Disappointed with IMS and SimCATs ...

[abhishim]

HI all,

I agree with you , not to abuse any coaching institute. They are just a medium for our preparation. Anyway I have had a very bad run at CAT for 3 years and have not been able to crack it just coz , i am not good at RC and VA. I end up attempting more mistakes. I prepared for CAT with heart when i was in final year and failed to do it. FOr he past 2 years , i have been attempting it but without preparation and always i have been getting around 98.5 percentile, but no calls. And i think it is due to making so many mistakes. Can someone help me out with this.????????

[FreakazoiD]

Hey Anuj dude,

Man I agree with most of the points you make about Simcats. About IMS as an institute though, like a true professional I prefer to not make comments and claim ignorance.

Simcats do not simulate the CAT for question quality but for the competitive environment that it is given in. So you would expect most of the Simcat toppers to crack the CAT as well. The RELATIVE performance of candidates in the actual test would not really show a big change from simcats (except that your %ile would increase a bit because of the arbit junta who landed up at the test center by mistake). So just because Simcats are tough and nothing like CAT, it does not mean that if you get 91%ile in a Simcat you will automatically get 99 in the CAT. Simcat scores may be low, but so what ? Would you rather score 40 in a tough paper and get a 99 or score 75 and get a 95%ile ?

My point is - never analyze simcats for your knowledge/proficiency level. All it tells you is where you stand and how your exam environment performance is. I strongly suggest giving mocks across a variety of instis - ranging from CL to TIME to Career Avenues (which are free on PG ) If you do well in these tests then you shouldn't have too many problems.

Personally I dont know why IMS loves setting toughies with inane questions, especially their DI ones where you need to co-relate 3-4 graphs and an added formula - really sucks!! And all this nonsense about preparing for the "worst case scenario" is absolute BS. What is the "worst case" anyway ? IIMs not admitting anyone because nobody could score above 50 in a difficult paper ? And whats the best scenario - IIMs admitting everyone because everyone scored 99.9%ile in a sitter ?

This coming from someone who 2 years back scored 99.7+ percentile and a top 100 rank in 8 of the 10 IMS simcats.....but didnt clear the CAT Given a choice between tough and easy, I would pick tough (i.e "worst case scenario") anyday....

Good luck for Simcats

the freak

[hiteshchadha]

Originally Posted by freddie

That’s the way to take any of your bad tests during CAT preparation ! Great Going Guys ! Just keep your morales up and you’ll find yourself getting there !!
But I would like to add a word of caution here. I have taken CAT twice before getting into IIMA this year. With limited exposure to the two CATs, whatever I have understand about CAT ( and its preparation) makes me agree with Anuj on several occasions, but may be for different reasons.
Many of us are made to believe that cat is a total random test – « kuch bhi aa sakta hai » - A total misconception. By this logic, we may even believe if someone says this year CAT PS section would be as tough as IIT-JEE maths paper. Come on guys, have some faith in IIM people. Cat is an aptitude test and iim people understand it quite well. CAT tries to filter out students having good innate mangerial abilities. Just to offset the impact of preparation, it has some surprises with the pattern of questions ; but that doesnt make it random. In fact, more than 80% of questions would always be of the same difficulty level as the previous CAT.

Now if u try to understand the purpose of CAT as a filter, you would realize CAT getting better and better over the years. Required skill set of a manager may change aas per industry requirements. But that has nothing to do with CAT as CAT is only one of the filters. GD-PI sessions would take care of it.

Here I would share some of my observations about CAT. From PS section getting simpler from CAT 2003 to 2004, I understand that IIMs have removed a certain bias towards students with good verbal skills. If you look at some CAT 2003 scorecards you would observe students with high verbal percentile (95%) and low in PS-DI (65%) still ending with overall percentile over 90% but the same can not be observed in reverse situation. Such discrepancies happen due to the difference in the range as well as distribution of marks scored in different sections. To simplify, top scores (99% and above) in verbal section would be 37-45 while top scores in PS-DI would be 20-35. But CAT 2004 with simpler PS section has tried to match the range and distribution with that of verbal section to eliminate the bias.

Keeping this in mind, I feel tha ttaking a tough test with as low PS cutoff as 7 would not be a god idea for following reasons :

Firstly, it is almost impossible to have such a CAT as it wont act as an efficient filter.

Though CAT is all about getting good percentile (i.e. relative postions matter), making a particular section very tough makes marks obtained in that section redundant. The relative standings would be on the basis of only one/two sections (mainly verbal!!) thus letting the whole rankings go on a toss.

A cutoff as low as 7 seems managable by a fluke especially when there are 2 marks questions as well.

Last but the most important, it has quite adverse effect on your preparations. Students who actually need to improve upon their verbal abilities may shift their focus from verbal to PS/DI. Getting stuck with problems breaks your flow thus making you slower. You tend to develop a habit of solving a fewer question with extra effort and concentration which would tire you faster further affecting your efficiency. You may even develop a preference for 2 marks questions which can be suicidal. Your sectionwise time allotment can go on a toss as well. You would be in doubts about all you have developed so far through your practice and efforts. Just a few tougher tests can give so much trouble to you !! Imagine such tests in your last week of preparation !!!

Regarding faculty, ideally I should not comment on the issue as my views are expected to be a little biased towards IIM grads. But I sincerely feel that people should attend a few lectures by good faculty like Munira Lokhandwala (IIMC alumna) before commenting on the issue. We used to travel across Mumbai just for her lectures; And believe me, they were worth taking so much trouble. I strongly believe that almost all who crack CAT have a little « extra » smartness on the day of CAT. Now you will have this little « extra » onyour own or borrow it from such good faculty who consistently fugure in CAT toppers.

