Wimbledon or Lance Armstrong and tour de france. For all lesser mortals like me grit and tenacity can win you any battle under the sun and over the planet. Bye and fell free to PM me for any help.
I'm sharing with all of you advise that I got from someone who's well placed in the industry....... I had mailed him after my CAT and this is what he sent me, i feel there's enough wisdom in his words for it to be shared with all of you....
Dear Shoaib,
We are doing great and am sure same your end. Good to hear that you have cleared the CAT / will be clearing the CAT with good marks. I am also honoured that you have given me the priviledge to advice you in this moment of your career decision. That put the niceties to one side so we can get to hard facts .
Shoaib, it is very necessary in life that you decide what you want and when you want. You can have choices in a thread i.e this takes priority, if not this then this and the list goes on. But end of the day - You make your own choices based on a informed future oriented basis.
First the colleges - frankly what makes a difference is you. The better college gives you a 1 year head-start at the most. You need to decide what you want to do not do what is available. So what is your personality, temperament, aptitude and interest suited to. Analyze that - FAST. Pay packages do not matter (They have all dropped) (CTC is different from take home) (INR 10 lac CTC could give you 35-45K take home max - if lucky) - what matters is that do you have a good foundation in your subject of choice and more have you assimilated the theory and can you utilize it practically with common sense. Sounds Scary! But thats what separates the men from the boys and the butter from the buttermilk.
Good courses - top of line are - IIMs - Generalist / FMS - Marketing / XLRI - HR / MICA - Media / IIFT - Foreign trade. Then come MDI etc.
As regards studying overseas - once again what are your objectives in life. Live Life Kingsize overseas on DAD's MONEY! Shoaib, I may seem rough and rude but thats how you will get treated once in the real world. You need to build your foundations - yourself and then build your dreams. But dont forget to dream because if you dont you will not have a target in life and without that you will not have a sense of achievement.
My advice:
(1) Reach Higher, Hit Harder, Grow faster. (2) Success seems to be connected to action, Successful people keep moving, They make mistakes but never quit. (3) Your attitude makes altitude and lastly and the most important (4) "I CAN, I WILL".
Do a SWOT on yourself. Identify your core points - positive and negative. Identify your personality, temperment, aptitude and interest. FAST. Then select the course you wish to do. Where does not matter other than a ego issue. You do not see too many IIM guys heading successful organisations. Why, What happened. What has happend to the high flyers with super pay pack at start up. How come they did not get successful finally. So keep a gap to grow. Plan. Stragically and most importent IMPLEMENT.
Shoaib, all this sounds rough and bad. But " The rocky path you will tread on now will lead you to the rainbow" provided you keep your head on your shoulders and feet on the ground.
Wish you all the best and success. Any query to email in and I will be glad to advice within my limited knowledge of courses gone past. Take care and I await your reply.
I will soon write my story on cat, i do feel its worth a read, but right now just grasping the moment and just praying that this feeling won't fade.....
After many attempts, I have finally been able to write this post. So here goes my story I have never been an extraordinary student. I consider my self bright, but extremely lazy .Scored around 80% in 10th and 12th , with minimal efforts. Had a lucky day on AIEEE exam and managed to get into a decent engineering college. Managed to score 8.00 CGPA, thanks to the lenient marking system. Wasnt sure about what I wanted to do in life. Filled the CAT form, as all my friends were filling it. But one fine day, I saw one of my friends studying for the GATE, and decided to go for it. Filled the form, bought a book, only to realize that I could not handle so much of technical stuff. So, I ended up achieving new heights in computer gaming and sidelining the plans for higher education. Meanwhile, I managed to get 71%ile in CAT and 88%ile in GATE. Having no other option left, I joined an IT firm with the plan of working very hard and to become a geek (It sounds kewl). But destiny had other plans for me. I got a role where there was no work for me. Literally. In the first six months ,I hardly worked for a day or two. So I decided to give CAT another shot. Joined the TIME classes and started with vigor. But within two months, I had burned out. So, I spent the next six months going to the classes (Coz I had paid the fees) but making little efforts at home. But still I was quite optimistic of making it to a decent college. Managed 94%ile in CAT and calls from XLRI,SIBM,SCMHRD,XIMB. I was so confident of converting at least one of these that I didnt even prepare for the GDPI. The result : rejection from all. Meanwhile, some of my friends, who had performed no better than me in the mocks, have converted IIM calls. I now feel happy that I have been rejected from these colleges. At least I know what I can achieve and more importantly ,what I want to achieve. I will not live my whole life with the regret that , I could have done better".
