CAT Preparation 2017- PaGaLGuY

[zak_007 (Byomkesh)]

My story is a bit different from the ones you had read on this forum (it's a cliche told by every story teller ;)).
Early Days
I was never a topper during my school days, even though I used to put in a lot of hard work. Maybe I was never a topper material. Class X results were below my expectations with English playing the spoilsport. The IIT bug had bitten me while I was in class X and so I didn't pay serious attention to the subjects taught in Class XI and XII. I used to bunk classes in order to study JEE level physics, chemistry and maths in the library. Somehow I managed to get a decent score (78% by 2001 ISC standards) in my Class XII exams despite getting 59% in English. There were rumors that the English paper had been checked by teachers at La Martinere:sneaky: and hence the scores were so low.
IIT JEEs
I managed to clear the screening (AIR 3000), but faltered in the mains (AIR 5200). I guess it was chemistry that played the devil's role. The next one year was spent brushing up the knowledge. I got enrolled in the one year programme at FIITJEE, Delhi , but had to leave the programme midway because of severe health problems. I sailed through the screening and was on course to get a good rank in mains. But then fate had other plans in store. A couple of weeks before the mains I got severe eye infection. The infection was so severe that I could barely open my eyes. They were bloody red with frequent discharges of pus from my eyes. My dad took me to the best eye specialists in town, but the infection didn't go away. I took the mains exam with very low vision and a severe headache (due to the infection). During those days the mains exam was comprised of three papers (Physics, Chemistry and maths) of two hours duration each. I managed to score well in Chemistry and Maths, but during the Physics paper, the headache was at its peak and I barely managed to cross the cutoff.
The results were declared in a week's time and I managed to scrape through with an AIR of 3782. I was happy but not delighted, because I knew that with three years of hard work, I deserved a much better rank. Anyways, I took admission in ISM and then later joined IIIT A (in second counseling).
The CAT bug
I wasn't always inclined to do an MBA. When I joined IIITA, I wanted to do an MS from some good university abroad. When I was in the second semester the results of CAT 2004 were declared and one of our seniors who was a 100%iler became the talk of the town. I said to myself "I also want to be famous like him". That is when I decided to crack CAT. Thus began my quest to conquer CAT in 2004. I bought WPME (word power made easy) and memorized it by heart. I bought a few other books and solved them. I didn't attend any classroom programme coz I felt that the classes won't be of much help.
Mocks and Mockery
By the time the mock tests for the finale started, I had mastered VA and DI. I was a bit slow in QA which brought down my overall percentile in the mocks. I managed to hover around the 95-99.xx mark in the mocks. I was stated to be the next one headed to IIMA from our college. Everyone around me was confident that I would crack CAT. Somewhere deep inside I knew that I could do it. Hence I took my placements very lightly, thinking that I anyways would be going to an IIM. I did not study a word for the placements (played AOE and CS) while other students revised DS and OS. Somehow after a few rejects I managed to get selected into Patni and Flextronics. I probably got selected because they asked very basic questions and for the tricky ones I confidently said "I haven't revised it". Anyways placements came and went away. I didn't sit for big firms like Google and Yahoo (I wouldn't have got selected given my level of preparation). Then came the D-day, I guess it was Nov 15/16 2006. I tried to get a good night sleep, but kept rolling over from one side to the other. With every passing minute, I became impatient to try and get some sleep. There are times when you feel sleepy but just can't sleep (it is very frustrating). Somehow I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep in the morning. I took a bath and left for the center with my friends. I was quite confident that I would crack it. Then came the paper. I used to start with VA, my stronghold and boy it was one of the hardest VA section in CAT's history. There wasn't a single easy question in the section. I devoted a good amount of time in the section, dealing every question with great detail. Then I moved to the DI section, my second strongest section. DI seemed very easy and straight-forward. I did it quite easily. QA was the easiest of the lot and the questions again were very simple.
After the exam I knew that if I cleared VA cutoff, I stood a very good chance of getting calls from IIMs. The keys came out in the evening. There was a buzz around the campus with everyone comparing their answers with different keys. Most of my batch mates were missing the cutoff in VA. I started, said a small prayer and sat down to compare my keys. I started with VA and managed to get 28, which was well above the predicted cutoff. Then I moved to DI and a lightning struck me. I was getting only 32 while the predicted cut-off was 40+. I was dumbstruck, speechless . It seemed like a joke. "It can't be true", I said to myself. I somehow composed myself to check my QA section and it turned out that I had performed the best in my weakest section.
Days went by and I was hoping that somehow I would get two more questions right in DI so that I would clear the cutoff. I was hoping that the CAT guys would allow me to shift my extra marks from QA to DI (crazy idea). Meanwhile IIFT came and went and in December I completed my B.Tech (ours was a .5 batch). On 2nd jan, the CAT results were declared. My heart was thumping at the rates of knots when I entered my registration no. I will never forget what i saw. VA - 98.8 QA - 99.7 DI -71.6 OA -98.89
I sat in front on the computer screen, not knowing what had happened. My hopes of getting into the IIMs had dashed. Luck had betrayed me at the most important juncture. I could sense the grief in my parent's voice. Even they were hopeful that I would bell the CAT. XAT was on 4th Jan and I somehow managed to sit through the exam. Somehow I faltered in the VA section and missed the sectional cutoff by 1-2%. FMS came and went by. Meanwhile I joined Flextronics in Gurgaon as a S/w professional. Though I am an IT engineer, I never liked coding or any other similar geeky stuffs. I had no plans or interest in becoming a coder or a tester or whatever they call it.
Love Pangs and CAT 2008
During the training at Flextronics, I got into a one-sided affair with a girl. I kept CAT on the back-burner and took a deep plunge into the ocean of love:nono:. But then the ocean suddenly dried and I fell on my face. Apparently she had mastered in handling boys and was handling many other affairs simultaneously . I was just her object for fun at the office. Anyways, I went through a lot of pain, sorrow and grief. I somehow composed myself in October, but it was too late. I took a few mock tets , but I knew that my mind was not in the right place. I managed to get 98.2% with all sectionals >90%, which fetched me a call from MDI, which I royally screwed and got a very late W/L. Meanwhile I also gave XAT, FMS and IIFT but didn't get any call. Ohh , I also had a call from SP Jain for Marketing profile. I did very well in the interview and was confident of getting a final convert, but it never came.
Entrepreneurial bug and CAT 09
After two CAT failures, I realized that it was not in my destiny to study in an IIM. Meanwhile to take my mind away from the girl at my office (the one who was a multi-tasker ), I started concentrating on my friend's startup. Since I had no work to do in office (I was not interested either) I used to travel to Delhi during working hours to help my friend. Cat was out of the window. That year I just filled the form because of my parent's pressure. It turned out to be a disaster. I barely managed to cross the 90% mark. But due to my decent score in XAT (some 97%), I got a call from SPJain again. Only to be kicked out in round I of the interview. Thus my third season of CAT also ended on a sad note .

Contd....

[zak_007 (Byomkesh)]

Contd.....
The Resurrection
In everyone's life there comes a point when you stop to reflect back on your life. I realized that I had no career in IT, my friend's business had failed. It was high time that I took control of my life and follow my dream of doing an MBA. So I started preparing for CAT again. This time CAT was going to be conducted online. So I used to solve papers in the office. Even on weekends I used to go to office to take mock tests. I was back on track and was confident that I could crack it this time. I did pretty well on the D-Day and was hoping for a few calls. The results were declared on 28th Feb and I got 98.5% with decent sectional scores. But no IIM calls. Ohh no wait.. Just when I had given hopes of any IIM call, Indore released its list. My name was there. I was delighted, elated, excited (can't think of any more adjectives). I called my parents and my brother (gudakesh) to give them the good news. And yes.. I got calls from MDI and SPJain again.
The Interview
The essay part was easy and I guess I wrote a prety good essay. Then came the PI. My desperation to convert my lone IIM call, fuelled my nervousness. To worsen the situation, the panelists asked questions related to my acads, and I either answered "I don't know" or "I don't remember". It was not as if I hadn't prepared the acads, but the kind of questions they asked were very strange and I had no answer for them. They asked a few more questions and then gave up. Towards the end of the interview I felt like crying. I wanted to beg them to leave me. It was a very short interview and I came out knowing that I had blown away, the one chance to get into an IIM. I did perform well in the SJPain interview, but was not selected and MDI again gave me a long W/L.
IIFM or RGIPT??
While the regular preparation for CAT was going on , I came to know about RGIPT and the placements it had for its maiden batch. Most of the companies which had turned up were OIL PSUs. I found it interesting mainly because by this time I was fed up of the private job and wanted the peaceful life of a PSU. Moreover by this time I was put under a different manager (still on bench though) and boy he was a true a**hole. An M.Tech from some XYZ college, he was Hitler's re-incarnation. He was the kind of person whom you would never ever want to meet or associate yourself to in your life. I had some altercations with him and I knew that I would be asked to put down my papers during the next review. This plus the fact that I saw no future in IT, made me apply for IIFM and RGIPT. Oh, I forgot to mention that I was selected for the MBA programme at IIFM in 2008, but didn't have the courage to take the bold step. I have always been fascinated by wildlife and nature. Probably I should have joined back then.
"Whether to join IIFM or RGIPT ?", was the next big question which I had to face. Finally on the D-day I decided to take the safer option and joined RGIPT. Meanwhile during the annual review at the office, my manager asked me to put down my papers, which I readily did . I was more than happy to get out of the boring IT job and the dreaded place (Gurgaon :sneaky:) , which had sucked life out of me.
Meanwhile in August, while I was at RGIPT, IIM Raipur came out with their notification for the commencement of their first batch. I thought that maybe God had given me a second chance to get an IIM tag. I prepared well for the interview but as usual was rejected.
A lottery
Life was going smoothly and peacefully at RGIPT. I had managed to make some very good friends and everything was on track. But then old habits die hard. There were a couple of friends at RGIPT who were going on the yearly ritual (called HAJ-Cat) and I decided to join them. So on the last day of the sale of CAT form I asked my dad to buy a form for me. I managed to get my voucher a day before the test date. A night before the exam I just revised some quant formulas.
I was very calm before and during the exam. I had no pressure to perform and probably this worked in my favor. I treated it just like another aptitude test. This test marked the end of my CAT journey. It didn't matter to me whether I got any calls or not. I was pretty satisfied with my life and was at peace with myself.
On the morning of Jan 12th, I got a call from my brother. I was half asleep when he said that the results were out and I had scored 99.05%. I said 'ok'. It didn't matter anyways. At max I would get a call from IIM I, which I was not very interested in joining any more. I was more excited for my brother who had got 99.44%. At around 11 am, my brother called again to say that I had a call from wiMwi. "What the f**k", I said. How on earth can I get a call at 99.05 when the past cutoffs have been 99.3+?
To top it all I also got calls from L and I. I was the talk of the town once again, with everyone congratulating me and asking me the dates of my interview. I devoted a lot of time to prepare my acads this time. I revised my engineering subjects along with the subjects that I had studied at RGIPT.
The D-Day
I had my first interview of the season on March 13, (not a Friday) and it was the biggest one:A. I was undecided whether to tell the panelists that I had quit my job last year to prepare for CAT or to tell them the truth. I decided to be truthful. Needless to say that I was very nervous and as a result the interview didn't go very well (yet again ).The panelists asked me some tricky question from Eco and Accounting. I managed to answer very few of them. At the end I asked them to see a portfolio of pictures which I had clicked. They glanced through the pics and said 'Nice' :). It was a desperate effort on my part to leave a good impression.
Thus ended the most important interview of my life till date. When I came out from the room, I knew that I stood no chance and that I had somehow managed to blow away the last chance to realize my dream of studying at WIMWI.
I had no hopes of making it to either A or L (it didn't go well either), and so I went back to focus on my MBA courses.
April 18, 2011
It was around 10 am and I was writing my end term paper, when my phone rang. I knew that the results were going to be out today (courtesy my brother) and at best I was hoping for a W/L. Since I was in an exam hall, I couldn't pick up the phone. Then an SMS came. My heart beat increased. I figured out that it must be my brother who has seen the result and is anxious to tell me. I couldn't resist the temptation to read the SMS and took out the phone with the invigilator standing next to me. I opened the message and it read "Pack your bags to go to the dry state J. It was infact from my brother. I felt numb and sat there for a few minutes motionless. I took permission from the invigilator to go to the washroom and from there I called my brother and my parents who were more delighted than me.
Thus ended my CAT journey which was marred with lots of failures but thankfully it ended on the right note. I dont want to preach anything except that work hard and leave the rest to luck.

