[manish_cat]

I had by then a call from Wipro and headed for Bangalore in October with the spirit of CAT still not completely extinguished. So, I moved on and filled the form so CAT 2006 was inevitable now.
But when you are in IT sector and that too while you are undergoing training lifes pretty rigorous. So, for 2 months till the Cat couldn’t even pick up the book.
So, finally comes the d date. I was brimming with confidence that I will definitely improve my score though based on hollow practices, had not even touched the book for last two months. I had a decent paper with time division for each section being DI-55min, Quant-55 min (Since they were my strong section and had g8 hope from them to improve my overall score) and Verbal- 40 min. Verbal section was a g8 surprise really made for me with no typical, horrible, highly unnecessary vocab. The passage were difficult bt I m good in English (a merit holder of CBSE for X board though my CAT 2005 result wont reflect that).

So finally the results are here. I have a creditable score
Overall – 98 percentile
Quant-99
Verbal-92!!!!!!!! (It wasn’t surprising paper was tailor-made for me passages , I Just Love Them)
DI- 89 L (Cudnt believe it, messed a question on weighted average cud you believe it!!!!!!)

So, my IIMs dream died a rather unnatural death (diagnosed with lack of DI in CAT cells though was almost RBC for me in most of the tests!!!!)

Anyways, overcame that set-back n filled forms for Nirma n KJ Somaiya. Had a brilliant PI n good GD with KJ but wasn’t finally selected L !!!!!
Nirma horrible PI and good GD had no hope and was finally selected after a rather long wait in WaitlistJ.
Finally I am going to be a MBA graduate.

SO SOME TIPS FOR FORTHCOMING CAT ASPIRANTS:
1. Judge yourself realistically as you finish half your Simcats(No points for having false hopes) .
2. Know what are your strengths and weaknesses.
3. Develop strategy accordingly, strategy differs from person-to-person.
4. IIMs is not the end of the world, really know your potential.
5. CAT for me is:
Hard-Work : 50%
Know your strengths and Waterloo: 25%
Strategy: 10%
Aptitude and Attitude: 15% (the respective ratios might differ, CAT 2006 for me was all about attitude).
6. DON’T EVER TAKE DROP FOR CAT RATHER JOIN SOME COMPANY GET SOME EXPERIENCE OF CORPORATE WORLD!!!!!!
7. Always know where you stand and be yourself DONT TRY TO APE SOMEONE

DISCLAIMER: It may or may not work for you but this is the strategy that I used.

[seshadri.r]

At The outset:

This would not be an motivational post,rather guyz u'd not be benifited in ur CAT
prep even to little extent.This post would tell you the worst things you can face
during ur CAT PRep.

To know about me u'd hav to go to 2001,yes 2001 July 9th


On 2001 July 9th:

After my TNPCEE results i got a cut off with 272.32/300 which is
abysmal to any OC Candidate.My mother wanted me to do B.E
only in Electronics and Communication Engineering.So i was admitted
in a private engineering college(decent one).The fee was 25K/sem
My mind didnt agree for this.In the mean time i had written entrance
for "Pondicherry Engineering College".During my initial days in Shanmuga
Now SASTRA i convinced my mother telling that i'd do MBA(i was not
knowing any thing about this,the efforts to be put) and it doesnt
matter in which branch ur going to do ur Engineering and moved to
"Pondicherry Engineering College" for Chemical Engineering Class.

First Year:

The Dark ages of my life.I got two arrears in first sem and one in the
second.I was morally down as gud as grass.I had thought of
dropping engineering at that stage,but my father has consoled me
and gave me the confidence to get through first year.

Second Year:

My aim was to clear the Arrears and clear the papers with decent score.
I had bought GATE books worth 4000 at that time and envisaged doing
M.Tech from IIT 'X'.

Third Year:

Slowly the core papers came in and i concluded that,i'm not suitable
for Masters in this field.So thought of doing MBA but i have not
started preparations.I was not knowing about pg at that time.had i known
who knows i'd hav finished my MBA from decent college by this time.

