[vinz]

@anupam:

yaar, main kya boloon mere samajh mein nahi aa raha hai.....I think we both should start a mutual admiration group.....
You have written very high words there for me, am not sure how much of that I deserve. But yes, reading it has certainly made me feel such an integral part of this PG family......You are an idol for everyone and such words coming from you really makes it so special. Thanks so much dude I am honoured to say the least.

@mancee:

Thanks a lot sir. Am glad u found the post interesting and inspirational. I had to no option but to put in that meticulous planning that u mentioned coz I have seen how uncertain CAT and GD/PI results can be and hence didnt want to leave any stone unturned. I just got lucky finally.
Am glad the post is at least inspiring people. That was the intention. Thanks once again mancee.

[thedragonreborn]

Originally Posted by goldberg23684

And then is the clincher- its just an exam!

Surely...its more than just an exam?!

It is not.

It is just an exam because it is definitely not the end of the road for you; your career or your personal life or anything related to you at all. All people who have taken CAT and have had burnt their fingers, will tell you about the folly of banking too much on CAT or any other MBA entrance. An MBA augments. It never beats out new paths. That is for the graduation.

It is only when you truly get over the looming presence of the exam and what it could do to your life, do you appreciate what it is really about.

But yes, CAT with all its related activities teaches you lots of valuable lessons about yourself, people and your dreams. Lessons learnt for a life time.

Moral? It is just an exam!

cheers!!!

[AMIT_007_001]

Hi Vinz !

It was really a great post and it seems as u have put your heart out on this post. It acts as an great inspirational post for CAT 06 aspirants like me that life gives you many opportunities and it is just all about choosing those opportunities and get going !Q


Once again , congrats to you for making it to IIMA , u really deserve it ^^

opcorn:

[vinz]

Well, what can I say !!

Am truly amazed to see so many responses from all of you......I am really overwhelmed. Never knew the post would generate so much enthusaiasm. My sole motive of inspiring others seems to be working and am so glad for that.

amitnsitian, gautam, idream, bhargs, panky82: Thank you all so much for you wishes.

@vaghar: In fact, my prof had called me yesterday and I have forwarded him this link. He had told me long before to write my CAT experience..

@Rohit: Hey buddy, Thats really nice of you to say that about me. In fact I myself felt so honoured when u called me up..never expected such eminent people at PG to call people personally Thanks so much.....and well, I have left my office and there wasnt really much fan following as such :( ....Hope things look up for me in the future Yaar, I am leaving for Cochin on 13th...So will just miss the meet by one day...am alredy feeling so upset coz of that....So sorry !! Hope we do meet soon

@panchya: Thanks doude and all the best to u too for ur stay at Rau

Edited: Amit, thanx so much. You have put it very well there, all about oppurtunities...very ture. All the best to u...just do it.

[shrikanthk]

My tryst with CAT

This writeup won't be as engaging as those of anupam, vinz and shrutz. But should be helpful nonetheless.
I thought of writing CAT at the beginning of my 5th semester.
Wrote the IMS diagnostic test(cat 2k2 paper) with zilch prep in Oct 2k3, in which I scored 50, with over 25 in verbal
Scoring inordinately in the verbal section is very natural for most students who're good at words and not in touch with math.
This should not be construed as a weakness in math or DI.
That's the mistake that I was guilty of, in those early days.
Since then, I always felt deep inside me that to crack CAT, i had to score 35 in verbal. As a result of such a mindset, I was always on the defensive while attempting QA or DI, the intent being to clear the cutoff rather than to crack the section.
Took up the IMS Simcat test series for CAT 2004.
Percentiles were generally in the 98-99 range. The breakups were pretty ordinary, with va/rc accounting for over 60% of my net score.
Surfing PG was great fun in the aftermath of a simcat. Benchmarking oneself against the likes of tdubey, suzyq, mamman, rohit anand was something that all of us on the simcat threads looked forward to.