The emotion that I attach with this thread cannot be put in words. Finally, the time has come for me to become the part of a legacy, and I have become a part of it with a bang! My first post will be just about my failures in the three CATs I gave earlier - its only through the failures does one gain motivation to succeed. It all started in 2004.
2004
After having been placed in an MNC (I was in final year then), a friend of mine at IIT Kharagpur informed me of this discount available on Mocks by TIME. I was in no interest to do an MBA at that point of time, but my friend just convinced me to join the test series. I gave tests with a complete lack of seriousness - I didn't even used to look at the papers after coming back from test. I used to score in 80-90 range in the mocks - not that I cared, I just gave them to boost my ego. Had to go to Calcutta to give CAT - the pattern had changed. 123 questions in all, with differential marking. I started with Quant and was taking my own sweet time, then went to VA, then in the end to DI. I had very less time left for DI and screwed it on a colossal scale.
2005
The final result was 95.88 with Quant and VA in 96s and DI 82 odd. Anyway, I forgot about CAT for a lot of time after that, and started working my ass off on my B.Tech project (mostly an IT project based on Java). I tried to increase my CG, and managed to make it 8.42 by the end of my degree. Later joined the MNC and was put in Mainframes. I just hated Mainframes as it was so outdated, but yet continued working in the MNC so that it doesn't leave a blot on my resume. Even the thought of CAT didn't appear in my mind, so didn't give CAT 2005
2006
Around August, I quit IBM and I joined a mid-sized product company with primarliy telecom companies as clients. The work environment changed for good and was much more informal than the suffocation I faced in the MNC. This is the time I met two of my colleagues who were preparing for CAT and giving the Mocks. But still, I wasn't really "ready" for an MBA - just kept up with business as usual, but convinced by room-mates to give CAT just for the heck of it. I remember trying to solve a very hard DI set from an AIMCAT paper with my friend the day before the exam. That was the only preparation I did for the exam. Went to exam hall and saw that QA was a piece of cake. But lack of preparation led to me taking quite a lot of time - did it for 1 hr. Then came VA - it was the most arbit VA paper that I ever saw. My reading speed was pathetic then and I took my own time solving the paper - but the time I spent in office reading wikipedia articles did help me a bit. Again 1hr gone. 1/2 hr left for DI. The time I came to DI, it was literally a blackout - I had not practiced even a bit, and everyone knows how important practice is for DI. As I had to do it fast, I wasn't actually confident of even one question. I knew that I won't be able to clear DI cutoff anyway. The results came - Overall 96.xx, QA was 99.8x, VA was 99.3x (given that VA had been the the nemesis of many, this was a welcome development) and DI was 10.xx! (I actually scored ZERO in DI). I didn't feel so bad as I didn't prepare at all, but I thought of it as a lost oppurtunity as QA was not going to be as easy as it was in this CAT anymore. But then I was getting into the "MBA mode" - my work at office actually helped in realize the need for an MBA to boost my career.