[sufal (Sufal Roongta)]

This is probably the most inspiring thread on PG. I have read this thread for days and months and got more and more inspired each time. I always thought of writing on this thread once I become eligible. Now, that the moment has arrived, let me begin with my story. This might not be as good as some of the experiences on this thread, but still worth sharing. :)

The humble Beginings:
I am born and brought up in Ahmedabad. Right from school, I was above average in studies, never the extra-ordinary kinds. I used to be around 10th in class size of 40 students. But I had particular interest in maths and used to do well in it.
In around 7th standard (2001), I came to know that someone from our society cleared CAT and he became the talk of the town. I was told that speed and accuracy in Maths is extremely important to crack it. And there was the start of a dream that I would one day crack CAT and go into IIMs. In the next 2-3 years, while interacting with some MBA grads, they seemed very smart and this reinforced the dream to get into IIMs. (Yeah, they now seem crazy reasons to do an MBA). Living 2 kms away from IIM-A and passing by it many times made the feeling much more stronger.
At that time, I believed taking up commerce would be good after 10th, as it will help in MBA. But then I read a article in a newspaper which suggested most of the IIM grads are IITians. And so, I decided to study for JEE ( Yeah, that was probably the most stupid reason, one could study for JEE. 8 years later, I think how immature, I was then. :grin:)

The Kota and IIT-JEE AND AIEEE
Even though, I had a stupid reason to study for JEE, It was strong enough. I enrolled into Bansal Classes, Kota and moved away from my hometown. Ofcourse, I realized in kota that people can crack CAT even without getting into IITs. But now that I had spent so much time and money, I worked hard. After slogging hard for 2 years, The D-Day came. The JEE was completely objective this year for first time (2006). I screwed it up completely. 20 days later, AIEEE was there, it went well. So, as expected, I secured a very good rank in AIEEE(1703) and failed in JEE. I got admission into IIIT-Hyderabad. :)
And now, that I realized that my notion that "getting into IITs would help me getting a seat at IIMs in future" was absolutely absurd, I was not at all disappointed with JEE result and took up engineering in IIIT-Hyderabad.

Engineering and CAT-2009 Prep
I always knew that I wasn't really made for the technical stuff. I didn't like them very much. At the end of 2nd year, I decided to start prep for CAT. I knew that was early to begin but I really wanted to get into IIM, and in particular IIM-A. I used to dream every single day, that during my stay at IIM-A, I would have home-cooked food at weekends (campus being just 2kms away from my home). I worked very hard, took such electives which required little effort, so that I could spend more and more time in preparation. My mocks used to vary from 95-99.5. In the last few days, mocks percentile went down. I was worried, but not disheartened. I knew all that matters was the final performance.

CAT 2009 D-Day
It was the first time, it went online. So, there were quite many issues sorrounding it. Thankfully, my experience was pretty good. I started with Quant, did well, DI was very easy, English was very confusing and I was not confident while marking the answers.
Since this was online, there was no way of knowing/guessing the scores before the official results.

The CAT-2009 results and Aftermath
After a long wait, results were out.
I scored: QA: 99.9 DI: 99.4 VA: 86.1 OA: 99.72
I was actually not so dissapointed seeing the low verbal score. I knew there would be no A and C calls, but I expected calls from other IIMs seeing the last year's trend. But alas, destiny had some other plans. None of the IIMs called me, because of my not so extra-ordinary academics/ no work-ex and I got calls only from MDI-Gurgaon and SP Jain.
I was rejected from SP Jain in the first round after horrible interview, but managed to get selected into MDI-Gurgaon.
At that time, I had got a job at Factset Systems. So, it was a choice between MDI-G and Factset.
Finally, some thought, I decided, I won't let go of my dream to get into IIM. I wanted to have one more chance. And I joined Factset Systems as a software engineer. This was probably one of the best decisions of my life.
( This does not mean that I consider MDI any lesser college. Infact MDI-G is one of the best colleges you can do an MBA from. One of my friends did it and his job profile in marketing is similar to what top guys at IIMs get. It was just I wanted IIMs badly)

2010-2011
Seeing the last year's results, I had decided to work for atleast 2 years before going for MBA as I wanted to get some points for work-ex in selection criteria. So, I decided to skip CAT-2010 and directly appear for CAT-2011. Experience at Factset was really good. I started liking the technical stuff and there was good work-life balance. I did lot of other stuff. I got associated with Art of living, volunteered for a lot of courses there, volunteered with NGO "Ashray Akruti", led a group in hyderabad "We-the-Change", read a lot of books and worked over a B-plan simultaneously. This 1 year was extremely good and I learnt a lot during it. It all gave me a much more insight of myself and what I really want to do in life. I was now much more clear on why I want to do MBA.

CAT 2011- Prep
So, After enjoying for a whole 1 year, I started the prep again as planned in May 2011. Giving CAT once before helped. I remembered most of the stuff and did well in most of the mocks (>99). I worked hard in English, started reading a lot of stuff, improved on grammar. During the last 2 months, suddenly the mock scores dipped. I decided, it was now or never. I took last 3 weeks holiday from office before CAT and worked very hard, used to solve a mock daily. I was much more confident now.

D-Day
Again, Quant and Logic were pretty easy and english was a bit dicey. I was more prepared this time but still found english confusing. I attempted 59 out of 60 questions. The overall feeling after it was if I manage to clear English cut off, I would be able to get some calls.

Results - CAT 2011
Finally, results came. The scorecard read
Section1( QA+DI) : 99.75
Section2 ( VA +LR) : 97.3
OA: 99.78
And I was dumbstruck for a moment. The efforts paid off and to my delight got calls from A,C, L, I and FMS.

Interview Preps
This time, I didn't want to miss the bus. I prepared hard. I worked on acads, which I hated even during college times, I read a lot on interests and hobbies, read about a lot of current affairs. Filled up the forms very diligently, at times drafting the answers multiple times before writing in final form.

Interviews
The first was L. I forgot to carry a watch. And completely mismanaged the time in essay, couldn't conclude the essay. GD was pretty okaish and in PI, I was grilled on technology and some international economics, of which I had no idea about. When I came out of PI, I knew this was a sure reject.

One month later, it was IIM-C. I was much more prepared now. Essay and GD were average. Interview experience was horrible, I somehow managed to fumble in all questions they asked, about hobbies, acads and work-ex. I got extremely tense during the interview and that affected the whole interview very negatively. I was completely dejected after the interview. Next day, It was Ahmedabad interview.

With the 2 extremely bad interviews and iim-A interview the very next day, I started loosing confidence. But soon, I thought, that if I do well in Ahmedabad, nothing else will matter. I got the confidence again. I wrote down the important questions and their answers in a notebook, so that I don't fumble in the interview.

Next day, just before leaving for IIMA interview, one of my friends at IIM-B advised me to revise the personal questions just before the interview. I kept the notebook( in which I had written answers last night) hurriedly.

Process started. The essay was bad. Just before the interview, I went through the notes in my notebook. I was called in for PI. The panel was extremely chilled out, I was somehow very confident today and PI was awesome. The best, I have ever given. 15 of 20 mins concentrated on the business plan that I worked on, and I explained every answer in detail using block diagrams on paper. After the interview, I realized that most of the stuff that I talked about in the interview was in my notes. That was probably, what made the difference in the experience. So, overall, it was bad essay, but good PI.

Results
The first to come out was C on 11th April. I was rejected. I expected this, but still I was a bit sad. Increasingly, I was getting anxious about Ahmedabad result, which was to be announced on 16th April. I was getting more and more pessimistic each passing day.
In anxiety, I couldn't sleep on 15th night. Finally slept at around 6 in the morning. After some time, I recieved a call with my flatmate from office on other side "Bhai Badhaai ho.... Ho gaya tera Ahmedabad mein". I woke up like a spring. I didn't believe him. Opened laptop as fast as I could, logged in and got the message
"Congratulations. You have been selected for PGP in IIMA ". I was stunned. I just looked at the message for some time before coming back to my senses. And finally, the dream that I saw from last 12 years came true..
And it all made sense to me finally. Everything happens for a reason. Right from CAT 2009, when I didn't get call from L/I/K, to when I chose not to appear for CAT 2010 and work on B-Plan, to the bad interviews of IIM-C and IIM-L, all of which helped me to get into my dream college IIM-A.

That reminds me the line from Om Shanti Om "kehte hai agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho toh poori kaynath tumhein usse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai " ( It is said, that if you a love something very much, the whole world conspires to get that to you ). That is so apt over here.

As I write this, I just saw that I have got a reject from IIM-L PGP but convert from IIM-L ABM. And I have my IIM-I and FMS interviews scheduled later this month. But it hardly matters now. :biggrin:

So, I am all set for spending next 2 years at WIMWI, the icing on the cake being the proximity of campus to my home(2 km). My brother says "it as an epic homecoming after 8 years ". And ofcourse, my parents are extremely happy:grin:

This brings the end to my tryst with CAT but a beginning of a new phase of life. The journey has taught me a lot of things but the biggest thing that I leant was to "Dream Big" and just go for it madly. Sooner or Later, you will definitely achieve it.

[omiey07 (Umang Trivedi)]

Finally, posting on the sacred thread which has inspired many and will keep inspiring. . .

I am writing the post as I sail through my summer internship in a German company and wait for my mentor to come.

What a journey it has been. I wind the clock one year back and see myself overjoyed by my converts. Sacrificing the last 1.5 years of fun filled graduation had finally paid off. I was not joining an IT mass recruiter and was going to pursue MBA. . . .

I was sitting on 5 converts out of 14 calls. I still feel that a better profile would have improved my number of converts. But, one thing was sure, I was going for MBA this year and was not going to allow IT companies to put a stamp on my head stating "IT work ex". I was never an IT guy and more of a field person. Roaming in streets on my bike was my favourite time-pass. Had I not decided to give CAT in my final year, I would have been a "Biker" (feels like Steve McQueen while saying this)!!!

Anyways, what kept me going was the urge to stay away from IT jobs. . .:sneaky:

So here is the flashback. . . . .

"Dad, get me a bike. I want to do MBA." This sentence indicated that I am going to sacrifice my guitar, movies, bike trips and potential girlfriends. My college would have got a rockstar if I would not have been preparing for CAT. :drinking::drinking::splat::splat:

My friends noticed the change only one month after I stopped hanging out often with them. My best ones remained with me and others also remained with me :). I am good at Public Relations . . . !!

So, I joined Endeavor Coaching Classes as it had 24x7 open reading room (that is what I said to my Dad). Highly inspired by Parasharan Chari, I started preparing for CAT rigorously. Started skipping college and featured in the "Not-A-Good-Student" list of college faculties. It did matter a lot as my final exam results would depend on them. My priority would be concentrating on CAT and interviews as I had already assigned the responsibility of passing me to my faculties . . .

Preparing for Mock exams and solving the bulky material provided me confidence that the first Mock test out of 25/30 tests will fetch me not less than 95%. Without even giving the mock test, I started dreaming (ya, I day dream sometimes). First mock 95%, slow improvement will fetch me 99.xx% in CAT. No one can stop me from being a part of those coveted colleges.

But, alas !! 63.17% was the score displayed after I completed my Mock 1 . Yes, I still remember my score. Devastated, I ran to the center head. "Sir, raita fail gaya score pe !!". He told me to take a chill pill and go watch a movie, this is just a beginning.

I did not listen to him. Did not sleep and bunked the college next day. I realized that I was over-reacting. I should actually watch a movie.

I felt relaxed and started preparing for other three scheduled Mock tests. yeah, keeping your head cool helps a lot !! The results were 95%, 98% and 96% respectively in the next three mock tests. Did it make me happy? No, but indeed satisfied. The only aim now was to maintain the score till the D-day.

With fluctuating scores, I indeed managed to the upward side of 90% more often. Mock SNAP, XAT, JMET, IIFT, FMS etc went good if not great.

_______________________EXAM Time______________________________

As far as I remember, my first exam was IIFT. Screwed up royally.

Second exam, FMS. Same thing. Managed to clear cut-offs according to previous years but was damn sure that this year cut-offs would go high. So, another gate slammed in my face.

