How is byjus institute for cat coaching ?
Can anyone tell me which is the best coaching institute for CAT prep. In Delhi? What all material/ mock/ etc. to follow?
Part 2: The bitter sweet experience of MBA Interviews
So here I am, with a decent enough score and in cloud 9, hoping to get a call from BLACKI. But since it was my last shot @ MBA, so I left nothing to chance and applied for a total of 17 clgs. Don't worry I am not going to bore you with the names of clgs I have applied to, but ya some noteworthy experience will be shared. So the first interview was of SPJAIN, the best private school by par (IMO). With no preparation what so ever, and no structured answer in my arsenal I made a mimicry of myself in front of the renowned profs of SPJAIN (apparently one them became director of IIM-L). Being rejected on the spot after my first interview round, I was dejected and angry with myself. Made up my mind to prepare harder and work on my communication skills (which was kind of okies).
2 weeks down the line, my 1st IIM interview, Kozhikode and I was the last guy to be interviewed pre-lunch by the panel. The panellist were more concerned about lunch then to ask questions, and thus my interview lasted mere 8 min.
Putting it in the back of my mind, I prepared myself for Indore interview. Knowing fully well that its gonna be a stress interview and acad based, I was all confident. This time I was the 3rd guy to give my interview, fresh and ready to face them head-on. As expected the interview went well for me, even though they tried real hardtop unsettle my nerves.
So with one good interview out of 3 major interviews I was confident and ready for Lucknow. Lucknow was like the ideal interview for me. Everything that was supposed to go right, went right (reverse-Murphy, patent pending).
Now I m confident for the mega interview, the baap of all interviews, ya u guessed right- Bangalore. The panelist were so cool and refined, the campus mesmerizing, oh Bangalore u beauty. Interview went on for 45 min, and the dumb things I said made me dig a grave for myself and bury myself alive. Just to give you an idea,
Prof: What are various places to visit in Odisha
Me: blah blah blah...PURI.....blah blah blah.....SILIGURI. (u heard it)
Prof (gottcha): I think siliguri is in west Bengal
Me (confident moron): No sir, I am pretty sure its in Odisha,
Prof (in his mind): How the hell did this guy got xx.xx in CAT.
FMS was officially the shortest interview ever. Interview was over in mere 5 min (including extempore mind it). Going to Delhi, taking a day leave from office, wasting 12k for tickets, you must be thinking is it worth it. Totally. By the time I was in FMS for interview, could see some familiar faces, with whom I have given GDs and who were in my panel in various occasions. OK so this is what networking is all about. Not Bad. I said to myself. But with cat weightage of 85% for selection, odds were not in my favor and so I ended my interview season of MBA 2015.
By the end of it all I gave a total of 17 interviews and got reject from IIM-B (off course), FMS (expected), and SPJAIN (duh).
Well apart from Bangalore, I don't regret a thing and happy with what I got.
Would you suggest quitting job of 2 years to prepare for CAT? Am changing my field altogether to HR and am really passionate about it. My current experience has been enriching however it's irrelevant to the field I am moving to. My current working hours doesn't permit me to dedicate time to study. Please give me your thoughts. Thank you :)
Anyone having the google drive link of Byju's study material and videos ?
PART 2
(Part 1 can be found at http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42611980)
SHORTLISTING PHASE
The calls had started pouring in with IIM Shillong declaring
its shortlists that very night. But the big ones were yet to come and by the
time I went back to my college for the final semester I had the two big ones in
my kitty - IIM A and IIM B - both being my dream institutes. This was soon
followed by an IIM C call and later from IIM L as well. The big four had considered
me worthy to be a part of their selection process and here I was jumping with
joy. Finally, I had the coveted BLACKIS. But the most consoling part was that
in spite of all the unfortunate incidents my hard work had finally paid off. It
was time for me to now make these opportunities count. I was really high on
confidence and decided to appear for GATE as well. Though, it was just meant to
be a fun exercise(believe me I just like to appear for competitive exams :)); yet I ensured that I
try to put in my best in the exam. Of course I hadn't prepared for it but I
wanted to really test my knowledge in the core subjects and so went ahead.
Meanwhile, I started preparing for AWT and interviews by focusing on the latest
happenings around the world, making a notebook, writing essays and other stuff.(which
I am not going to bore you with because most are already aware of what is
required when).
THE INTERVIEWS
The first interview was that of IIM Shillong and since I had no prior experience of appearing for MBA interviews(barring a couple of mocks at TIME), I decided to open myself up with the first one. It was the afternoon slot on 20th February, 2013. The interview went well because I could answer almost everything that was asked. The next one was IIM L on 22nd February again in the afternoon slot. I was the 5th one in my panel and being a fresher it was stress interview. I gave it a decent shot I would say. The next one was IIM K on 26th February in the morning slot. Again it was a stress interview with all sorts of weird questions being asked(a typical IIM K interview, which I learned later). Now, the big three were left. IIM A was the first one of them on 8th March in the afternoon slot. The interview went well and again as I had been doing I answered almost everything that was asked. I was happy that I had performed well(or so did I think). Next came IIM B on 12th of March in the morning slot and believe me that is the most nightmarish interview that I have ever had and had ever read about. The interview left me with a pretty bad feeling and I was completely down. I could never ever have thought that such senseless questions could be asked in an interview. After all I was new to this field and had no idea how crappy things can get in an actual interview. I felt furious and decided to approach the IIM C interview(the very next day) in an aggressive manner. The interview went on for 30-35 minutes and was relaxed at some points and utterly stressful at other occasions. I kept my cool in spite of being grilled and I knew from the response that I got from the interviewers that as far as the interview is concerned, it is a sure convert. I felt happy at what I had delivered. Meanwhile, my GATE results were also out and I had done quite well by securing some 200 odd rank in Electronics. I decided to skip my IIM I and FMS interviews. Then started the long wait for the results for it was a top 4 convert that I was looking for.
THE RESULTS
The first one was IIM B on 10th April and as expected it was a straight reject. Next came IIM A which again to my surprise was a reject. That was the worst day for me because I had thought that my interview was a good one and a wait list was at the very least that I had expected. I was dejected. Now all hopes were pinned on IIM C but I was disappointed when I saw a wait list in the late 70s. I could not believe my eyes. IIM C had to be a direct convert but it was not and the possibility of such a big wait list getting cleared was also very less. Finally I converted IIM L, later IIM K and Shillong as well but it was not what I wanted. Life resumed - I graduated in May and joined a financial services firm in Noida. Though my wait list in C got cleared a couple of days before the actual start of the session, I decided to get some work experience before joining a B School and I rejected IIMC's offer(yes you read it right). In retrospect I think that it was the boldest decision that I have ever made. With all hopes now pinned on my intellect and hoping to vindicate my decision I decided to give another shot at CAT and started preparing for it.
(I am trying to break up my experiences into small parts for easy readability. Next part to follow soon)
Take 3: The best prepared at a new town attempt
So it was February of 2014 and I was contemplating on the life ahead. To divert my mind away from CAT, I was putting in all my focus and energies on my work. I was getting some good and interesting projects and also getting great reviews for a few. By April however a major point of debate regarding the compensation structure at our current firm left our college batch (13 of us who had joined) quite frustrated and angry. What was particularly disturbing was the fact that the company had slyly tweaked the bonus and salary increment policy to exclude the new analysts. This issue became a major sticking point for most of the new analyst pool.
Although we had talks with the Founders and MD of the company the conclusion was not satisfying to us. I was also fed up of this and being a 10 month analyst decided to look for other opportunities. Although I was performing well and enjoying the work, I felt that the way the company approached the issue was quite unethical and there was a possibility of such mannerisms being repeated in future. The fallout was evident; our batch of 14 which had quickly reduced to 12 after 2 months of joining now became 7 (in just 10 months).
I was quite interested to try out the financial services space before doing an MBA (now that I had some consulting exposure). I networked well and reached out to my alumni at good companies. Since I had a good profile I got an interview call from one of the top investment banking companies in the world. 3 telephonic interviews and 3 in-person interviews followed. And it was with effort and luck that I was selected. The opportunity, brand name, compensation were good but I would have to shift to Bangalore now.
Moreover I had never lived away from home (right from school) and hence was a bit nervous of the shift. I again had to make a difficult decision and decided to shift base and accepted the offer. I had also decided to make another attempt at CAT, more to avenge against the injustice which had been meted out to me last time and to redeem myself. Again I was optimistic this year and felt that if I got a good percentile and with a one year experience in both the consulting and investment banking space I would have a great profile in B school. Moreover living alone and managing all things would help me become independent and mature and be better prepared for an MBA later.
So it was with mixed feelings in June of 2014 that I packed my bags and left for the Silicon Valley of India, Bengaluru. Excited as well as nervous I wanted to put in my best effort for CAT and put the final nail in the coffin once and for all.
Here are the previous takes:
Take 1: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42398547
Take 1 (Continued): http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42419321
Take 2: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42617691
Take 3 (Continued)
So I started my stint at the I-Bank in June 2014. The initial couple of months were tough to adjust to without family and friends and I felt a bit lonely. I planned to start my prep for CAT again from July 2014. This time I had planned that if I was not able to get a good enough percentile I would be attempting GMAT and then working for another 2-3 years before applying for an MBA abroad.
Since I had voraciously consumed and finished up on most of the material which I had in the past 2 years (trust me I had quite a lot of it) I purchased Quantum CAT to brush up and revise concepts. Also I decided to purchase the sectional tests of IMS this time round having already done CL twice. My strategy this time was to give as many mocks as I could and focus less on other aspects. I also decided to write XAT again (had skipped it last year). I purchased the proctored mocks of CL, IMS and also got mock tests from Oliveboard. With enough ammunition in store I decided to hit the top gear this time and leave no stone unturned. Till August end I was in the training phase of my new company and hence planned to revise everything I had done till now and complete Quantum CAT.
