[no_speed_limit]

Originally Posted by deepak_nanhu

@no_speed_limit and Kamal B

query:
whenever i take a test the first question i attempt usually consumes a lot of time no matter what i choose. due to this i become nervous and then my comprehension power drops down drastically. all the figures, charts, numbers, words everything makes no sense. maybe i dont have the temprament. as the test progresses i accelerate fairly well but this start and loss of intial concentration really pulls my marks down. what should i do? i have had to pay heavily due to this. please help.

thanks in advance,
Deepak

starting problems, eh? :satisfie:

my two cents. dunno if it'll work, but try...
as i said before, there are a few easy questions in each CAT. by easy, you basically mean questions the same type of which you've done before... and which you're reasonably sure you can crack. try to find out those first and attempt them. that should give you some more confidence for the rest of the questions.

and if you can't get the answer for a question before your allotted time (say 1.5 or 2 nins) then leave it and go to the next one. no point wasting time over it. you can get back to it later if you have the time.

stick to the time limits strictly. if not, you'll end up making a mess of sectional cutoffs.

best,
qwiky.

[alekhya]

Let me make it clear at the very outset that I can’t help folks who will sigh at the sight of this piece(both in terms of size and matter)thinking on the lines of,” here we go, yet another chandoo wanna-be..”,cos,well,I dare say, I am one such wannabe and in addition to that, this piece is being written with the very essence for which pg exists in the web world, being the everything of mba .thus I will try to collate as much ,of what I suppose I did right:satisfie: , and more of what I shouldn’t have done:( , as possible in here. And on a very selfishly personal front: man, do I need to shout out loud, yaar!!

I clearly fall in the category of those engineers, who reluctantly took up engineering from a college of their 2nd, 3rd or may be no choice at all, having missed the IIT-bus at the plus two level. so back then, it was the ‘natural’ thing to do: that “I do need the ‘II’ tag in my life, what if the IIT-s are out of question now, the IIM-s were the next one on the horizon..”And it seemed all the more possible to achieve, cos higher level mathematics was never was never my forte, and with God’s grace I had a pretty good grab of the English language. All in all, I was in a bubble from the very beginning of enginnering.kept track of the seniors around in my college and other places, who were aspirants in the same field, collected all kinds of information regarding the dream insti-s that served well to cement my belief once and forever, the iim-s were the place to be. And man did I forget the salary bit, needless to say, the media.pre and post the 2003-paper leak fiasco, did its fare bit to give more wings to my ‘dream’.
Happened to emerge topper in the first year in my department, comp.sc. if any of you are interested in that, surprise surprise, next thing I know, I think of myself as some kinda genius, if I am first in my year with so little studies, so be it, will do all the things that are extra-curricular from now on..Ha! Man proposes…
Nearly flunked in the next two sem-s...Imagine having had the topper tag and then this! Any engineering guy/gal knows this feeling I guess, the burden of the topper tag, and how difficult it is to hold on to it...newaz, from then on, it was all about salvaging some bit of pride in my DGPA.alongside, my quizzing hobby brought me in close proximity to the glitterati in the Calcutta circuit, most of them iim grad-s, I listened to them with rapt attention, watched them enthralled. And the blue eyed gaze just deepened. Here we go again…

[alekhya]