Considering IIFT and FMS as dry run, the following exams went decent and was expecting many calls out of it. In CAT, my Quant and DI section went good, but was not sure of verbal.

Finally verbal proved to be the villain and I was left with CAT percentile which would fetch me tier 3 colleges calls. JMET fetched me 3 IITs calls and SNAP fetched me 4 calls including SIBM Pune and SCMHRD. NMIMS also called me after I was able to smash the cut-offs in both the attempts.

The shock of my life came when I missed XLRI pathetically by 0.05%. The sad thing was that XAT 2011 was so tough, that I was not expecting anything out of it. But when I got good percentile, XLRI was just a whisker away, but out of reach. .

I missed IRMA cut-off by 0.046%. Life could not have been more cruel. Trust me missing by 4-5% is much more preferred than missing by 0.046-0.05%.

My journey towards transforming from 'an MBA aspirant' to 'an MBA' started.

___________________GD/PI______________________

So, I had a total of 14 calls. The interviews ranged from being advised to "come back next year" and also "we will see you in the batch". I was also accused of supporting a murderer when I appreciated work of CM Narendra Modi in Gujarat .

I had prepared rigorously for the group discussions and interviews. But, my profile was average. Finally, I had 3 direct converts and 2 wait-listed which eventually converted. Out of the 3 direct converts, one was "Goa Institute of Management" which I eventually decided upon to join.

I did not join the IT mass recruiter and as I write this, I feel a sense of relief when I imagine myself tangled in codes and jostling with repetitive programs. .

As I sit in the marketing department of a manufacturing company (non-IT :)) pursuing my summer internship, I am filled with enthusiasm. The profile which I have got as a summer trainee, would be my dream job profile.

I will never join an IT firm. This post will be a testimonial to my stand. But, God forbid I get an IT job, please pray my Boss does not read this Post :biggrin::biggrin:. . !!!

At the end, I would like to say that 'expect the unexpected'. After the toughest XAT examination of all the times, I never, even in my day dreams, expected a convert in a B-School through XAT.

PaGaLGuY has been and still is a vast source of inspiration and motivation for me. PaGaLGuY for me is not just a website, but a community. .

Signing off . . !! Wishing best of luck to all the aspirants. May you get what you want. . .

[sajal_lovescat (Sajal Kumar)]

This comes, not when I am about to join a college but when I have passed out of one. There is a particular reason why I am posting it in this thread, and I would specifically come to it in the end. CAT and further performance in personality rounds will give one the choices, an important aspect of the CAT would also be the choices one makes from the various options that one has managed with these performances. These views of mine are mostly addressed to various people in a position to make these choices, though most B-school students and alumni would relate to it.

A good MBA experience is about a lot of things. A lot of things apart from the XY.Z figure where X,Y and Z are numbers in our immediate placement stat. (any case, most people end up with the same X from a good Indian b-school, and there is way too much worry about the Y and Z).

A good MBA experience is about the things we will read or the films we watch in our evenings when we come back from work. It is about the way we will spend our weekends and if things like helping out a NGO and visiting old age homes seem boring in comparison to parties at pub. MBA experience is about the way we will react to things happening around us. It is about the challenge to stop being ordinary, to stop being a conformist, to stop being a person whose choices were determined by society. It is about being a person who had individual choices, passions and a life of his/her own.

A good MBA experience is about the atmosphere in which our children will tomorrow grow. It is about the importance we will give to the career of our better half. It is even about the kind of things we would choose to do once we retire from a professional life. It is about the respect of education and its role in creating out an individual who will be an asset to the society. It is about the general satisfaction and happiness of living a life you are proud of, a feeling which numbers do not capture, a feeling which has a great value, probably the greatest value for those who realize it.

Of course, not denying that it is also about performing well in the office, and getting well rewarded for that. This point may not have come in the end, I do not wish to under emphasize the importance of this aspect. But for too long, this 'one' point has been seen as the heart and soul of MBA-output. For our own good, wish we saw things from a broader perspective.

This is a time when so many people make choices about the place of education that they would want to choose from the available options (read converts). Having been very active on PG for a over two years, and having interacted with many such people for the past 2 years, I have found it immensely frustrating how very few people show a keen interest in knowing about the overall experience that a college can possibly offer. Having completed the course, I feel that the parameters of choice by majority are not enough. Think broad, think deep 😃

A good MBA experience is about a good life, a truly good life. It is about several things that I mentioned above because:
It will affect all these things in the future, for several decades that most of us are likely to live. Never under estimate the power of a 'good MBA experience'. I know this sounds filmy, but then the experience can often be as exciting as the most exciting of the films. Go ahead and experience it!

P.S: Like several others, I do realize that I owe a lot to the college that offered me my MBA education. On this note, would express my humble thanks to it 😃

[ranotosh7 (Ranotosh Banerjee)]

Hi Guys ....
Have been reading all posts on this thread for the past one week ...
The stories here are truly inspirational to say the least, So, I sincerely thank all of you for sharing your stories on this thread ...
After reading the posts, I was in two minds, whether to post on this thread or not !! ...
Does my Story even qualify to be called a success story ?? Wouldn't my post look silly among all these stories of IIM converts & other top notch B School converts ??
Bt finally, I thought : "Cat isn't only about IIMs or the ones who converted it, Its also about those who didn't .... Their experiences, Their stories, Their journeys are equally important "... :p
SO, Here it is : "All I wanted to Speak about CAT & My Life"....
A few pointers :
1. I did not make it to a top B School .. :banghead:
2. I Did not even get an awesome percentile in CAT ..
3. My story is not for those who believe in themselves, Its for those, who don't ... (If I can make it, ANYONE can)

Phase 1 : The BEGINING ...
In School, I was among those students who are always among the Top 10 in the class, but never in the Top 3..
To be Honest, I hated studies, bt used to get by, so I was quite satisfied with my performance ...
For all of us, School life Culminates into the Board Exams, So Am jumping to that part :

RESULTS DAY :
My Expectations : Exams were decent, So expecting around 80% (I was in WB board)
Other's Expectations : He will get around 80 % ..
Result : 70.25 % :banghead:
My Reaction : How can this happen ?? I cant believe it ... :banghead::banghead:
Other's Reaction : Don't lose heart, many students from your school have scored below expectations... Maybe its not your fault, try harder nxt time ...

Phase 2 : Downfall ...
According to me, the next two years after class 10 are the most crucial phase in a students life, its a phase that can either make or break your career .. Unfortunately for me, it did the latter .. It was a dark phase in which everything that could go wrong, went wrong .. I had no focus, no aim, no ambition.. So it was No Study, No preps & no planning .. The future wasnt looking bright at all... :sneaky:

RESULTS DAY :
My Expectations : GOD, pls give me 60 % .. They ask for 60 % everywhere ...
Other's Expectations : Dont know what to expect :w00t:
Result : 59.6 % :banghead:
My Reaction : I AM SCREWED ... :banghead:
Other's Reaction : HE IS SCREWED ....

One more point, my brother had studied Btech from a local clg & was placed as software engg in an IT major .
So, a career in IT (which u guys whole heartedly detest) was my dream ...
Bt one needs to be an ENGINEER for that ..

WBJEE RESULTS : NO RANK ...
AIEEE : Scored -16 (negative) (dont remember the rank thankfully)

IT dream will remain a DREAM forever .... :w00t:

PHASE 3 : The TUNNEL ..
As I had anticipated, everywhere I went for admission, they wanted atleast 60 % ... So, dreams were shattered, Ego was crushed & depression set in ...
Finally, I got admission in a C-Grade college affiliated to a B-Grade university (Quoting NAAC ratings here) in a stream I had no interest in .. Basically, I had no interest left for anything .. I had given up hopes of a good career .. I had given up hopes of redeeming myself .. I HAD ACCEPTED DEFEAT ...
I was never interested in my subject & never tried to do something amazing in that, Surprisingly enough, the results were not bad ...
PART 1 RESULTS :
My Expectations : I Dont Care anymore
Other's Expectations : We should not expect anything from him .. :p
Result : 66.6 % overall .. 70% in Honours (In my university that is nothing short of excellent... For the first time, I was among the TOP 3 of my class)
My Reaction : I still Dont care ...
Other's Reaction : Hmmmmmmmm ... :w00t:

PHASE 4 : The LIGHT (or the CAT)
While I was in college, I came to know about the CAT, the IIMs, the pattern of exam, blah blah ...
The eligibility was 50% in Grad, so, I was eligible .. I saw it as the LIGHT at the end of the TUNNEL .. I had to reach the light somehow ... The TUNNEL was too dark for me ... I wanted to redeem myself .. I wanted to FIGHT BACK ... So, the CAT journey began ...

I enrolled with CL in classroom program...
Learnt the concepts (I think self study helped more than classroom)
The MOCK season was about to start, I thought that it would provide me a parameter to judge myself, how good i am .. Can I make it somewhere .. etc...

MOCK 1 : 98.23 %ile
I started to believe in myself ... bt was this a fluke ??
MOCK 2 : 96.xx %ile
The belief was strengthened .. I felt that I do BELONG ..
MOCK 3 : 97.xx %ile
IIMs, here I come ...

Bt after the initial hurrah .. MOCK scores decreased a bit, bt I was generally in the 90-96 zone.. with the occasional 98s.. or the occasional 80s ... :sneaky:
Seeing my performance, i was confident of making it to a B School (I was not aiming for only the top, any clg in the top 50 will do jst fine)
I knew that VA was my strength(I never scored below 95).. QA was my weakness ... So, worked on it .. Wanted to keep QA over 85-90 ... VA was my strength, so 95 %ile overall did not seem a distant dream ..

C - DAY (November 13, 2011)

My target was to score half of the total marks, in the mocks, it generally fetched above 95 .. 98+ sometimes ..
I was quite happy with my performance ... Was confident of crossing the halfway mark (90/180)
Later on, came to know that paper was much easier than previous years, so the percentile at my score may be much lower than expected ... Was kicking myself for not attempting more questions .. :banghead:

RESULTS DAY : (LIGHT or DARKNESS ??)
My Expectations : Pls GOD, give me 95 %ile ... with my profile its tough to convert a colg at below 95 .. Pls GOD ... PLS
Other's Expectations : He might just make it :w00t:
Result : 89.83 %ile (QA-85.85 .. VA- 89.97 ... Verbal betrayed me when it mattered the most) :banghead:
My Reaction :
Other's Reaction : Not bad (for him atleast)

PHASE 5 : Will I make it ?? (anywhere)
Despite the below expectation percentile, I got a few calls ...
Calls : SCMHRD, XIMB(HR), TAPMI, NIRMA, MICA ...
Near misses : IIFT (41.xx) .. NMAT (206 .. sectionals cleared)

Was very underconfident during the GDPI preps ...
My profile is nothing special .. NO CLARITY OF GOALS ... Achievements in life ...
Had mixed bag of experiences ...
The reject at MICA hurt the most (I wanted it badly) :banghead:
The XIMB profs were not at all interested (3 min interview) :sneaky:

Among all the rejects, I managed to Convert NIRMA & got waitlisted at TAPMI (expect a convert later) ...
After all this, I thought long & hard about the course of action I should follow ..
Should I try CAT 2012 ?? Should I join NIRMA/TAPMI ?? (Is it really the light that I was looking for ??)
Finally, I have decided to join NIRMA ...
Maybe its not a TOP college ... Maybe , its not my DREAM college either ... Bt nevertheless ... Its not bad either .. I believe that if you have it in you, you will succeed & it dosent matter whether u go to IIM or some unknown clg ... Lets see what the future holds ...

The NIRMA phase : (yet to come)
My Expectations : To Build the base for a good career ...
Other's Expectations : Who Cares !!
Result : (Space Reserved)
My Reaction : hopefully
Other's Reaction :

Finally :
I would like to end my post with a quote from someone else's status update on FB (I copied it) ....

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity."
p.s: i still want my fairy tale ;)

Cheers Guys ... ATB ...

[gajendrasingh (Gajendra Sisodia)]

I have been visiting PG often and was always the one who was benefiting from the immense source of knowledge PG is. Finally today I have got the opportunity to share my MBA journey and what all I put into it and what I got. I passed out of school in year 2004, then dropped a year for IIT preparation. Couldn't get into a good college but met with a major accident. Went into a coma and had multiple fractures. I am sharing this for a reason which I will share later. Obviously the year went for a toss and I had to settle with a college I never thought that I would ever be joining. College started and the motive was clear from the first day that I need to go to a college of my choice which will give me the kind of education I deserve. The feeling of getting full one year got wasted hit me the most. I appeared for management entrance exams in the year 2008, 2010 and 2011. The first time I gave the CAT I got 78 and this year I got 97. During all this course of time I had joined TIME test series during '08 season and '11 season.