2007
I had caught up with my work at office, and was recognized by everyone for my contributions. Working in a mid-sized company gave lot of responsibility and independence to me with respect to my work. So I caught on with work, and was fairly busy everytime. The mock season came and I joined the TIME series. But I still repeated the same mistakes that I did back in college. I didn't use to do enough practice and nothing apart from a quick perusal of the mock paper after coming back. My scores always used to range in the 90s (the highest it once touched was 98 something). Apart fromt that work in the office was getting hectic. So at some point of time, I completely lost touch and there began a downward spiral in my scores. That led to a greater loss in confidence and quickly started losing hope. I clearly lacked information on those CAT crackers who had scored really less in their mocks. In short, I really missed pagalguy - although I had an id here, I rarely used to visit, mostly to post just my mock scores. CAT came and went - amidst my hectic work. I had a hard time convincing my manager for taking a leave on the Saturday before CAT. I was even thinking about my work stuff while writing CAT. My strategy was anyway screwed up. I attempted my weakest section - DI first - was able to score averagely there. Then moved on to verbal - I found it equally arbit, if not more, as 2006 - I took a full hr for this. I was left with just 45 mins for QA. Now the blackout had to happen with QA - I found it really tough - after not being able to solve 2-3 questions, pressure increased and I ended up making really bad mistakes. Anyway, result was worse than the last time - 95.xx with 89.xx in QA, 92.xx in VA, 89.xx in DI - I expected it. But I got a promotion at work and that kind of compensated for my grief of not cracking CAT.
After the results came for CAT 2007, I decided that CAT 2008 would be the last CAT I would be giving and that I would put in my 100%. Two of my room-mates made it to A & C and that indeed inspired me. But still, I didn't hurry it up - I was waiting for the mock season to start. I came to know about the utilities of PG through a colleague of mine. I subscribed to the QQAD mailing list and I would say that it took my Quant skills to the next level. I would strongly recommend it to anyone preparing for CAT. The questions are no doubt tougher than CAT, but once you start solving them, CAT questions just seem like cake-walk. I also picked up previous AIMCATs and started solving various DI sets. I came to know about many tips for solving puzzle based LR questions and various patterns involved. This segregation helped me in seeing through the clutter and provided me a solid framework for handling the dreaded LR questions. It was during the same time that the pagalguy premiere league was formed - and I became part of the Bangalore DT - I saw some awesome people there. This motivated me even more to perform well in the mocks. This time I joined two series - one of CL and one of TIME. Used to give CL mocks on Saturdays and TIME mocks on Sundays. That made sure that I was kept busy for most of the next week. When the mocks started, I started with a bang (99.85) partly because of the lack of prepared junta joining the mocks and partly due to the efforts that I had put in for around 1 month before that. I tried to keep maintaining my percentiles about 99 trying to clear all cutoffs. The more important thing I did was to not get bogged down by an occasionally low score. Such scores helped me in filling gaps and handling situations not encountered before. Plus, I made it a point to analyze each mock and solve each of the problem I left unattempted (Especially the DI sets). I continued with QQAD and started reading lots of stuff over internet and I picked up some good books like Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. Load on the work front was lesser than the last year, so was able to dedicate some time of mine to these activities. I thought I was all set for the BIG one (the last Mock at TIME was indeed a confidence booster in this respect). One more good thing I did was to take a leave from work starting Wednesday (CAT was on Sunday). I gave some mocks during the time, and gave the easiest of the lot I had preserved for myself just the day before the exam. As expected I had blasted the Mock and that gave me the required confidence. I slept early and surprisingly was able to get at least around 7 hrs of sleep. Now all set for the exam - reached exam center about half an hour before - and braced myself for the MAINCAT0900.
Found 160 marks for VA, 100 each for DI&QA; - thought of giving more time to VA but ended up giving equal time to all three sections. Started with QA and found it easier than the last time and was smoothly going along without any speed-breakers. I wanted to maximize my score through Quant so decided to persist and attempted it for full 50 minutes. Then DI. DI was the toughest section in CAT 2008 and it did take a toll on me, given that DI is my weakest section. It was calculation intensive as well. Just managed to do 12 questions and hoped to get most of them correct. Started with the verbal part of VA - found it a bit difficult, but attempted some nevertheless. Then to RCs. RCs were a welcome development this time. The passages were easier to comprehend and there was lesser ambiguity in answer choices. This helped me gain the confidence and I did all except one RC. In the last 5 minutes and solved some questions in another VA set. Overall, I had committed some mistakes in all sections but the damage was limited.