Then came THE moment, tryst with destiny may be: September 2005:happened to spot an article in outlook,abt a certain website run by a bunch of well, it appeared like similar-minded folks, happened to log on. Rather log in. log whatever, and well, just couldn’t let go of it. This was it, all that I needed, and all of whom I needed to speak to; all under the same roof, err...in the same bandwidth. I was a restrained newbie there, mind you,cos it seemed I was never going to post anything on the site at all, all that I needed to know, was already there, in some post, some thread or the other. I missed a big point back then itself, which cost me dear two Sundays back, which I hope will alert at least a single person after reading this: there are thousands others who are having the same blue eyed gaze as we have, never ever underestimate their capabilities along with having confidence in ourselves.
I scrutinized cat 2005 on pg with an hawk eye, analyzing how the freshers like me fared in comparison to the work-ex folks, how did the insti-s judge different criteria, how did the seniors react, I analyzed how low could the cut-offs go in each section for freshers and work ex ppl, i analyzed what pencil did someone carry, I analyzed which insti. Did most blacki-s prepare from, all in all, I OVER-ANALYZED. End of story.:neutral:
Feb-march 2006-I am giving one scholarship test after another in the various insti-s,all announce handsome discounts, I am still floating,”man,this is awesome, If am performing such without any prep-s,then imagine the effect the prep-s will have..Etc etc...”Add to that the buzz in college and friends’ circle that he is taking cat, preparing so well, a 99 percentiler for sure.basically, I float a bit higher. Ultimately got admitted in march in IMS.started off with some pace, finished off the di, English brm-s in record time, maths was always the one little thing that troubled me, but alwaz had the idea, that will do this thing and that. And manage it in the end. No prob with that. my insti sessions were rushing thru real fast, neglected engg.studies real badly,sem suffered yet again, only saving grace was the campussing session, thankfully converted the zero slot itself,tcs it was gonna be, again Mr. analysis was back, next thing I know, I was back to pg,checkin how many ex-tcs-ers had scaled the iim barrier!!
The mocking mocks-all in all, I had hardly finished my quant brm-s and was neglecting my engg.course, my project et al, when the mock-sim etc season arrived. I had decided in true ‘cat-taking style’ to experiment as much as possible in the mocks initially till I found a strategy that worked for me. I had the chandoo bhaiyya-style excel sheet ready since as long that I can remember , the first mock was the pg-cav one, did pretty well apart from the di section. Made notes in the sheet, I marked on the poster in my room as to what I should do, asked seniors, concluded: I needed to get my basics right! Man what a conclusion! As if I didn’t know that! see folks, I can utter loads of proverbs to define my cat story, but I guess none of them could be so apt as: making a mountain out of a mole hill.continuing,then came the sim-s,sim-1 was torrid to say the least a sub-4000 air for me. Same story in sim-2 too, I was alarmed, what’s happening. I didn’t take sim-3...yes, .i was back to ‘analyzing’, I thought about first studying what I had to rectify, rather than having a half-shot at it.sim-4 onwards, things started 2 look up, in the remaining 5.the lowest I had was a 95 percentile, highest being in the much hyped 7th simcat, where I had a 98.xx%le, the bubble was back, this time it was about ‘peaking at the right time’. I was speaking the cat-speak alright.i did everything right na? Then how on earth could it go wrong??well,deep inside I had that answer too, but I didn’t pay heed to it at all, may be I need to pay attention to my basics a bit more,rather than paying too much attention to these extraneous details, may be I need to focus a bit more, you never know what you will get on that fateful day. honestly speaking, barring a less than adequate prep for quant., I did most of it right, I relaxed properly, I learnt what I just had to, I analyzed my mocks, learnt from them, discussed with previous cat-takers, I concentrated on what I knew more, (read English) and sharpened my without pen on paper approach, I think I am good at it, but then..Ok more on that later...

Next:d day..

[siddhesh_j]

Well for the past 1 year and 2 months since I joined Pagalguy , I was a silent spectator over here on this thread . Even for the past 45 something days , I thought my posting here will most probably be delayed by an year.Things were simply not coming together !! Something or the other was just not right with the answer keys of IMS , CL and TIME ... And I knew it. ( As it turned out their score on 24 is 15 , 16, 14 respectively - as documented by warrior)

You see the thing I revere most in life is achievement , nothing else. But alas, till yesterday I simply had not achieved anything worthwhile , something I could be proud of. All I had was a JEE MAINS rank of 3987 which wasn't even enough to clinch a place in ISM Dhanbad mining. Fortunately , I had performed well enough to get /sneak into VJTI IT class ... Ask any of my fellow VJTI colleagues , I was THE LAST OPEN SEAT IN VJTI IT.Basically for 21 years 11 months and 12 days of my life , I was a bloddy ALSO RAN , a phrase I hate from the bottom of my heart!

Really , LIFE was simply not worth living , till JAN 2 , 2007 that is

Well lemme tell u that GDPI still beckons.... but one thing is for sure - call it lottery , call it Super Lotto , call it luck , but the bottomline is that I got 25/100 in that cruel VA paper , and hence have cracked a 99.61 , as well as a call in IIMA .

