All I wanted to Speak about CAT

[getintoiimb]

@anupam will return
Your success story was truly an inspiring post for a CAT aspirant like me !!
You rock!!Youve just opened my eyes for CAT 07 !!
ALL THE BEST wherever you are!!

[abhi_g1]

for the guys who have read it now i would like to add a new thing that his signature before was amazing lkike the present one

i will write it here in the same style

Realise the power of one,it works it really does.


my tributr to awr awesome story

your story have changed lifes of people

[Mahip]

CAT Such an important exam for all B school aspirants!
I was also one of the aspirants, once upon a time....

Originally Posted by Mahip in Mar 2003

Final Year engineering to start, joined a coaching class for CAT! CAT and MBA craze was on the rise that year and I remember nearly whole of my class was attempting CAT. Started preps and for the first time Sunday mornings were booked for Mock CATs

Originally Posted by Mahip in Oct/Nov 2003

Approaching 7th Sem exams and also CAT 2003 Since I was already placed in a top software company... so had a full go at the exam and did pretty well in the paper; Came all happy from the exam centre and overheard some pl "Paper wud be
cancelled" And we all were like And as soon as we reached home, we saw the MOST HEART BREAKING NEWS ever -> the paper was leaked and all that happened in the morning was all null and void! So much of confusion and uncertainity Why did this happen to us!! People said, "Something better awaits you, hence such a thing happened"

Originally Posted by Mahip in Feb 2004

CAT was now the first as well as the last exam of the same season.. Got a New admit card But now final year project and all other things on full swing and more importantly the preps was rather slowed down.. So this CAT retest rather ended on a poor note and managed just about 90 pc .. Didnt apply to many colleges, so end of story!

Originally Posted by Mahip in July 2004

Change of things, entered the corporate world.. went to Trivandrum for training but enthu for CAT was still there. I remember I took some of the quant books there to study, though never bothered to open those books there Filled up CAT 2004 form and apllied to none of the colleges apart from IIM's..

Originally Posted by Mahip in September 2004

Joined Mumbai branch now and thought to study something for 2 months but here started the unlimited working hours in office & I was unable to find any time in a day to study QA & VA and practice DI. Decided not to apply to any Institute and just give CAT, that
too because I had filled the application form. This was strictly with ZERO prep

Originally Posted by Mahip in November 2004

Then came the exam... gave it in the most relaxed mood and ended up with around 94 percentile ... All the "ifs" n "buts" came to mind... "thoda aur pad liya hota toh.. " Found out a new hope.. that yes, I can do it!

Originally Posted by Mahip in June/Sep 2005

Decided to put on full effort now and with decent work-ex as well Joined the mock test series, studied QA/VA in office/weekends, applied to all the top institutes... started very well in the mocks with 95-98 percentile range... good confidence level before
the exams! It was during this time when I joined PaGaLGuY.com

Originally Posted by Mahip in Nov 2005

A little bit Over confident and shocked with the change of paper pattern... Could not perform in those 2 hrs when it mattered the most and ended up with the worst ever percentile of all time. Still got a call from MICA that too from CAT 2004 percentile as they were considering last year's score as well.. Anyhow could not convert after a very good interview and MICAT Such depressing times... but I was never going to give it up. Family members also asked, "What now? Future Plans?" And my answer wud be, "Have to do MBA, I'll try one last time!!"

Originally Posted by Mahip in June 2006

I had gone thru so much of this CAT process, had seen so many success stories, failures and what not! I started all those mock CATs again... revising concepts at home/weekends. Seems like I spent majority of sundays in taking mock CATs in past three years Anyhow, since this was going to be my last attempt I applied to all nearly all colleges from 85-99.99 percentile range! Mock scores this time were not as good as 98/99 but were consistent around 95.

Originally Posted by Mahip in Nov 2006

One final CAT and I was busy arranging for PG.com banner outside my CAT centre with estranged_gnrs Quite relaxed this time before the exam, thought it was very crucial for me! As usual, CAT surprised with an easy paper and I thought I managed well... Finally results came and I ended up at 92.xx percentile. So IIMs and top colleges were already out of hand, but I hoped for some calls this time from 90 percentile range colleges! And I did get calls from NIRMA, KJSom, MICA and TAPMI...

Originally Posted by Mahip in April 2007

After a little prep, did manage to convert Nirma and now I'm all set to join this college and do my MBA from 2007-2009. Being the aspirant of 2004-2006 batch, it has been a long journey indeed!

Many people argue correctly that I am compromising over a college, and I deserve better or foreign MBA. But there are a lot of personal factors involved in taking a final decision in joining a college this year. As you can see my effort over past so many years, I can't let it go just like that. Nirma is infact a good choice and I can surely help myself and the college grow with a good placement from there. And money is not the only thing in life, I wud be happy and satisfied with whatever package I get. Five years down the line, the only thing which matters is your performance in the company!

If you greatly desire something, you must have the guts to stake everything on obtaining it. What you risk reveals what you value. There is no point getting disheartened over less percentile in just your first attempt or more. You all have a long way to go. The basis of optimism should not be the terror of these exams but the inspiration, which you need to find within yourself. And never continue doing a job which you don't enjoy. If you feel you don't like to prepare for MBA and do something else, choose another field... If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself... Best wishes to all the aspirants.