I started worrying about DI after the dust settled. I had got two questions wrong for sure and that put my score at 38 - which turned out to be borderline case. Now began the excruciating wait for the results. But I would say that wait was worth it! Meanwhile the JMET results came and I was AIR 3. Now I was sure of making it to at least one good bschool (SJMSOM). On 8th Jan, the site was opening for some puys and I gave my TR. No. to enstranged_gnrs. I would be thankful to him for ever for posting that result. It was a dream come true. I had got all of the coveted BLACKI calls, and a whopping percentile of 99.88 Finally, I cracked CAT, and that too in a bang. Now was the time to pass the next hurdle - the GD/PI round.
(GD/PI Process aka the after-effects of CAT cracking)
I cannot thank the Almighty enough for giving me a chance to post on this sacred thread. This one is straight from the heart for God, for him, for you all. I think I am special out of lots of people who clear CAT because I have a unique "quant-phobia" (like many arts/ commerce girls) but despite that I got through IIML. From the begining I despised maths That's why I had chosen the commerce stream after 10th (despite being a 'National Science Olympiad' winner...). In 12th I got 82 in maths. Yet my other papers managed to fetch me a 92% and I got through Economics (Hons.) in SRCC, my dream college. Maths didn't desert me in SRCC. The story continued since Economics is a maths-heavy course. I became a mediocre in SRCC because I scored badly in maths, stats and related papers. Maths didn't desert me after SRCC also. It started haunting me with a new name - QUANT - in my dream paper, CAT. And now I have to go for maths foundation course at IIML. Life is such a bitch! _____________________________________________________________ My tryst with the CAT began in 2006 Novemeber when I planned to write this over hyped exam CAT 2006 - CAT threw a big surprise - 75 questions- 25 in all 3 sections! I got into the trap. I think I did 20-22 questions in VA (why! Why! Why!)and 10 each in DI & QA. When the result came I realized I had 35 each in DI & QA (both the sections fetched me close to a 90%ile) and a hopeless 12 marks in VA - that gave me a 72%ile in VA. I was shattered not coz of a low score but because my strength - VA dinged me! No calls of course.:| Finally in the 2006 season I got a lone TISS call. I thought I had a great GD (I started the GD) & a decent PI (except for the why HR question, about which I had no clue, being a fresher). But TISS rejected me. I was not very sad because I wanted to give the CAT again. I joined Hewitt and started working in 2007. Lessons Learned: Do not underestimate any section or the GDPI process:nono:. Any section or any stage of the process could be your nemesis, even your perceived strength area. ______________________________________________________________ Thankfully I got through a good company, a consulting firm in September 2007 (again because of their verbal based written paper). I was enjoying my work and prepared a little bit for CAT 2007. I also realized about GMAT sametime & this gave me the hope that I need not settle for a bad B-school since I can always go to Amrika if not IIM 😛 CAT 2007: A replica of CAT 2006. I gave the paper without serious prep. Still VA & DI were good. Both sections fetched me a 95+. But my under-preparation in quant was my nemesis. CAT 2007 Qaunt was much tougher than CAT 2006 quant. & I got a BIG ZERO with 25%ile in QA in CAT 2007!!!!!! This scared me big time. I knew that quant was the problem area. I could do fairly ok in an easy SNAP or NMAT type quant paper but for a CAT & XAT my quant needed major work. CAT 2007 did not do anything to me except that it further developed my quanto-phobia. Lessons Learned: QUANT / QUANT / QUANT / QUANT _______________________________________________________________ I was doing fairly well in my job. & Simultaneously I decided to 'give-it-all' to CAT in 2008. I joined TIME mocks. From May 2008 onwards I studied for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the eve after