All I wanted to Speak about CAT

[the_egonomist]

I had written about my MBA season on BBLT, but decided to add one post here as well.

First Attempt , 2006:
The first attempt was in all fairness, very bad. I had just done with my graduation and I was not really sure where I was going. I decided to attempt CAT (my parents wanted me to join the business ASAP). I joined classes and test series - which didn't do much good considering I was not very serious. The result was me getting a paltry 60.xx %ile. I decided to attempt again and this time for serious.

Second Attempt ,2007:
The second attempt was better. I was at home helping out with the business, exercising and for once studying properly. I started with basics (8th,9th and 10th textbooks I solved end to end) and then graduated to material from two different institutes. I took the test series. Was faring badly at first, but then kept persisting. I had a revelation and found that DI and Verbal were going much better. Quant was one section that still troubled me - the result of a mind block. I continued with papers and sectional tests. With as much preparation I could take, I headed to Pune which was my base camp for the exam season.

Pune and the exam season:
I landed a week before CAT. Was fortunate to get a good college (Wadia with its awesome crowd). D-day, my friend dropped me and had a smoke before the exam. I entered the college. Shortly my friend left and I was left on my own. I was surprised to find myself so calm and with that I went to my seat. The paper itself was a revelation. I found the paper to bring out an unusual good feeling about the paper. I attempted the Verbal and DI sections real nice and felt confident of scoring really high. Quant was unusually tough - and that was an understatement with my mind block and all. I did as best I could and waited for the coaching centers to release their versions of the answer keys. I calculated the scores and I found that my quant was pathetic (scored a mere 7). DI and Verbal were much much better.

With CAT out of the way, I went ahead with SNAP,XAT and NMAT. NMAT and SNAP were easy but I was more inclined towards qualitative questions. I did my best to attempt as many as I could. NMAT was additionally tough what with all the crowd around me. ( I was the only guy in two rows of girls ) XAT was tough. I was not really sure how my sections went and I wrote a rather long essay. Again my quant was real bad. With the exams out of the way, I resigned myself to the results.

Results and Post Results:
My scores were as follows:
CAT - 90 odd with 56%ile in quant. XAT - 95 with 56%ile in quant. Geez! Didnt clear SNAP and NMAT cutoffs. With the relatively poor results I ended up with only three calls. The GD/PI left me optimistic with the exception of one. I converted one college but decided I should aim higher.

With this season done (and to be forgotten), I decided to attempt again. I also decided that I will not settle for anything less. I am yet to reach my glass ceiling. One more thing I learnt is that two years with my family business doesnt help. If I wanted to do MBA might as well do it properly and not settle for anything less.

So here I am, 2008 season aspirant looking to change my profile for the better. I decided to work outside and attempt again, so that I would get to do MBA from a college that I would want to goto...

Cheers and Goodluck. And remember, its never too late!

Vivek.

[macora]

Finally the day has come when I am getting a chance to write in this thread. This thread is revered as the most sacred thread on PG. It has been inspiration to thousands including me and now it feels just too good to explain.
Like how sehwag would have felt playing with sachin, sachin would have felt on meeting bradman..

The story begins:

The thought of doing higher studies came to my mind in my college. The aim was to prove to myself that I was better than what I am currently doing. The time when I joined my college IT industry was at its bottom in 2001. The thoughts of not getting a job and being a burden on my parents used to disturb me. So, the limelight given to IIM students attracted me also. I knew it wasn't easy but also knew that every good thing is not easy.
I was prepared to put in the hard work. I was ready for sacrifices. And I did those, in terms of putting in hours of study on CAT material starting from April 2005.

I stopped playing in those cricket games, missed those parties and preffered to remain at my place so that I can get some extra time. I did not want to lose my grades because then in IIM interview I might face a problem because e I didnt have work-ex. At the same time didn't want to risk the placements. Those were the real hectic times. But CAT prep helped a lot in my placements, everytime I used to beat the best in the placements, though my interviews didnt go that well.. CTS was the first company and Oracle was finally where I joined.

In the meanwhile, the mocks before CAT 2005 seemed to go well. I used to score well 97-99.5 percentiles in CL mocks.
On the CAT day, I was all prepared. I was sure that I will get in and clear it. There was a little surprise to see differential markings and then those 2.5 hours just sailed. I was worried about my English and little bit about quants.
And finally when the results came, I saw 98.2 percentile with an 86.5 in quants. VA was 95.3 and DI 98.7
I was lost, felt like breaking somebody's jaw..

Then I was little settling down when all of a sudden I get an MDI call letter sent to my house. I never checked the MDI results on site The interview was 15 days later at IIMB. I thought of skipping this first, but then went in after some compulsion. The best part of the whole experience was the IIM campus. I knew if I had to do MBA its IIMs. But still attended MDI interview and then didnt check results for long and later one day I found the reject. The learning I got from there was that if I can have a good work-ex it will be even better for me while doing MBA.
This sets the tone for next year.

The story revolves:

I analyzed those failures a lot. Went to various sites and read people experiences. Read about what use an MBA would be. In the meanwhile I was introduced to PG by my friend kannan (mirchikris on PG). For me, it is still the best place to discuss anything.

But what I learnt was the dedication which some of the senior guys in PG were putting. Puys like prem_ravi, amitnitsian and UDT and DT members of 2006 were really doing awesome work. This year I was fully learning on my work and trying to involve in PG offline activities.

Wrote CAT again, got a meager 95 percentile with a very bad percentile in VA.. around 70 percentile. Other two were above 95. But I wasnt expecting much.. This year brought out a different person in me. I felt like those profs were right. I could understand the value of work-ex. Things which I cudnt have learned in college.

continued.....