Season '08: This time I was in college. Result 78%ile. Got BITS Pilani convert but could not join because my University were late with their results and I was the one who had to face the brunt of this.
Why less CAT score? Possibly because I had bitten off more than I can chew. I referred too many resources than I could handle. And in the end everything messed up.


Season '10: I was in Infosys, Pune by this time. There were times when there was loads of work and then there were times when it was all a cake walk. But yes, for an average mind like me the preparation demanded some sacrifices. I managed get a SCMHRD call and Infrastructure management course convert this time. Later I decided not to join the course.
Why no success this time too? I had put all my eggs in one basket. Had thought that some particular exams and a particular format only suits me and hence didn't even tried for those papers.


Season '11: Now or never was the mantra this time. Had put all my efforts in whatsoever way possible. Be it studying till late and sleeping on the couch to get up early or leaving office early on pretext of going home and instead heading towards to library. I missed Diwali also that year so that I can stay back and prepare well for the last leap. Eventually I scored 97 in CAT with 99.6 in QA and 62.9 in VA. This skewed combination made me a reject piece for many colleges who were going for sectionals. In XAT I scored 95. But I had applied for almost all of the decent colleges and got around 5 calls.

Last word: Finally I got a convert to 1 year PGP course in Great Lakes, Chennai. I will not go for any surrogate brand building of my college on behalf of my experience but honestly will say that after coming here I realized that I have made a correct decision of joining Great Lakes. The itch of missing 1 year and quality teachers is no more because of my diverse peer group and superb faculty. So in the end everything turns out for the best is what I could understand. That accident made me a much stronger person and also much patient one. I deliberately chose not to discuss what all I referred for my preparation because every person have its own set of requirements and level of competence. On a broader level, I followed Arun Sharma books and some PG threads. I scored around 50-60 % in TIME and no where could relate myself to the difficulty level of tests. Actual papers are a lot easier than what comes there. One PG thread on tips and tricks of Quant helped me immensely. Just be creative in your preparation and devise new ways on how you can exert yourself more and more. Being always positive and hopeful for the future helped me digest that kind of highly unexpected VA score... I cannot miss but to mention one of the biggest motivator for me throughout my journey and that is Love. Yes... this emotion when implied constructively can bring miracles to lives. Though that particular person will not be my life partner but as my favorite quote says:
"Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart".


PagalGuy family a big thanks to you for all you kind support and making me reach the place where I am today.


Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any help to the fellow junta.


Best
Gajendra


Home | Soka Gakkai International (SGI) : My biggest source of inspiration

On facebook : gajendra.singh

[harsh_iima (Harsh)]

I will write my experience in short.....
During my last year at IIT Bombay, i started preparation for cat, why, because my batch mates were doing so. joined ims and gave cat first time in 2008 (at that time it was paper based test). The results were disastrous only 80% scored. But through campus placement, got placed in one of the reputed steel company.
2009: First time online CAT. 2 months preparation. 85%.
2010: 1 week preparation. 78%
2011: No preparation at all. Just revised some mathematics formula. 97.5%. converted IIMK

I would say that to get success in CAT, u must have good preparation and lots of luck !!!!
The margin of error is very small.
Finally, every dog has its day !!!!!!

[srvn (srvn a)]

Finally the day has finally come, when am about to post my most important journey in life till dateThe CAT

The Motivation
2006:I was about to enter an engineering college. I happened to meet a distant relative, an IIMB alumnus who was doing exceedingly well in life. The respect that he gained from others inspired me to do a MBA from IIMs(BLACKI in those days).I set my eyes on CAT and started preparing with whatever material I could lay my hands on. Then I happened to have a chat with him. He said "don't burnout so early .Take it easy".

Whiling Away
2007: Then I concentrated on engineering studies and whiled away the remaining time.

Coaching:
2008:I was in the 3rd year and joined TIME(herd instincts are too strong you see) super long term coaching for CAT 2009.I religiously attended each and every class.Then,I worked out most of the practice exercises and books.
2009: Mock season started.1st mock I scored 97.xx and in the 2nd mock scored a whopping 99.91 percentile. My friends started teasing me that I was an IIM material. As mocks continued, my performance fluctuated from 90 to 99.

The 7.5
I was not a believer in astrology in contrast to what I am now. It is said every human has to pass through 7.5 years of misfortune in his lifetime called "Elarai"(in Tamil meaning 7.5) authored by Lord Shani Bagwan. During 2009,minor health problems started troubling me. I wasn't able to concentrate on studies. This depressed me and anxiety started engulfing me.CAT 2009 came. It was the first shift to computer based test. No one was prepared for it - neither the IIMs nor prometric.CAT 09 was probably the most unfair CAT exam..wide allegations of glitches, extra time for some candidates, repetition of questions for later batches, re- exam for certain candidates and so on. I came out with 94.34 percentile and it was a shock to me. I felt I should have got more. Feeling of being wronged started affecting me. Got a lone SPJain call and was rejected outright after the interview. The emotions that went through me those days can never be explained in words.

Season2:

With support from parents I made up my mind for the second attempt. Joined a job and was preparing simultaneously. This time I was prepared for any eventuality."Let me put in my best..am not worried about the outcome "those were my thoughts. My health did not improve though. This time I joined CL Proctored mock. I found the content of CL refreshing though there were only few exam takers. I was performing steadily in the mocks and then came the C day-CAT 2010.I did well with a decent number of attempts. Then came the results night.12 Am - 99.59 percentilewow..a careful look read Verbal99.95(awesome thanks to CL), DI 96.xx(ok) and Quant (85.53 ohgod not again).Lower score in a section got me an astoundingly low number of calls - Lucknow and newer IIMs only. I converted new IIMs but could not convert Lucknow despite what seemed to me a decent interview. Now the dilemma ,whether to take up what am offered or write the CAT again??No way am I going to settle for anything other than BLACKI (despite rebukes from my friends).

Season 3:

Certainly, I felt I was under bad spell of luck. I then went to an astrologer."Yes indeed, you are under "elarai",a period of dullness and misfortune. Your health and luck will certainly improve. Be patient" these were his words. I got back to routine, this time I stayed near my office so as to cut down on travel time and utilize it effectively. I told myself " this is your last attempt, do well..come what may be cool".My outlook started changing to positive,I became more relaxed and started enjoying my preparation. Joined CL mocks and started working on quants zealously. I realized I was good at Verbal and I don't need any preparation whatsoever. Had a decent mock season. Applied to various colleges for backup..I didn't want to continue in the job either, so backup was mandatory this time.CAT 2011 did well, but attempts were comparatively less as I was cautious.
Then came the results: 99.20 with balanced sectionals. Got call from A,I,new iims and host of other colleges.
Converts: Indore (joining),New IIMs,MDI,NITIE
So, thus ended my CAT journey and my health has also returned to almost normalcy.

Final word:

*First, stop giving too much importance to CAT. You are any day bigger than a single event in your life.
*Relax, be cool. More often than not, one who enjoys doing what he does and one who is not too bothered about the outcome emerges victorious.
*Be patient, you will in the end get whatever you are destined for. Famous dialogue that applies to life:"No force on earth can stop what is destined to be yours and no force on earth can give you what is not yours".
*What the CAT journey has given me is more than an admit to an IIM.It has taught me the virtue of patience, positive thinking and a changed outlook towards living life King Size.

Cheers

[lewz07 (Abhishek K)]

Whatever I wanted to say about the exam and the experience has been considerably watered down after the multiple rejects that I got initially. In over 3 years this phase, after the announcement of the written exam results, has been the toughest. When I had those bad results in 2010 and 2011, I knew it wasn't right and I was super confident I could do well next time. Now I used to enjoy doing the mocks and so writing cat again was not a difficult decision to make. But at the end of all this, when I have justified to myself that I was right regarding my CAT-cracking skills, I am tired. It has been really stressful.
A chronology of the events of my CAT journey would read just like any other. . So I'll just cut to what I really have to say which is very little.

The first thing is reservations. At first I thought they had no part in the selection of gen candidates. But when you see people with very low scores getting calls and converts, it becomes very frustrating.
It is difficult controlling the negative feelings (read envy/jealousy). It was a real test and I did my best. That leads me to my next lesson.

Be good and do good. I think this is all there is to it. Good begets good. So think good things and do good things and you will get them back. I'm sorry if this sounds very preachy but what do I do, it is always true and finally everything boils down to it.

Well, that is all i have to say.

Thanks for reading and good luck to all future aspirants.

[interceptor16]

Better late than never.... I always wanted to post my CAT story on this thread simply because it was this very place that kept me going when I felt down and out.
Though I am not an IIM call getter nor an XL person but wherever I am, I owe a lot to PG and this thread because the motivation that infused in me after going through this thread was nowhere replicable.

I would start my journey from the early years of my graduation where-in, I initially struggled to keep pace with my peers not because they were more studious or smarter than me but because I had built my sand castles about myself which were washed away on the very first semester of B.Tech when I got a back in a subject with a minuscule CGPA on cards but on the other hand my very own friends were boasting their 7+ and 8+ scores. I had to pick myself up because there was no other option left.... I understood that its either perform or perish because that was the rule of the jungle is - "Survival of the fittest" .
After clearing the back paper in the summers of 2nd year, I somehow managed to avoid further backs and supplementary exams till sem 3 when I realised that despite giving my best efforts, I am still reeling under low scores and that my friends is a terrible terrible feeling. When you see people who work less harder and smarter than you getting rewarded and you despite giving your best efforts are ending up becoming a 5 point someone , the situation is heart breaking and depressing. As a result of all this, I went into a shell wherein I went into acute depression.... stopped talking to people and friends, stopped going out as there was no fun left in me and all sorts of depressing activities which could clearly give the hint to the outside world that something is wrong with me. My friends tried to catch up with me but as I was in my shell, I hardly told them anything which would make me feel further bad and low in front of them.

One fine day, I woke up and promised that this can't be my life forever. If I want things to change, it would be who would initiate that change. I started getting out of the shell and returning back to normal. In that particular semester, I won many extracurricular events in and out of the college and scored a 7+ GPA to be just eligible to appear for the placements
I remember once in a casual conversation with friends, someone was mocking at me because of my lesser CGPA and how that would affect my chances in getting placed. The reply I gave, I believe I would never ever be able to forget in my life. I replied, "To hell with your CGPA scores, at the end of 4 years, amongst all of us, I would be the one who will be working for a bigger brand name with a higher pay than you guys" ..... That aggression changed many a things in me and my life.
My room mate who was the branch topper and used to look down on me in every sense, and used to give me wrong advice on every step was really astonished to see the recovering me :)

The companies started coming in the end of the 3rd year and I got placed in 3 companies back to back. All my friends who were wither scoring more than me or used to boast about their CGPAs at some time or the other, were either left unplaced in the 1st round or were placed in the same company as mine. That alone boosted my confidence and increased my hunger of racing ahead than my peers. After 4 years, I was placed in 3 companies and was quite relaxed and suddenly nemesis struck

RECESSION .... SUB PRIME Crisis .... GLOBAL MELT DOWN became the buzzwords ... and as a result all the 3 companies in which I was recruited delayed their onboarding. The future here was again uncertain and I decided to prepare for CAT. Filled the form in Aug and started preparing. But luck and destiny had something else to offer. In those tough times in the job market, the world's biggest software company conducted an off campus and my college was invited to participate in that. Though I had made up my mind for giving the best shot for CAT but my parents coaxed me for the process and I went. There were around 400 people and the company selected only 18 out of them.... and surprisingly, I was one of those 18 😃
At that time,the reply which I gave to my friend that day echoed in my mind and it was a feeling of instant accomplishment.
Within 2 weeks I joined the company and the CAT preps went for a toss and so was the motivation level as I already was earning handsomely :)

CONTINUED BELOW

[interceptor16]

CAT 2008
The night before the exam, boozed heavily along with friends and partied out loud as the motivation for the exam had already dropped to zero after joining the company. ALmost forgot that I had an exam the next morning

On the C'day , went to the center with spinning head and hangover and vowed to never ever appear for CAT Somehow finished with the exam and came back home and slept. Didn't tally my answers with the keys available as it hardly made any difference. When the results were announced, reluctantly checked it as I knew I would perform pathetic.