office, daily. Left every worldly pleasure for 6 months and only concentrated on CAT. But I continued to score miserably in TIME in QA section. :| Meanwhile God sent an angel for me. A dear friend of mine, and a gem of a person helped me out with QA. He patiently made me understand fundamentals of quant. We studied together & that greatly helped me. I cant thank him enuf ever 😃 :) And yes this time my hard work bore fruits. This is how my score card looked on 9th Jan 2009: Test Section Score Percentile Section - I Quantitative 28.00 (out of 100) 88.40(just managed :p) Section - II Logic & Data Interpretation 43.00 (out of 96) 98.11 Section - III Verbal 89.00 (out of 160) 99.87 Total 160.00 (out of 356) 99.81 You have been shortlisted by the following IIM's for their PGP interviews. Details available on the individual institute's website (candidates for IIMC should check whether they are shortlisted for PGDM or PGDCM or both): Indore Lucknow And then began the GDPI prep - a journey of self introspection, lots of fun, learning & unlearning. Finally on April 10th I came to know that I had converted both IIML & IIMI (WL, but should convert). I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The feeling is awesome! So I am off to helL!!!! ____________________________________________________ My 7 cents for all future CAT aspirants:
Have faith in your abilities. If you believe you can, you will. (Clich but true)
If you fail, don't give up. Try again. (Clich but true)
Analysis of mocks is the most important part of your preparation. (key to CAT)
Work regularly in all sections (any section can ding you, trust me).
To improve in your weak area, study with some one who is good at that and probably bad in the section that is your strength. (this helps immensely):thumbsup:
Total Gadha number system book, QQAD & Arun Sharma material is great for scoring in QA (I am not advertising but only sharing what helped me in QA).
Pagalguy is a great place and a must for all CAT aspirants. Period.
I guess I can lay claim ...to writing here ... although I am gonna Join XLRI.
The day I could not get into IIT's and my claim to do so ...after dropping one year..( as is the usual fare in Bihar ...my native place) ..was successfully vetoed by my family ....
I had to get into IIM's ...That is the freaking way my mind perceives things!!
(I still maintain...that I was and am good enough for both the institutions( as so many of fellow puys and my peers are) ...People ..the way I see it is that.. this country of ours ...has such a large talent pool ...that we cannot afford to ..give IIx education to all the deserving people...so ...D day matters ...and a section of people get in ...and the rest ..are left ..back ...to pay ..what I call the "cost" that the bearers ...of a "developing" nation have to pay .. I am not complaining .. I love India.)
Well.. joined ..NIT Surathkal.(engg folks ..know about this better than "good" college )..after a fair enough performance in AIEEE 2004. Turned out to be best decision of my life till date. All other great things like ...an international size swimming pool, a private college beach ...a cosmopolitan culture ..and awesome placements apart ...this college is the best ..launching pad for higher studies. Consider this .. of my class of 34 students ...passing out ....15 straightaway went for MS in USA/Canada etc.
So after ... reading novels .... playing CS .. wasting time for 3 years in college ... CAT 2007 was in sight ...and I was damn confident. Gave some initial mocks...and all.. performed very well...and worked really hard ...like practised and all.... My college has a history kind of ..of sending 12-15 people to IIM's every year ...and all my friends believed I would also ...get in .
The biggest mistake around this time that I did was ... ignored ..my almost ...constant failure to ...cross sectional percentiles ..in any one section ...throughout the mocks season ..!!!
I thought ...ek din ki baat hai ..it will come good on the good day !! I used to get good enough overall scores( 99 +- 0.1 percentiles ) ...so that was also fair enough!!