You see , there are life stories I know that are tougher than my life , but this CAT was my last serious attempt at any competitive exam. Had things not turned on this time , I probably would have taken up some job and stayed happy with it for the end of days. It was like ,academically , I reached my breaking stress point.

But life indeed is worth living my friends ,because cracking CAT is the most beautiful thing in life.

On Jan 2007 , @4.25 pm when I finally got IIMA call , I sat on my chair and simply cried !!I just let my emotions , which are a closely guarded secret, out !!! All I did for the past one year came right before my eyes !! All the decisions I made ,all the risks I took ,all the mock CATs I wrote , all the articles I read , all the websites I saw , all the tables , cubes , squares I mugged , all the Sentences I solved , all the grammar I practised , it all seemed to bear fruit , yes , it all seemed to help !!!!!!!

As of now my reading is AC without a B as far as calls are concerned, but all I care about is that I was among the top 1000 students who appeared for CAT 2006 !!!!


Thanks to my parents , my teachers , my friends, all my well wishers and thanks to pagalguy.com for giving me space to write what I want to !!:satisfie:

[case]

CAT results are out . There have been surprises. While 99 + in earlier years with 90+ in all sections assured 1+ call there have been lot of cases who have got no calls.

My own take on this is that IIMs and all other business schools go for class profile. ie ...% freshers ..% engineers ...% girls .... % CA etc and in each category you will further have sub categories such Computer science / civil / mechanical . So if your friend has got a lower scores than you and still got a call its just that the competition was less severe in his profile. Your class 10 / 12 / your institute also carries weightage but far less compared to your CAT scores. So if you are a boy and an engineer and majored in Comp Science you can expect the max competition and your CAT scores will have to be very good to get a call though work ex can rescue you to a certain extent .. In other words the IIMS just feed in the class profile and press the key and zip comes the call list . Yes there will be heart burns ... neighbours envy ...

case

As a foot note, even if you don't make it to ABC but get selected in LIK just take it for two reasons . 1) Years down the line there will hardly be a diff between these institutes in terms of Placement / prestige or whatever . You will be a guy from IIMs. Mind you in majority of the cases the diff between IIM A student and IIM K student is a better CAT performance on that particular day. This is beeing slowly realised by the recruiters .
2) With the CAT score for the IIM call getting more unpredictable below 99.8 percentile it may not be worth taking the chance

case

[rajat_nda]

ciao everybody...

I don't like the reservation criteria for disabled students...it should only b need-based...
i.e. as per reqmt , like GMAT....
Tk my example, I lost my right hand in Army....decide to call it shots!!...broke sweat.... prepared for GMAT (which gave me some more time since i used my modified left hand...) got well deserved 98 percentile...got thru into ISB...
Thn I gave CAT half-heartedly, n now...for obvious reasons even after geettin a casual 93, call from IIM A,C, et al...
doesn't mk sense, I didn't need a quota for it, I wud've studied if i wanted to join...newayz...

With my exp, I wud go for ISB, but the sys is makin a mockery out of it...I didn't need this resvn, maybe 5mins more for such a case wud've been sufficient...

Newayz, hope my givin way will mk place 4 others...n hope tht in future, necessary changes will b incorporated

ATB ppl!!

ciao


.

[thedragonreborn]

Eons. That's what it has been since I last posted anywhere in PG. And all this when PG was all it took to get through the days, the weeks, the months and years in between one CAT season and the next.

I've been on the forums for more than 2 years now and never ever had the gumption to pen a post out here. And given the lack lustre year I have had as far an MBA goes, I havent a clue whether now is when I should say anything about it. For the road still stretches out : ))

The blokes around here who hopped into one school or the other have left their marks all over. Paths to be followed, paths to beat out further into territories normally one wouldnt touch. How does all of this fit in anywhere? I have inklings, floating around in the mist. I might be rambling through wilderness here, but I would finally like to put down a few words about the fantastic journey that we have had.