Fourth Year:

In 3rd yr vacation companies started coming in and as a chemical engineer
i didnt get much chances.The Co's i attended were TCS,Infy,Satyam
and current employer (Patni).I was kicked by first three(obviously).
My first Managment Enterance Exam was MAT in Sep.I scored 612/800.
I was glad,i didnt knew it was the easiest exam(comparitively).

Though i hav applied for CAT'04 my semester exams came in between
and i didnt hav guts to write CAT sparing the study holiday couple of days
before university examination.(i had job at that time and i feared failure).
That was the first biggest mistake i did in my life.

Then wrote XAT'05(aiming to join BIM).During Jan my college conducted
our Symposia and i was the Convenor for one of the committe's and
neverthless i scored 22%le.I was the T&P Rep for my dept and
i was the one to get placed at last among the Reps'.
Then project came into picture becoz of Deadlines and Reviews(a typical
of Engg college).
The only motivating part was i improved my B.Tech %ge from sem to
sem.It started at 66.xx at I and ended at 79.45 at VIII leading to
aggregate of 72.72 . I missed distinction (by 3 arrears and 3 %),Ironically
My father is a Gold Medalist in B.Com and Silver Medalist in M.Com
and he is an AICWA.

Thus four years passed and now i was at 2005 May(23) when i vacated the hostel.
Contd in next post

[seshadri.r]

2005 June:

I came to meet my cousin who resigned from Infy and now
he is in IRMA.I saw pg with him and there was one query abt
"when to read" raised by a s/w Er.i laughed at that question
(ironically i started "CAT'07 for Working Junta" thread).Then something
stuck my mind about the seriousness of People taking exams.
From May to Sep i was idle as Patni called me at Sep and i didnt utilise
time effectively.I was watching TV 24*7 and absolutely Did NOTHING.
I had to pay the piper for not being serious and joined patni.
Thus CAT'05 went un attended.
After training i got posted in "Management Information Systems" Businees Unit
and put on a project (i'm working on that till today)

2006 Feb:

I saw CF materials with my cousin so having some senti
without doing any reasearch i just enrolled for classroom course in CF.
Class would be at Sat and Sun from 4- 8 or so.Before that and after that
i seldom read and i had a misconception that enrolling for a classroom course
would take u ahead in CAT.
Nothing improved till june.My grandmother was admitted in Appollo
and i had to go to chennai.i was morally low again(i cried for first time
in that 22 yrs).Later she recovered and me too.Then Aug came with
NCATS and i got very low %le.I had decided that CAT is not for first timers
and we r writing for practise.In one of NCATS i got 94 %le that gave me
a confidence.

Reg QA:
I seldom prep and was over confident as i was Engineer.
Frenz prep more for this sec as this is the scoring one.

DI:

I simply practised few caselets monotonosuly leading
no fruit.

VA:

I prep bit seriously for this and sometimes that was also
haphazard.

I had applied for IIFT,NMAT,XAT.

CAT gave me 55.xx %le and XAT -72%le was better(wrt previous one)

IIFT,NMAT had same resulting.



I started a thread for CAT 07 prep expecting my project would be
over by June and i'd be able to prep.But now when Q4 is set as target
i hardly see any chance of cracking CAT.

I hav planned to skip CAT'07.I'd do a certification(have not decided what to go for) for 1 yr or so then write GMAT next yr with 3 yrs of Prep and of course
i'd write CAT too.I hav taken this decision considering many factors.

Esp
1.I shd be able to get thro rigours of any and i shd be
mentally prepared for same.

2. I shd hav the thirst for knowledge,rather than hostility for IT .

3. I belive that a certification would definitley create a interest
in that field.

My Request to future Aspirants:

Learn from my mistakes and take me as example
for "how not to prep for CAT".
I'm not right person to giv u tips for various sections.u hav got pg for this

What is that i hav achieved?

Got couple of Letters of Appreciation (Q1 and Q4 2006).

Cleared IBM Certification (RPM the word i had lived with
more than CAT).