WoILaaAAA !!!!!!!! I couldnt believe my eyes... had a 95+ score
At that score, I could get calls from decent colleges which I had applied in the fit of motivation in pre-employment days ... managed to fetch decent calls and converted 2 of them but decided against to join them as I was happy with the job I was doing.

CAT 2009
Quite an eventful year... CAT went online and the dynamics of the CAT prep changed and so did my loyalties towards my company and the job :biggrin:
The job was taking huge toll on me with erratic and long working hours. The night shifts were the icing on the cake. I decided that I was meant to get better things in life and fastened my seat belts again for this year. My normal routine was ...
10 PM to 8 AM - Office ,
10 AM to 3.30 PM -coaching classes,
5 PM to 7 PM - mock tests,
8Pm to 10 PM dinner and sleep and
10 PM back to office with bloodshot red eyes.
But I was determined to crack it this time and was giving my 100% and didnt care for the extra hard work and beatings I was getting physically due to this routine. On the days of evening shifts and weekends, I used to complete the quota of sleep which I used to forego on the other days. My flatmates and friends used to beg me to take rest or else I would break down and burn out in midway. But I had decided that till the time my body is permitting me to give my 100%, I won't budge and step back. Faked a month of jaundice in the office just before the CAT and gave final touch to my preps and appeared for CAT which was in a new avatar this time. The paper went on smoothly and started preparing for XAT which was my next target. Slogged heavily for XAT and on the day of exam, went to the temple before leaving for exam. XAT as usual was a super tough nut to crack and I faltered at many places in the exam and forgot about the differential marking in the mid of the paper. Somehow completed the paper and gave up hopes for that particular year.

On the CAT results day, the server was jammed and had to wait for 4 hours before finally seeing a score of 97. Was happy that atleast would get a couple of calls which I did get by virtue of my score. Screwed up royally in interviews and could only convert IMT-G . At that time IMT-G , with its student unrest over DCP program and strikes and all was looking like a bad option to invest money in. SOme of my friends in IMT-G also advised me not to go there as the situation might become worse. On the other hand, XAT gave me a delight by showing me a score of 98.8 on the computer screen .......
XL called and I went berserk :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
I knew cracking XL would be super tough as its famous for its stress interviews. I joined CL boot camp to prepare for them but was never really comfortable with the idea of stress
On the interview day, the worst nightmare came true when I was asked technical questions about my academics, was mocked left,right and center mercilessly by the panel. Though I tried my best but was not at ease completely and the doors of XL were closed then and there for me.

CAT 2010
After the debacle and humiliation by XL panel, the rage inside me further grew up. Switched my company and joined a firm which was excellent in terms of work culture and pay structure as well. But the MBA bug was still itching in my mind and finally decided to again prepare for the CAT one last time. The relaxed work environment and my talent to keep off the work and assign it to others helped me to get plenty of time for preparation which I utilised in boozing and socializing .... somewhere in July, I realized that it was about time and I should stop fooling around. So there started the final journey towards CAT. Cutoff myself completely from the social world and devoted time for books and quizzes. Joined Byju and that helped me a lot for the pathetic quant skills which I had developed in last 3-4 months
Again managed to fudge the last year's fake medical repords by photoshop (changed the year) and claimed a medical leave of 3 weeks Fudging medical reports in an year is risky but doing it the second time is herculean but wo kehte hai na "everything is fair in love and war " :grin::grin:
Kindly do not try this ... even if you try that, do it at your own peril :nono:

The C'day arrived and gave a decent shot by all means. I was satisfied with my performance and was expecting a good score. FMS , i was screwed and missed IIFT predicted cutoff by 2 marks. XAT.... the insane paper was a nightmare and I tore the paper the moment i csme out of exam hall. That was the toughest XAT in the entire history of XAT exams .... and everyone felt the heat.
The next few days were spent in catching up with forgotten friends whom I ignored during preps, partying and fooling around.
The shock of my life came with the CAT results when the screen displayed a score of late 80s
Past two outings in CAT 2008 and 2009 gave me some hopes to improve in 2010 but a score such as this was totally unexpected. Normalisation did me in and now I understood why every year there is wide outcry after CAT results.
I was doomed. Family, friends , colleagues everyone started inquiring and here I was shamelessly uttering the sub standard score.

After a few day, XAT results came out and it was 94.xx% on the screen. That was a little consolation after the CAT results but on reading closely, the score in DM which happened to be in 60s spoilt the fun. As expected XL didnt call me due to my low sectional score in DM despite getting a higher percentile. Managed calls from GIM, XIMB and XIMB HRM, KJ Somaiya, TAPMI.
Converted all except XIMB and joined KJ Somaiya after proper evaluation of the options and analysing all the parameters and I am happy to say that I made the best decision of my life :):biggrin:

In this way, a long journey came to an end only to be replaced by another journey in a B School and life thereafter.

I would suggest every puy reading this post to never ever get bogged down in your life during a lean phase. If you get conquered, your life will never ever be the one you wanted. Struggle, struggle hard and you shall emerge as a winner. Even if you don't win now, the journey of that struggle would make a man out of you and you will be the winner of life.

Never Quit... Never Ever
All the best 😃

[rnie (Arnold Pinto)]

I first came across this thread sometime around May-June 2011. (Actually, to be more precise, I came across the eBook with the same name which contained a few of the many experiences posted here). Ever since then, I have dreamt of posting on this thread (and hoping that my post also makes it to the next edition of the eBook). But that dream (along with the dream of making it to one of the top-20 premier B-schools in India) took a big bad hit the day the CAT results were announced.....

But well get to that part a little later. First of all, let me give you a short introduction about myself. Right from my childhood, I excelled in academics. To cut a long story short, I passed my Class 10th & 12th with flying colours, did well in the Engineering CET and landed in one of the premier engineering institutes in Maharashtra. After graduating as a Mechanical Engineer in 2009, I got a job at a reputed engineering & construction conglomerate. Till that point, I wasnt sure whether to go for an MS or an MBA. On one hand, I was a technically oriented person so I thought an MS would be the right choice, but on the other hand, I knew that an MBA would better groom me to handle managerial roles.

MBA Season 2011: Around 15 months into my job, I got a sort of an epiphany and decided that an MBA is the right career choice for me. But the epiphany came in a little late because by that time the deadline for the CAT forms had already passed. The only exams I could give that year were the JMET & Mah-CET and just as I had expected, I didnt do well in both of them. After all, I had started preparations in November. But at least I got a hang of giving MBA entrance exams...

MBA Season 2012: To ensure that I definitely make it to one of the top-20 B-schools, I decided I would take the CAT, XAT, SNAP & NMAT. I purchased courseware from Testfunda, joined the SIMCAT series of IMS and studied for around 3-4 hrs daily. Whenever I would get time at work, I would read some articles on how to do well in CAT (my personal favourite being the articles by Arun Sharma). I also found some of the articles on Pagulguy (especially the ones by Ravi Handa) very useful. I went through the usual process of filling up exam forms & B-school application forms. I took 16-days leave from work (on the pretext of my cousins wedding) before the CAT. However, by that time, there was a small part of me that knew that a 99 or 100 %ile was out of the question, based on my performance in the SIMCATs. But I still kept my hopes up and decided to give the final CAT my best shot. On the D-day (or C-day to be precise),I ended up attempting 43 out of 60 questions and hoped this would be sufficient to get me at least a 95 %ile which I hoped would land me calls from the IIT schools of management (JMET was scrapped from that year).

Results 2012:
9th Jan 2012- Got a profile call from S.P. Jain, Mumbai (henceforth referred to as SPJIMR). Was excited about it but at the same time, I prayed that I would get at least an 85 %ile (which is the minimum score required to be eligible for interviews)
11th Jan 2012- CAT results were announced. I ended up with a shocking... wait for it... 85%ile. The first thought that came to my mind was GAME OVER... TRY AGAIN NEXT YEAR...!!!
Fortunately, my overall percentile and sectional scores were sufficient to get me an interview call from SPJIMR. I also did well in SNAP & NMAT (but not in XAT) so to summarise I had the following calls: SPJIMR, SIBM-Pune, SCMHRD, NMIMS-Mumbai & Great Lakes, Chennai.
GDPI: Now that I had 5 calls, I was confident that I would convert at least one so that I would not have to appear for CAT again next year. I put in every possible effort in preparing for the GDPI. I joined IMSs GDPI preparation batch, read a lot of current affairs online and from the newspaper, prepared answers to the usual interview questions (such as why MBA, strengths, weaknesses, etc.) and went for all but one of the GDPIs (skipped NMIMS as it is known for Finance and my interest was in Operations). All my GDPIs went well. As far as SPJIMR is concerned, I cleared Group Interview 1, appeared for Group Interview 2 and was shortlisted for Immersion.

Kahaani Mein Twist: Now heres the part where my story differs from most of the other MBA aspirants stories. Once the GDPI results were announced, I was shocked to find that I was rejected by SPJIMR & SCMHRD, was waitlisted by SIBM and had only converted Great Lakes. Although I was happy about having a convert and the fact that I wouldnt have to continue at my dead-end job anymore, I was deeply hurt at not having made it to SPJIMR (truth be told, I had fallen in love with that college after having attended their Immersion program). Unfortunately for me, the course at Great Lakes was to start in April, and by that time even my SIBM waitlist did not clear, leaving me with no option but to pack my bags and board the train to Chennai.

Great Lakes turned out to be 1000 times better than what I had pictured in my head. The infrastructure (in terms of classrooms and hostels) was awesome and the professors were simply great. I was happy that I had taken this decision of joining Great Lakes.

About 3 weeks into the course at Great Lakes, I received an email from SIBM offering me admission to their PGDM program (since the waitlist up to my no. had cleared).Now you would expect me to jump for joy and head out to cancel my admission at Great Lakes. But nothing like that happened. I did not feel even one bit of happiness. I just ignored that email and continued with my life at Great Lakes. (To this day, I am not sure why I reacted that way.)

About a week before I joined the course at Great Lakes, SPJIMR announced an increase in its seats from 180 to 240. This was actually supposed to happen for the next years batch but thanks to AICTE, it happened this year itself. As a result, there was a tremendous movement in the waitlists and a small ray of hope for rejected candidates like me that the waitlist would get exhausted and the rejected lot would start getting calls. Unbelievably that hope turned into reality. A week after I received and rejected the SIBM offer, I got a mail from SPJIMR offering me admission to their PGDM program. I cannot find the words to describe the excitement and elation that I felt in my heart. It was after a very long time that I felt such ecstatic joy. I was afraid I would get a heart attack with all the excitement.

The long and short of it all is that I accepted the offer from SPJIMR, cancelled my admission at Great Lakes, flew back to my home in Mumbai and decided to pen my experiences on this forum.

Learnings:
1.Have confidence in yourself. If I was never confident that my low score would get me into SPJIMR, I would probably have not done well in the interviews.
2.Learn to handle the anxiety and stress after the exam results and GDPI results are announced.
3.Be patient. Waitlist clearing takes a lot of time.
4.Shit happens. Just because you get a waitlist or a reject doesnt mean theres something wrong with you.
5.Never underestimate any B-school just because it doesnt feature in the top-20 B-school rankings.
6.Most importantly, believe in things such as fate and luck.

Finally, I would like to end by stating a line all puys on the SPJIMR thread used a lot: Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things. Dont lose hope.

Arnold Pinto
PGDM 2012-2014(Operations)
SPJIMR

[himanshu.renege (Himanshu Gupta)]

Now that I have taken a lot from Puys, I think it is my turn to return the favour.

The Engineering situation

Well, everybody did that so gave AIEEE and enrolled myself in NIT Kurukshetra in 2006. I was a kind of bookish boy with little extra curics in school.
I started reading novels in the first year and discovered the world through them. Reading became a habit, rather an obsession with me. Again, I skipped extra-curics, but did only co-curics. In the 3rd year, the engineering situation started bothering me. The technical profession seemed too stiffling to me. The though process is limited to the answer of yes/no.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

Lets begin with MBA preparations! Joined weekend classes in CL-CP. Was literally dejected everyday as saw people solving questions in micro-seconds. Still I trudged along and managed good mocks culminating in 96%ile in CAT. IIFT and XLRI did not call. Got SIBM-P call, didnt attend as I had a cushy job with an investment bank.