CAT was something to be aspired for when I was about to graduate. And with a less than satisfactory four years of milling around in an engineering school, nothing mattered more than a couple of years of "meaningful" education. What could be better for a bloke than making it into an IIM? As it turns out, loads. I might not have made into a school or program of my choice, but the very act of writing the accursed test thrice has led me through places, paths and adventures of a lifetime. People, places, lives; all thrown into a big, ugly, beautiful, sore, wonderful couldron to be stewed. The stew bubbles still.

The first time was for a lark and a big surprise, the second to save several lives and the third just to stay alive. The next time will be to go ahead and get it done at long last. I have seen scores out here who despair about not being able to barge into an old dump for a couple of years. Praise the benevolent chap upstairs for it being so. I have found the means to be more exciting than the end, as far as a career is concerned, now. The markers by the wayside make for a more interesting read than stuffy texts in a school :P Its folly not to soak them up before nipping off to school. Does it become personal for folk who keep hammering at it for ages and are not able to make it? Might be. It did for me this year and I paid the price. But how. I am now hacking away at a job in a firm I love. At the cost of CAT. And a rather more conducive path for me than anything MBA for the next year and years to come.

PG is not short of people who start out late and blink past almost anythng in their path. Through them we have a glimpse into what we are all striving for out here. To smoke the peace pipe with that niggling old burr in our side; CAT.

It took me years. I have had to pay some rather steep prices at unsvaoury terms. But I have made peace with the life-fuddler. Peace with the fact that life through an MBA from an IIM or an FMS or an SPJain or an MDI or an XL is not, never is, what lays your corner stone. These are not what we build our lives upon. Not even what we should dream, our lives away, about. They are what you use as stepping stones. The failures teach you almost as much as do the successes. Boulders, which when you leap across, teach you about that mountain goat like magical grip on slippery stones.

An old, battered Dragon unfurls his wings at long last I sorely miss the Gang though. The halycon days of months gone not too long ago seem to be truly gone.

I have learnt that CAT is but a fleeting moment, just a few hours long, which can teach you volumes about toil, patience, humility, enterprise, give you friends and love for life and most importantly, wake you up to the fact that we need not live out our lives on the basis of what is thought about or percieved of us. We live because we do. For what we are.

Hail the bug-bear. The burr, the thorn. The builder of destinies.

cheers!!!

[siddhesh_j]

Originally Posted by rajat_nda

ciao everybody...

I don't like the reservation criteria for disabled students...it should only b need-based...
i.e. as per reqmt , like GMAT....
Tk my example, I lost my right hand in Army....decide to call it shots!!...broke sweat.... prepared for GMAT (which gave me some more time since i used my modified left hand...) got well deserved 98 percentile...got thru into ISB...
Thn I gave CAT half-heartedly, n now...for obvious reasons even after geettin a casual 93, call from IIM A,C, et al...
doesn't mk sense, I didn't need a quota for it, I wud've studied if i wanted to join...newayz...

With my exp, I wud go for ISB, but the sys is makin a mockery out of it...I didn't need this resvn, maybe 5mins more for such a case wud've been sufficient...

Newayz, hope my givin way will mk place 4 others...n hope tht in future, necessary changes will b incorporated

ATB ppl!!

ciao


.

Rajat sir , I beg to differ ... Infact this is the only reservation I sincerely support ... u thoroughly deserve IIM A if u lost ur hand while fighting for my country .... also u never mentioned that earlier ...during sentence correction days ...u r simply gr8 sir ....

[siddhesh_j]

Alright , I have been getting so many messages every day about tips and strategies for CAT 2006 followed by me ....

Disclaimer : these are prely my views with no offences meant to anyone. Its like Blind ppl describing an elephant, so be wary.

So here goes :

Verbal :
only remedy is To read , read and more read.

1. Firstly use what is called as RSS feeds heavily. Now if u dunno what is RSS feeds , plz search for it. I had taken Hindu opinion RSS feeds , NYT technology and NYT opinion RSS feeds. Even Guardian RSS feeds are good. As a result I had read one of the three passages that came , but still managed only 3 of the 5 answers in CAT 2006.
2. Next read following treads on pg : they are an absolute life savers !!
3. Sentence correction ( particularly Rajat_nda posts)
4. All and I mean all of Subodh Kant's threads.Also answer his qns.
5. Read posts by VA gods of PG such as constantine and Shrutz, they r good motivators.
6. Believe me , no teacher can "TEACH" for Verbal , esp after CAT 2006. Trust your instincts and read without getting bored. And try and read faster without losing content as you become an expert.

