All I wanted to Speak about CAT

[pradeep.mats]

AN MBA JEHADI


HI Puys,


I was a bit hesitant in penning down my CAT Story as I have not yet converted any call. It was in second year of my engineering I called up my parents and said “I want to do an MBA” to which my parents totally disagreed. At that moment my option to prepare for MBA was hefty packages and a luxury life in India as my MOM would never allow me to go abroad. But today it’s more about making others recognize the hard work you put in to succeed and the passion to compete against the best in India.


SUMMARY OF MY MBA STORY - I have never done CAT well with only a 90 odd in Cat’05 and 80 odd in CAT’07 season. But I have fared well in rapid fire exams like NMIMS and SNAP hence grabbing calls from SIBM and SCMHRD but failing to get an admission both years. Other calls which I had in 05season were NMIMS, SIIB, TAPMI, KJ SOMAIYA and LBSIM and to no respite of mine I failed at them.


HOW DID I START? – I thought the exam was easy but very soon realized the misunderstanding of mine. Found my English to be poor enough and thought to concentrate on ANGRAZEE. Read newspapers, magazines and novels and simultaneously underlined words and learned their meanings and jotted down in my DAD Gifted Diary (I still preserve it – one which I look at makes me feel the pain and hard work I put in to improve my English). Such methodology of reading made reading a pain to me but I later realized I was best in my English Section. Vocabulary I developed thus was of intense help in exams like JMET, SNAP, FMS etc. SIMCATs and PRACATs were always a fiasco for me as the real CAT exam was. I even skipped my CAMPUS interview of a software firm to go to KERALA just to vent out my PRACAT frustrations (Skipping the interview hurt me the most later when I realized I was not able to convert any call and I had no job till the last week of my engineering).


CAT’05 AFTERMATH – I found many people sunk in depression of having a battered CAT but somehow I felt the need to push a bit harder and later got calls from SIBM, SCMHRD, NMIMS, TAPMI, K J SOMAIYA and LBSIM. In some of the GD/PI either I did not fare well in GD or in the interview. In one of the interview I was asked “Would you mind if I say you go back and have one year of experience and come back?” I thought the question was to test my determination and said “No I will come back”. And to MY utter despair I found myself dumped. My DAD presented me an option to go for Management Quota in a good B-School which I dumped (Felt such an option does not do justice to my hard work and competitive ability). At last I decided to join the job I got in the last week of my engineering and thought to fight back with a year of experience. My parents were always against my decision to join the job and I had to face their unhappiness for nearly 6 months (very less communication with my parents in the period).


SEASON OF CAT’07 - I was working as a ANALYST in a Software firm but felt cannot stick to a conventional growth trajectory in IT firm so decided to pitch in myself for the race. Even though the sail was not smooth I loved my failures and my ability to fight back. As in 05 I failed CAT but again pushed harder to get calls from SCMHRD and SIIB. As a matter of coincidence I met the same panelist who took my interview in 05 in SCMHRD. I was praying not to meet him as soon as I entered the GD/PI premise (He is an IIMA pass out and has huge expectations). The IIMA pass out recognized me as soon as I went inside the interview room and had an interview of 20 minutes. After the interview coordinator comes out and asks me to go for a second interview (I was the only candidate to undergo second interview). I felt the second interview was the best interview I ever had but as usual I am not even in the WL. SIIB was also a failure.


LESSONS LEARNT – After CAT05 I felt I do not have the profile which premiere B-Schools are looking for. I worked on my profile (Worked in a MNC, working on a social entrepreneur business plan, became editor of an e-magazine, pursued my hobbies well etc) but to no avail. Still I do not feel I cannot make it to the premiere B-Schools. It is just that people are performing better than me on that day and I know being in a MNC that people form IIT, NIT are no different from normal engineering or commerce graduates. You will love the whole process of preparing and dreaming about success. On Retrospection you will realize that MBA preparation is a learning curve.