I can recollect scores of threads in the yr 2004 where we used to endlessly speculate on the degree of correlation b/w simcat %iles and cat %iles.
In retrospect, all those discussions were futile and superfluous. I would urge all aspirants to desist from such mindless chatter and do something worthwhile instead.

CAT 2004 was a flop. net %ile - 96.65 with <90 in qa and di.
Was disappointing, given the promising simcat scores.

Didn't think about CAT after that debacle till July 2005.
Registered for the Aimcat series.
Was disappointed with IMS the previous year. I thought the simcats were too verbal-heavy and the %iles were skewed in favour of those good at va.

Aimcats were good. Far more CAT-like.
My percentiles improved considerably and the breakups were less skewed compared to the previous year's simcats.
Average percentile - 99.2-3.
Featured in the top 100 on 7/8 occasions.
Quant remained a bugbear throughout, with the %ile slipping below 90 on at least a half a dozen occasions.

The breakup was pretty good in the last 4-5 aimcats.
Sadly, things didn't work out when it mattered most.
CAT 2005
net - 99.41
va - 99.57
di - 98.7
qa - 72

Guess what....I spent the first 35 mins of the paper on qa.
ROI - 6 marks.
Attempted for 25 marks and got 8 two-markers wrong.
I didn't deserve a call.

Nov 20th was one of the most melancholy days of my life.
Felt really low after checking the time keys.

Lessons - Never make educated guesses in the quant section. They can hurt you badly.
CAT QA tests your Problem-solving skills per se, and not your reasoning skills.
Reasoning out the answer, instead of actually solving the problem can be a very dangerous habit.
CAT QA is a test of your willingness to persevere and get your hands dirty.
Period.

Got a call thanks to the munificence of IIMK.

XAT was much better. 99.95.
xat quant was more of a test of concepts, unlike cat qa which was a veritable test of one's problem solving skills.
got calls from xlri(bm) and spjain.

GD/PI's
K interview was like a rapidfire quiz.
Panelists looked out for intellectual honesty in the candidates.
XL - the panelists sought opinions from the candidates on various issues, probably with the intent of testing the clarity of one's thought process.
SP looked out for blokes with great conversational skills.

A few tips -
- Always be willing to acknowledge your ignorance of a subject.

- Don't use convoluted expressions in your speech, i.e avoid the
usage of metaphors, idioms, quotes and other rhetorical devices.

- Take up atleast a couple of mock interviews. They're very helpful.
I attended a couple at TIME. Got virtually disembowelled at both
interviews. It was a chastening experience. They made me more
introspective, conservative and more conscious of my strengths
and weaknesses.
In fact, in contrast to the TIME sessions, the actual GD/PI's
seemed like child's play.

- Keep smiling.

Eventually converted both K and Xl.
SPJ ditched me.
Joining K after much deliberation.

[DILSERE]

This That and All About Cracking The CAT



After my CAT results I was getting requests from people asking for some CAT tips. I promised all of them that I will write one post which will comprise my experiences with CAT and some tips based on that.

Some of the requests I received was how I improved from mere 77 percentile to 99.7. I will try to cover this part also but before that let me tell you something. CAT is exam for which you can’t generalize something based on others performances and many things changes as per individual and his capabilities. So before giving gyan on the CAT, I would like you to walk through my journey.

My Journey

THE FOUNDATION

I came across CAT in year 2002 while studying in 3rd year of my engineering. Initially I was very much worried about the English section as my English was beyond improvable (as I studied in Marathi medium up to my HSC). So I gave up my preparation and concentrated on my engineering studies.

After my campus placements I was exploring the higher studies option and that time I thought I should give CAT a chance. I found myself more suitable for career in management and for that I was ready to prepare at any level. That time last date of application for CAT already passed so I had only option left and that was to apply for other B-Schools. Hence I decided to write NITIE exam (that time NITIE used to conduct separate exam which looked less frightening than CAT). With 1 month of study I wrote NITIE and unfortunately messed up in one section badly. It was not a shock for me when NITIE decided not to give me a final call.