And remember it's just an exam, not a matter of life and death!

PS: Sorry for such a long post.. Shall write more abt various sections once the new season warms up!

PPS: Trivia on my CAT journey:
Started: During ICC Cricket World Cup 2003, SA ..
Ended: During ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, WI ..

[AMIT_007_001]

@ Mahip :

I know buddy ..How tough it is to keep working towards achieving a particular goal by working Hard for it for so many years ..

CAT is one such exam where it is not just abt Hard Work or Luck only but it also takes a lot of toll on ur complete way of life ....

But , i am sure that now all ur hard work has been rewarded by GOD & u will now really make it big this time arnd ....

Rock Nirma !!! My Best Wishes are always there with u !!!

All The Very Best !!!

[ninja_talli]

One more mammoth post from an UnderDog! Hope it makes sense!

July 2003
July 2003 bole toh fultoos bindaas life! Bole toh got a job on the third day of seventh semester, in the fourth company coming in the college(NIT Calicut)! No classes going on due to the placements, and no tension in life! Daily life used to be playing games(computer/outdoor), watching movies or more imp, helping batchmates in their interviews or going to their parties if they get thru!

For the first time I see people studing for cat! TIME had organised a special batch for my college, and some people had joined it. Unke saat humne bhi CAT ka form bhar diya! 1100 bucks ka sawal tha, bapu nae bola ja jele apni zindagi

Had never heard about any site called Pagalguy

November 2003
No tension! Junta from NIT Suratkal had landed up the previous night (center was Calicut), lots of boozing & stuff going on in the campus all night Early morning gave the paper, wapas hostel aye toh malum pada paper cancelled! A few of us were [what the f**k!!!], the majority (including me ) were [Ye ye Ye! 1100 mae do baar cat dene ka chance ]
Still hadn't heard about Pagalguy

February 2004
Again no tension! Got up early morning, gave the cat again. Never bothered to check the result till the score card came. Got around 88%! Had to give a party coz i was the top scorer in the floor
Still hadn't heard about Pagalguy

September 2004
Decided to give cat a rest for this year, busy in sw work & trekking!
Still hadn't heard about Pagalguy

May 2005
Got together with a bunch of guys in my project who were serious about cat and prep. Joined CL full classes, worked on it full steam! We were part of a group of work-ex ppl who had weekend classes, but we enrolled for late night weekday classes in addition to it! (thanks to two wonderful CL faculty: Chandra Sir & Ankur Sir :- they sat with us every night!) Apart from the weekend classes, every day evening, it used to go from 8 to 11+, from may end to october! Those were the good old days!
Finally got to know about Pagalguy and joined asap

November 2005
D-Day! Got completely un-nerved due to the new format of the CAT paper. Could manage a feeble 90%, and had applied to only the top 10-15 odd colleges, so no call. Also made the big mistake of ignoring other mba exams (SNAP/JMET/IIFT). Finally MBA 04 gave me a TISS & SPJain Dubai call, both which i couldn't convert
This was a hopless period for me, I had completely spoiled my work profile, as i had made it very clear that i was interested in mba. I had prepared like hell, the likes of which I could never replicate. Gave a few company interviews, but never felt the interest. MBA was in my blood. Decided to give it a shot again.

March-April 2006
Decided to start prep early enough. Also had new roommies who were giving cat for the first time (Newbies ); introduced them to the world of PG! Joined the mock series of TIME; also formed the famous ninja_talli-pankay82-Roman2005-kapil_b cubicle in my office ( Being a bunch of core mba-givers in the same cubicle, we used to openly discuss zillion quant/di/english questions in between work; be it questions from QQAD/DQAD/QuantMarathon/DIMarathon/Geometry/Parajumbles/etc
threads, we dicussed/shouted/quarrelled/solved it among ourselves!)
It was a sight for sore eyes! If one of us was on leave, he used to continue from home thru sms-es & phone calls!

November 2006
D-Day! This time CAT was a breeze, thought I had done quite well; later on I found out that people had done even more better! :lookroun: Again managed an average 93%.Later on gave IIFT/SNAP/JMET/XLRI/FMS as they came by; scored a decent 530 rank in JMET, a pretty good 90 marks in SNAP, and an exhlirating 99.65% in XAT!

Gave the simbi (sibm/scmhrd) college interviews, and the Xlri interviews, finally waitlisted on both the xlri calls with a decent chance of converting one of them.
Edit : Converted both of them, went for the BM course.



I learnt quite a few lessons from the 2 odd years of MBA prep.

CAT is not about proving that you are the best.
CAT is about showing that you can give even the best person a good run for his money.

CAT is not about determing where do you exaclty stand among the thousands those try for the same few odd mmgnt seats.
CAT is about ignoring those thousands of ppl and instead fighting against yourself to improve yourself.

CAT is not about waiting for a chance to show your skills.
CAT is about grabbing the chance whenever you get it.


The best person is never gonna be decided through CAT; do not keep cat as your only option in life; there IS life beyond CAT.

CAT gives you an oppurtunity; one out of many to go a step further.
If you are not able to step up this time, look for alternatives. Never get disheartened. Keep options open.

Amen.