Since I had to reach office by 8am, I used to get up at 5am on alternate days and give a topic/ sectional test for 1-1.5 hour. The commute time was cut now but the work hours had increased (being in an I-bank now). Weekends were again devoted to giving a mock of CL on one day and IMS the other. In August I was in for a surprise when the pattern change was announced. So the paper would now comprise of 170 minutes with 50Qs each in Section 1 of QA and DI and Section 2 of VA & LR. Moreover there would be no sectional limits empowering the candidates to allocate time across sections according to their preference. However the best thing which I felt was that the new players TCS had done away with the slot system this year (probably because of the hullabaloo raised over normalization least year). CAT would now be conducted on two days only and 4 slots in total which was a pretty good thing.
A change in the pattern meant a rework of the strategy and to become faster at solving questions with accuracy (100 questions now as opposed to 60questions which I was accustomed to in the last 2 years, an increase of 67%!). The institutes quickly worked on revising the paper pattern and we started giving mocks in the new mode. In the initial few mocks it obviously became taxing since you had to keep your mind on high alert for 170 minutes. I remember being mentally exhausted after the first few mocks signaling that I had to prepare myself a lot to improve stamina and be well prepared for the long haul. I also experimented with the order of attempt of the sections in various mocks. Based on my comfort level and accuracy I was getting, I zeroed in on VA-LR-QA-DI order of attempt of the paper. The time limits were also self-imposed for each section with a buffer time of 10 minutes at the end in case I felt that I had not done justice to a section or if I hoped to maximize my scores in a section.
Being in a new city and without a close group of friends I knew that I had to keep my motivation level high for CAT and peak at the right time. I was scoring quite well in the mocks now (the CAT gene was finally embedded in my system or so I hoped for!). My good mocks scores helped me to be selected for the PG Dream Team 2014 and I was placed with stalwarts. The healthy rivalry among the group for mock scores, getting tips and suggestions from each and motivating each other was really a wonderful and cherished experience. My mock scores were however more volatile this year and I tried to stabilize them at a good level. I was possibly the only non-engineer in the DT group (and also admit the weakest member due to my quant as compared to the peers). Still trying to match up to the other member's awesomeness and flawless attempts is what kept me going.
In October I was also fortunately placed in the second shift at work which allowed me to login at 12pm. The mornings were all to myself and I utilized this opportunity to the optimum level. I would give 3-4 mocks in a week (usually starting a mock at 8) and analyze them thoroughly in the night. I was really scoring well in the IMS take home mocks (touching a score of 210 to 220) which was on par with the DT members and was really confident through this. In CL also I was maintaining a 97+ percentile with occasional sparks of excellence of 99+. Counting CL, IMS, Oliveboard and AIMCAT pdf's I had clocked close to 65 mocks by October end and had another 15 left for the final stage. My CAT was on 16th November and the first slot. At this stage I was probably over preparing, but the fire to bell the CAT this time was at an all-time high and I wanted to finish the CAT ritual. In the last two weeks I was giving a mock a day (a risky strategy which I would not recommend now). I knew that I had hit the peak at the right time when in the last SIMCAT I was the AIR 10. I was very confident and hoping to replicate this performance one week later. Further many CAT gurus (such as GP, Gejo of CL) were predicting an easier CAT and quant in particular due to the pattern change which further provided me confidence.
Before the D-day, there certainly was some amount of stress and I did suffer from a milder version of tension headache. However it was not as bad as last year and on the D-day I was quite pumped up. As the paper started I began with VA first. There were a few concentration lapses initially but I managed to regain, followed up VA quickly with RC and then LR. In LR was able to make up all sets except for 2. Got stuck in one and could not comprehend one at all. I then shifted to DI and again was able to attempt all here except for one. I had quant left and back in the mind I knew I had to go back to LR to finish off that set. As I started on the quant portion, the difficulty level of the questions was extremely low. In fact the difficulty level of question resembled more of the college entrance exams which I had given. I got over excited on getting such questions and quickly attempted most. However I did get stuck on a couple of questions and wasted some crucial time on them. With barely 7 minutes left I quickly switched back to the LR set and was able to crack it just as the clock showed a minute and a half left. I quickly tried to attempt the few QA questions which I had left but could not solve them and left them (had learnt a bitter lesson from guessing last year and did not want to take any chances). I was fairly happy of my attempts this time but did not make any estimates of what I might get (the heavy blow of a 91 last year still gave that jitters).
The post CAT analysis of the 4 slots painted a risky picture. It had been one of the easiest CAT papers in a long time which suggested that the scores needed to be quite high for a 99+. Experts were predicting 99+ on a raw score of 180 (how grossly wrong they will be later :sigh). I was in a very precarious position and had the feeling of being just on the edge based on their estimates (i.e. I might just reach a 99 this time). Even if I managed a 98.8+ I was hoping for a call from A then based on their Top 50 criterion. I hoped that all the midnight oil burning over the last 3 years would help me out this time and earnestly hoped that I would not have to take the GMAT route (if only life would have run on wishful desires, it would have been a lot easier).
The results would come out a month earlier this time but got delayed by a week and finally were out on Dec 27. They came out in the evening at 5pm and my elder brother checked it first. He called me up and I asked him nervously. His tone was sad at the other end and my heart sank. He told me it was in 97's and I told him to send me the score card. As I opened the results it was with bitterness and hopelessness that I viewed it. QA had returned 93.4 and VA 97.9 for an OA of 97.4 percentile. I was flying high in mocks right before CAT and just where it mattered I had made a crash landing 😞
Landing a percentile in the 97-98 range is possibly the worst score you can have because you are neither here nor there. I was certainly depressed a lot and the blow was huge. However after last year I had learnt the lesson and was in fact prepared for this. Moreover my parents constantly supported me and encouraged me to give GMAT and go abroad (as I was living alone, they did not want me to wallow in pity and take some mindless step). An easy paper had been the undoing and I was not able to match up to it. My raw score of 171 which used to get me 99 in mocks was not good enough in CAT since the paper had been so easy. The super easy QA section had been my downfall and many engineers had aced it leading to inflated scores. What was shocking was the fact that a raw score of 200 was needed for a 99 this year and 220+ was 99.5 (again these scores brought a 99.9+ in mocks).
I was sick and tired of all the struggles and sacrifices I had made for CAT and was at a loss. All the DT members (barring one or two) had scored brilliantly. Post the CAT debacle I attempted XAT with a vengeance and rage due to my constant failures with CAT.
A's result came soon and its cut off for my stream was 98.8. Again I was so near yet so far and wondered when God might stop playing such cruel jokes on me. I was angry at having wasted three years in CAT and decided to never attempt it again.
XL's result also came and I do not know how but I have always managed to score extremely well in XAT with the least effort (the exact opposite of how it happens in CAT). I scored a brilliant 99.84 in XAT and was really happy.
I converted my XL BM call a second time but again declined it. The decision this time was based more on how my profile had shaped up now and my career interests post MBA. I wanted to move to strategy consulting now and based on the discussion with my friends who had studied at XLRI realized that the opportunities for the top consulting firms might only be a handful. Moreover competing with 180 of the brightest minds for bagging the top 10 offers was quite tough and I decided not to go for it. Although I still have immense respect and love for XLRI and consider it to be the most student-centric, ethical and fair B schools in India. On a deeper level, I still nurtured that desire to go for ABC only but that spark and drive was extinguishing.
With a resolve to start a fresh chapter and take learning from all this (not waste time any more on CAT) I began researching and planning to take the GMAT. I was pretty sure that I would be applying to ISB and colleges abroad only now and the thought of giving CAT was not there in my mind now.
Converts: XLRI BM and IIM I with no show at the rest
For my previous takes:
Take 1: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42398547
Take 1 (Continued): http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42419321
Take 2: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42617691
Take 3: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43064640
I've had a rather eventful life of 24 years and most of that comes from the time I've spent at a place that was nothing more than an ambition some 18 months ago. Before that, I had been fairly alright with my studies till 10th. Needless to say, I opted for Non-medical and trained for 2 years for THE EXAM THAT CAN MAKE YOUR LIFE, IIT-JEE. Like most, I couldn't get through. Does the Extended Merit List count? It doesn't really matter because I didn't make it to that either. With no idea whatsoever of why I was there and a lot of makeshift arrangements of conviction about being an engineer (Engineering ka scope hai, remember?), I finally passed out of college with a lot many friends, too little knowledge and an IT job in hand. Talking about you? Talking about me? Talking about half the population of engineers that there is actually.
And then it struck me. One infinite universe, hundreds of billions of galaxies, one Milky Way, one Earth, one life. Am I really going to spend the rest of my life (about 46 more years going by life expectancy in India as of 2015) doing something that rots me to the very core? "No, I'm not!" I told the mirror and worked 1 year straight to create my very own business. O yes! An entrepreneur! Should I have started with that? Yes. Why didn't I do it? Read on to find out.
10 months of experience, complications more than I could handle and a bucket full of rejections is what it took for me to realize that maybe I wasn't ready yet. Marketing meant nothing beyond Facebook likes. Finances were only about margins. Human Resources? Kidding me? And for strategy, there were a lot of possibilities I could talk about for hours. No plans. Only possibilities. As Captain Smith, I could obviously go down with the Titanic. Or I could take a leaf out of Brock Lesnar's book, recon this knockout as an opportunity to get better, learn, upgrade my skill-set and live to fight another day. I stuck to the latter. I needed to know more about business than I already did. I needed to be able to reason my way out of real complications that I was bound to encounter tomorrow, if not today, in this line of career. 6 months, one Common Aptitude Test and 97.73 percentile later, here I was at the Indian Institute of Management, Rohtak. Story of half the population of engineers? Not anymore.
For the last 324 days that I've been a member of the IIM Rohtak community, my learning curve has been steeper than ever. Steeper than it had been for 23 years before this place. We're the crème de la crème after all! Take my word for it, this place is absolute crazy.
- Right when you walk into this place, you're greeted with 7 days of Aarambh (the orientation program), that is nothing short of a fairytale. 7 days, a maximum of 25 hours of sleep in total, around 30 tasks and a whole lot of running around the place looking for your partners because your seniors hate you more than you think they do. They give you different partners and 3 hours to solve a problem which otherwise gets listed as a case study in management institutes. Remember that thing I said about it being a fairytale? Forgive me. I lied. But ask me, ask everyone who has been through it, you'll miss it the most once it's over.
- We have faculty members who believe books are too outdated. What do they do instead? Research all through the year and use that knowledge in class. Heard of teachers like these before? At least I hadn't.