Making the history to repeat itself

2010 and I gave CAT again. 75%ile !!! Got calls from IIFT and XLRI. GDPI went so bad, that I would have myself rejected me. IIFT came up with results and my doubts were confirmed when I got a straight reject. Pinning my hopes high on XLRI-BM meant that the failure would hurt even more, as another reject was in store. Depressed and dejected. It may sound silly but the movie, Scent of a Woman kind of changed me. The ending speech by Al Pacino about integrity and a strong character inspired me.

The preparation conundrum

I worked to build my personality alongwith preparing for exams. The only thing that would occupy my mind is how to develop a robust, ethical and a wise thought process. This would help me not only clear my exams, but in the GDPI process also. Then in 2011, I gave CAT, XAT and IIFT. CAT again was below expectations 90%ile but XLRI and IIFT again called.
The IIFT process went exceptionally well. Essay, GD and PI all went well. In the PI I realised the importance of building thoughts through knowledge. We discussed about globalisation and other economic phenomena. It was great. XLRI-HR interview was also good. They asked me to solve the Eurozone crisis from an HR perpective! I say, this GDPI season went rather well.

Encore!

The day came. IIFT results were to be announced. I was doing the same thing for 2 years. Bored. Hopeful. Scared. And confused. My father broke the news that I have been selected into IIFT-D!! Come on, a person who got straight rejects once knows the importance of a straight convert! I could savour the taste of victory and resigned then and there! Then came another good news. I got a waitlist in XLRI-HR, not that it matters as I dont want to study HR.
The very thought of doing what I have always wanted is what motivated me. I thought that I may drop a year and try again for IIMs, but hell, CAT is just a day in the bigger scheme of things.

The aspirant reading this, yes my friend, you, strive to become wise, think of a contradictory viewpoint and challenge everything. Think like a leader now to become one in future.

[gireesh6 (Gireesh)]

Hi All,

My journey towards CAT and an admission is almost a straight driven process.. No twists and turns worth mentioning.. but would like to post the experiences in one of the sacred links that helped me immensely during my preparation.

CAT2009:

It all started off as discussions with my frnds who were aspiring to pursue their highers and were seriously preparing for them. Being already placed in my 6th sem at Infy, neva dreamt of other job ( Infact knew very less how the life of a software engineer looks then .. was just happy to be placed and get a salary.. a typical mindset :nono:) . Paid for TIME coaching series along with couple of my room mates.. It was an awesome time , in fact the most happening time of my grad days.. College used to be shut down generally due to telangana agitations.. If at all college is opened, classes are a rare thing to happen..late night gossips..parties.. discussions..what not !! weekends to TIME classes and mock exams.. I have a passion towards competitive exams since school days.. so never took exams easily.. Mock scores ranged around 85-98 percentile.. Skipped some of the classes but never took easy on mocks.. Trust me, ANALYSING the mocks is a very crucial thing that definitely helps to improve(pehla gyan )

CAT went online that year.. but after the exam i was confident of scoring the similar way as in mocks.. It was 95.64 % and got a call from IIM-S.. I guess my strong acads also helped me in securing my 1st IIM call ( i still remember the day it happened ). Then enrolled for TIME GD/PI preparation.. It was a time when things started moving from OK to worse.. As said, was having a high time with frnds and completely neglected the preparation owing to sheer over confidence.. It was only when i dinged the interview that i realised how much i've gone wrong.. It might sound silly but wasnt that easy for me to get over the reject.. I felt i've let down myself by wasting a year long preparation with negligence and over confidence

Then went on to join Infy in a month.. Leaving some frnds at Hyd and taking some along with me to Infy :-P

Life @Infy is beautiful .. Seriously, ppl tend to say that it gets heavier with books , exams again.. but believe me , u get ample time to do all the stuff u would luv to do.. I would always say if u r a fresher, dont miss a chance to start ur career at Infy.. (Note the point "start" ). Got a call from IIM Ranchi in the middle of my training sessions.. attended but could not make it.. Dropped the idea of writing CAT2010 as i thought of giving myself some time to think and plan properly

CAT 2011:

By April 2011, became an active member in my project team @Bangalore.. It was a nice team to hang out with, being the junior most guy among them.. The only problem was with the timings as we were supporting applications for an US client we had to work in their timings

Now that i've got settled into a project, applied for TIME mock series again and to start off , the points i wanted to improve upon were

1. To increase the score compared to previous attempt.
2. To prepare simultaneously for the GD/PIs which i neglected last time.

Initially it was tough to adjust the timings as working from 2-11 PM for couple of weeks, 10 PM to 8 AM for another week.. and then manage time to write a mock almost everyday, analyse.. Go thru PG links for preparatory stuff.. Even referred Intermediate books for basics .. Go thru couple of newspapers, editorials and then get some time to sleep during daytime.. After an initial struggle, got habituated to the timings and managed time to prepare( after all it was in my interest that im working hard .. doosra gyann). As days marched by, preparation became intense and by the end of September , it was so intense that myself along with my roomie were reading random links and materials whatever came our way

The D-day came and was quite dissatisfied with the way i had given it ( probably bcoz of huge expectations that i had put on myself). Gave other exams as well IIFT, XAT.. But with a feeling that If i get a good score this time, i shudnt screw the GD/PI process, continued to keep track of newspapers and stuff( teesra gyann) .. When the results were out, it was around 12 PM in the night and we were able to open the link by 1 PM and i was like with the results.. It was 98.95 with both sections above 98.. quite relieving in fact..

The calls started coming in .. and finally after sorting them out. was like.. B,I,S,new IIMS,FMS,MDI,NITIE.. Got an IIFT call also.. which was my 1st interview of the season..

Was quite excited and continued my preparation.. Started attending the interviews .. I felt some interviews went awesome, some good, some disastrous .. The interview panels i met were like AWESOME.. It seriously surprised me that they knew almost everything on this world( atleast i felt that ) .... But my excitement started to drain when the results started to pour in.. with outright rejects even from those colleges where i felt the interview went properly..

Rejects do make us strong.. but initially it is always depressing..U need to take it.. same was the state of my mind too.. The way in which some of my frnds supported me thru out this is something i'll always cherish..

Finally after an year long anticipation, it was an MDI convert, which im gonna take it without a second thought..

If i was asked during my under grad, i would have said in a premature manner , 'no college other than an iim, ain't not gonna join' .. but now after getting into the process of preparation, discussions with peers,seniors and of course pagalguy.. im not going to leave an opportunity studying at MDI... after all what i need is quality education and peer group which am sure gonna get there:clap:



Things i want to pendown in my complete prep :

1. Work pressure always seems to be a hurdle for employees but, trust me, u need to start at some point so as to be in the race.. and start it ASAP.
2. Continuity is crucial in any prep.. Don't miss any timelines that u plan for urself.. just treat them as a pill specified by a doctor.. never miss it
3. Analysing the mocks is as important as taking the exams.. if not more..
4. No matter how ur exam went, don't lose ur track in preparing for GD/PI.. with this normalisation and stuff we never know what's in the store..
5. U get a call, convert it.. Don't let overconfidence take over you..
6. After so many rejects in GD/PI i aint gonna guide in that process there are many able puys here to help in that case :) but just one thing.. stay calm and believe in urself thru out the prep


PS: I believe am not that bad at interviews and fared well this year too :banghead::banghead: .. but we never know it in an interviewer perspective.. Stay strong and all the best for every1's preparations.. All the best

I owe a lot to this forum for such wonderful preparatory stuff.. and wonderful ppl guiding in every stage of the preparation.. Thanks PG :)

MDI 2012-14 it is

[fungus (Ankit Dikshit)]

'JOURNEY AND THE RISKS - When I drove on the roads of my dream institute'

My life, co-incidentally, has followed bottom-up approach. During my engineering days, with some like minded friends Amit & Aakash, I started a magazine Living in the City which still stays our best baby. Immediately, after that venture, I thought of doing an MBA because I always felt that any good business model needs some special skills to replicate it, so that it can work without your physical presence. I discussed about MBA Prep with some seniors and friends and joined IMS Meerut as a student in Jan 08. Found myself comfortable in Quant/DI/LR but always felt lack of confidence in Verbal. Decent Scores in Mocks with an avg. of 91-92%ile but Verbal remained a bottleneck for me.

Those who say luck do not matter; I have a lively example to seal your beautiful lips. In 2008, Verbal Section had odd 40 question while just 25 each in DI and QA, which gave an extra advantage to people who had VA as their forte, still I managed my score in early 90s with some bad 4x.xx %ile in VA Section while 95+ in other two sections. It was the time when I feared to attempt VA and devoted VA Time to other two sections. Somehow, I was lucky and I have converted IMT-N and SIIB in that season, my heart kept saying IIM it should be and I refused the offers.

Came summers of 09 and I was a graduate by now. Started delivering sessions for Quant and DI at IMS and other prep institutes and joined an advertising co. as my Infosys joining was due in Jan 2010. Starting putting efforts on my weaknesses, the phase was beautiful. I came to know about some online forums like PG, TG and started prep in a different way. During that preparation I developed habit of reading non-fiction and biographies; I met some really wonderful people like Simran, Aaquib, Subhankar and many more during same o9-days. This was a beautiful phase of transformation and learning.

CAT experimented this year too and we had to hunt CAT with Mouse, it became a Computer Based Test. I got some 92.xx but harbinger of satisfaction was my sectional scores were balanced with 8x.xx in VA and 95 around in rest. Joined Infosys in Jan 10, already had calls from IRMA, XIMB and GIM as I scored 97.xx in XAT 10 but due to my hectic schedule, distant places, non-availability of flights and many other such excuses, I could not go to attend these wonderful calls and my efforts went void.

At Infy, Mysore days were hectic, but pleasant. It was an opportunity to understand a huge business system for the first time and that too being so close to it. It was an exciting exposure to understand cross-state cultures, JAN-10-LC3 was a mere reflection of the nation we feel proud to live in. Fascination of sky scrappers and beautiful building at Infy could not lure me for a long. My MBA dreams were mine and I was living them every moment. Regret of not attending IRMA, XIMB calls was also creating pressure on me. After my training ended, I got Mysore but I swapped to get shifted to a city where I can prepare for CAT, where I can join the coaching to be regular and Pune was the city, destiny chose for me.

When, I shifted to Pune, it was Jun 2010 and just had a dream with which my mind and soul were inundated; it was the dream of getting into one of the best b-school of the country. Started preparing, but as unexpected, project work, team mates and everything around did not support at all. I continually gave it a hard try. Stole my time from everything I did just to prepare, futile. I just joined a test series as full time coaching was not possible when you work for 12 hours a day. Life was taking me on a rollercoaster ride. I started becoming unhappy as my work was coming between me and my dreams, I was so lost from myself. Came October, I took CAT and applied for sabotic leave, not joined Infy for many months because I knew that I have spoiled yet another CAT and cannot last longer, if I follow the conventional way. Everybody forced me and I rejoined Infy in January and started working there again. This was a period when I went mad about my dreams and read more than 70 books in 2011. When I was in Pune I was either kept myself busy in reading books or hanging out with friends or managing my business. I finally decided to wait till July, time when I completed my bond period with Infy and I immediately resigned.

It was the toughest decision but family and friends supported and I finally moved on. I came back home to prepare and with a wonderful team, we managed our business in parallel. When I study, walls, chair, table, and laptop everything sensed like it was Deja-vu for me. I prepared in the same way in 2009. I joined TIME CP class room programme to stay regular and hence, I traveled every weekend to attend classes there. I also joined CL Test Series for benchmarking. It was a lot to learn there even after I took CAT thrice. Vocab was still a problem for me as I have never felt comfortable in mugging things, so, I developed my own way and built a vocab base of 1500+ in few months. Mocks were also decent with distributed %ile in 70s, 80s and 90s and scored even 99.xx several times.

Life was on stake, it was a now or never situation and I filled forms of all good colleges except MDI (biggest mistake of my life). The D-Day, Nov 4 11, appeared, nothing special, it was alike all previous CATs but I followed one guru-mantra which I feel helped me somewhere Treat Mocks as Real CAT and Real CAT as Mocks. Felt well after CAT but you cannot predict a girl and CAT, so nothing on my expectations board, I just tried to put my best efforts in hunting the animal.