The kick I got from NITIE done some good things to me. First it created confidence in me that I can crack any B school test and to take revenge of my defeat, I decided not to settle anywhere apart from IIMs. I attended Career Forum for 3 months which further boosted my confidence in QA and DI area. Unfortunately my first employer Bajaj gave me joining in Aurangabad instead of Pune and I didn’t have any other option other than joining it. My decision to continue with Bajaj was based on calculated risk to gain some valuable time to prepare for CAT. In Aurangabad there were no coaching available so I decided to prepare for CAT on my own. That year I wrote CAT, JMET, XAT, IIFT and FMS but not able to crack any of them. Every time I had some excuse for not able to crack the exam. These excuses kept my confidence going.

After spending (I can say wasting also) my very important 09 months in Bajaj Auto I was getting a feeling that I am loosing a lot for the CAT. If it is not the CAT then I should have a good career to bank on. I realized that Bajaj no where fit in my career path. I decided to switch into IT industry. I had only one name in front of me those days that was TCS but somehow I was not getting a chance to give their test. 14 Feb in 2004 proved lucky day for me. I was there in Pune for ReCAT and found myself standing in queue for TCS test. My preparation for ReCAT paid off. I missed the bull’s eye by huge margin of 23 percentile but my preparation helped me to sail through TCS walk-in.

One more try
With my MBA dreams shattered I join TCS in April 2004. Initial 2 months I was in great dilemma to give the CAT or not. I found TCS Mumbai and my project good to settle down and even I decided to forget my MBA dream. But after 3 months of thinking on this line I decided to give one more try to CAT. It was too late again so I was in no position to join full length class hence decided to join TIME Test series. My test scores never crossed 92 percentile. I thought I can do it in the final test but my declining health in those days created some more problems for me. I wrote CAT, XAT, IIFT, JMET, FMS again but no good news from any of these. I also applied for IRMA with the view of doing career in NGO consulting. I got short listed by IRMA but failed to prove them that I am joining it by choice rather than by chance so kicked away in interview.

Final CAT of my Life

I was loosing greatly due to my CATaholic habits. I was loosing not only on in professional front but also in personal life a lot of things. I thought enough is enough now. I decided not to write CAT henceforth as it is too much demanding exam. People convinced me that GMAT and global MBA is good deal for person like me. But the big worry here was how to finance my education expenses. I thought I would gain some valuable international experience in TCS and earn in dollars and then think about my MBA abroad. In those days TCS also lured me with onsite assignment in US for 11 months and I thought I am going in right direction. Even I took my diagnostic GMAT but thanks to software error I didn’t able to view my score and that prolonged my decision to choose between CAT and GMAT. I had no energy left to give again the diagnostic GMAT. Meanwhile my TCS onsite dreams got shattered due to VISA problems and I came to know next that 1 year I will not able to go to onsite.
Next few days were really bad for me. I feel somehow things are not working well for me. One by one my friends were going to US and I was going to say them good bye on airport. The idea of my GMAT dream getting shattered in front of my eyes was sinking me badly. In those days someone suggested me to prepare for GMAT get the score and side by side give my CAT as last try and then decide one of these options. I liked this option because and started working on it also. But thanks to Simba’s article on PG I decided to concentrate only one of these exams. I thought which to choose between these two and finally decided if I forget the CAT all my preparation till date get wasted so I should give one sincere try to CAT. I realized though I had given it last 2 times those were not full fledged attempts. I decided to fully concentrate and focus on my CAT preparation. I joined IMS for intensive CAT course and started preparing for the last CAT of my life.
My initial rigor depleted as days passed. It was August and still I had not finished the basic part of course. The IMS SimCAT test series was around the corner and I yet not finished with my basic part of course. The first SimCAT result was positive for me and I scored 94 percentile. Though it was not that great I thought after preparation it will surely go in upwards direction. I started preparing but in next few months my score decreases instead of increasing. It varied in range of 88-95 which was not a good sign. Every time while going for SimCAT I used to decide this time I will touch magic figures of 99 but always found myself below 95. My IIM dream was becoming hazy day by day. But I never lost my confidence in those days. I used optimization approach. Every time when I was performing well I used to appreciate myself and when my performance declined instead of blaming I used to learn from my mistakes. I told me 100 times that this is last CAT of my life and anyhow I have to crack it. I thought last 3 years I had done all possible mistakes so if I learn from all of them there will be no other mistake left that I can commit on D-Day.