Maths :

1. Read Number Systems thread on PG religiously. It is like a temple of knowledge about numbers.
2. Try to be regular with the QQAD feature on pagalguy which starts in feb - march. Heres what Aarav Sir said about my participation in QQAD , which remains by far my proudest moments on PG
3. Try and follow posts of Maths Gods on this forum ... amar_kashyap , vineet.nitd , ashish banaya , varun_nakra , hanuman , tatimatla were the users whom I followed
4. If possible try and find a good teacher for Quant . In VJTI a professor called BYJU sir came to teach , whose classes I attended . They were of a great help.

DI :

1. See all threads started by warrior. Plz note that For Di on pg I havent seen a better mind than warrior.
2. Follow DI marathon thread. Try and see if those questions can be solved. Even I could not crack all problems , but it enriched my speed of thought process.
3. Solve 2 books fully : Shakuntala Devi and Puzzles By summers.

I think that will do for now. bbye

[prem_ravi]

Here comes a middle aged 30 year Old man with his own story behind CAT....

Well as most of us here, I hail from a rural Back ground, a very very small town in interior Tamilnadu where it is very hard to find even a Good State Board School..For most of my Townmates even today life till Standard 12 is confined only to my town & I was no exception...When I finished my Standard 12 believe me I didn't knew that there is something called as JEEE, JMET, CAT, XAT etc, there is a college known as REC...Those days all I wanted to do is an MBBS from Madras Medical College which I lost by just 3 marks(Still fresh in a corner of my heart)...I still remember that day when I sat in the corridor of MMC & literally broke down to tears..My Ignorance costed me a lot..For REC other state quota during those days one needed 98 marks in Physics, Chemistry & Maths & I had a 99.5..& this, I came to know after joining a DOTE II college..Alas, Time went by & I too finished Engg with 58.4% inspite of so many family issues...
Even with a paltry 58.4%, I could win myself a Job through Campus Placement & joined an IT company as Software Sales Executive..Believe me the 1st 2 years of my career were the impetus for what Iam today, those days were the real starting point for my theoretical journey towards CAT..Toiling in Hot Chennai Sun with a Hero Puch..Going as far as 50 Kms in that Hero Puch to do Sales Calls..Sometimes forced to take lunch sitting on the sordid roadsides of PetroChemical refineries...Cant describe much as most of the Sales Guys face this in the beginning of their career....
In 2002 I wanted to write CAT, but as my Sister was getting married I was forced to drop..
In 2003 I got married & became a parent in 2004...But those Dreams about CAT & IIM were still there in my mind & were searching for a reason to come out & I got the reason in July 2005, when I lost my IBM interview to an IIMB guy...
There started my actual & practical journey towards CAT...
It was never easy to compete with young & fresh minds, the way my mock CATs went.....
Many a times, I had to take my book late in the night after my daughter went to bed...
There had been days, when I was awake through out the night, Go to office the next day morning...
For about 1 & 1/2 years it was like an academic cum official life..........a focussed & targetted life...
Jan 2, when I saw my percentile I was almost broken with disappointment & it was my wife as usual who supported me by saying, wait u may get a call
Jan 3, her words came true..I got a call from IIMA....As many said it was for this moment I had fought hard for about 1 & 1/2 years...
Now I whole heartedly Thank my Wife without whom I wouldn't have reached so far, my parents who had been motivating, my friends who stood by me whenever i needed & still helping me in converting this call & most of all my Daughter who had been my inspiration & GOD's wonderful gift to me...

For people taking CAT 2007:-

I have seen so many people posting in PG saying that Iam in my college final year so its difficult to focus on CAT or Iam working in an MNC so its difficult to focus on CAT, I have alow academic marks - will I get a call, Iam scoring very less in MOCK CATs - Do I stand a Chance....Take this from me if you work hard & determined, nothing is impossible ..At the age of 30, with loads of responsibilities & a family to take care when I could do it, why cant you??????????.