I hope I make it to the MBA batch this year itself OR Else I will start preparing soon.

[gvi.shekar]

...CAT...

A beautiful three letter word which, in the same breath, means so much and does not mean anything at all...which builds futures, destroys lives and brings out the real you; the real you hidden somewhere deep inside and reluctant to come out because it is afraid...the real you that is summoned only when all seems to be lost...the real you abhors defeat, it has the fighting instinct of a phoenix, you destroy it, it will rise again, again and again till it wins the battle...in some it is strong and in some it is weak but it exists inside everyone...you find the real you and half the job is done...your qi is the real you…

I have a new meaning for CAT - Crown And Thorn....

I am a commerce grad and heard about the CAT for the first time during my college days when a fellow mate was trying to mug up the entire Oxford dictionary, his name was Shubham.

Me ~ Shubham, dude, what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you reading every page of the dictionary
Shubham ~ Dude, I am preparing for the English section of CAT. It is very difficult, you have to know every word that is used in the English language.
Me ~

Days went by and weeks were born, weeks made way to months and months turned to years, but the good old GVI was still not serious about his career.
Meanwhile, I lost my father when I was in FYBcom. My mother had already crossed over to the other side when I was in school. I was left only with my elder brother, who was struggling to find his steps in the corporate jungle. He landed a job at Glaxo, and got a promotion within 2 years. But there was a catch, he had to move to Bangalore.
We decided that it would be best for him if he took the promotion and moved to Bangalore, who knows, maybe there was a change in our fortunes somewhere aound the corner…
I had decided that I could no longer depend upon my brother for support anymore and decided to look for a job.
I joined Citigroup in Feb-2006 in the check investigations team and was enjoying my work. I was very happy - ek badhiya job hai, mazaa aa raha hai, income around 11000 hai monthly, ek aadmi ko aur kya chahiye…Everything was coming along just fine and I was feeling satisfied at long last...then I fell in love…

I thought long and hard one night and decided that it was high time I became serious and made something of myself, I knew I was capable and was made for better things than working in a BPO…I started exploring avenues…the first thing I came across was CAT…I could hear the knell sounding somewhere far off…
I joined IMS weekend classes in March with great gusto and went about the classes very religiously, unfortunately my branch was the most remote in Mumbai ( at Dombivli) and the quality of the faculty was just a level above pathetic…the professors were people who had been giving CAT regularly for the past 3-4 years, your average CAT veterans and they were full of gyaan about how CAT is the most difficult exam in the world and blah blah blah.
I was

Anyways, I stopped attending the English lectures midway as I did not feel I was garnering anything useful. Our math lectures were such, wherein the prof would get sheets full of problems and ask us to solve them. Our class had its share of geniuses and the profs catered exclusively to these and we were left in the rain to fend for ourselves
Then came the season of mocks, and by god did they mock at me.
Quant was my nemesis all the way and so it proved till the C-day.
I barely ever scored above 85%ile and never once cleared the Quant cutoffs.
But I never analyzed my mocks seriously and here I nailed the first nail in the coffin of 2007 season.
Actually, I did not know how to go about the analysis and stuff as I had no friends in this nick of the woods, I was not aware of PG till then you see

I left my job in mid august to prepare for the exam - the second nail in the coffin.
Then came the C-day. I started with verbal, my strongest, moved on to DI and gave satisfactory attempts in both in 1.5 hours. I had 1 hour to tackle QA and the demons in my head went wild. As soon as I started reading the Q about the airplane, a voice started ringing in my head, what if I don’t make it, what if I lose…
Before reading the Q, I decided that I cant attempt it, I don’t know the formulae, I went completely blank (later on at home I could attempt almost all of the section) - the third nail.
I made only 8 attempts in QA. Came home to see that 6 of 8 were wrong, net score in QA – 2…the fourth nail and the coffin was shut firmly…
I was shattered. The results came and my percentile was 85.55, with 35.64 in QA.