The D-Day


The day before D day was not good for me. My health was not that good and I am bit worried that the situation should not become worse on D-Day. I prayed god for that and same time prepare me mentally so that even I will get 105 degree temperature I will have to crack the CAT. I spend the day watching movie and then had dinner with my friend.
On the D-Day I didn’t found any negative signs about my health to worry about. With full of confidence, blessings from my family members and wishes by friends I entered the exam hall and decided to rock the CAT.

When I came out of the exam hall my first reaction was the show was not that great for me. I know my attempts were not good enough to get secure percentile. I called at home and told there were no hopes this year also. With dejected mood I spend my next 3-4 hours waiting for any answer keys to get out. The first one came on rediff at 5.00 PM and when I checked my answers I was getting poor 28 marks. I became very upset with my bad performance but after some time made my mind to accept it. Next 2-3 hours I spent time calling some people and telling them that it all ended for me. But meanwhile I thought the test was not good for me but was that not that bad to score only 28? I suspect the correctness of keys and decided to crosscheck with other keys. I again hooked at net and found the CL guys ready with their answers. When I checked my answers with CL keys I was getting 50 marks with decent break up in each section. As per their prediction this score will fetch me at least 4 IIMs calls. I couldn’t believe this. I crosschecked again and realized it was the fact. Though my attempts were less my accuracy that day was awesome. I made one round of calls again and told my near and dear that I almost cracked the CAT.


Next 1 Month 12 days

After checking my answers with the all keys available somewhat hazy picture of my IIM future was in front of my eyes. Some keys were telling me that I will end up with 6 calls and some told me I will be lucky if even I can get bottom two. These days were quite difficult for me to handle. I was no mood to study for the other exams of the season like XAT, FMS. Every day I found myself on PG forums discussing which answer keys were correct and which were wrong. Again at the end of day I used to count my score and slept with some more anxiety. Even sometimes I found myself waking at night and checking my score again and doing the predictions of calls. Now you might feel this is too much but for someone whose 3 years of hard work on stake it was unavoidable. Finally I dumped my CAT paper and decided to get rid of all worries. The results were not coming as expected 1 month after the exam. It added some more worries and anxiousness. The last week of DEC I forget I appeared for CAT and enjoyed all New Year dance parties with friends, Then it was announced that results will be come out on 2nd Jan midnight and the final countdown began. The rest of the story you can find HERE and about the FINAL VICTORY here.

My IIM dream came true after 3 years of dedication, hard work and commitment. I am sharing this all here so that people will not loose their faith and learn from my example that CAT is hard but not unbeatable.

[DILSERE]

As I promised, I will surely write about HOW TO CRACK THE CAT here. But before going to it always remember CAT is not the end of life. I feel the luck factor was my side that helped me to emerge victorious if it was not there I might have found myself on the other side. So always remember my quote for CAT preparation GIVE YOUR BEST AND FORGET THE REST.


When to start?

I told is always better to start when you are in graduation. The initial preparation should start from 18 Months to 2 years before the date of the test.

The Prerequisite

You should be good in calculations, logic and average English reading speed is must. You should take a diagnostic test which tells you which are the areas you are good in and which are the area of concerns for you.

You need to have a strong driving force that always keep you fighting against all odd to reach your destination. This driving force can be anything like money, good spouse, impressing your girl friend or high flying career ambitions but make sure you have your own reason. Also one needs to have some inclination towards the business and related happenings. This will not help you to crack the test but surely add value when you will be there in second step that is GD/PI.

Classes How Much You Need Them?