About the incident of person failing in all SIMs before getting into IIMA, I would say that it just shows the consistent failure of SIMs to give the feel of actual CAT. So dont be short-sighted due to herd mentality. According to me, reference materials from any institute is quite sufficient. As far as comprehensive tests are concerned, try to take 1-2 tests from 4-5 leading institutes and then go for the one which seems more appropriate and useful.

That’s all from me. Enjoy your studies while I enjoy my vacation.
All the Best.

Freddie

Hey Freddie.....I really like the way you have analysed the problem and I would completely agree with you. I think it's just the enormity of the situation which is making Anuj to be desperate. Everybody want's to do well and yes pressure can get to you if you are not at par with others.....
Hey Anuj ...don't worry buddy.....just concentrate on your strenghts ...and as Hanoz has said somewhere earlier...try to separate wheat from the chaff..........ATB to you...

Cheers
Hitesh

[Garuda]

Originally Posted by merc

This refers to the point that Anuj raised. Y the heck wud an IIM A MBA teach at IMS and earn 15000 a month when the lowest offer he gets is of around 5K per annum. Wud u do so?definately not.
As for the questions on sine rule and derivatives being out of CAT course, plz do tell me that where is the so called course for CAT mentioned. I cud not find it newhere. And as for CAT paper, u will not b able to say nething even if they give 150 questions on DI this year and no maths or VA section. that's how cat goes. unpredictability is the key to success in CAT. Prepare for the worst they can give, not the best.
And as for other institute mocks being closeer to CAT, just watch this weeks CL test.The DI was so shit that scoring 30 was child's play. What exactly wud one achieve by giving easy papers and harnessing fase expectations. Mayb IMS ppl wronged in giving such a tough maths paper but then the cut-of was kept at a lowly 7. So it evens out in the end. Cat is not abt who gets the highest but abt how many ppl get more than u. And mind u scoring 7 in this paper shud not b a problem for ne1 preparing seriously for CAT. And VA and Di were quite good, infact they gave us a real idea as to where we stand.
Also I feel that this issue has been blown out of proportions. it's not the end of the road guys. There are 6 sim's left.

Well, just to let you know why IIM passouts teach at prep schools. Its because they can easily earn in excess of 50k bucks a month. Not kidding, its really lucrative and is more tempting in the short term view (which generally for most passouts is how much cash you get in hand).

Regards,
GV

[dubyaman]

hey whoever started this thread........................ first of all mate.... assuming the guys at ims did lie to u and the ppl teaching u were not iim grads, what big diff does it make??? do u mean to say that had the guys been iim passouts, u wud have understood the concepts better???? get a hang over urself fella,,,,, whats happening in ur case is a show of frustration...on the really tough simcat2........... why get so perturbed dude??? the pattern for the cat is not fixed,,, jus like last year they might just wanna throw a bombshell again.... so take in in tyhe right spirit!!!

stop sulking like a kid being denied a lollipop!!!!

[panchya]

Originally Posted by FreakazoiD

Hey Anuj dude,

This coming from someone who 2 years back scored 99.7+ percentile and a top 100 rank in 8 of the 10 IMS simcats.....but didnt clear the CAT Given a choice between tough and easy, I would pick tough (i.e "worst case scenario") anyday....

Good luck for Simcats

the freak

REALLY !!!!!!
WHAT WENT WRONG...????

[badshahkhan]

guys its not the time to feel downcast n out....these moments wud come every now n then...dont feel depressed...go there in middle n go fr the fight.......with just 2 months left u cant afford to break now.......dont worry...enjoy ur prepn ...give ur best shot n dont worry abt the results

[FreakazoiD]

Originally Posted by panchya

REALLY !!!!!!
WHAT WENT WRONG...????

I'm not exactly ruing performance that year as I know exactly what went wrong. I'm still as confident about clearing CAT now as I was then.

To explain briefly what went wrong - 3 things :
- my watch stopped working 10 minutes into the exam. I know its quite unbelievable (as it was for me when it happened ) but I know it did and it screwed up my strategy - i ended up with just 20 minutes for DI section.
- again, miraculously, i managed to skip 2 pages in DI (flipped 2 pages over) and ended up missing out on the easiest set of 5 marks in that paper
- thirdly i attempted a certain type of question that I should never have. Spent 10 minutes on 4 of those and got all wrong - this ofcourse was my mistake

and i ended up with a paltry 98.9%ile

anyways, im a firm believer that lightning does not strike twice

I'll hope to start posting in simcat threads from sim-5

the freak

[harivignesh]

hi, i'm an IMS student too, you really made me scared for a moment, but dude i don't think it is really necessary that a IIM alumni should come and teach you, the people teach there are MBA aspirants themselves who have gone through the exams lot more than you do no body gets the admit right away, there are lot of people who got the call but disqualified in the GD-PI rounds..you just have to be little realistic and optimistic in your progress. all the best..

[utsavmamoria]

Originally Posted by harivignesh

hi, i'm an IMS student too, you really made me scared for a moment, but dude i don't think it is really necessary that a IIM alumni should come and teach you, the people teach there are MBA aspirants themselves who have gone through the exams lot more than you do no body gets the admit right away, there are lot of people who got the call but disqualified in the GD-PI rounds..you just have to be little realistic and optimistic in your progress. all the best..

You Have bumped into an old thread
Lets leave IMS and SimCAT's for the next season

Mods PLease lock this thread

Yenjaay