My whole future was looking bleak, I couldn’t see any silver lining at the end of my cloud…there was only a dark storm brewing and there was no shelter anywhere, I gave the rest of the exams only half heartedly and was not shortlisted anywhere.
I managed a paltry 88% in XAT and through this score I have a chance at Welingkar’s PG course…

What is CAT to me?
CAT means the Crown And Thorn. Crown for some and Thorn for the majority.
If you manage to crack the CAT, you wear the crown if you don’t you swallow the painful thorn…
I feel that CAT is an over-hyped exam, but in reality its just that – another ordinary exam.
I feel anyone can do well in this test, what you need is the conviction and the belief in yourself…You need to approach this test with a confidence and belief that you are the best, believe me guys you have scored your 80% here, the rest 19 you’ll score on the C-day…
All said and done, after a lot of introspection I have decided one thing, Ganesh V. Iyer will be a post graduate in business administration, there are a few things that you can take for granted in life and this is one of these…You may take this as my over-confidence or the belief in my abilities its upto you…

Ganesh V. Iyer will return for CAT ’08…I approached CAT ’07 with hardwork, I will crack CAT ’08 with smartwork…This would be my second life…my second coming…

All the best to all of you and thanks a lot for bearing with me on this looong post
I wanted to bring out my thoughts somewhere and couldn’t find the medium, already I am feeling a lot better at heart…Thanks a lot to all the puys…

Believe in yourself…


EDIT-> Been having lots of fights with my family regarding appearing for exams this year. Have a GD/PI call from welingkar, I am not too keen on joining even if I convert. But my family has lost all hopes on me. They say I dont have it in me to clear the exams. Their support is very very important to me. Especially of one very special person...
As of now, MBA plans on hold I guess

[feelnishant]

I have read all the success story in this forum and dreamt of writing one here. Now when my quest has come to a halt with a mixed bag of feelings, I know I can put in some words which could guide future MBA aspirants. They can avoid making mistake which I made and paid at the same time.
History:
After doing my B.Tech in 2005, I was pretty happy with the software job, though my parents used to poke me for an intrest towards MBA. I had none that time. But finally I succumbed to the pressure from my parents and sat for CAT 2006. I appeared in no other exam and filled no other CAT score related insti. I went to the exam center and was ammused totally by the pressurised face guys at the center were making. “What the heck?” I knew CAT is the toughest exam in the world, not only because of the test quality but also because of the number of aspirants appearing in it. I really felt sorry for the guys present there. I gave the exam came out, relaxed, having no idea of how the test went.
Change in me:
Finally the result came and to my utter surprise I got 94.2%ile, which by no means I thought I will get. Though it was not enough to get call from any of the IIMs but it punched me right where it hurts the most. I learnt a few very important lesson.
è Had I prepared for CAT I could have scored better?
è Had I applied in some of the colleges like TAPMI, I could have got the call.
è Why didn’t I applied for SNAP, NMAT, XLRI etc?
Then and there with my CAT scorecard in hand, I decided that I will go for the kill next year.
2007 Preparation
I knew from my 2006 result that my weakest link is English section as I scored some 76%ile there. Also to refine my techniques I joined T.I.M.E.. I attended the weekend classes religiously. Grasped the methods and shortcuts taught there. But due to pressure form office, the volume of my practice at home was very low. But I thought I will manage with the classes and AIMCATs. I was so wrong.
A slight insight paper wise:
Quant: Strongest of the three: I believe I am fast and good in quant. There are some portion where I can always score and more often than not, I always got percentiles in Quant in higher side. So this was the part which literally I skipped preparation. This was a risk which I will suggest you not to take.
DI: I was ok types in DI. My accuracy was set dependent. Some sets type I developed a liking and scored heavily and lost marks in other types. DI needs practice guys. Give it the max time. It pays off.
English: Like I toldd you that am genious in Quant, like that way, I am the most stupid guy to prepare for CAT as far as English section is considered. I was average in RC but other part like sentence correction I sucked a big time. I gave time to this but I made one mistake. I often tried to do sets which were somewhat interesting. In all I didn’ gave enough attention to the subject I was dumb at. Please avoid such scenario.
D-Day
I gave the CAT 2007. Quant was the sitter as usual though I have heard of it being tough. DI I attempetd twelve question and stopped there as I thought it will be enough seeing the trend. That was a blunder. It wasn’t enough. English as usual I gave max time in paper and came out with mixed reaction. And yes, before the exam I was as tensed as anyone and not a cool dude like last year.
After that I also gave other exams like JMET, SNAP, IIFT, XLRI, NMAT.
Results
CAT result came and I got 95.5%ile, an improvement of 1.5%ile. My hope for IIM calls were crucified then and there. SNAP I got good marks and got the call from best two colleges under SNAP. I got decent marks in JMET. I was screwed totally in XLRI. Also in mid I missed IIFT by 1 marks. NMAT I got good marks and Rank.
Analysis
I did the analysis and found out that I am doing good where quick fire quant and logical question comes in bulk. So in case I could not click any of the college, I know which all forms to fill for next year.
Present
I managed to get 5-6 calls of which I attende 4. Two I left because I was confident to convert NMIMS and SCMHRD at least. SIBM PI was not good and IMT everything was OK types.
Another mistake here. Don’t assume that your PI was good. The invigilators might have something else in store for you. I thought I will get pakka call from SCMHRD. I received a solid kick from them as well as SIBM.
Finally converted NMIMS and going for it. Puys I have marked the statement in BOLD where I thnk I commited a mistake. Please keep that in mind and you will sail through the storm easily.
Nishant

