[raghav507]

hi puys,
good morning to all...
here's the last article in the Monday Arun Sharma series...

THE D-DAY IS ALL THAT MATTERS

AS YOU ENTER THE EXAMINATION HALL FOR PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT TEST IN YOUR LIFE,ALL THAT IS GOING TO MATTER IS THE NEXT 150 MINUTES.BUT,THAT ALSO MEANS YOU HAVE AS GOOD A CHANCE TO PERFORM AS ANY ONE ELSE. ARUN SHARMA GIVES YOU THE LOW-DOWN


SO, we have reached a point of time where all your preparations and hard work dissolves into the final two-and-a-half hours. In a way anything that you have done till now — your preparations, your test scores — lose their significance. When the bell rings on the D-day, for a brief period of time an estimated two-and-a-half lakh aspirants would be equated for a brief period of time.

As you enter the examination hall for perhaps the most important test in your life, all that is going to matter is the next 150 minutes. So, what you need to remember is that on the D-day you are going to have as much of a chance as anybody else to perform. So, what are the few key things you need to remember as you approach the D-day? More importantly, what are the few things that you should focus to control in those 150 minutes?
Well looking at it from our perspective, the last week represents the most important phase of your preparations. We would like to make the following points:

1. Recognize that this is not the time for conventional preparations: Free yourself from your routine of solving questions, test papers etc. Perhaps, you should do no mental work on the last two three days before the examination. So, get rid of your books, your revision plans et al. Give yourself the freedom to enjoy the last few days. Get away from the pressure, the intensity. Get in touch with your inner-self and make your plans of where you would want to take your life, with or without cracking the CAT.
A point we have made before, but which gains immense importance in the last week prior to the CAT — Reduce the importance of the CAT in your life. Create an alternate plan of success, prove to yourself how you are going to ‘make it big’ irrespective of whether you go to an IIM or not. Ironically, achieving this state of mind could be the biggest favour you could do to your chances on November 16.

2. Recognize that the battle you are facing is against yourself: It’s a battle for the management of your mind. One of the greatest disservice you could do to yourself during the 150 minutes of the CAT is to stop focusing on your performance and start thinking about where your competition is heading to. Do not fall into this thinking trap. Instead, your main goal of managing your mind should be to ensure that your undiluted focus for 150 minutes is on what you can control.
At every point of the examination the only thing that you can control is the next question and its solution. Nothing else matters. The previous question and its experience does not, the previous section does not, the next question or the next section does not.

• What will matter in the CAT is what you are able to execute.

• What will matter in the CAT is whether you will be able to spend the appropriate time for the appropriate question.

• What will matter in the CAT is whether you are able to block out your negative emotions.

• What will ultimately matter in the CAT is going to be the percentage of time when you had control of your mind.

For this purpose it is important to 'free your mind.' For 150 minutes on November 16 you will need to be insulated against the three things that imprison your mind — fear, doubt and disbelief.

3. Get into the no fear state and no doubt state: Fear and anxiety take over our minds when we are faced with a situation where we have something to lose. The moment external circumstances create a situation where an individual recognizes that he is in danger of losing out on something he/she has cherished, that is the point where anxiety and fear grip you. The moment that happens, one starts losing control on one's performance.
On a day like the CAT where there is so much at stake, such a thing is bound to happen to you. In fact, it is almost sure to happen to each and every aspirant on that day. What is going to be your critical test is how fast you can regain control of yourself when fear, doubt and anxiety grip you.

Throughout this series of articles we have maintained that the questions in the CAT are pretty easy. That has been the case for every CAT paper of the past decade and more. That is going to be true for CAT 2008 as well. Why the CAT becomes difficult is because these negative emotions we are talking about create lapses of reason. The most common reaction for every 50-60-70-80-90-99 percentiler after he/she comes out of the paper is ‘Oh my gosh. How could I miss this logic?’

The answer is that you miss out on logic, thought processes and reactions when your state of mind is dominated by fear, doubt and anxiety. So, the battle on the D-day is going to be one of holding yourself straight. It's going to be a battle of managing your state of mind — one of controlling your senses and your intelligence.
Trust yourself and break barriers of disbelief. The aspirants who do these things the best are the ones who will get the coveted interview calls. All the Best!