Then the season of results, calls and converts knocked the doors. CAT ditched many potential candidates, expected and unexpected happened on the same day. Felt bad for all my friends with whom I prepared, no difference in the prep methodology but I and few other friends were little luckier this time. Experience of attending GD/PI was awesome. It gave me opportunity to learn, travel across the nation, meet different people and find the keys to open the doors for my b-school.

Dropping the idea to join my dream b-schools like IRMA and XIMB was indeed difficult but I chose the option to join Marketing Mecca IMT.

My journey had nothing special. It is a simple voyage of a common boy who dreamed to launch himself. Life always takes a toll and there are no free lunches. Even, if its out of your hands, life keeps a balance and bestows what you dream but in exchange it takes away assets you already own.
I believe that there is a risk of slipping when you walk, falling when you fly. There is a risk in everything we do but not taking risk is the biggest risk.
It was my decision and I will stand on it, what ever toll life may ask for!
Roads ahead are waiting for the traveler inside me and I am ready to drive the vehicle I dreamed to own for last four years.

PS- To all those friends who are aspiring for this year, my warm wishes to you. May you get what you aspire for! And I really apologize, if this long read was not worth your time.
G\o d s p e e d

Season 2011
----Written----
CAT - 96.9 %ile ( QA - 95.3%ile, VA - 95.15%ile)
IRMA - 88.25%ile
SNAP-83.25/178
IIFT - 43.2
TISS - 44.5/100
XAT - Disaster in 70s

--------------------------
Total GD/PI Calls - 22
Calls Attended -15
Final Converts - 13
Rejects - 2 (TISS, IMI)
Closest Calls - IRMA, XIMB, IIT -Kgp, M, DSE, IMT G
Joining - IMT-G

[abhishek_sharma]

Life is all about dreams(1 of 3)


There was the Cat, there was an aspirant, there was normalization. Story en..d.

CUT..CUTCUT..

It aint over yet.

This isnt a story which would inspire you to take a bhisma pratigya of Bhagwan jab tak CAT na crack ho jaye, seet-geeta ki taraf aankh utha kar nahi dekhunga , or to become a maggu, or to leave everything on faith, but this is a story which confirms the fact that Billi ke ghar der hai andher nahi and is an eye-opener for all those cribbers who blame it on just luck for not making into IIM after all these years.

Let me put it this way. Its a Hard work wont go unrewarded forever Ver 2.0 story. (Courtesy : r11gupta)

Below is my profile and I cracked IIM Lucknow. I dedicate this story to people who are under-confident because of their bad profile.

10th : 90.2% ICSE
12th : 61.0% CBSE
Grad : 85.2% B.Tech from a random private college.
Work-ex : 20 months TCS.
Extra-currics : Have some but had no proof for them during the time of GDPIs, so almost nil at that point.
Apart from that PG Dream Team 2011 member, PG Coolest avatar 2011 runner-up.

Flashback
After FMS 2012 interview, I and TnT were returning back to Kolkata. When our discussion came to AIWTSAC, none of us was too keen on writing one, considering that our journey was nothing extraordinary, but I stated that I would write my AIWTSAC, if I convert IIM Lucknow. That would be something extraordinary. So, here I am wasting server space of PG.

Life is 100% intelligence
I was born in a lower middle class marwadi businessman family. Home environment was of studies and studies, to prove this, consider that my elder brother cracked IIT with AIR 729, one elder sister is University Topper in M.Com and almost a CA and other elder sister is a doctor. I never knew what fun really meant. Got cable connection in class 9th and never had a videogame. My father is the most hard-working person I have ever known and my mother is most strong-willed person I have ever known. Sadly, I didnt inherit any of the two godly traits.

Till class 10th, I used to feel that I was born smart. I still hear the stories about how little I used to study and yet I used to perform great in exams. I allowed complacency to plant deep into me at a very early stage. I used to feel that with my smart preparation and good memeory, I could crack anything. With barely a fortnight effort, I pulled off a 90% in 10th. I was on cloud 9, my father put me back to ground with one statement, Your elder brother had scored 1% more with 10 times the effort you put in, but world will value him more. Little, did I know that my father was true, I was yet to meet really smart people.

To add, the greatest sin was already committed. My fathers theory was :-
1 IITian son + 1 IITian son = 2 IITian sons

And I was deported to Bansal Classes, Kota.
Life in Kota was the best part of my life. It was a big leap of faith. I got so lost that I completed a circle and found myself again.
Continuing with my old habit of optimizing time, I appeared, almost unprepared, in the first test at Bansal Classes, topped Physics. Got a under 20 rank in second test. Realized too early, that I was a born IITian and got complacent.

Life is 50% perspiration 50% intelligence
All the unfulfilled dreams of having fun, wanted a bonus bonanza. I started playing LAN games, watching movies, noticing girls and I also started bunking classes. Gradually, I stopped going classes and my results dipped. There were phases when I wanted to make things right but I realized that I wasnt as smart as I used to think or rather world is full of smart peoples who are also hard-working. I created a reality distortion field and convinced myself that I need only six months prep to crack JEE and Class 12th boards can be cracked in a week, same as class 10th. Long story short, I flunked JEE, studied night before the board exams and scored 61% in 12th (barely passing PCM by 2-3 marks). There was an abyss,1 light year of shit and then me.

I was in shock for months. The smarty pants of whom everyone in the family was proud, had turned into a bozo. My ego took such a hit and I got so under-confident and pessimistic, that I used to think of applying for clerk jobs. I could still perform magnificent during the high times but those times were rare. And after a year drop, I ended up in CSE branch of KIIT University. Uncertain of my future and hating my life to the core.
Life is 100% uncertain
Except for few people who ended up in college through AIEEE, everyone else was very happy with their life and was proud to end up there, so they all were in a vacation mode. I never got into acads but managed decent grades because of the below average competition at my college. But, I did read a lot. There were times when I would read Wikipedia for hours. For the complete first year life was black and white and there werent any subtitles. I was flowing with the stream when came the high tide. I fell in love and got committed to my lady. Now there was a motive, a zest to bring back the life onto track.

Not because that I had made it big in life, but just because my life had moved on a bit, I started to become the old person I used to be. My biggest strength is that I make Darwin proud. I can adapt to any situation. I introspected and realized that I had become emotionally very strong. The wind that had swept past me had made me fierce and hungry. I was gradually developing the strong-willed trait of my mother. Old habits die hard and I looked for the shortest route to freedom. The answer was IIM. One tag to wash all the dirt away. Boley to Ganga naha lena. People told me that I was insane and had no chance because of my profile. I always thought that there is one college IIM C which doesnt give a damn about pasts and I will target that. With such little hope, I started my journey.

Life is all about CAT
Now that I had some aim, I was in search of accomplice. Of the few smart people that ended up in my college, one was Ranjeet aka ThE_bmr. Since, our aims were similar we became good friends. My first mock, with zero idea about syllabus or exam pattern, was CAT 2008 paper which I downloaded from TF. I ended up with 148 marks and balanced sectionals. IsLife 100% intelligence?; nope I had my demons under control. I never liked the idea of coaching classes so I never joined one. I was appearing in mocks and was performing decent. I knew about PG though ThE_bmr but I rarely followed it. I just knew that there was this PG dream team which had awesome people.
2009 season
CAT'09 : 98.01 No calls (had applied only for IIMs)
XAT'10 : 98.11 Calls: BM and PMIR. No converts.
FMS'10 : 297 marks. (no call)
JMET : 7XX AIR. (didnt apply anywhere)

Got placed in TCS as one of 252 other bricks on the wall from my college. Damn, I hated my life.
I attended XL interviews. I was a noob and I was so defensive of myself because of my past failures that rejects from XL were no surprise.

Life is all about hanging an IT tag around the neck.
I had experienced the monstrosity called Normalization in CAT09. I had seen the unexpected and brutal CAT result of DT2009. Was this uncertain CAT, a really good idea? I didnt want join TCS and I needed a concrete plan. College was over and I was at home preparing for job interviews. Got some rejects and I again realized the importance of hard-work over the years. Luckily or unluckily, my laptop broke down and I was in Kolkata to buy a new one. I came across TIME centre and involuntarily I went inside and got myself registered for AIMCATs. First mock after months and I scored 99.23%ile. The monster within had awaken from the sleep.

In between, I joined TCS and I used to hate every single minute I spent there. The life I had which I hated and the one which I dreamt of were my motivations. Now, I needed some other people with similar aim of cracking CAT. I got a string of 99.xx in mocks and The_bmr suggested me to apply for DT and UDT. I got active on PG and tried my best to help puys. I posted my nomination on UDT and after that I got my first DT nomination from Alex_Mahone (thank you sirji), who edited his original nomination post. Finally, I made it to DT 2010. I was elated. I felt as if I had achieved something after a long long time.

Season was bumpy and I made the mistake of joining only AIMCATs. I used to get dejected by my mock performances and since AIMCATs were of single flavor, I kept on getting worse and lost confidence. On the brighter side, I made some good friends- TnT, target_cat2010, DOC, techgodajay, .Z. etc. DT confy was fun and I still cherish those hours. DT11 never had the bonding which DT10 had.

2010 season
CAT 2010 : I had appeared on 14th Nov, afternoon slot with DOC and TnT. Paper was very tough. I got the I am screwed feeling, the moment I came out of the exam hall. Results got leaked and I got 91.XX overall with 55.XX in VA. Normalization, thou art a heartless b***h. DOC and I were screwed in a legendary way. Because of my past deeds, I had developed a very high threshold and I was amused by my results. There was no pain but only the deep desire to take revenge.
contd...

[abhishek_sharma]

Life is all about dreams(2 of 3)


Life is not all about CAT
This is it. I needed a plan B. I could see my one year getting wasted infront of my eyes. I wanted to improve my profile. I applied to few companies. Futures First being one of them. I started to focus on my work at TCS. I put in a lot of effort and became a Project Lead in my very first project. In May, the Coolest Avatar' 11 was launched on PG. I was looking for something to distract my mind and something to add to my CV and so I made my mind on winning it. I put in a lot of effort, 3 weeks to be precise. Ultimately, injustice prevailed and I couldn't win it. (I am really thankful to team Puyrate for all the effort. In reality, we were the true winners.)

Coolest avatar was the best thing which happened to me in the year 2011. This blow brought me to senses and I felt cheated. I realized that everything is virtual and cracking CAT is only real. I used to spend way too much time on PG and it would be a waste if I am unable to crack CAT. A puy is a real inspiration only when he proves all his shared gyan true by cracking CAT, until then the gyan is only noise. I became inactive on PG and I had a lot of free time. I used all of it for my CAT preparation.

On the personal life front, things were not rosy. I was working in TCS and so was my lady. Her parents were putting pressure on marriage and it appeared that 2011 was the only year I had. My parents were also alone at home and my mother was having health related issues. I took the major step of convincing my parents to move to Kolkata, so that we could live together. Now, I had lot of responsibilities - preparing for CAT, Project Lead responsibilities at TCS, supporting my parent and enjoying life with my lady. Today, when I look back, I realize that I did hell of a job at multi-tasking.
I joined TIME and CL. I also got SIMCATs for free. Mocks were going fine and just because I was doing great at my Job, I used to feel a lot secured about everything. I was regaining confidence. Had it not been for TnT, I would have never joined DT'11 but finally, I felt that I owe it to DT'10. I had to redeem my honor. Again met some really very smart people, Smarep was the first one who had total faith in me. He always used to say that I'll do it. TnT was evergreen motivator and there was a time when my lady felt insecure due to the frequency of telephonic conversations, I and TnT used to have. 😉 In short words, we were addicted to CAT. Non-stop discussion on mock questions, performance, strategy, slot, chances. It was awesome.

Because of the new pattern of CAT, VA was no more an issue. I also solved a lot of GMAT material and memorized a lot of vocab. I also want to thank .Z. (kshitiz) for forcing me to join Simcats. But on the other hand, I was having serious trouble with Sec-1. I was rarely crossing 99 in sec-1 and I knew that in actual CAT, sec-1 is the only savior. Still, I kept faith and was in touch with the basics. I also knew that mocks percentiles are unrealistic because many people practice previous year mocks and get good at specific question types which gets repeated a lot in mocks. This leads to unrealistic percentiles and people tend to believe that they are prepared, when actually the basics aren't very strong and this is where all the game is in real CAT.