- We have committees that function like nothing short of mini-companies, I tell you. That brings me to the Industry Relations and Interaction Cell, or IRIC as it is more popularly known, at IIM Rohtak. Those who know me might actually be smiling as I mention this name because it just had to be there. Am I right or am I right? Thanks to my experience with the committee, I have had the chance to have a word with the best in the business. CEOs, Business Heads, entrepreneurs, Vice-Presidents, you name it. They say a man is known by the company he keeps. I, for one, have taken my first step to be known as the best. These are experiences that have worked in 2 ways for me. One, they've taught me not to think too highly of myself. Ever! Because there are some who will tell you by their aura that you, my boy, have a lot to learn. And two, they have helped me gain insights into how the corporate actually work. Treasure!
- Competitions are like THE THING at IIM Rohtak. Taken seriously, these are often opportunities that teach you way more than books. I myself have had the chance to take on the best minds in the country at our entrepreneurship summit, Udaan and the Marketing World Cup at IMT Ghaziabad. I can't really explain how it feels to be on the stage and present to a group of Venture Capitalists or to a group of marketing gurus from around the country. What I can tell you instead, is that when you step out into the corporate arena, there aren't going to be any familiar friendly faces. Competitions help you get used to the actual kind of rivalry waiting outside.
- Working as a member of the Creative Team for Infusion - the annual sports-management-cultural extravaganza at IIM Rohtak, I get a chance to do what I love doing: Designing. In fact, everybody does. Some really talented musicians, some exceptionally gifted athletes, interesting sports enthusiasts, impressive orators, surreal actors, amazing writers and some really experienced corporate minds, that's IIM Rohtak for you.
- It's never 'all work and no play' at IIM Rohtak. A group of extremely and differently talented individuals that we are, no day is complete without an element of fervor added to it. Come any festival from any part of the country and the amazing Cultural Committee will bring you events that'll keep you at your toes, running around, having fun and cherishing your friendship. War of Sections turns all these managers into warriors who'll do anything to win. Cooking, dancing, modelling, acting. Just bring it! And don't you forget the Premier Leagues! Cricket, Football, Table Tennis, Basketball, Squash, Chess. As if the daily routines of a couple of hours of play weren't enough, the Sports Committee lines up these extremely competitive leagues for us in the tiniest window of free time we get.
It's been an amazing year at IIM Rohtak. Filled with experiences I never thought of in the wildest of my dreams, it has brought me closer to who I am and made me stronger than ever, ready to take on the world. Can't wait to see what the next year has in store for me.
Was it easy? No. Has it been worth it? Every moment.
Have you ever thought as an MBA
aspirant, how life would be at a B School, what to expect out of the 2 years
and whether you would be an able fit? After joining your MBA programme, having
completed a year, do you feel you do not belong there because you are an
average student? If yes, then this article is dedicated to you, my friend!
Being Average Part 2: My journey at SJMSoM, IIT Bombay
A famous person once said, "If you want your story to be known and appreciated by all, try narrating it without being a narcissist". So, I'm going to try and do exactly the same.
Before I begin, I urge all readers to read the first part of "Being Average", since you wouldn't be able to relate unless you've read the previous part. The link of the same is:
http://www.pagalguy.com/articles/being-average-my-journey-to-being-a-student-32329151
So now that you've read the earlier part you know that I joined SJMSoM, IIT Bombay in the year 2014, and like every other student, I was excited to be finally doing an MBA after putting in months of hard work and perseverance. The torrential July rains greeted me once I reached Mumbai. Having reached IIT, I was allotted a hostel, H15 to be precise. The first week at SJMSoM, known as the 'Induction Week', was hectic. Most of the activities involved students getting to know each other better by working together in various group activities. This was coupled well with some faculty members delivering an introductory lecture or two on certain topics. It wasn't until the first weekend, that we found some leisure time. Even though the incessant rains kept us from going out much, we still explored the nearby areas of Powai, Mumbai. Soon enough Monday arrived, and the first couple of lectures began. We were supposed to have two lectures of 2 hours each, five days a week. The class of 120 was divided into two sections of 60 students each. One section would be having classes from 9AM to 1PM, while the other section would be having it from 2PM to 6PM. We all were amused at the thought of how much free time we would be having. I wondered why the seniors during our induction told us that life would be busy from the first day itself. The answer came soon enough. At half past six, on Monday, we had a batch address by our seniors, where various clubs and teams of the college would come and introduce themselves. The introductions began at the scheduled time and went on for an hour or two. And just when we thought it was all over, came the surprise element. A certain team, known as the 'PlaceCom', which was the student placement committee came in, and things were never the same any more. Little did we know then, that this would be the beginning of nearly three months of tireless days and sleepless nights. Even the first semester courses seemed to have gained a sudden momentum, and soon enough we were struggling simply to keep up with the pace of studies, and at the same time attend the industry interaction sessions, alumni interactions, rolling seminar series and batch addresses organized by the placement team. To add to the already overburdened schedule, I was made a CV point-of-contact (CV POC) for the batch, along with 12 other students. And hence, began the CV preparation and evaluation sessions. Apart from these 'regular' activities, preparations had begun for the B-School festival of SJMSoM, to be organized in the month of October. At IIT, the curriculum is divided in a semester format, but at SJMSoM, we had two terms in each semester, each term having 5 or 6 completely different subjects. Soon the first week of September arrived, and brought with it the first term examinations. The exams were over soon enough, and we had a batch address where the dates of Summer Placements were announced. We made a mental list of companies which we wanted to target for summers. Being interested in the field of Supply Chain and Operations, I targeted all companies offering those roles. The Pre-Placement talks were particularly useful in identifying such companies. I knew it was important for me at that stage to identify my strengths and weaknesses. I knew that Finance wasn't my strong point, and neither did I have any interest in the IT sector. I therefore decided, not to apply in any company offering such roles. Soon enough the placement season began. I faced my first rejection, in an FMCG company, after having qualified for the interview round. I felt somewhat dejected, but kept my spirits up. The next company I appeared for was Asian Paints. I successfully cleared all rounds of group discussion and interview to make it through. A couple of friends from my previous college and my colleagues from ITC questioned my decision to join Asian Paints (AP) as it had nothing to do with food. However, I reasoned out that since my CV had nothing apart from an experience in the food industry, it might be difficult for me to switch to other industries in the future. Therefore, AP would be a welcome change. Moreover, I wanted to specialize in SCM and Operations Management, and since AP was one of the pioneers in the field of Supply Chain Management, it would provide me with a firsthand experience of working with a top-notch company.
The happiness of being among the first few to be placed within the batch was immense, though it was short-lived. Since most of the batch was yet to be placed, we didn't actually get any time to party. Soon enough by the end of the first week of October, most of the batch got placed, and we finally got a breather. The second term of the first semester, which had started in the 2nd week of September, had gained momentum by then, and soon we had our mid-term examinations. This was shortly followed by 'Avenues', the B School festival of SJMSoM. It was around this time that a group of 19 students from our college were selected for a study tour in Telecom Ecole de Management, Paris. For the first time since coming to IIT, I was actually excited about something. The travel plans were made and soon we applied for our Visa. Amongst all this, the end-term examinations begun and before we could realize, end-terms were over and so was the first semester at IIT. The day approached when we finally took off for our first international trip. Right from the first day at Amsterdam till the last day in Rome, we had many countless experiences and fun, whether it be in Brussels, Paris, Venice or Vatican City. Like all good things, the study tour came to an end, and after a short stay at home, we were back for the 2nd semester of Master of Management. The second semester started off with us taking charge of various teams and clubs. I got selected as a member of the Public Relations Team of SJMSoM, and was also selected as a Media Coordinator of Mood Indigo, which is Asia's largest cultural festival, organized by IIT Bombay. Soon enough, the newly elected PlaceCom of our batch also took charge and industry interaction sessions began in full swing along with regular classes. After the term-end examinations were over in the last week of February, the admissions for the upcoming junior batch started. The process reminded me of my interview days after CAT. The four day tedious process ended, and a new term began. The second term of the semester was the shortest of all, as our internships were due to start from 1st of April. The end-terms got over on the first day of April and I along with two of my classmates who had been selected at AP, began our internship on the same day. The first three days the induction programme happened. It was great for multiple reasons. First, the interns got to stay at Taj Land's End, Mumbai for three days. To add to that was the parties that we had, and the sumptuous meals which followed. The last day of induction was the best though, where we were all taken for some fun bonding activities to a sea beach close to Mumbai. Soon thereafter, the real internship began. I had been allotted a project in which I had to work from the Head Office at Mumbai, while some others were assigned certain plants (manufacturing units) of AP. Being in Mumbai was an advantage as I could travel from my hostel. It was during those 8 weeks of internship that I really got to explore the entire campus of IIT. I gradually began working on my project after an initial briefing from my project sponsor (mentor). This was followed by a short stint in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, where I had to visit a manufacturing plant and also some of the suppliers. The stint at Baddi helped me understand the project better, and soon I started working on the model which I was supposed to develop for the completion of the project. At the end of 8 weeks, my review happened with my sponsor as well as the GM. The results as to whether I would be offered a PPO/PPI or nothing were not announced immediately and I had to wait for nearly two months, till our second year, 3rd semester started.