[chaitanya_yn]

Hi Guys,

I don't know if I'm late here, probably this thread never caught my eye, or may be I was too busy in interview preps and usual work load.

Nevermind, I would like to share my experiences of CAT'07 with 08 aspirants, especially those who abhor maths like me.

All along my school life, I used to hate maths (rather should i say, I had some phobia against maths). Irony of my life being IX,X,XI and XII,I scored exactly 75 marks(yes,that's true). Even in my grad I was an average performer.

Cracking CAT with a good score in quant was like a distant dream to me.Infact at times I even thought that CAT clear karna mere bas ki baat nahi hai cuz I always used to think I was weak at quant owing to the experiences right from childhood!! But I just thought lemme work hard in Quant and give CAT a serious shot, as English was my only strength I had to work equally hard in DI as well.

I started my preparation in Jan 07 and being a relationship manager at Citibank, work was even more demanding cuz it was the financial year end.So my prep was like a non starter, studying for two days and missing for 5 days, I could not carry on with my prep and had to concentrate on my work for a few months. March 07 financial year ended and I was made a Financial services manager, so work got even more hectic!! as the saying goes with great power comes great responsibility, I was stuck !! . But couldn't refuse the promotion for all the hard work I had put. Again the next three months went for a toss.I couldn't even attend a single coaching class in those three months.

Finally, at the end of June I sat down one evening and introspected, trying to think clearly about what I wanted to do. My conscience said CAT.I said to myself - but its just 4 and a half months left and for my phobia for maths it was a gigantic task.But I was determined this time and made a decision to speak to my boss(all thanks to him) and took a leave for two months. Special thanks to him that he approved the leave.

My prep got a second life again.But my task was cut out - maths!! I borrowed seventh,eighth,ninth,tenth and eleventh class books(CBSE) from my cousin.Trust me, it worked like magic.I was able to clear my concepts and build a solid foundation. I worked hard on my concepts(I often used to refer TIME books to compare and combine topics) for fifteen days.later I started studying the concepts daily from textbooks and TIME books in the morning and started solving problems in the evening.I wouldn't lie that I worked for almost 12 hours a day during that whole month.