I hereby like to thank my grandmother,parents,my room mates(Sriram,Bestus)
for their support for CAT'06.
This is my last post in CAT section. I'd post in pg but in GMAT related
and other stuffs.

PS:I didnt thank pg bcoz i dont desrve to thank pg as it is a
place of IIM/XL grads.

I'd come back after a year by this time and i say a temporary gud bye
to u my frenz.

PS:My decision may be absurd but i have decided and parting now.
All the best for working junta frenz and other serious CAT aspirants.

Parting with Tears,
Seshadri Renganathan

[anayagarwal]

gr8 post sesadri.r

I m one of those who had decided that if I dont get a call this yr then thats the end of CAT for me, I know its a very hard decision to take but it ur call.

Although I wanted to post cat story on this thread but somehow I am not able to do so, whenever I start to write I get overwhelmed by ideas.

But I would like to say one thing that I do feel in the end that CAT is a little over hyped exam after all its not the end of life
Every yr only arnd 1500 odd people pass that coverted colidor and make it into IIMs but wat abt the rest?? are they not good enough?? are they lagging behind others??

I dont think so more because even after getting 98+ percentile twice and once over 95 I still feel I dont have good basis of either English or Maths and more over truly speaking I still dont know what it needs to crack CAT even after getting into the IIMs...

I have always felt that CAT is just like another test in life you dont qualify it doesnt necessarily means that you have lost a big part in life but maybe it should give inspiration to people to scale new heights (GMAT, entrepreneurship) Maybe its just a sign of good things to come

So this post is for all those who cannot crack CAT lift ur spirits for there might be better things in life waiting for u......

cheers

[vishalchopda]

CAT 05 preparation
I decided that I want to do a MBA in 3rd yr of my BE and luckily many of my friends also had the same desire. We all went to IMS one fine day in July (yes, it was 16 months before our first CAT) just to inquire about classes and give that preliminary test and stuff. But then we decided we will go to goa this dec after exams and join IMS later. Finally joined IMS Jan2006 Ruia batch (Mumbai). I got the material and started of very steadily. I used to normally do all the required exercise before the class, continued all this till the end of 3rd yr, not much preparation but everything very steadily. Then in beginning of 4th yr I got placed in TCS. After this I picked up pace and completed all my BRM before first simcat on Aug 28. Till this time I had no confidence of doing well in CAT. But in my first simcat which I gave very casually I scored around 97 percentile. That brought a tremendous amount of confidence in me. But unfortunately my percentile never improved and I was stuck with 97 percentile or less in all my SIM CATs. May be something was wrong with my preparation for CAT, I never analyzed the tests I gave and I gave importance to the no of tests I could give rather than analyzing those tests. With 2 weeks to go for CAT in November I gave a mock almost daily which actually denigrated my performance.

CAT 05
It was now time for CAT 05. I started with quant, got stuck in it, moved to verbal, jumped to DI and kept on moving between sections. I couldn’t handle the pressure of the big day and this switching between sections costed me dearly. I got 97.7 percentile in CAT 05 with quant being the lowest at 89.7, verbal and DI where good, both more than 96. As expected no IIMs but I got calls from NITIE thru CAT and SIIB and SCMHRD thru SNAP. My first GD/PI was SCMHRD and I gave it without any preparation and needless to say my performance was pathetic. Same happened with SIIB. Now I felt the need to prepare and I prepare extensively for NITIE, but unfortunately in my PI I was asked academic questions from the only subject which I didn’t prepare. (I was asked about stages of a “compiler”) I was very disappointed and I couldn’t get a call, not even a waitlist from any 3. By this time I had decided I will now join TCS and try for CAT again next yr. I gave Maharashtra CET just for the heck of it without much preparation. But to my surprise I scored 99.82 percentile in it, everyone started telling me you will surely get JBIMS. But I knew I won’t be a good fit to JBIMS and neither will JBIMS be a good fit to me, I was not too keen on joining a non-residential B-School(just my personal opinion, I don’t intend to say that non-residential programs are bad). I gave CET GP/PI again without any preparation and GD/PI were decent. I was expecting around 13 out of 17 in both GD and PI and was mostly thinking of joining JBIMS now due to family pressure, But again when I had almost decided that I would join JBIMS the results came and I got only 11 out of 17 in both GD and PI and I missed JBIMS by exactly 4 marks.