I strongly recommend the classes for the first timers because it will help to structure your preparation and also provide you with the environment to maintain your tempo.
For someone like me they can also prove as inspiration by impressing the fellow classmates in your batch with your scores and speedy class responses. For the second timers or third timers I will strongly advice not to waste time in classes if they already done it once. They should utilize their time for identifying the holes remained and work on to remove them.

Action Plan

After taking a diagnostic and analyzing the scores one get fair idea of where one stand and how much improvement one requires to hit the bull’s eye.
Don’t rely on the coaching institute to make an Action Plan for you. Made it of your own and try to follow it. Tracking the progress in the area wise always helps.

Test Series

This is a very crucial part of your CAT preparation. I still remember the famous quote about the test series
“Practice tests are like mirror to tell you how beautiful you looks but definitely its one you to decide how much makeup you need to put on!! “
A good test series helps in identifying the areas you need to improve in and also tells you where you are standing comparing with the others in race. Take the feedbacks positively and use them to build your preparation.

Take every test as a new challenge and always try to beat the test rather than allowing it to beat you. This way it become fun to give n number of tests and you will find the final encounter nothing other than one of it only.


Some Sectional Tips

VA

Build your vocabulary. Baron’s wordlist is sufficient for the CAT aspirant but make sure you just don’t mug the words but get used to their meaning by doing some daily reading.

For grammar part you need basic knowledge of English grammar and you can improve your expertise by doing intensive practice.

Priority of, which questions to solve and which to leave is very important for this area. You can learn it by extensive practice of sectional papers on VA.
Book: Objective English by R.S.Awarwal (S Chand Publication)

RC

I rate this as the most critical section of all the CAT paper as it make or break your CAT dream.
Most of the non convent background students found this section tough due to lack of practice. I assure you how much bad reading speed you have you can surely improve it and only one thing you need is some patient and lot of sincerity. You should made reading as part of your life.
Make reading your daily habit like you take your lunch and dinner. I recommend Hindu and Business Standard newspapers and Business World magazine for daily read. About the other books don’t pick the any book just because you want to improve your reading. Pick the book of your taste that helps you to fall in love with reading

Book: How to Read better and faster…..Norman Lewis


DI + Logic

This is the section where you don’t need much effort to master. Selection of question is very critical in this section.
About the calculation part try the habit of not using your pencil much and try some approximation methods to choose best fit answer.

About logic I say a basic logical bend of mind plus some practice is sufficient.


QA

This is the scariest section for almost all the CAT aspirants. I will suggest you to be familiar with some basic formulae and don’t just mug the short cuts because it is difficult to remember n number of short cuts taught to you and use it. Make a habit of answering by SMARTNESS rather than by CALCULATION.

When 4 options are given to you it is not always expected to solve every problem. You just need to cull out the unnecessary options and select the right one out the rest. You will learn this art after practicing lot for this section.


This is what I can share with you after spending my last three years with CAT. Feel free to get back to me if you have any queries and I will try my best to resolve them. I wish a very best luck to all of you!!!


PS: About the GD/PI part you can find the details and tips on my BLOG

[chuck_gopal]

Was asked by a friend to post on this thread. Here goes.

Many of my friends in college, and here in PG especially, know that I am a one-institute aspirant. The Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad. Seriously, it was all I ever wanted. I wanted it so freakin' badly.

I joined PG sometime in January... and really, the level of enthusiasm the people had on the MICA thread out here surprised me, made me realise there are others who want this as bad as myself, and made me raise my own bar.

Well, when I found out I was shortlisted to appear for MICAT, it was partial satisfaction. I knew I had a shot at my dream institute.

Went for MICAT.
Test : pretty good
GE : cataclysmic
PI : dream.

So there you have it. After a disastrous GE (yeah, it's an 'exercise', not a discussion) I knew I had bombed it. I seriously felt like kicking myself. I gad blown it, but an excellent interview had given me a faint... very faint glimmer of hope.

So speculation started. One long month passed... before I got a phone call from a fellow aspirant from Delhi. Let's call this person FA.. the conversation went like this...