The 3rd semester was quite similar to our 1st semester, apart from the fact that we had switched gears. The teams and clubs introduced happened, and we knew what fate awaited the juniors. However, we didn't find much peace ourselves. Apart from regular courses, the industry interaction sessions, we had to assist in taking mock interviews and GDs for juniors in addition to reviewing and verifying their CVs. Soon enough, the PPOs and PPIs of various companies started coming in. It was August when the results of Asian Paints were declared. Only one among the three of us, who interned at AP had received a PPI, and that wasn't me. I was disappointed to say the least. And the reason wasn't that I didn't receive an offer. The reason for my disappointment was that I couldn't figure out what had I done wrong to not receive any offer. I thought my effort was sufficient, but clearly, it wasn't. The horrors of sitting through multiple rounds during final placements haunted me and my confidence was clearly shattered. I had no plans ahead. I knew that my current CV would be no match as compared to my batch mates. My CGPA after the 2nd semester results was merely 6.7, and I wondered whether I would even be shortlisted for companies. I hadn't won any major Corporate Competitions, which is a huge plus point for anyone's CV. I just had a single B School competition win, which again was nothing compared to what my friends had. The new CV format was sent to us and I hardly managed to fill 60 percent of the 1 page CV. I needed a plan that would make my CV look decent enough. I started applying for live project opportunities on various platforms such as OysterConnect, Internshala and likewise. I was selected for a two week live project through one such platform, and successfully completed it. However, it wasn't good enough for my CV. It was around that time, that a Live Project opportunity came in through our Placement Team. It was a project on Supply Chain Management at Kraft Heinz. Coming from the FMCG and Food Tech. background, I was immediately interested in it and applied for the same. After a telephonic interview of the applicants, I was selected for the project. I had to work for two days at the head office of Heinz, while the rest of the work was to be completed at home. The project was somewhat similar to what I had in AP, and I started the work with considerable ease. Managing time between classes, work and pre-placement talks was tough, but gradually I adjusted to it. After the first term of the 3rd semester was over, the subjects of the 2nd term, which I had opted for, were easier to manage. In the meantime, the B School festival also happened and my work in the respective teams also increased. However, by the end of the second week of November, with the 3rd semester finally over, I found more time to focus on studies. Apart from studies, there was the need to brush up with all current affairs and economic news, which would be useful for GDs during final placements. My CV was ready, and my preparation for finals, which included a thorough review of all important subjects was almost complete, and I waited for the dates of the final placements to be announced. The dates were announced and the final placements were to begin from the second week of December. I once again shortlisted companies based on my areas of interest and avoided applying in any IT or BFSI sector firms. I was also informed that Kraft Heinz had offered a PPI to me, once I was done with the implementation part of the project. However, due to paucity of time, I couldn't complete the implementation part as I had to focus on preparations for final placements. This time, I didn't have a plethora of choices like I did during the summer placements. I was worried since I was shortlisted for just three companies on Day 0 of the placement season, on the basis of relevant work experience and other factors.
The day of final placements arrived soon enough. The first company I was shortlisted for was PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), which offered a role in Management Consulting. After having cleared the first round of interview which was conducted previously, I waited for my call. Soon shortlists from other companies started coming in, and all I could do was wait with bated breath and await my turn. Some people who went in before me came back after having interviews for nearly an hour and a half. I was worried stiff whether I would even last that long in an interview. My turn finally came for the second round of interview with PwC. The interview went on for about an hour and I was asked to wait outside. The discussion went on for a while for whether I should be sent in for the next round or not, and I finally got a call for the final round. The third and probably round was the toughest and longest interview I had faced till date. It continued for more than an hour, and when it was finally over, I was asked to wait outside again. The HR person called me in for a final (fourth) round of interview to make a final call. Meanwhile, all sorts of thoughts kept coming to me. What if the other companies have had their first couple of rounds? What if they don't call me for the interview at all now? It seemed to be the longest wait of my life. At long last, the results were announced. Two candidates were finally selected, and I was one of them. I didn't know how to react. I could only smile as I knew the ordeal was finally over! With placements finally over, it was time for Mood Indigo. The four days were truly worth it! It was as though IITB had become one small city, where the world was. Soon thereafter, the final semester of Master of Management (M.Mgmt.) at SJMSoM began. I had managed to reach a 7 point CGPA after the 3rd semester results were declared. Not that I cared any more. The final semester project work and courses started, and so did our tours. First a trip to Goa, followed by another in Himachal. The fun and frolic continued till the end of April, when the final term examinations happened, and M.Mgmt. was over.
I would miss my days at IIT. I remember, during my leisure time, I would either get along with a group of friends to shoot a short film or to tour some nearby destinations. I would miss the night outs, the parties and of course my friends here! The final semester results were out and I had managed to score a 9 point SGPA. My final CGPA became 7.5, which was seemed unassailable after an abysmal 6.4 SGPA post my first semester. With the results out, MBA or Master of Management as we call it was officially over.
I started off MBA at a high point, being among the top few candidates with the highest CAT percentiles. However, MBA isn't just about how good you were. It is the two years that you spend here that shapes you into the person you want to be. My story may not be inspiring to many, especially those, who have been brilliant students right from the start. However, there are many like me, who have been average students. To them, I say, if you are pursuing your MBA or any other degree currently, and wonder whether you actually belong there and whether you deserve to be amongst the people you are, don't give up just because of a few failures such as not getting good grades or converting a PPO/PPI. Take some time to think, what you should do extra in order to get yourself shortlisted for the interviews. And once you've done that, work that extra bit that would take you a step closer to achieve your dreams. And when the D-Day comes, forget about the world. I can speak for myself, that whenever I went inside an interview or a GD panel, I didn't care if I was competing with the topper of the batch. I just had to build that confidence to convince myself that I had it in me, and then perform when the final hour arrives. The only reason why I wrote the second part of Being Average was that, the first part might give you a rosy picture of things. However, the life here at MBA was different and it took every ounce of hard work and complete dedication to achieve what I did. And while doing so, never compromised upon my hobbies and interests. And as I have said previously, it is upto you to decide what you want to achieve in your life, and then work towards it without being bogged down by the hurdles that come your way, because 'Average' is just another word!
My tryst with the Feline
Have you ever had moments in your life where you had found yourself in a proverbial 'back against the wall' situation and you thought that it couldn't get any worse ? And that just as you thought of fighting back, Murphy's law decided to go bonkers on you ? Yes, that's how it all started for me. As typical as they get. A supposedly 'good student' after high school who supposedly lost his way in between. Except, I didn't lose shit (Oops! No disclaimer. But if you're reading this, you're old enough anyway). I knew I was not going anywhere but I continued anyway. There was this youthful attraction towards being a rebel and the sheer fun of the free fall I was enjoying. Looking back, I realised I was not a rebel, not by a long shot. Rebels have a cause and mine, apparently, was self sabotage. Simply put, I was an ass who thought he was rebel. A friend of mine, Mr Siddharth Shiladitya, made it a point to not let me fail. He actually carried himself with me on his back and somehow we got over the line, in our own "little" way. And buoy, how little was that little? To find an analogy, imagine a 100 metres dash where we ended the race after the rest of the runners were done with the race, the presentations and their dinners. But finish we did and in life, finishing is important.
"So, I have a starting point now, however shaky. This is absolute bottom and I can only get better from here". This is what I had thought when I joined my graduation school(IIIT, Bhubaneswar). L O L. Remember the introduction to this piece ? May be it was because my friend had carried me over. I never really had to fight it out. I never really paid any price for my actions and thus I never learnt. Until you learn from your mistakes, you are destined to repeat them. And repeat them I did until I actually hit rock bottom. Very important detail - I was struck by cupid by now and that was how the rebuilding began. But that's a story in itself and may be someday, I'll write about it too.
I was in a new college where the placement opportunities seemed bleak and I was done disappointing myself. I know I come across various posts on social media where many artists, poets, singers, actors lose themselves trying to become engineers/ doctors/ MBAs. I was under no such delusion. The only thing I was good at except wasting time was basketball and some gaming. In gaming, if I played with 10 of my dorm-mates, I'd lose to four of them, at least. So gaming was not going to be it. Basketball ! Was I good at it ? Really ? Or was it just that not many people embraced it and the lack of competition made me feel superior ? Guesses ? Anyway, you get the drift. So talentless as I was, I had to zero in on a direction to move in. If I say now that I researched a lot about various avenues in various fields and finally decided to try to get into a B School, would you believe me ? May be I did or may be I did not. Point is, that is what I decided to do.
CAT 2013 (Where it started)
It was my 3rd year of grad school and there was not much academic load as such, mostly because I didn't care to take any load. If one was interested, there was plenty happening to keep one very busy. Anyway, I bought Arun Sharma books to solve problems and get a feel of how the problems of CAT are. I was apprehensive at first but realised it was nothing but basic Maths and English. Stuff we read till class 10th. I was 'supposedly' a good student till high school, remember ? I solved a lot of questions in Maths. I joined PaGaLGuY and started solving Quant problems in its Quant thread. I was gaining a lot of repo(measured in Karma points in PaGaLGuY. @placiddisciple was rad in those days) and was getting quite good at Quant. Took some mocks and scored decently in them and in my mind, I was already a PGP1 at an IIM.
Come D-day of CAT 2013, I just couldn't get going. Initially, I just blamed every other external factor for the debacle. But upon introspecting (yeah! you gotta do some of that too), I realised something. You notice during describing my practise, how it's all about Maths/ Quants ? Yes, CAT is much more than solving pretty Math problems; it tests much more. There's English, data interpretation, logical reasoning as well. And more than one's problem solving ability, it tests one's ability to handle pressure, time management, question selection, ability to decide when to leave a question and when to attempt it and a lot more. Those days, CAT used to have 2 sections. My scores in CAT 2013 were as follows :
QA/DI - 85.XX
VA/LR - 96.XX
Overall - 94.XX
I hadn't scored this low in all of my mocks but none of those mocks were the CAT. CAT has this tendency to give extremely simple questions but worded in such a way that, if not paid attention to, can cause mistakes to happen in heaps. Remember when we were kids and our parents used to tell us "Read the questions carefully !!!!!". We already had mugged up everything and reading questions was not required at all. Reading the first few words of a question was enough. But as far as the CAT is concerned, the golden rule is that The Devil is in the Detail. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of reading the questions properly, irrespective of time taken. Irrespective of time I say ? In a test like CAT ? Read on.
CAT 2014 (The one I didn't take)
After the debacle in CAT '13, I had managed to get a job in an MNC which paid decently well. I had decided to get some work experience. I wanted to try writing CAT just for the sake of being in touch with the concepts and hence, didn't enrol myself in any of the test series. If somehow, I managed to do well, then great. If not, then I didn't have anything to lose. But God had other plans. On a merry September evening, as I was playing basketball with my colleagues in office, I had an awkward fall and looking at my leg, I could see it bent in half. I had shattered the tibia and fibula bones of my right leg and had to undergo an immediate surgery. I had to be fitted with a Titanium based Intramedullary rod and 4 screws in my leg. 4 months of bed-rest at least and 6 months till I could walk without a stick. So was I able to write CAT 2014 ? No, I was not. I was on my bed going through PaGaLGuY threads and I saw people describing CAT 2014 as one of the easiest CATs ever. Many people had attempted all the 100 questions. I was left thinking whether I had missed a great opportunity. But there was no point thinking about it. I focussed on my recovery and tried to be as positive as possible. In hindsight, those were THE toughest 4-6 months of my life. The saying goes "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". Sometimes, one has got to embrace the pain and get on with life till the pain doesn't last any longer. Something else takes its place. And that something is worth all the pain. To find out what that "something" is, read on.