TCS/TOEFL/GRE/CAT 06
Now I had to join TCS within one week and I was so disappointed with my performance that I decided to give GRE and apply for MS (in Financial Engineering and not CS) as a backup. My CET results came around June 10 and I had to join TCS in June 19. I decided to give TOEFL before joining TCS and without any proper preparation I gave it on June 16 and I scored 277/300. I joined TCS training in pune and started preparation for GRE. My training went well and I topped the mid term test of TCS. I hoped after training I would return back to Mumbai and prepare for my GRE and CAT 06. But one more shock came my way and I got allocated to Ahmedabad. All my GRE and CAT plans went down the drain. I wrote a lot of mails to HR, MATC and fought hard and finally I was allocated again to Mumbai. I gave GRE on Oct 19 and I scored 1440/1600 in it. CAT 06 was on Nov 19 and I just had one month to prepare for it along with my job at TCS. By this time I had joined Career Launcher mocks and gave around 3 mocks before my GRE and I had 3 more to give after my GRE. I didn’t intend to prepare anything for verbal/RC as it had tremendously improved coz of GRE preparations. With just 6 mock CATs and nothing else I went to give CAT 06. This time I didn’t prepare anything but at the same time I neither had any expectations so I gave CAT with a completely chilled mind. I found the paper very easy and I performed OK but not up to my full potential. I got a correct answer for a question in DI but unfortunately marked the wrong option in the OMR seat which costed me very dearly. I got 98.77 in CAT 06 with lowest being in DI at 91 percentile (that one wrong answer was the reason for no IIM calls). I got 96.5 in Quant and 99.2 in verbal (this was due to GRE preparation). I was expecting atleast 1/2 IIM calls considering last years call pattern of IIMs at my percentile. But I didn't get any. I had only filled MDI, SPJain and IMT. No other exams as I was pretty sure I will be doing a MS. I got calls MDI and IMT (didn’t get a call from SPJain due to reasons unknown to me). I prepared very hard for my GD/PI, even more than my GRE preparation. My colleagues in office were very supportive.
My IMT GD was good and PI was just for 90 seconds where I wasn’t asked anything. They ridiculed me for opting finance as first option after doing IT engg and then asked me to go. Needless to say I was again very disappointed with such a PI. By this time I had applied for MS to 6 univs and I had got admit from one which wasn’t my first choice. But I had to pay $750 there to confirm my admission and since I had no other option by that time I had to pay. I prepared extensively for MDI GD/PI and finally the day came. I had a very good GD and decent PI.
My IMT result came and I had a rank of 547(which was expected after a weird PI). I was getting IT/HR at IMT but since I was interested in finance, I didn’t take it up. Then was there was a long wait for MDI result as the results got delayed due to OBC Quota issue. Finally MDI results came I was waitlisted at 284. I knew my chance of converting was very slim. But I kept hope. By this time I had got rejects from Stanford, NYU, and Columbia for my MS applications and I had been waitlisted at Michigan, CMU. I had already confirmed my admit at UIUC by paying $750. My Michigan waitlist converted which I preferred over UIUC. I had to pay $500 at Michigan to confirm my admit by May 18. MDI waitlist started moving and it moved till 200 by May 8. Now I had hope of converting MDI. I requested Michigan to postpone my deadline till May 25 which they agreed. By this time there where rumors of increase in seats at MDI which gave more hope of me getting a confirmed offer from MDI. Now I also had a confusion regarding whether to join Michigan or MDI. After much deliberation and thinking I decided to join MDI if I get it. But on May 23 to my disappointment and shock the waitlist moved till 270 and I was at 284. I had no other option but to pay $500 at Michigan. With $750 already gone at UIUC this $500 was pinching me the most. But since the next waitlist movement at MDI was expected around June 6, I had to pay at Michigan as they were unwilling to extend my deadline further. I paid $500 to Michigan on May 23 and exactly a week later on May 30 I got a confirmed from MDI. I was overjoyed but at the same time I was disappointed of losing $1250 at UIUC and Michigan. But I was happy that finally the uncertainty has ended and now its almost decided where am I going. I still have CMU admit which if convert (only with a aid) then I might join CMU (I said might).