(The writer is an alumnus of IIM-Bangalore, a nationally renowned
CAT trainer and the author of a series of books published by Tata McGraw Hill on CAT and other aptitude exams)

[megha.angel03]

HIIII can u plz tel me among top 30 best colleges of MBA which institutes we can apply for after giving cat exam coz i m nt confident abt my scores if my exam goes well then i ll apply for that institutes .....plz name those institutes where addmission r open after cat exam ......plz do rply .....

[diablorulez]

Originally Posted by megha.angel03

HIIII can u plz tel me among top 30 best colleges of MBA which institutes we can apply for after giving cat exam coz i m nt confident abt my scores if my exam goes well then i ll apply for that institutes .....plz name those institutes where addmission r open after cat exam ......plz do rply .....

hi megha

comparison of B-schools are not allowed in the forum. however we have pur PG ranking as per now of last year. U can go thru them to get somewat idea.. else PM the puys around..m sure u will get the right kind of help

check the previous year rankings -> PaGaLGuY.com B-school Rankings 2008 - Home

also this mite b useful
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...st1265360.html

[megha.angel03]

hiii srry i didnt mean to compare any institutes jst wanted to know which other institutes r open to apply after cat exam as they r ending there application procedure ....bt nyways thanks for ur rply .....

[targetcat2008]

Originally Posted by megha.angel03

HIIII can u plz tel me among top 30 best colleges of MBA which institutes we can apply for after giving cat exam coz i m nt confident abt my scores if my exam goes well then i ll apply for that institutes .....plz name those institutes where addmission r open after cat exam ......plz do rply .....

The addmission to the following institutes closes before CAT exam:

MDI, NITIE, IMI, FORE, UBS, LBSIM

[nihilist1986]

wish u all the CAT 2008 aspirants Best of Luck...

go and crack the paper.. give ur best and the rest would be history..

now dont think about the past mocks, previous percentiles etc..

jst go with an open mind in the examination hall and do not panic...

all the best

cheers

[Neeraj2103]

Hi All,

I would like to share one of my lifetime experiences. I was taking SSB interviews at Air Force Selection Board, Varanasi. There were many tests in those 7 days. One of which was Individual Task. It consists of some physical tasks like long jump, high jump, monkey crawling etc. The last one in that series with the highest marks was that there was a stand 20 feet above the ground and there was a rope hanging at a distance of 4 feet from the stand. The task was to climb on 20 feet stand and jump from there to hold the rope and then come down through the rope. One of my friends attempted that stunt and unfortunately was not able to have a firm grip on the rope and hurt himself badly. While some others did it beautifully. Later our instructor told us that the person who hurt himself was looking straight and was aiming to hold the rope from the same level (20 feet) at which he was standing, and when he jumped and by the time he reached to the rope his target was somewhat above his reach and he scrambled getting hold of it. And those who did it successfully were not looking straight but they were aiming the rope at a higher level than their own (above 20 feet) so they planned their jump accordingly to catch the rope (say at 22 feet) and when they jumped and by the time they reached to the rope they were obviously not able to get the rope at 22 feet height but they were in a very comfortable position to get hold of the rope at 20 feet which was the actual target.

Gyan of the story: We should always plan our actions towards our goal so that we may land up somewhat above our goal. And even if we miss it slightly we will be landing on our GOAL.

So fasten your seat belts and gear up for the D-Day ride ... !!!

All The Best 2 all of you!!!!

[singhag]

I wish all the CAT 2008 Aspirants "All the BEST". I wish all our dreams to get into good MBA college will come true.

Some important points :

1) All those who have not received the Admit cards get them tommorow and please note the timing at which it will issued. I have noticed there are different timing at different locations.

2) Revise the formulae and dont stress yourself too much study tommorow.

3) Keep your stationary pen, pencil, sharpener and eraser ready.

4) Finally if possible visit the centre in advance or find out the way to the centre.

Wishing BEST OF LUCK

[willrock]

best of luck to all the puys we all gona make it there where we ever wanted to. everyone give your best once again best of luck

[vivekkahn]

Time to seal the deal is here and its tomo...go n rock guys...ATB...