In between, IIM call criteria was released. IIM C betrayed me, it was also taking acads into account. I had to score atleast 99.8X if I was thinking of getting an IIM call. I started targeting 100%ile. Every single time, I told myself that the target is 100%ile.

People say that CAT is just a one day thing. I feel that CAT is a phenomenon. Life is divided between time before CAT and time after CAT. I have lived the CAT life 24*7. People become obsessed, temperamental, have fights, and decide major decisions in life just based on CAT. I would never say CAT is bigger than life but it becomes the biggest thing in life and it is then that a person, who is not born lucky, cracks it.
Life is all about D-Day
CAT'11 : Chose the 4th Nov, 2011 slot. It was Friday. One week before the day, I was very nervous and I caught fever. Appeared in an AIMCAT and a SIMCAT on two days before CAT and I couldn't clear any sectional in any of them. I went to write CAT with zero expectation but as someone said to me that I am overtly optimistic. In one particular Procmock, I had scored single digit AIR and I knew that I had it in me.
D-day
Section 1: 1st question, could not solve. 2nd question, could not solve (read it wrong.) 5 mins passed with zero attempts. Felt the pressure. Asked myself to be calm. Took a deep breath. Solved 3rd question then 4th. Attempted all QA questions, except 3-4 questions. Attempted all DI questions. Had 17 mins remaining. Attempted rest of the QA questions except for one. 11 minutes remaining with 29 attempts. Revised all the questions. Last 2 mins. 1 question remaining. This question was from Probability. It was my weak area and I hadn't worked a lot on it, but I always used to analyze the questions from mocks, suddenly I recalled a method and the answer was one of the options and the method made sense. Marked the last question.
Section-2 : I knew that I had nailed Section-1 and I could bet 30-0 in it. Only if I nail VA. Started with LR and finished it in 17 mins. Now, I had 53 mins for VA. I went very slow and analyzed every single option. I was running out of time. I attempted 29 questions and then revised, then I unmarked one question in VA and then timer stopped.

I was happy with my performance. I also did well in IIFT and XAT. I applied for NMAT, thinking that in a particular season, one exam is bound to get screwed so let it be this one.

Life is all about results
CAT 2011 : 11th Jan. Server was as expected down. I could literally listen to my heartbeat. Kept on refreshing the CAT site. Suddenly, the page started loading and a pdf opened.

Overall 99.87%ile (Sec-1:99.93 Sec-2: 95.15)

I had killed the CAT. Yes, I did it. For few people this moment is meant to shed tears of joy. I, on the other hand, was using choicest of words for CAT, Prometric and Normalization. After all this pain, I did nail those %*^&^$^#&%&%. I woke up my parents told them the results. The happiness on their face was priceless. I called everyone and got calls from many. It felt so good to see the happiness people shared.
I also did well in IIFT, XAT, NMAT(although, this was the one exam which I did screw.)

Life is all about calls
IIM A didn't give me a call. I never expected a call from IIM BIKS, and hadn't applied to the new IIMs and ABM programs of IIMs. Now, I was depressed, it was so painful that after all this effort and awesome percentile, I won't get IIM calls. As per my nature, I composed myself and convinced myself to crack any call I had. I had forgotten about IIMs, when in the evening, I got a call from my lady. I heard only "You got IIM C and IIM L call" and I went blank. It was heaven. I was desperate to convert my calls.

I also got call from IIFT, NMIMS (didn't attend) , XL HRM (didn't attend, OMR screwed my QA, so no BM call), MDI, Nitie, FMS.
contd...

[abhishek_sharma]

Life is all about dreams(3 of 3)

Life is 100% Prespiration
I never found the CAT part tough. I was pretty good at QA/DI/LR and since VA was based on feel factor, I never needed to put in a lot of effort in prep for CAT. But now came the GDPI. A call is useless unless it isnt converted. XLRI had rejected me in the past and I knew the exact reasons and I had already made changes to my attitude. But, now what I needed was a hell lot of effort. I was always good at GD, essays and communications. I didnt want to take any chances and although.

I never believed in coaching, but for my GDPI prep, I joined Backspace Communication by Partha PPD at Kolkata. PPD is an IIM A alumnus and he taught me how to remain calm during the PIs. I also made some friends there who made it to top b-schools and we all were immensely benefited by PPD.

I did following for my GDPI prep :-

1. Read TOI and ET every day.Also read the economists.
   
2. Read NCERT 11th and 12th books for PCM, to defend my class 12th marks.
   
3. Read Stats and lots of higher maths.
   
4. Read 6 engineering subjects and did a lot of research on my work profile.
   
5. Read a lot about marketing- almost read Kotler and a marketing blog.
   
6. Read India Unbound, Argumentative India, The Goal, Liars Poker, Steve Jobs Biography and few other books.
   
7. Read a lot about cooking to defend my hobby.
   
8. Read the 2011 yearbook and became aware of all the events of last one year.
   
9. Read GK, India, constitution, history and what not.
   
10. Read about finance, Ops, HR.
    
11. Made notes of every single thing related to acads and my profile so that I could revise them later
    

Most of the above things didn't help me directly but I was supremely confident because I knew that I was prepared in and out. Lastly, I was in a state of awakening all the time. 24*7 I was attending mock PIs in my mind, I introspected for days. I asked myself thousands of questions and always improvised my answers. Finally, I felt that I had developed the hard-working trait of my father. Doc and ThE_bmr helped me a lot with my SOP and I owe them big time.
Life is all about surprises
One day, I got a reply to my application to Futures First. I was shortlisted for the selection process, which was to be held around early Feb. I took a lot of help of ABCLIKS(Omkar) for this. I wasnt expecting to convert this considering that I had no connection to trading or finance. I prepared for 2 days and prepared smartly. I had good idea of the selection process and I thought of a good story to tell in my interview. I adapted myself for the process. There were 30 people attending the off-campus drive and one was to be selected. One by one, I cleared each round and in the final round, I was pitched against a CA, who also had trading experience. It was a lost battle but I tried my best and life is full of surprises. I cracked it. I was elated. I had a backup. I felt free.

Life is all around GDPI and Converts
I was really confident after cracking FF. If I could handle their stress interviews, I could handle anything. There was no scope of mistakes. I had to be perfect in each part of the process. IIFT was very short PI and I was doubtful but I was waitlisted, which would eventually convert. Nitie was good and again I was waitlisted, which would eventually convert. MDI was awesome, it was a convert but their selection process is a joke and a vestigial event.

Now came the big day, IIM C. I was very nervous but I did well in essay and GD. It was the only GD which I couldnt start and I didnt have a positive feeling about it. I was the last one to be interviewed and what I got was mere 9 mins of panels time, when initially they were interviewing for 30 mins. PI was too random and it appeared that the process was a formality. I knew that I had lost it. I was devastated. After all the effort, what I wanted was a fair chance. My heart filled with hatred and I vowed that this reject will be Jokas loss.

I had to give my best at IIM L and I did give. I was very happy with my essay, GD and PI performance. I feel proud of the way I handled the almost HR interview. Link : IIM L Experience
I knew that it was a convert but I had some doubts, thanks to my profile.
IIM results were out and I got rejected by IIM C. Reject by IIM L was a shock but after seeing the batch profile of IIM L present batch, I knew that converting it was impossible. I had little hope with the second list of IIM L.

I was all set to go to Nitie. FMS remained, but given the random GDPI process they have, I wasnt hopeful. I attended FMS process and it was 5 mins long. Thanks to my high CAT score, I converted FMS. I was elated. I made it to to top-5 b-school. Nothing can define the feelings I had at that moment. I am not a girl so I didnt cry.

Life is all about redemption
I went to FMS, took admission and was waiting for the classes to start. I was happy and I felt that even if I had IIM L convert, I would have joined FMS. Funny are the ways which the faith uses to test us. I convert IIM Lucknow in the second list. Again, came out the choicest of the words. With all the hoopla around IIM call criteria and converts, this is somehow the first reaction.

Slowly, I came back to reality. I had converted a big 4 IIM. One of the ABCL. All these years, the journey which I took was for this convert. The inception of the idea was an IIM tag. It might be too easy for someone else to choose FMS over IIM L, but it wasnt for me. I am a materialistic person and I was hungry for recognition, for brand, for a campus life. I was indebted to my parents and my father wanted me to join IIM L. He had forgotten that something like me screwing JEE ever happened.

Life is all about uncertainity
Now, I have joined IIM L. Unsure of what the journey ahead has in store for me. Presently, I am really happy. Not feeling insecure about my future with my lady. Soon, we will be engaged. Life will have its own ups and downs but one thing is sure that never, never will I give up in life. Never will I stop fighting. Competition is fierce, it always was.

If where I was can become where I am, then so will it become where I want to be.

Story is all about a happy ending
I want to thank my parents. It was never possible without the values they gave me. I want to thank my brothers and sisters, who always guided me. I want to thank my lady for always being on my side, for supporting me, for coping up with my temperament and for making me dream again in life. It all belongs to you.
I also want to thank Pagalguy for providing me the forum where I made such good friends.

Finally, I want to thanks the readers who stuck with this story till here.

If I can do it then so can you, just adapt as per the situations. Keep things simple and be optimistic. Being a cry-baby never helps because then one would never become confident as one always has to cry about something more which could have been had. Take mocks seriously and you need to crack a mock just once to realize that you have it in you. Then just focus on it. CAT is all about confidence level. If someone is calm and confident then nothing is impossible.

Start working on your profile and your weak areas. High percentile never ensures a convert. One reject can be blamed on luck but multiple rejects are ones own doing. Never ever give up. If you dont have the regret of not giving your best shot then whatever may come, you will be confident on D-day and during GDPI.

Cheers,
Abhishek Sharma
IIM Lucknow 2012-2014
CAT'11 : 99.87 (sec-1: 99.93 sec-2: 95.15)
Member : Pagalguy Dream Team 2011 and 2010.
Calls : IIM C, IIM L, FMS, XL PMIR, MDI, NITIE, IIFT, NMIMS
Attended : IIM C, IIM L, FMS, MDI, NITIE, IIFT
Converts : IIM L, FMS, MDI, NITIE, IIFT
Mocks

* What we do in life echoes in eternity. *
The End...

[abcliks (Omkar Bibikar)]



Always had a dream to write on this sacrosanct thread. So much so that, I wanted to convert a good B-School so that I write on the thread. It will be more of, what I want to say about my life rather than just CAT, as CAT formed just a little part of life. (I hope, the post is not counted as a spam)

Life had been good in childhood. Parents felt, their son should learn in his mother tongue (Not because they support sena or mns, but because both made it big in spite of their Marathi medium background). So joined a local Marathi school. Hardly used to be in the top 5 ranks in the class in the school exams, but always topped the school in every state & national level competitive exam came in my way. Just like every other Indian student, till ninth standard, everything was fine. No expectations from parents, relatives and most importantly from myself. :)

But then board exams for 10th standard came. Since I was not much interested in Acads, I knew , though I will do reasonably well but was not expecting any miracle. But the miracle happened and secured a merit rank in the Mumbai board. Topped the school when it mattered the most. And that was a surprise. The decision of choosing the stream one wants to pursue after 10th, is one of the most important decision in the life. I knew there exist 3 streams: Science, Commerce & Arts. Heard from people that one needs to study hard in science stream. So decision became easier. I had to choose between Commerce and Arts. Being a son of a chartered accountant, it became easier to choose commerce. At that time, I didn't know about CA etc at all. Neither the decision of taking commerce was based on the probability of IIMs giving extra marks to candidates from commerce background in their selection process. At that time, had not heard about IIM at all. :o

So just to minimize the studies, took admission in the one of the best commerce college in Mumbai. And 11th was a breeze of air. I really didn't have to study hard. Smiled at myself. 12th was also the same. Though a little bit more study than 11th , it was easily manageable. Then the reality started setting in. What did I want to do in life. Probably I had completed just 20-25% of the life, what about the remaining 75-80%? The news started coming in about my friends getting into IITs & NITs. Never knew the glamour associated with these institutes earlier. I felt, I have done a blunder by choosing commerce.:-( Seeing the friends who couldn't clear the first level of NTSE exam making it to IITs, I felt, being the NTSE holder, I had equal chances if not more to make it to these esteemed institutes. I felt I have done injustice to myself. Depression started creeping in. 😞

[Note: This is a post on the user's CAT journey that has been captured in his own words. We have not edited it in any way when publishing it as an article. Cover image is from http://www.sitebuilderreport.com/stock-up]