I would like to say only 2 things about CAT:

1] People say it is very difficult to crack CAT. I would say it is difficult but cracking GD/PI is more difficult than getting a 98 odd percentile in CAT. So getting a good percentile in CAT doesn’t mean half the job is done, infact the job had just begun now.

2] I personally feel work ex makes a lot of difference to person’s thinking, ability to work and he gets clearer about his goals. Even with a small work ex of 12 months I feel so. It doesn’t matter you working for IT/finance/marketing Company before MBA. Work ex from any company where you do good work makes a difference.

I am very happy to join MDI now and I am happier to post on this thread which I wanted to do from long. I had even lost hope that I will ever get a chance to do so. This is the beginning of a new journey for me on pagalguy as from now I won’t be a CAT aspirant but a student of MDI.

Regards,
Vishal

[amanonArun]

Well, after a lot of pestering and cajoling by abhi_g1, I finally decided that I will write my story in this sacred thread. First of all something about me.

My Profile

X – 88.8% (SSLC)
XII – 91 %
BE – 81.1% from VTU in Information Science and Engineering
Work Exp – 34 months (9 months in Infosys (yes I broke the bond) and 25 months in HP)

Now coming to my CAT Experience

Sometime in December 2002

Well, we were in our third year in engineering and the job market was not too good. It was the boom time for the IT job market and we were getting worried a bit, cause the improvement in job market was nowhere in sight. So, a lot of us were thinking of the next logical step, if we don’t get a job….higher studies.

A chunk of my classmates decided to take up GRE and went to the preparation classes. I being allergic to the technical field decided that it was not my cup of tea. So I was looking around to find what else I could do. CAT 2002 had completed recently and as a few of my seniors had taken up the exam, I could hear some discussions going on in the corridors of our college (That was the place where we spent most of the time anyways…corridors I mean).

So, after some discussions with my seniors, I decided that this is the thing which I wanted to do. And that was when the pagalpan of CAT got into me. Thus began the search for a good coaching institute for CAT and that was when I found out that another chunk of our group of friends have also decided to take up CAT. We went around inquiring in a few institutes and finally settled with Career Forum (It still intrigues me as to why we chose that over all others.)

So, off we went to the classes from the middle of February. Actually, in the hindsight I think, we were not really serious about the amount of commitment needed for cracking CAT. We were just going for the classes in the weekend and were sitting and solving a few exercise problems during the boring lectures in the class during the week.



Contd....

[amanonArun]

Sometime in August 2003

The mock CATs started and still we weren’t serious enough to go for the kill. We just wrote a few mock CATs, bunking a lot more. And to top it all, I was usually among the top 100 in the national ranking, whenever I wrote the mocks. This made it easier for the complacency to set into me. To add to all these confusions I had been offered a job at Infosys and was to join the next August.




November 23rd 2003

The D-Day had arrived and I went in to the exam hall full of confidence and expectations of cracking it. The new thing in that paper was the presence of a poem in the English comprehension section. After 2 hrs of the test, I came back home with a sense of accomplishment. Yes…I gave my first CAT.

The same afternoon, I had just finished my lunch and was sleeping peacefully. The phone rang. I picked up the phone bleary eyed. It was my friend at the other end. She too had given CAT. She sounded a bit worried and was telling something, nothing of which was being registered by my mind which was still in a sleepy state. Finally she gave up the effort of pushing the news into my head and asked me to switch on the news channel. I switched on the news channel and the breaking news was…. CAT PAPER LEAKED. EXAM HELD TODAY CANCELLED. RE-EXAM DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY.

