[amitnsitian]

Took the FMS exam and also prepared for the upcoming GDs and PIs. Then someone advised me about the MAT route to JBIMS and MHCET was also added on the exam taking list. MAT went awesome and 99.99%ile with a composite score of 800 ensured that JBIMS was there now. All the interviews came one by one and I attended all of the,. Some in Mumbai, some in Delhi..GOD it was maddening. Filling forms, carrying the requisite stuff etc was quite arduous.
Finally comes the news I was waiting to hear all my life. 13th March, 2007 2230 hrs. A friend of mine called from FMS and here it was – WL 1 FMS it was. MS was WL 7. Btw, I attended my MDI and IITB interviews after my FMS convert. Though, people advised me against it but they had taken a lot of my hard earned money so I decided to take them.
Well, in the end, I had all converts – FMS (both), JBIMS, IITs (all 3), MDI and NITIE. It was Delhi again for me.
I resigned from my job and then decided to utilize my time by teaching in TIME. This is where ARKSS Sir (ARKS Srinivas, TIME Director, Mumbai) said to me, “Amit, CAT ek baar aur likh de.” I was like no, never sir. I was tired of writing it. We left it there.
July came and I was in here – FMS J Met some of the sharpest people in the country and some awesome faculty. After one month of grilling, I called up ARKSS and told him that FMS is not chill at all. And people, I am serious. During that phone call, again the CAT thing came up and he said “Mere liye likh de.” I told him I can’t do it now anymore, no time to study and all. He somehow convinced me to fill the form and I did it. Just filled the form and no prep. No test series. There was no time in FMS. Initial work there, then summers, then exams..everything was packed. And whatever time I had in life, I ensured that I sleep well


CAT No. 7: Year 2007 in November
CAT was on the 18th and our first semester exams got over on the 15th evening. 15th and 16th were spent in chilling out in life and 17th was taken away by room cleaning. The only sane thing I did on 17th was sleeping at 2230 hrs Next day, I went to the exam centre which was nearby to the hostel, thankfully. From there, I called ARKSS again and told him that I still don’t know why I am doing this. Finally, the paper started and it was exciting to do Maths after so many months. Did QA, then Verbal and finally DI. Came back to the room and slept. In the evening, got up and checked the score. QA and DI were fine but as always a 20 in verbal according to TIME keys. My score varied from 15 to 25 depending on institute keys. In either case, I was not clearing cut-off for verbal according to any of the institutes. So, it was over.
Life moved on, then came the day of the results. However bad one performs, there is always a desire to check the result (ok..i have it ) The link given on the CATIIM site was not working from the hostel. Then I came to know about the result by SMS thing. I SMSed and received the following reply.
QA (%ile) 99.98 with a score of 70
DI (%ile) 99.97 with a score of 76
Verbal (%ile) 96.40 with a score of 30
OA (%ile) 99.99 with a score of 176
YES YES YES I HAVE CRACKED IT !!! Calls started coming in and had all 6 calls. I was elated. But then, I had another problem. What will I say in the interview. FMS is awesome, why should one leave it. I had no clue what to do. The interview schedule came and the forms too. Took a lot of help from ARKSS for the same and prepared for the interview. I knew what to prepare – MBA acads and why chuck FMS for an IIM.
The first interview was IIML. A pretty decent GD and average PI. Next was IIMK. An average GD and bad PI. Indore was next but had a very important class to attend in FMS so decided against it. Btw, both K and L asked about FMS.
The Big One was next – Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. And man, I was nervous The essay was fine and PI was a dream one. They just could not believe that someone wants to leave FMS and come to IIMA. I think I did a pretty decent job there and rest of the questions varied from work experience to MBA Acads to general stuff in life.
IIM Calcutta was next. A decent case study discussion followed by stress interview. Was asked Maths, Sub Prime, Telecom War, Quiz, FMS and everything.
Bangalore was the last one to be held. The date clashed with my second semester exams of FMS and it must have taken like 10,000 calls to them to get it shifted. Finally, it was shifted to the evening slot of the same day with my exam in the morning and another exam the next morning and interview sandwiched in between The case study was the Scrablous one and the group was quite decent in discussing the stuff. I was last to be interviewed. It was HORRIBLE. It was so so so bad that they would have left a seat vacant in the college rather than taking me.
With interviews over, summer internship was something which was coming up. But, Supreme court had other plans. I was also a part of the waiting pain but had no window to vent out the frustration coz it was a secret I wanted to keep. Btw, my FMS classmates came to know about it somehow in January itself. I know who did it but have not done anything to that person J But I still have time to do it
May 1 was about to dawn, I slept without much tension in life. Was woken at 7 a.m. by a friend’s call informing me about IIMB results being out. I checked and as expected, did not get through. I had to go the office and was on my way. Meanwhile, another friend called me and told me to check the WL of IIMB. He checked for me and no; I was not there L as expected though.
I reached office and realized that Wi-Fi was not working on my laptop (Murphy’s Law at its best). I went to IT guys and they needed “some” time to fix it. Just then, another person called me to tell me about IIMC results being out. I sat on the IT guys head and wanted my laptop back up and running. After 20-25 minutes of patience, laptop was handed back to me.
First thing I did was, checking the IIMC result. Opened the link, entered my details and my heart was beating fast as never before. And there it was. CONGRATULATIONS!!! Just could not believe. Tears of joy tricked down my eyes JJ I was IN..FINALLY IN!!!!
Got through L and K too but surprisingly A ditched me. But no issues…JOKA I AM COMING
I want to clarify 2 things regarding which I have been receiving a lot of PMs.
1Is FMS not good? - People, it is an awesome college; I just took CAT for the heck of it and my stay in FMS had nothing to do with it. So, please don’t get me wrong here. Go ahead and join without battling an eyelid.
2.Justifying interview panel about leaving FMS and going to IIM – The answer was a very planned out one and was structured in a way so that no cross questioning was possible..thanks to ARKSS sir again
Some of the quotes which I had heard over so many years are really true
1.Patience pays
2. Efforts never go waste
3. Samay se pehle aur kismet se zyada kuch nahin milta and the likes.
But my personal favourite is the one which my cousin said once she heard the result – “Finally, CAT ki aatma ko shanti mili”



People who want to read it patiently can download the PDF