July over and I had completed 50% of maths course,and the AIMCATS had also started, didn't know what next and how to plan about for the next 50% course..Just then one of my schoolmates Shastri(IIM A) called up and I asked him to advice. He gave me brilliant ideas to combine chapters and study.I did exactly as he said.and whoa I completed the remaining portion in a span of one month!!I combined all numbers related topics(numbers,PPL,interests,Progressions,AMA,rati o proportion,indices surds,time and work,time and distance,P&C,Probability) and combined functions and graphs,simple equations,special equations,quadratic equations,inequalities and modulus,co-ordinate geometry. and rest consisted of geometry and mensuration and a few other topics. Believe me, this combined chapter studies gave me an outlook and an eagles eye view of all the topics cuz they are all linked in some way or the other.

September, I rejoined work and started coming back home early and used to start prep at 9 PM and used to continue till three in the morning. I also started working towards DI and English. October, all the three subjects prep started running simultaneously and I started clearing cut-off's for Quant (although I always used to clear VA and DI cut-off's ).November, was just final touches, this was a time to maintain scores in AIMCATS.I scored consistently in the last three AIMCAT's clearing all the three sectionals.

D-day came and I spent the maximum time on Quant and DI then VA.and then a series of entrance exams followed for the next two months.

I cracked CAT with a quant percentile of 95.6 and an overall 93.4.I may not have done exceedingly well, but for an average student like me this was like a hellova achievement,a dream come true and for the phobia towards maths I scored my highest percentile in maths amongst the three.So guys who are average like me and are afraid of maths and think CAT is not for 'em, don't just worry,plan and work real hard, cuz CAT is also for us.

PS : If I can do it everybody else can do it too.

[get_amazed]

Ok puys, this story isnt over yet, rather a long way to go.
What i am about to tell here will help you feel about CAT as i did, and as i felt. And with the hope that it will finally help you get into some place good in your life, i tell you my story,

WHY CAT? I had given IIT 3 times. Never made it to mains. It had become the albratross around the neck for me. Any faliure of mine started from that and ended at that. I hated going home from my hostel as my parents thorned me with words about how i wont be anybody, and how i will always fail. Guys those words pinched. And they got to me. I sometimes felt like i really will not make it. I have cried to sleep at times, thinking of myself as a loser. It hurts at times not to be believed in.
My trump card however is that there is a girl whom i love. That girl has been trying to get into a good B-School since the past 2 years without success. She got non-eligible after the 50% clause, and life has been hell for her after that. And still she is preparing, trying hard. Just for me. For this girl, i am willing to lay down my life. Clearing an MBA is the least of what i can do for her. My preparation, and my final success is an ode to her. For what she signifies to me, for her support, for her belief, and for her effort for me.

I prepared for CAT with the sole idea that first placements, I need a good job to marry her. So that was my first aim. Once i got that, then came CAT. I had only prepared myself for cat. no other exam. my thinking was that i am good with english, and bad with quant. although being an engineer, i know i have a natural aptitude for maths, yet i hadnt practiced in a long time, so was doubtful.

my strategy was to use a double fork- try and do as many in eng and make up for the lost ones in maths.
in every mock test before cat i had always used an equal time to each section strategy.

cat '07 D-day. 18th nov.
that morning i thought of taking a gamble. do as many in english. forget the rest. at least with a good score i had a chance of other good colleges.
got screwed in eng. worst percentile of the whole. spent 65 mins on maths--in pressure solved 3 questions right and marked them wrong. eng--another 60 mins-got 8 right 11 wrong. when i reached di, i had exactly 28 mins left for the paper to end. i just hit the di set running. took a set solved took another solved. 12 attempts- 1 question was wrong in the paper-so 11 attempts-1 wrong (cal mistake)-10 right-39 marks. overall=97.86.
felt like well gamble failed. and obviously no calls from iim.

but sun shone for me in IIFT. the paper went well. my gk helped me. and i got a call. went for the interview. The gd of iift went so well that i was under tremendous pressure. God i felt please this gd has gone so well, please let me convert it. And i messed up and stuttered in the interview. but i held on and gave as good answers in the interviews as possible, made mistakes but corrected them as far as possible.
Thanks to god, i have converted IIFT delhi. Its a long way to go with loans (dont have much property etc.) and i have to still pass mba before i marry her, but i feel i am on the right path.

and thanks to god, i have got a call from IIM shillong. 1 IIM call. Never dreamt after my marks i would get one, but i have.