CAT 2015 (Gyaan time)
From months in bed to learning to walk all over again using various instruments, the pain subsided very slowly. And that pain was replaced by fearlessness. I felt like if I could overcome that struggle, I could overcome anything. And this set the tone for my preparation for CAT 2015. I started in around May-June, 2015. Hence, the timing of this post. I knew what mistakes I had done in my preparations during CAT 2013 which I tried to avoid and tried to study with a plan and intent. For CAT, one has to plan his/her studies, especially if one is a working professional because, he/she won't get as much time as he/she did in college.
I relied completely on test series and and sectionals for fine tuning. Too many times, I have seen people falling to the trap of trying to complete the syllabus first and then going for the test series. DO NOT FALL IN THAT TRAP! CAT has little fixed syllabus and one will never be completely done/satisfied with one's preparations. One must start taking mocks as soon as he/she is done with the basics and plug in the deficiencies after analysing mocks, preferably through the sectional tests.
The test series I was enrolled in are : TIME, IMS, CL - (Paid), CrackU, Hitbullseye - (Free)
Thus went on the endless cycles of taking mocks, analysing them, finding strengths and weaknesses and plugging in the gaps by practising questions. I didn't get much time, so all my practise was based on timed tests. There was no scenario where I solved a question without a clock ticking. Remember, earlier I had mentioned about not worrying about the time in CAT ? I said that because practising a lot of questions in timed settings and analysing them later would eventually get one to a stage where the mind knows the time instinctively. You don't need to look at the clock. When one is zoned in, he/she reads a question very carefully and tries to solve it without pen and pencil(another absolute key). One realises that the question has been solved much before the optimal time of a 100 seconds and if not, the mind instinctively knows that its time to leave the question. Again, trying to solve Quant questions without pen and pencil is absolutely essential if one wants to have an edge. It not only saves time, it helps the brain stay in the zone and not drift. Of course, one needs to use pen and pencils if it is necessary. But the more you are on auto-pilot, the greater your chances of a high score.
Another very important aspect one needs to take care of is that of developing a habit of reading. You might have seen a lot of blogs selling hot crap regarding speed-reading techniques, vocabulary, skimming, reading the questions first and what-not. Take it from me and take it for granted. None of it is required vis-a-vis CAT. All that is required is undivided attention while reading a passage and to read it calmly and slowly. There is absolutely no need to read fast. If you have practised enough, the required speed will come naturally. But do not trade comprehension for speed. It is called Reading Comprehension for a reason. And while marking the answers, practise the art of elimination of options based on various logical reasons. May be I'll write an article on them later. And attempt RCs only if you are sure of the answer. When in doubt, leave. Negatives in Verbal Ability are killers.
Just to emphasise, as you must have observed, the overwhelming requirement for cracking CAT questions is to have razor sharp focus and to be in the moment. At no point should you worry about the outcome. I have had a 100% correlation between mocks where I panicked and the mocks I screwed up. I know correlation does not imply causation but what if I said that all the mocks that went bad for me were the ones where I thought about the outcome and panicked ? Think about it. At the end of the day, it is just an exam and you don't have to demolish it. You just have to solve enough problems correctly. Nothing more, nothing less. I repeat, no one's life depends on it. So be cool and confident.
So this is all the gyaan no one tells aspirants about. Anyway, I kept taking mocks and my percentiles varied from 99.9+ to mid 80s. In these times, one needs someone he/she could discuss problems with. It could be a fellow aspirant or a mentor. I discussed it with my friends Akash Chowdhury(VA God. SIMCAT VA AIR 1 more than once, SPJIMR), Sushant Das (the calmest guy to write CAT, IIM Kozhikode). And with all that I could do, I wrote the CAT on November 29, in the evening slot. The scores were as follows :
QA - 99.1
VA - 99.23
DI/LR - 99.33
Overall - 99.81
Before ending, I'd like to say that if one is making a serious attempt at getting into a B school, one should look at exams other than CAT for various reasons. Some exams will help one warm-up for CAT and other exams will let you get into great B schools which don't accept CAT scores. And as CAT is a very unpredictable examination, no one can guarantee success in it except @scrabbler may be. So I took a gamut of exams.
Summary of this season's entrance exams:
CAT - 99.81
XAT - 99.056
IIFT - 99.69
SNAP - 99.82
NMAT - 99.214
Converts - FMS, XLRi(HRM), MDI, IIM L, IIM K, IIM I, IIM S
Waitlist - IIM C(WL 70)
Skipped - IIM A(FABM), NMIMS
Rejects - SIBM, SPJIMR
Take 4: The
happy culmination with least worry and smart approach
So we are in Feb 2015 and as per my backup plan I plan to start on my GMAT prep soon. Based on discussions and research I started a two month prep course at TOP GMAT (one of the prominent coaching centers in Bangalore). I had a close friend from office who also started with me and hence had some company.
Quant seemed quite easy in GMAT what with all the CAT prep (so finally CAT effort was reaping benefits somewhere). Tackling GMAT verbal though was quite challenging and exciting and calls for another post by itself. To cut this story short, my classes end in April 2015. The self study material provided by the center lasted till June 2015. I got an okayish 720 (apparently GMAT Verbal plays a high role in your overall score so even if you manage to ace the quant portion with a bad or okayish Verbal, you might not get 740+ which was my case here). Again in the Manhattan mocks and free mocks I used to score in 740+ range and really was clueless as towhat happens to me at the big stage.
Thinking a 720 was a decent score, I planned to start my applications soon now. By August I had also became less angry and frustrated towards CAT in general. There was this drive to redeem oneself one last time, taste the thrill of being in the 99+ club again and to see that ecstasy and joy on my parents and elder brother's faces again. My brother in particular had had immense faith and confidence in my abilities and encouraged me to attempt CAT again if I had that mental stamina left. It was at this point when a trigger factor was initiated when I read a success story of a CAT aspirant who finally got admitted to IIM-C in his 8th attempt (yes you read that right!). The journey was quite inspiring and I felt that let's just give one last shot at CAT and then I will start my applications.
However this time I wanted to take a radically different strategy at CAT. It had ruled over me for the last 3 years and made my life revolve around it. I now planned to rule over it and enjoy life while just giving CAT as a by-product. The million dollar question is, did the gamble pay off?????
For the previous takes:
Take 1: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42398547
Take 1 (Continued): http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42419321
Take 2: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42617691
Take 3:http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43064640
Take3 (Continued):http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43294861
This is my story and it is a story of hope....
"Every event has a purpose and every setback its lesson. I have realized that failure, whether of the personal, professional or even spiritual kind, is essential to personal expansion. It brings inner growth and a whole host of psychic rewards. Never regret your past. Rather, embrace it as the teacher that it is." ― Robin S. Sharma,
Today is 26th April 2016 its 4:30pm and the result of IIM Kozhikode has just been declared .As my trembling hands open the IIM K website my minds drifts back to the moment where it all started, The day I solved my first quant question. I still remember the sheer rush of blood and exhilaration I experienced at the prospect of preparing for CAT, so how is it all going to end? My minds asks. I put in my CAT registration no and the screen starts buffering, the wait of a few seconds seems like a lifetime.........
The Start
Karan are you sure you want to prepare for CAT? My father asks me, you performed terribly in IITJEE despite all the coaching, you even destroyed your 12th boards score in the process, think about it again? Clearly my father doesn't believes in me but my brother still does as he pays my fees for CAT coaching and enrolls me at TIME Delhi (Pitampura) batch 13A, and like this I started preparing for CAT 2013 one and half year before in July 2012.. The classes were supposed to start in July but I started my preparation in June itself, I took up my brother's old time modules and started wreaking havoc on the quant and DILR modules. Before the classes even started I was done with a lot of course material.
The wealthiest place on the planet, is the graveyard. Because in the graveyard we will find inventions that we never ever were exposed to. Ideas, dreams that never became a reality. Hopes and aspirations that were never acted upon.
He meets her..
What is the language of engineer sir? , a cute looking girl asks our quant professor, I was standing just beside her. She had perfect black eyes, short structure and an extremely beautiful face, my big eyes meet hers, I answer her question: I guess it should be Mathematics since it is used heavily in different domains. The professor seems satisfied with my answer and nods. She also gave me a grin smile and both of us went our different ways, I didn't realized it then but that girl was going to be instrumental in me realizing my CAT dream. I will call her isha from now on (name changed).
Spoilers : This love story is not going to end well.
The First mile.
From June 2012 to January 2013 I prepared religiously for CAT. I became very strong in quant and DI, however my English and LR section still needed a lot of improvement. I used to top in most of the tests that were conducted in our TIME classes. One day that I remember in particular was when we had our quant numbers class. The first question that the teacher asked was
What is the last digit of 2^16 (answered in 6 seconds by me)
Highest power of 5 in 100! (Answered in 4 seconds by me)
I used to solve questions at the drop of a hat in the classroom and it used to give me great amount of confidence. Amidst all this supreme hitting by me, isha who was sitting at the front seats looks back at me, my eyes again meets hers and she can clearly see the temperament in them and she looks impressed .
The feelgood period
Isha and I were sitting together in the vocab class, "vocab is so boring I tell her" "well you need to clear it in order to score good in cat so we will have to study it I guess" she replies. Since meeting her I had added her on facebook, the two of us had started talking, numbers were exchanged and now we were good buddies. All of this continued till may 2013, we used to talk all day about our ambitions, why we wanted to clear CAT.
A word of advice to the future aspirants, having a study buddy really helps. Preparing for CAT can be a lonely journey and if you have someone with whom you can talk to or share everything, it can be very helpful.