Screwed up DI in CAT 2008 big time. And it was the easiest section. percentile : 96.57 I never got less than ..98.5 in mocks... but i was disappointed ...only with myself !! I remember my Mom said to me the day results were out ...only this much .. " Does it matter ?? You know ..that you are good enough ...I know that you are good enough ?? Your friends know that ?? what else ?? How many times they will refuse ?? you have 4 months of final year ..enjoy karo "
I tried to forget ....enjoyed my last few days in college to the limit ...went home before joining my company. It was around July 2008. CAT was again back to my mind. Still I did nothing. I dint want to overwork...I had a fair idea of things ...I was not so to say " weak" in any of the sections ..like ...none of the sections were like pulling me down ...I knew it was the day that mattered !!
So around August .. I joined ...IMS ..(decide to change ..it was...TIME in college) ... decent enough i felt .. but felt like more practice... So took Career launcher ...also..on saturday ... I must thank my two flatmates ...they r friends bk from college ...and they joined with me ..!!
IMS gives a good all around ... competition ...and Carrer Launcher's individual questions are really good.....sometime CL goofs up on setting a nice paper overall...too tough or too easy ...!!
Was performing well ....never below 98.5 .. in the later stages ...also ...came in below AIR 100 also many times.
I also realised three things :
1. Any student, however brilliant and balanced HAS to surrender himself to the demands of the exam pattern in front of him. You just cant be egoistic and hard headed.
2. Self analysis is the key. You can't survive such immense competition if you dont understand how does your mind behaves during a test. When does it need rest ?? When should you stop attempting a DI set ...and go back to a chilled out VA questions ?? Things like that !!
3. Accuracy In Quant and DI is the key. It serves you immensely if you can get the feel of balancing your attempts and their accuracy as per the needs of the paper ! Period !!
just went and gave CAT 2008. I knew as soon as I came out ki ...I had screwed it up ...As a principle, I never check my scores with online results and all...But pata tha ki ...Quant was screwed up ...again the easiest one !!
Had a call from IIFT meanwhile ... but heart was not there ... would not have joined even ...if I had got it..at least this year !!
So went home ...10 days .. came back ...Lots of work in office .. dint touch pen for one month ..till XAT ...4th Jan ..
Decided on 3rd jan after seeing last year's actual XAT paper of mine ..
Only one strategy ... forget it was XAT ... Convert XAT to CAT .. ignore all special types of questions ....choose CAT tyoe questions and solve them !!
The minute I came outta XAT, i knew ...it was good ....I would surely get a call!!
Finally got ...99.7 My mom was happier than I was ...hehe ...coz she had seen ...that ..I had screwed up quant again !! I just kept telling her .ki ..mummy ..luck bhi chahiye ...kaafi logon ke saath hota hai !! Its a one-day thing !!
Interviews...and all...no special preparation..
rejects from IIFT .. expected ... very bad interview ...because I was brutally honest ..all throughout the intrvw.
FMS .. god only knos ..why they rejected me .. 99.75 .. and a good gd/PI ...
xlri .. CONVERTED ...jOINING ..NTHNG SPECIAL ...they asked me ..some different questions ..which I could manage !!
Not IIM's but XLRI ..Fair deal ...considering ...how unlucky ..you can be ...on the basis ...of 3 hrs .. or ..one bad day at GD/ PI.
Pagalguy .. has been awesome throughout .. I cant thank ....puys enough !!
The net result is " Always ask yourself ...Do you want it that bad ??? "
strict no-no 'learning from my failures' , all this shouldnt be done ever -
now PUYs...do PM me your comments/groans whatever you feel...
... since I hadn't prepared well, I expected less of myself , and thus was under lesser pressure to deliver..the other thing was PG ..I followed all threads relentlessly, don't know why but something just kept pulling me back to where I thought , I belonged.. 
) but I had 98.5 in verbal and cleared DI cut-off. So I thought I must be doing something right in these at least.
. Thanks PGs, without it I wouldn't have made it to IIMs today.