Hopefully, my parents will forget the IIT issue. Although that i doubt will ever happen. The black sheep of the family, remains the black sheep. Sirius Black of Harry Potter i maybe not, but fight i will, and win i shall with God above me.

[sumitrocks]

After reading the awesome stories of some of the brilliant folks here, my story might pale into insignificance, but I'll narrate it, nevertheless.

I used to be a fairly good student till Class X (85%), but somehow I lost my bearings in Class XII (67%). My run of poor scores continued in Engineering. In my four years, I barely scraped through the first division, with 62%. I graduated from college in 2002, and immediately got a job (off-campus) as a trainer with IBM Daksh. I had to shift base from Chandigarh to Gurgaon. I planned to appear for CAT, but I had no time to prepare. So, on the day of the exam, I I took the plunge with virtually no preparation. I didn't expect much, but I found (to my surprise) that I had scored 97.5 percentile. I had filled up only UBS, Chandigarh, apart from the IIMs, and that was my lone call. However, not being prepared for the GD/PI, I had no answers to questions like 'Why MBA'.

Obviously, I had a tough time in the interview. I resolved to appear for CAT only after I found an answer to this question. But then, I got into the rut of a job, started doing well there, and my CAT dreams lay forgotten for nearly 5 years. Then, at around the end of 2006, I started thinking about an MBA again. However, my thoughts were more on the lines of a part-time or distance learning course. I wasn't really sure of what I wanted.

Then, one day, I accompanied a friend to a coaching center, coz she wanted to prepare for MBA entrance exams. Later, when we returned, she suggested that we could attend coaching together. I was initially reluctant to target a full-time program, but she encouraged me to give it a shot. I appeared for one of their mocks, and to my surprise, found that I scored over 99 percentile in it. That gave me enough confidence to go ahead full steam.

I enrolled for classes in Jan '07 at TIME, and began studying hard. (Unfortunately, this friend could not join with me because she had other commitments. ) Days became weeks, weeks became months. I found that when the mock tests began, I would always score in the region of 95-96, but never beyond. It began to frustrate me. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't score above 96. The faculty were extremely supportive and counselled me regularly. Tanveer Sir (writetotanveer), who was part of the faculty, was especially encouraging and inspiring. He was the one who introduced me to this wonderful world of PagalGuy.

Still, by September, I had not been able to break my jinx except once, when I scored 98+. I was at my wits' end. In extreme frustration, I walked out of a (2 hour) mock test after just 50 odd minutes. However, to my surprise, I found that I had scored 79 percentile in that test. Funnily enough, that experience gave me enough of a boost to believe in myself.

I began preparing with renewed vigour, and decided to give one final thrust. Come D-day, I felt I was ready. Tanveer Sir met me at my center and told me, "Mr. Singla, dimaag thanda rakhna. Ho jaayega." And well, if not spectacularly, I think I have done reasonably well for myself with a total of 7 calls.

I'm not sure if it is proper for me to advise anyone, but I'd just say that, "Quitters don't win, and winners don't quit." I'm not a winner yet, till I convert my calls, but I'm not a quitter either.

So, all you puys, forget about winning or losing, make sure you give it all! Just don't quit, ever! No one says it's easy, but then it isn't impossible either, right? Go for it, and get there!

[chuck_gopal]

Right ho. After that crybaby post of mine a long time back

(http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...tml#post498859 (All I wanted to Speak about CAT))

it's time for a better post. Sorry this damn thing is a year late, but hey!

Okay, so people who know, know that I'm a one-institute person. I wouldn't have anything other than MICA. Why?