The race begins
I gave my first AIMCAT on 16th may 2013, AIMCAT 1320 it was then that I realized just how different it is to solve questions in a panic induced, time restricted environment. I scored 82%tile in it. Next came AIMCAT 1319 scored 89%tile OA then AIMCAT 1318 92%tile AIMCAT 1317 88%tile and then 1316 97%tile my scores for the 2013 used to hover around the 90-95 mark with sectionals going all over the place. CAT 2013 arrives On 25th October 2013 I wrote CAT for the first time, I have had decent sleep in the night, I woke up and talked to isha, she wished me best. By the time I was in the examination hall I was panicking, anxiety levels were at an all-time high for me. The moment I sat on my seat my mouse wasn't working and when you are so tensed up things like this can really get to you. I called the invigilator and he got it to work. The exam started and I couldn't solve anything for the first 10 minutes and by then I was really shitting myself. The 2013 CAT paper was one of the toughest ever and in the first 70 min I could solve only 9/30 questions in the QA/DI section (back then CAT had only 2 sections) but later on I calmed myself and ended up solving 25/30 questions in the LR/VA/RC section. When I got out I was broken, I knew I had tanked badly. The next few minutes were really bad for me talked to isha on the phone as she consoled me. Then came home talked to dad, told him it didn't went well and he was clearly upset and disappointed in me. Also cried a little, then I talked to my brother he reminded me of the posts in All I wanted to speak about CAT in which people crack CAT in there 5th attempts and told me to soldier on and that really gave me a lot of strength and I decided then and there that one day I will have my vengeance.
A word of advice to the future aspirants Keeping your calm on The day is the most important thing, I know it is easier said than done but think like this, there are millions of people in this country who don't even know where there next meal is going to come from, there are real absolute tragedies in these world but not being able to clear CAT is certainly not one of them.
When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is the place and time that the tide will turn.
Life throws a curveball.
After the CAT disaster I sat for Infosys recruitment drive and completely destroyed its placement paper but when the results came in the night I was broken to see. Sorry, you are not selected. I the guy who was scoring 95+ in AIMCAT mocks couldn't even clear the Infosys Apti, man that was a new low. Everyone in my family was shocked, my friends were shocked. Hell what hurt even more was that guys who were not even preparing for CAT ended up clearing it. 15 days later I went to an offcampus recruitment drive and a US based IT firm offering 5LPA where over a 1000 students sat. I almost didn't went there thinking that I possibly cannot clear it. But I went anyway. Then after the aptitude round only 150 students remained and I was the only one from my college. Then GD and another aptitude round was conducted and only 30 students remained, I cleared that as well. Then finally 2 interview round were conducted after which only 2 students were selected out of 1000 student drive and I was one of them. So I had bagged a 5LPA job in Delhi-NCR. In 15 days life had shown me different colors.
Always seek out the seeds of triumph in every adversity. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover. -Mark Twain
The First Result It was 14th January 2014 that the results of CAT were declared. I entered the credentials and was really scared out of my mind and then the screen read.
CAT 2014 Results Overall percentile: 95.32 | Quant/DI : 87.xx | VA/LR : 97.xx I had mixed feelings about the result, after such a horrible paper I wasn't expecting 95 however my family was really disappointed that even after 1 and half year of hard work I had again screwed up. Isha also screwed up and scored 96 percentile and after this we started spending more time together, we used to go to movies together and since she was also placed now we were both really relaxed and that helped in steering things forward. By the end of june 2014 I had converted both IMI and IMT but I decided to leave these colleges and have another go at CAT.
"No one is going to hand me success. I must go out & get it myself. That's why I'm here. To dominate. To conquer. Both the world, and myself." - Unknown
Part 2: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/44201227
Part 3: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/44357228
To access the entire story at a single place http://karankakkar.blogspot.in/2016/09/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat.html
Take 4 (Continued):
So it was already late August 2015. In July IIM A had come out with the CAT 15 announcement. The pattern had changed again. CAT would now have 3 sections of an hour each with VA/RC, LR/DI and QA in that order. The sections would also be timed that way which meant that switch among sections would end. Personally I felt this to be the best CAT pattern among all my four years. CAT was returning to its older era of 3 sections and being conducted on a single day (29th November). I also felt that I would be able to perform the best in such a time bound structure and with a separate LR/DI section could use that to my advantage.
For 2 weeks I closely introspected on my last two attempts, why I had failed, what I could have done better. I also took a leaf from my preparation strategy for XAT (a test where I had been able to XL in the word of it with two 99+ percentiles). Based on the analysis I found that I used to take XAT much more lightly (since it was conducted post CAT). Moreover I did not use to put as much effort as CAT and would give it in a very calm and stress free environment unlike CAT where for the last two times there had been a significant amount of stress and tension headache and I was not at all close to my peak potential both the times. So it was actually the 'least bothered, just ace-it approach' in XAT which used to help me.
Based on all this, I decided that I would prime and condition my mind in a similar manner, the way I used to attempt XAT. I imagined that my CAT had actually happened (which is the GMAT attempt in June) and that I would now be writing XAT (which in fact will be CAT 2015). Reading this you might be wondering that I am probably psyched out now but this approach really helped me reduce my stress and pressure to perform in CAT. Moreover I had all but made up my mind to start on B school research and applications from December and hence was very well set up in terms of the backup.
CAT would be on 29th November 2015 and I decided to give myself a preparation time of just about 2.5 months (with least effort and more fun approach). This time I just took the proctored mocks of CL and IMS (10 at CL and 15 at IMS and nothing else). Quite a few mocks had already been conducted and I planned to attempt them later if I had time. I planned to write not more than these 25 mocks (though finally wrote 31 mocks with the older mocks converted to new format too). Strangely this time around I hit the ground running right from start. It might have been because I was already in the preparation phase since last year and had never lost touch (as I was prepping for GMAT right post CAT and then started for CAT again albeit with some small breaks).
My first CL mock fetched me a 99. This time apart from these mocks I gave AIMCAT pdfs in a sectional form just for practice (although its use was quite erratic and infrequent). Most of the time of my study phase this time was just spent in taking and analyzing these mocks. I diligently gave all mocks and again was getting good scores here. However now I was attuned to the fact of my super shows in mocks and faltering at the big stage and hence was not so excited or awed by my performances. Still I was able to bag 98+ percentiles in 10 of the 15 IMS mocks and 13 of the 16 CL mocks. Looking back I can say that this was my best and most consistent mocks performance in all the 4 years (ironically with the least amount of time spent for preparing for it). Since I had started late this time round I was actually not burnt out and in fact was eagerly looking forward to the D day.
In the last fortnight I gave a few mocks and tried to revise as much as I could of all the materials and resources from my last few years. I also took just a 2 day off this time before CAT as opposed to a week and two weeks in my earlier two attempts. Before the D day I was able to sleep quite well and the concept of tension head ache had vanished for me (and yeah I am not saying this to jazz up my story more, this actually happened :p). Another great thing was that I had the afternoon slot this time, hence I was able to manage a good enough 10 hour sleep and woke up fresh and energized.
I reached the center a bit early. I also had one of my friends from office attempting it and so had some company to pass the time. As we were ushered into the testing room there was a sense of calm and steely determination along with ample dose of confidence in me. I again reinforced in myself that I had given GMAT and would be taking the MBA abroad route and this was just a formality just to further assuage me and prevent any fears or nervousness from cropping up. As I started on the Verbal section I noticed that it was broken up into two sub sections of RC and Verbal (a clever strategy I must say). I started with Verbal, did all except two and raced to RC's. RC's were quite easy to read and comprehend. The questions itself were also not so tough and I quickly attempted all the RC's. I was extremely focused and concentrated at this stage and had not taken note of time at this stage. I then noticed that I had around 17 minutes still to go and just two questions left. I took a 2 minutes relief and then took my time for those two questions. With 10 minutes on the clock I revised the entire section. Among the 34 questions I was quite confident of 30. I gave myself a 2 min rest and resumed to attack the next section which was LR/DI.
Now the LR/DI portion was actually the 'game changer' according to me in the CAT this time. It was tough and challenging. Candidates who were able to keep their calm and cautiously attempted the questions would have sailed in this one. Another after effect of the tough LR/DI section which I realized later was that students had become quite exhausted post it and hence were not able to give their best in the Quant section later. Fortunately for me I was able to attempt 3 sets each of LR/DI each out of 4 (without any random guessing). I had kept 110% focus here and each of LR/DI had been tough to crack. However I had kept my calm, quickly left the set which was not making headway, attacked the easier ones first and post that made full use of the time. Among the 6 sets I was only apprehensive of one LR set where I had made an assumption and based on it marked the answers. (it was not completely a blind guess neither was it a clean strike). Later I came to know that a confident attempt of 20 questions was actually quite good in this paper.
As we moved to the final section of quant I knew it had to be easier. But I kept my calm and tried not to get too excited or over confident here. I followed the R1, R2, R3 strategy here. In R1, gave around 30 minutes and was able to attempt 16-18 questions. Had marked 8-10 questions for R2, questions which would require some time but definitely do-able and finished them off in another 15 minutes. By this time my brain was actually in an auto-pilot mode. It was like a batsmen who was just facing a delivery without any expectation and trying to hit each one for a six! With 15 minutes to go I had another 6-8 questions left. In the next few questions the online calculator really helped a lot and I blessed the CAT committee for bringing about this change. I had around 4 questions and 5 minutes left. I tried to exert my best effort to crack them and used option elimination, using options, and every strategy. Was able to knock off 2 more and finally settled on 32 questions. So in all had attempted 34+24+32 which is 90 questions which I believed to be a decent attempt. Moreover had tried my best to keep my accuracy high this time and not guess any of them.
Again my expectation was that I had done well and could get a 99 this time (gosh my optimism for the results never wane!). I planned to take some time off and chill out now (finally!) in December.