Off went my sleep… and when the enormity of the situation sunk in I was royally pissed off. So, off went my dreams of cracking CAT and joining an IIM.

It took nearly a month or so for me to finally start concentrating on the re-exam. But unfortunately, our semester exams were scheduled at the same time. The CAT retest was announced to be sometime in February, just 2 or 3 days after my semester exams.

I wrote both of them and what ended up happening was that, I scored my lowest marks in my engineering, just scraping through one of the paper for the first time in my life and ended up scoring just 95.7 percentile in the CAT retest. And of course, no calls from anywhere. I ended up joining Infosys in the August of 2004 and got submerged in the rigor over there.

I didn’t give CAT 2004. But some time after the last date for the submittal of the CAT application, I got disillusioned with the life at Infy. My daily routine was like get up at 6 in the morning and rush through my daily chores and rush to catch a bus at 6:45 AM. Work in the office till 11 or 12 or sometimes even 1 in the night and comeback home by around 1:45. Sleep till 6 and the routine continues. That was the time when I decided I need to change job and give one more attempt at CAT. Finally in the month of March 2005, I broke the bond and quit infy to join HP.

I applied for the CAT 2005, but was not too interested in it now. I loved this job as I was new to it and it was in my favourite domain of Unix operating system. I was thinking about a correspondence MBA. I didn’t study properly. I just brushed up the basics. My mother tried to push me to study, failed and gave up the effort. She thought that I was not going to write CAT.






Contd....

[amanonArun]

November 20, 2005

The D-Day arrived. My mother didn’t even know that I was going to write the exam. I got up early and started to prepare. The previous two Sundays two of my friend’s marriage was there. My mother thought that there was a marriage even on that day. I just got ready and left. I went over to the exam centre and was standing looking at all the tensed faces of the other students. I wrote the exam and this time the paper had only 90 questions. I hadn’t observed that too. I was coming out of the exam hall and the other student were discussing that the paper had just 90 questions and they were taken aback because of that. That was when I realised that there were only 90 questions in the paper.

I had no hopes of clearing the cut offs and did not bother to check my result on the day, when it was announced. That evening one more friend of mine called up and told me that he had calls from 4 IIMs and pestered me to check my results. I was so sure, that I wouldn’t get a call, that I didn’t even check the result. The next day in the office, due to his pester I decided to check my result and to my amazement found that I had calls from IIM B and IIM L. I had scored 98.73 percentile.

And did it make me serious…. No. I was as aloof as I was always and went to the L interview, without even preparing for the basic question of “Tell me something about yourself”. No wonder I was royally screwed in it and though I did put in some effort for my B interview, I couldn’t clear it.

As far as my friend was concerned, he got thru IIM I in the waitlist. That was when I got a bit serious about my life and the CAT. Moreover, I was bothered by the politics which goes on at work place and wanted to get out of there. So, I thought that clearing CAT and getting into a B-School was the only option.

So I dropped the idea of a correspondence course and took up the matter seriously. I was lucky to find two more friends in office who were also taking up CAT. I decided that I will take up the mock tests and enrolled for one of them. After the ups and downs of all the mock tests, came the D-Day one more time.

November 19, 2006

Well, this time once again the CAT had changed it colours. It had just 75 questions, with a screwing English section. After the test, I was fairly confident that I had done well. But then came the stuffs about wrong questions in the paper, and what the IIMs had to do. There were demands for retest. Arguments and counter arguments, both for and against the retest. After the tense and nervous month of December, the results came on Jan 2nd. But this time, unlike the previous years, they had just put up the scores and the calls were given much later.

I had a score of 99.59 percentile and was confident that I would get a few calls at the least. I joined one of the coaching centers for the GD/PI preparation. When the calls came out I had a BLACKI.