Simple. The curriculum and the profile offered to MICAns appealed to me. I didn't care too much about money. I wanted to get into Account Planning, and MICA was the best place to learn it. Yes, even better than the IIMs.

The story, now. I'll keep it as non-boring as possible

THE BEGINNINGS:
Heard about this strange little thing called CAT. Decided Engineering was not my thing (about 2 months into Engineering ). In my third year started preparing with some amount of enthu. Along the way, saw MICA on a IMS magazine and fell in love. I wanted! Badly!

So back then, things were fairly uncomplicated. Aim for MICA, study hard for CAT, get into MICA. Simple, no?

CAT 2005:
Went off well. I really didn't want a huge percentile. I knew MICA mandated just 95 percentile, and I got it. 95.55 to be exact. Happy. Got MICA call. Whoohoo! But thanks to the lateness of the MICA call letter, I couldn't attend any GDPI sessions from TIME. I knew GDs were my Achille's heel. And yes, I was studying in this quaint little city called Thrissur in Kerala. While not exactly shanty, it was not exactly teeming with MBA aspirants.

MICA 2006:
Effed up my GE (Group Exercise, as MICA calls it), badly. PI was a dream. But no convert (for gory details and the emotional turmoil, check that above link).

SO NOW WHAT:
It was obvious I was not going to give up on MICA. Now way! I had a job with Accenture in hand and decided to continue with it. It threw a lot of things into perspective. I could prepare harder, focussing less on CAT and more on the PI and stuff like that.
Hell, I knew I'd get a call - after all, MICA required just around 90 percentile. I knew I'd have to clinch it at the PI stage - my strength. And MICA for one, wants you to be sure about what you're getting your feet into.

CAT 2006:
I prepared like crazy. I read magazines, websites, analysed ads from agencyFAQs, networked with seniors (and got royally ragged for that ) and did whatever I could. Practiced interviews before going to bed, wrote down answers and possible counter-arguments in a nice big book...

This is not counting the fact that I used to spend hours over mockCAT papers. My method was simple - 'if this question comes for CAT, will I do it' approach. If yes, crack it. If not, balls to it, move on. I never used to grind my arse over Quant - I just made sure I had done enough to get a 75 percentile in each section - so never used to take too many risks or do too many. Just do enough, maximise in main section. Not bothered about 90 percentile in each section and all. This is the first huge advantage you have when you decide you want MICA only

Honourable mention here to Tamil Nadu Electricity Board for cutting the electricity late at night every time for no special reason... The mosquitoes and the heat meant I couldn't sleep, work on the laptop or read, so spent it solving CAT questions in candlelight

MICA 2007:
Got a call, as expected, and gave an excellent GE and a super PI. Still was kinda apprehensive.
Went back to Chennai.
Went to Iron Maiden concert next weekend \m/
Next week, the results came out... I was effing ecstatic!

The results were uploaded from 6 in the evening but the MICA guys screwed up a bit here - first uploading names of all those who gave the MICAT... So obviously everyone got through And then corrected the list... So I was sceptical all throughout... But when the final admit letter came at around 2 in the night... WOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!

Three years of waiting, two attempts and all that hard work - finally paid off. And I'm loving it! I just love what MICA is offering. As I sit this, typing at 2:11 in the night, in my girlfriend's room, listening to Joe Satriani on my headphones, helping out with the admissions process for the juniors, working on a couple of projects, going to do my internship in Tata steel in a couple of weeks, going to look forward to a career in advertising after this, and having a great second year with a new guitar and my band - it all seems to have been worth it. I'm just loving this place...!

LEARNINGS:
- CAT is overrated. MBA itself is overrated
- Saying the above to an MBA aspirant is pointless
- What matters more is, what you want, and what you think you will be fitting in with
- Money should really not matter for the first 3-4 years. Enjoying your work and LEARNING is what matters, really
- Never give up on your dreams. If you d