As January came speculations were rife each day that the results were out or coming out the next day. IIM A had told they will be out in second week. Finally on 8th Jan as I was working in office one of my friends texted that we could view our results by viewing the HTML code page and engaging in some frenzied activities. I controlled this temptation and waited for the official link to be available. Around 2pm, as I was about to break for lunch, I got an SMS from IIM-CAT, 'Dear Candidate, your percentile for CAT 2015 for application number xxxx is 99.64'. At first glance I was apprehensive of this but then I saw that the message had been sent by the same source which had provided the password for login details. Quick confirmations with friends followed and then as I was in office made some fist pumps, did a wild dance and gave out a loud shout (all of this was done in the mind only :p)
I called up my parents and brother who were over-joyed to hear about this and it was a great moment for me to be back in the 99+ club. Their faith in me and their immense confidence was what had kept me going despite all odds and string of failures. As I had told my score to a few friends the news about my score quickly spread through the grapevine and congratulory calls followed. Some of my closest friends in college called me up and were ecstatic that my efforts and dogged determination had finally seen success at the end of the day.
I was quite emotional and happy and wished that the day would never end. It was a moment to celebrate and I took my office friends (who knew about my results) out for dinner.
Finally reaching the interview and essay phase
As the calls started pouring in, I received all the IIM calls. I was ecstatic and super excited as I received each of the calls for IIM A B C. Finally my 4 year effort had paid through. I decided to attend the interviews only for IIM A,B,C and L. For the interview and essay phase I prepared diligently, took the Interview and Essay Prep courses of both IMS and CL (my trusted allies) and prepared hard and smart.
Interviews went good at IIM B, terrific at IIM C, decent at IIM A and pretty terrible at IIM L. Although the final story was bitter sweet (could not convert A and B) but finally the dream of doing an MBA from either ABC was realized and I became a Jokar for life!!
Converts: IIM
C
Epilogue to follow soon
For the previous takes:
Take 1: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42398547
Take 1 (Continued): http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42419321
Take 2: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42617691
Take 3:http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43064640
Take3 (Continued):http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43294861
Take 4: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43734419
Part 2 (the one where bad turns to worse)
"If two points are destined to touch, the universe will always find a way to make the connection- even when all hope seems to be lost. Certain ties cannot be broken. They define who we are and who we become. Across space, across time, among paths we cannot predict- nature will always find a way."
The Second Attempt
I started my job on 1st July 2014, from the onset it was very tough because it was not your typical IT job. I was working in a US based startup with ample of challenges but with learning opportunities as well.
I didn't joined any test series this time (big mistake Mr. Overconfident), I only used to give some free mocks here and there.
I gave CAT 2014 on 22nd November 2014 it was a 170 min affair with 2 sections and unlike last year I got off to a flying start but after 120 min I paid the price for under practice, I hadn't trained enough and didn't had the stamina to last for a 3 hour test and ended up being completely blank for the last 30 min, I had never felt so helpless in my life. In spite of having solved 67/100 I was hopeful for a 98+ percentile.
Disaster Strikes.
The result of CAT 2014 came on 27th December 2014, I was in Goa enjoying with my family. I came to know about isha's result earlier she had scored 99+ and then I saw my result.
Overall percentile: 96.2
Quant/DI: 83.xx
VA/LR: 98.xx
I was completely and utterly heartbroken.
The time from 27th December 2014 to 15th May 2015 was the toughest of my life, Isha converted IIM Lucknow while I could again convert only IMI, IMT-G.
Through all this time she was extremely supportive and before going she told me that we will always stay in touch but I felt as if I didn't deserved her, I had initially planned about proposing her but after the CAT disaster I just didn't cared about all that.
During that time I just completely lost my confidence and self-believe, seeing that Isha suggested that i take admission in IMI over which we had a huge fight.
Looking back I now realize that she cared about me and knew that it was very much possible that I might not even get 96 next year and that would further screw up my life.
Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them but I still had some music left in me (powerful hardcore rock music).
Deep down I knew that I still had one more CAT attempt left in me so I started again and decided that this would be my final attempt.
"Good things come to those who believe, better things come to those who are patient and the best things come to those who don't give up."
One Last Ride....
I started studying for CAT 2015 by giving a couple of mocks, I gave the first 3 bullseye free mocks and ended up scoring 99,97,98 in them and upon analysis I came to know that I was now very strong in LR/VA/RC but how you might ask? I had inculcated a habit of reading for at least 3-4 hours every day whether it be during office or during commute and that sky rocketed my reading speed and after some practice and analysis I started comprehending the English section very well. So that breaks the myth that the English section cannot be improved or that engineers can become good only in quant. After that the bullseye mocks became extremely tough so I left them for TIME and IMS test series.
"It's Not Whether You Get Knocked Down, It's Whether You Get Up."- Vince Lombardi
Life became extremely hectic, from Monday to Friday I used to work diligently in office as I was now selected for the best client in my company. I used to study for CAT after coming back from office for usually 1-2 hours and on Saturdays and Sundays I used to give mocks.
Some Gyaan Regarding Mocks
In my opinion Time and IMS have the best Test series among the lot.
TIME
Pros: Highest no of test takers, God in quant/LR/DI, Amazing analysis of Mocks.
Cons: Average VA/RC.
IMS
Pros: God in VA/RC, decent no of test takers almost equal to that of TIME, Ample no of mocks not only for CAT but also for SNAP,NMAT,XAT.
Cons: None
According to me 20-25 mocks with proper analysis are enough for scoring 99+ in CAT, but more than just giving them you should focus on in-depth analysis.
From May 2016 - November 2016 all I did was eat, sleep and study. I didn't opened facebook or went to parties or even socialized. I even turned down a proposal from a girl because all I cared about in my life now was to break CAT like it had broken me.
Advice to the future aspirants:
"You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose."
Hence never lose your confidence if you score 60-80 in a mock nor become overconfident when you score 99+, always analyze why did you score 80 or 90 that is what will matter in the end.
2 weeks before CAT I took a leave from office and gave around 8-9 mocks, during that time I synchronized my body to be on optimal performance from 3:30-6:30 PM the time during which I was supposed to have my CAT exam.
By the end of the Mock season I had given around 40 Mocks.25 of them being SIMCATs (I just love the VA/RC that they make).My mock scores used to hover around 96-99.90 which is decent for a 99+ percentile in CAT.
I would also like to mention www.cat100percentile.com as this site greatly helped me with the theory of quant.
"If You Are Working On Something That You Really Care About, You Don't Have To Be Pushed. The Vision Pulls You."- Steve Jobs
A couple of days before CAT I talked to Isha as it was her birthday, she wished me best but clearly we had grown apart, we talked for about an hour regarding everything from her life at L to the financial condition of the country but I realized then and there that her going to IIML and we growing apart was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. It had bruised my ego and that made me prepare for CAT with even more tenacity and now I was riled mad wanting to prove myself, But on the relationship front I had lost her and I was probably okay with that because I felt as if her purpose in my life was complete. Also the night before CAT I talked to my mom and she told me a very simple yet powerful thing that "Dreams come true" and we are with you no matter what.
"What You Lack In Talent Can Be Made Up With Desire, Hustle And Giving 110% All The Time."- Don Zimmer
Part 1: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43778325
Part 3 : http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/44357228
To access the entire story at a single place http://karankakkar.blogspot.in/2016/09/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat.html
Epilogue:
Been a great ride and a cherished experience
Some of my learning from this journey:
1. 1. Have immense self confidence and trust in yourself and keep it going when the chips are down, when you are clueless and feel that you are fed up and done with it, when all people have lost faith in you, when everyone might sympathetically look at you and say, this was the guy who converted a great college but rejected it earlier and now he languishes in pity.
2. 2. CAT, XAT and all such national level aptitude exams test more on your mental temperament, your ability to stay calm and not get stressed out even in the toughest of papers. Aptitude is something which can be learnt and aced but mastering this is one hell of a task. Even I took 3 years to finally recover from the stress and expectations and give a final blow to CAT.
3. 3. Always have a good backup or fail safe plan ready which actually helps to ease out things quite a bit. During my second and third attempt they were more of pseudo backups but I actually had some good fail safe plans ready in my first and fourth attempts, and both the time I got a 99+
4. 4. Never unduly stress yourself to attempt xx questions in the paper or get a xx+ percentile. It is when you set a hard overly ambitious goal that you might falter in the burden of expectations. During my first take CAT on a national scale was quite knew and I had no idea what I might get. I just gave my best attempt and was rewarded for it. By the second and third attempt the expectations had built up, that I had got a 99+ and will easily get it again.
5. 5. The best way according to me to approach CAT is to first build your base in terms of the concepts, then give sectional and topic tests to identify your strong and weak areas. Next you need to deploy a strategy to cleverly and slowly work to improving or at best minimizing the failures from your weaknesses and to capitalize and reap the maximum benefits from your strength areas.
6. 6. Giving mocks in a time controlled and possibly in the same tough environment (proctored mocks) is sacrosanct. Mocks really help you quite a lot. At the same time you should never get bogged down by the scores. I have got percentile from the 60's to the 99's in the mocks and I have taken a lesson from each of them. Use it to test, experiment, tweak around and consolidate on a strategy. In the last few mocks zero in on a final strategy and stick to it.
7. 7. A supportive peer network that is on the same bandwidth (or even better a higher band width as you) will really help you maintain that competitive spirit, learn from each other and stay motivated throughout the journey. Being in the Dream Team or prepping with college friends really helped me out
8. 8. Try not to start too early or too late on your CAT prep. Identify how much time you might need, prepare a plan and then back calculate to find out when you should start. Being in the peak of your performance right before CAT is something which you should aim for. Again the prep time might vary from say 1 year (my first take) to as low as 2 months (my fourth take as a seasoned CAT taker)
Finally special thanks for the support and advice provided by the Pagalguy team. The vibrant community here with the stalwarts, the dogged pursuers, the under dogs etc. is enriching and exciting and I thank Allwin Agnel @pagalguy and Kinjal Das @kinji.at.pg1 and the PG team from the bottom of my heart for having provided the aspirants with such a brilliant platform. Keep up the brilliant work guys and I earnestly wish that the site remains the best and the preferred channel for any aspirant's MBA needs.
A shout out also to my ex DT members, @a-jay , @anitsuri1990 , @Burgundy , @christianbale , @Darknight123 , @Estallar12, @ferlonso , @findingbugs , @Highway66, @shashwatdgr8 , @sagarcat , @SilverCrow and @swapnil4ever2u. Thanks guys for having pushed me to perform to my best to match up to you guys and for inspiring with your awesome scores!