Well let me skip the part about the interviews and the experience and the quota struggle et al, which all of us know of. Finally when the results were announced, I had calls from L, I and K. After some trepidation, I decided to join IIM L and sent them the DD and the acceptance letter through speed post on 7th of May. 14th of May was the last day for the DD to reach them. I called them up on the 10th and found that the DD hadn’t reached them. Again a call on 11th, and I was told that the DD hadn’t reached them and that my candidature would be annulled, if the DD didn’t reach them by 5PM on 14th of May. I called up on 12th in the afternoon and when I came to know that the DD hadn’t reached there, I decided to fly to Lucknow, with another DD. Finally on the 14th of May, I gave them another DD in person. Till this day, the original DD has not reached IIML and nobody knows where it is.

24th of May 2007

My manager announced to the team that I will be leaving HP and joining IIML and after all the congratulations and adulations, I came back to my seat, only to find a mail from IIM Calcutta, offering me admission for PGDM. So that’s how I am going to Joka now.

6th of June 2007

That is today.... Today was my last day at work. Last day as a Software Engg....

[mealiennothuman]

Don't know if this post is going to get a lot of groans like the above few posts did. But I didn't find any other thread where this post of mine would seem suitable. Hence posting here.

These are just musings. Not directed at anyone particular. Nor do they serve any particular purpose.

A couple of days back I saw 2-3 posts saying "Gave CAT in 2005 without preparation. Hence got so and so. Gave CAT again without preparation..." My first thoughts on reading the posts were, whats the point of writing such things? What does the person want to say? Does he want to say that, if he had prepared he would have got 99.99%ile. These are plain excuses. Does it matter if you gave CAT with preparation or not? The bottom line is that you didn't score. Why did you give CAT in the first place in that case? Then again, to whom are you giving the excuses to? The only person who is affected is you yourself. You are the one who's not gonna get into a good college just because "you gave it without preparation". Rather than saying "Its ok I got less because I didn't prepare this time" or "Its ok I didnt score since it was my first attempt", recognize that you went wrong somewhere and then try to rectify the mistake. Excuses only give us a false temporary sense of comfort. Better not go that way.

[gmathews]

At the onset this is the one thread that I always wanted to post on... and no since I am finally in the place I wanted to be I think its more than appropriate to summarise a journey that has taught me a lot of things, got me a lot of new friends, given me a few heartbreaks and finall something I will cherish all my life...

My CAT journey started out in August 2005... had just got over with my 3rd year exams and kinda had wanted to start with what I wanted to do after my engineering... was kinda set on the fact that I wanted to get on with management for my higher education as 4 years in engineering had given me good reasons for the same...

So in August 2005 joined IMS Correspondence course... did kinda really well in the test series... and put in the qork enough to get everything covered up... was offered the crash course by IMS based on my erformances in the SIMCAT... in the end CAT came and the format and everything was a total surprise... was taken back a little by the same... anyways I put in a decent enough show... and was really hopeful about my results... the results came out and was really heart broken to see that I had no got through any of the IIMs... and when the score came later... got to know that I had missed it by just a whisker... had got 98.85... that made it even more clear in my mind what I wanted to do and where I wanted to do my MBA from...

Completed college and joined HSBC Software Development in July 2006... searched around for other instis as wasn't really happy with the effort put in by IMS earlier... this time a friend of mine suggested me TIME... so went and joined TIME for crash course... I suppose it was a necssity in my case as it ensured that at least during the weekends JAVA was out of my head and the I did manage to dedicate a little time to my prep... I had a decent showing in the AIMCATs...

Finally the D Day came... this time around even though the pattern changed I was better prepared for the same...it did not fluster me... had a very decent attempt and when I left the exam hall I was really happy with my attempt... the English section was kind of a lottery... anyways immediately after CAT had a severe bout of Jaundice and then it was back to serious work...

The day the results came was really tensed up and was really happy to see that I had got calls from A,C,L,I,K... was overjoyed... it was at about this time that I got hooked onto PG too... anyways started my GD prep... my interviews all of them except L wnet really well...

Was really exasperated by the delay, due to reservation, in the results though... and finally when the results came I was cloud nine when I came to know that I had converted C... the college I dont know why but I wanted to be in...

And now I am writing this one week after I have joined IIM C... thanks a lot to all of the guys who directly or indirectly through PG have helped me out in one way or the other...