FA : chuck... the MICA results are out
C : *shit* goodness... Is there any way you can check mine?
FA : yeah, I'm online now... tell me your number...
C : *****
FA : *checks* sorry boss... It didn't happen...
C : *silence* well... yeah... guess it was on the cards... you?
FA : no, Chuck... I didn't make it either...
C : well... thanks for calling, FA...
FA : no problem.. Sorry, Chuck...
C : 'sokay...

Was it okay? WAS IT FREAKIN' OKAY?!!! I'll tell you it wasn't okay! The place I wanted to get in over any other institute, and the throw me out like this?!
All that work, and all I get to show for it is an impersonal, "sorry, you have not been admitteed..." crap sorta message?!!!! I'LL TELL YOU THAT HURT!!!!

I was in a self-induced state of despondency for two days, random periods in which I broke down. Yes, I did. Why wouldn't I? Talk about a dream being freakin' shattered and blown to smithereens! I didn't freakin' now what to do, where my life was going to go, and what the f*** I was going to do. I had banked so much on this to happen, and it didn't. I was yelling profanities at the world and at myself.

You're right, I didn't take it very well.

Two months have passed from that horrible day and week.
The memory still haunts me. That telephonic conversation keeps playing itself over and over again in my head.

So I think to myself, I worked hard for it last year, got rejected. Now even if I work my @$# off for it THIS year, what's the guarantee I will be selected? It's all a lottery, innit?!

So now, I'm going off to a software company. But that's just for parking my jobless @#$ for a few months. MICAT 2007 still remains my top priority. I have realised all I can do is give it my best shot, and the rest will happen. There is still no guarantee that I will make it. This is not a game of street cricket where even if you lose you can satisfy yourself by saying, "ah, I played better... guess they got lucky "..
This is a game of careers, and dreams. And even if someone tells you you were good enough and should have made it, doesn't help. Because you're not in that institute. Oh, but I'm good enough to be there. Great morale-booster, that.

Okay, enough cribbing. That's CAT 2005 and MICAT 2007. In the past. Just wanted to let it all out. One final time.

New season has begun. A new thread for MICA has been started. I can only prepare as hard, or even better, and give MICAT a better shot this year. But on the suggestion of a friend, I am looking at another option : SIBM.

I've made a lot of friends during this CAT season. I've learnt that if you want something bad enough, you've got to be willing to give your everything for it (to quote my best friend, who's made it to IIMI, and a whisker away from A). I've met so many professional people, and have seen real quality and insanity on the best educational forum in India.

CAT '05 was bittersweet for me.
CAT '06, or rather, MICAT '07, will be nothing but sweet.
And here, I end this long-drawn, painful recollection of what this season held for me...

ChUcK

[gaurav_kh1]

Well Chuck we have same kind of story Well i was not so badly and insalely in love with mica but tht was a past in jan when i applied to mica and talked to one of my friend in mica and others back home i realized that i have some skills which makes me diffrent from others and mica is the only place for person like me so then and there i decided that i want mica .But mica kicked me and i didnt get through first list and i was filled with aginy and anger and i started thinking im good for nothing but then came day when i got letter from mica and i was in and was called for micat and the thoughts came into my mind that might be its my destiny to be there thats why i got call and started preparing for it read various magzines over adv did all i could do but still didnt get through .And i started hating myself for running one opportunity i had to convert mica and was depressed so was my family and friends
Now from here our story differs chuck
Well ofcourse iwas upset but i used it as my strength and will give cat-06 with 200% preparation not going for even work ex also although i have job in hand but im gonna leave that to chase my dream to be a part of some big institute like mica and iims and im very much sure this time i will make it
Remember dont stop if u fail ,failure is measure of your hard work
So use it to learn learn from past and use it for better future

[shrutz]

Chuck, at one point in time, I was telling one of my friends about "wanting CAT so badly that I could taste it.."
I have seen all kinds of people, those who made it easily, those that struggled in with solo admits, those who faltered at the first hurdle and those who couldn't get past the second.
Always, there is this one quality that ought to stand out... Desire. Everything else is secondary.
All the best.