Special shout out also to @scrabbler, the serial CAT killer for whom getting a 100 in CAT is like a walk in the park. You have also been an inspiration and your blogs, advice and approach to tackling CAT has been quite insightful. Finally joining your alma-mater 😁
Finally would like to thank and make a special mention of some guys who used to inspire me, leave me awestruck simply with their sheer brilliance or their never say never attitude: @sid2222000 , @plant.waters , @invader2806 and many others.
To all those who I might have missed out, thanks a lot for having helped out and having made this journey special and truly cherishable.
Signing off
Keshav Bagri
IIM-C Batch of 2018
To read my story:
Take 1: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42398547
Take 1 (Continued): http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42419321
Take 2: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/42617691
Take 3: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43064640
Take 3 (Continued): http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43294861
Take 4: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43734419
Take 4 (Continued): http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/44012326
Part 1: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/43778325
Part 2: http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat-25002933/44201227
To access the entire story at a single place http://karankakkar.blogspot.in/2016/09/all-i-wanted-to-speak-about-cat.html
Part 3 (The one with the final showdown)
29th November 2015 arrives....
Sure I am that this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond my endurance. As long as we have faith in our cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us.
I woke up at 10:30 that day having taken 8-9 hours of disturbed sleep and I was scared like hell but believe me guys its perfectly normal to feel this way. Even athletes like Roger Federer and Michael Jordan feel butterflies in their stomachs before big matches but what makes them champions is the ability to handle this pressure.
Next I reached the center about 45 minutes early, talked to my friends and my brother, I had come to know that this year's exam was quite similar to the last one, tough DI/LR with easy QA/VA/RC. I was ready to meet CAT for the 3rd and last time.
Before the exam began I sat idle before the computer screen for around 15-20 minutes, my eyes kept looking at CAT 2015 written on the screen and I remembered my last 2 attempts and how much I had grown and changed since the time I started all this, in fact I had been doing this for so long I could hardly believe that this was finally ending today. The last 4 years sort of flashed before my eyes in a split second.
The exam started and I went on offense, solved all 34 questions in the VA/RC section in just 55 min and stayed pretty much idle for the next 5 min.
Then came the storm of DI/LR and man that was tough but thanks to some luck and good question selection I solved 24 questions in that.
After that I slowed down a bit and could solve only 28/34 in quant but overall with an attempt of 86/100 I was confident about my chances.
The Final Result.....(The fairy tale comes true)
The result of CAT 2015 came on 8th January and it looked something like this for me..
CAT 2015
Overall percentile: 99.50
VA/RC: 99.01 DI/LR: 99.22 QA: 97.00
I had never felt so happy in my life. All the pain, all the suffering, the anxiety, fear was worth it. It was and will always be the best moment of my life.
I updated my whatsapp status and during the night Isha called me to congratulate me, she sounded extremely happy. We talked for about 2 hours on the phone and I promised her a grand party whenever she was to be back in Delhi.
I did pretty well in other entrance exams as well.
XAT: 99.01 SNAP: 99.43 IIFT: 96.xx NMAT: 98.xx
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
The Final Frontier (Interviews)
This is where I capitalized on all my experience of having already given 6-7 bschool interviews but because I am a GEM (General Engineer Male) with average acads I received interview call only from FMS,IIM L,K new IIMs, MDI, NITIE and others.
Clearing the interview stage is all about knowing yourself inside out; you should know your strengths and weaknesses and be aware of the happenings in the world. But basically you should know your X-factor, what separates you from the herd.
"My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer and I have my mind...and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much Jon Snow." ― Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones
The Interview of my life
I had my IIMK interview on 23th feb 2016 and to be honest I felt very lucky to have been given an opportunity to realise my dream. People die everyday, moppin' floors, washin' dishes and you know what their last thought is? I never got my shot, but now after nearly 4 years I was going to get my first IIM interview.
I had an early morning slot and because of all the tension I couln't eat anything. After arriving at the interview venue I realised that I hadn't brought all my payslip, almost had a heart attack in that moment but I convinced the panel that I will show it to them later on.
I guess this is what seperates me from what I was a few years ago, now I never lose my calm and confidence and that slight hiccup actually sort of unwinded me.
I started the GD and spoke the most in it and was the first one to be called for the interview.
There I told them about my 2 failed CAT attempts and used that in infering that I am someone who never quits and if given the chance at IIM Kozhikode I will make the most of it. It was a 30 min interview and I had absolutely nailed it.
Coming back to the present....
You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny
The moment I heard on pagalguy that the result of IIM Kozhikode has been declared my heart went haywire, After 4 years how was it all going to end? and then I saw it.
Congratulations KARAN KAKKAR, You have been selected for the post graduate program in management at IIM Kozhikode.....
Saw it again a couple of times to make sure that it was right and then felt such a wave of emotions. Almost had tears of happiness in my eyes but composed myself as I was in the office.
Since then life has been great and about the lady, well we met after my selection and had an IIM L meets IIM K party where I finally told her how I feel and how much she means to me after which she got really emotional but couldn't decide on an answer to give me (I told her to take her time) and since then we are talking on a daily basis. In fact things have changed a lot since I started writing this and I might just get the girl as well. For now I am leaving this love story open ended (there you have it, winning a girl's heart is tougher than clearing CAT) and if something does happens I will update this post.
The Happy Ending...
If my story can motivate someone then this post would have found its purpose, when I was younger I was motivated by so many stories on this holy thread.
Sometimes right before you quit... Just hold on for a little longer because... Champions don't always win...but they never quit to losses... success is not about winning all your battles but it's about how long you can stay with your losses and let them turn you into a champion. One day your time will come my friend.
Thanks to the entire pagalguy community for their constant mentorship and motivation, it wouldn't have been possible without you guys.
Also thanks everyone for reading this.
Signing off
Karan Kakkar
IIM Kozhikode PGP 2016-2018
What we do in life echoes in eternity
About myself:
I am a student of PGP program at IIMB, 2016-2018.
Why do I want to share my story?
It's different than many other stories of those who made to IIMB and I am sure everyone who made to IIMB has an entirely different story. More than 50% of the population at IIMB is either from IIT and NIT or from Delhi University. I am from not so known background. I have done my schooling from a village and then did my 12th from Patna. I did my engineering from Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu which is again not so known college. My college was below than average college. Then I started working at Cognizant. After two years of work in the IT-sector I realized that if I really want to understand the today's world of business and management then I require an MBA. Thus, my CAT-hunt begun.
What are main difficulties which I faced?
It was really tough to think of a 2 years MBA program when I had around 4 years of work experience. My friends were preparing for executive MBA. Many people criticized my decision of pursuing 2 years program. But I kept faith in myself. The main difficulties were- my increasing work experience, opportunity cost to MBA, my weak performance in English.
How did I overcome my weakness?
Before overcoming weaknesses what is more vital is that you clearly understand that what are your weaknesses. In most of the cases students don't figure out their weak areas. You see your previous CAT performances and also analyse your mocks. This helps you know your grey areas. Once that you are aware of your weaknesses, it's easy to find the solution. I understood that my weaknesses were my English and my inconsistency. I read many novels some good and some not so good. I read newspaper voraciously and religiously. Try reading anything that you get. One important thing here is that don't only read only similar flavor of books, read books of as many diverse topic as possible. CAT also covers diverse topics for its RCs. I kept practicing for English sets. Mocks also helped me a lot.
What did I do for Quant and DI & LR?
Being an engineer I was good at quant. I just kept practicing. One important thing- I never solved the topic "Simple and Compound Interest". Actually what I am trying to say that it's okay that you leave one or two less important topics(but obviously not the onelike numbers, geometry, P&C etc.) Solve only few sets of LR but be very sure of your logic used. Practice all kinds of sets of DI and LR. No question in the final exam should look unknown to you the data in the question may look different but not the type of question.
What is the importance of mock?
Attending all mocks was my highest priority. I never missed a mock. Don't think that only when you will finish the syllabus you should start taking mocks. Since these all topics you have covered before 10th you must start taking mocks. After every mocks don't forget to revisit the mocks and see analysis. This is one thing that most of the student don't do. They simply take the mock and then forget about it. Remember that CAT is a 3-hours examination, so writing mocks will make you comfortable with the time management. Don't get carried away by few bad results at mock. I have seen people doing not so good in mocks but they made to top IIMs.
How many hours should you study?
Many people have asked me this. Let me clarify that this is very subjective. Each one of us is different and one learns things differently. You see what suits to you and not what others say. Work as hard as possible.
In the examination hall:
CAT-15 had a very tough paper for LR. Many of my friends could not tolerate this. They didn't only spoil their LR section but quant too which was next section. Remember that if the question paper is tough then your chances are higher. You just be confident and solve only those which you can. Don't worry much. Incidentally, I got my best score in LR section.
Some motivations:
Any examinations like CAT requires a consistent and hard work. Believe in yourself. The moment you start feeling that you can't make to top colleges you can never do that. So confidence coupled with consistent and hard work will ensure a seat for you in a top college. Remember that everyone has gone through such pressures, these are temporary.
Few must DOs:
1. You must take mocks and revisit them and analyse your weak areas.
2. You keep working no matter what.
3. Maintain a balance between the subjects, being good at one or two of them will not bring the result.
4. Believe in yourself.
5. There will always be people who will judge you, just ignore them and move forward.
6. A regular, disciplined and serious effort is all that you need to have.
With this hope that I will see few of you at IIMB next year I conclude.
All the best!
You can read my blogs at:
http://dzire2achieve.com/primary-education-a-secondary-right-to-juveniles-in-india/
Hello guys i am an average bms graduate,started preparing for my cat 2016
I am finding quant to be ridiculously boring and tough as i am not really habituated towards quant solving
So please help me out guys
What should i do?
Hello everyone
I am in a serious confusion
Nmat registration is started and i want to register for nmat exams
But i haven't yet got my final semister marksheet as mumbai university is delaying results
So should i fill the form without putting aggregate percentage of 6 semisters?
Will it be a problem in future
Or later i can show my aggregate percentage?should i fill the form?please help gus