[macora]

Continued....

The epitome:

The final part of my journey started after I read through the experiences of people on the UDT thread. The feeling of losing and succeeding was awesome. I could feel it. I decided that I will be part of UDT and succeed this year no matter what happens. Didnt want to leave any stone unturned, so joined the full-time TIME course. Got acquainted with a lot of friends there. First met prem_ravi, vijay317 and sundarrajan during those classes.

But the greatest impetus was provided by my first PG meet. Guys like anarchy, oxymoron and profootball were really motivating.. That was the first time I felt dreams can be made reality. And then on my first aim was to keep remaining motivated for doing well. Some of us used to have weekly meets after that. Nearly for months me, harsha rocks, amrutesh666, the_wraith, RISING, contender and ravi(dont remember his PG id) used to meet and discuss various stuufs including studies . Esh.nil, my colleague also was part of this CAT journey and used to solve some gr8 quant problems and teach me few tricks sometimes.

Then the mocks started and there was not much time for meets during every weekend though we used to meet often. Then started the sinusoidal waves in mocks. There used to be ups and downs. The scores used to rise for sometime continuously and then fall continuously lot of analysis can be done on that. You can check the scores at http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...tml#post834102 (CAT-07 Mock CAT Scores Repository)
Side by side I joined CL mocks also but attended only around half of them.. Evening mocks can be real sleepy

Around this time the UDT for 2007 was formed. I was very much intended to join this as you read earlier. Thankfully the judges gave me a chance and that was the first hint of hope that I can make it.. The motivation provided on this thread is very rare to find. Though BBLT and DT were also equally good, but I wanted to be in UDT only. Came across brilliant people here like krsh.vik, Greenspan, Anir_iim2005, cimbaish_nitin, somname, rjt163, the_phantom, harshadk and veritas here. It was great learning from these guys.

The most difficult part was October and November when felt that I knew most of the stuff still my scores weren't that good. I used to regularly chat with people as to what to do. But nothing improved. The last mock which I wrote was TIME AIMCAT-2, which was 2 weeks before the CAT. And in this I touched my lowest score at 78 percentile. I was reading few things after that but never got the courage to take the full mock.

The day before CAT:

I decided that if I had prepared enough I need not worry. I had given my maximum this time and even if this year I dont get through I will quit CAT. Then the only thing that came to my mind is why I am thinking like a loser before fighting. I geared up and started thinking that I will crack it. Thoughts like beating DT members also came to my mind And finally I decided, I will write CAT as though I am good enough to get into any college. Good enough to score more than any person.

The day of CAT:

It was like a normal day. I got dressed in my usual dress for mocks, same set of slippers, pen, pencils and watch. I used to have lot of pencils BTW. By the time I was writing CAT, I had 22 pencils, 6 erasers and 4 sharpeners.
Luckily got the same center for CAT where I used to write mocks. So, it was quite easy. No distractions in front of me this time :P So, started on a happy note and didnt think about anything else during the exam. It was like done in 10 minutes. Never felt the time passing by. Then, while coming out I thought that a season of speculations is going to start and I dont want to be a part of that. So, just discussed some quant questions with Prem, did not discuss anything else. In the evening, after lot of persistence from anir_iim, I told the options I marked in verbal. The verdict was that i am just getting 2 out of 15 correct. Thats it, I closed the paper and put it below the 100s of mock papers I had and vowed not to touch it till the results.

So, free from all this speculation I enjoyed the time before CAT results. There was a shocker on the day of CAT results, I was refreshing from morning for the results which were supposed to come at 3 PM.
And the results were too good to my expectations.
I got 99.46, with all sections above 95. Especially 97.97 in VA
And it said at the bottom of the page, calls from B C L I K.

Then started a journey of a totally different sense, I had to know myself. It was easy saying this, but it was quite hard to understand how to do this. Apart from that, there was need to be familiar with all the general topics. GD PI classes were a lot helpful. Especially the 2 day camps organized by coaching institutes. What I learnt from there was that every person might be good, have some great skills. But what matters is how he is able to present those things in front of everybody. IIMs need good people who are intellectuals, not some bonds. But one thing was clear that there are lot of nice people at this stage and competition is tough.

Slowly, each GDPI passed and I got good to average GDs and average to bad PIs. Again wasn't expecting much overall, but then used to think whether even one IIM wudnt have found me good enough to be a part of their college. The wait for the results was even prolonged by the quota issue. I read each of those 270 pages and 2700 posts on that thread.
And finally on the day of results I was travelling in a bus, when B announced the results. Went home and saw the result. Reject. It seemed like under a weight of 1000 tons. I thought B was my best chance. But B didnt think so.
2 hours later C results came and those 2 hours were one of the longest 2 hours of my life.
C said "Congratulations" and the party began.. :gm Didnt check any other result.
Later in evening my brother told that I converted L, I and also K.


Now here, I am not saying that I faced a lot of hardships while preparing. But I feel I did which was once considered impossible by me and ppl who knew me. It was this feeling of achievement which I have attained.
Another thing which I wud like to tell is that the preparation of CAT is no less than writing CAT and succeeding. Enjoy the process then you can really perform your best and even if you are not able to, you wud still have a feeling that you got some great friends.

[Surfacer]

Here's my CAT story

CAT 2005

It all started in August 2004, in my 3rd year of Engineering, when I enrolled with Career Forum for their 2 year CAT prep. programme. Gave an Hour’s mock on the very first day and scored around 95%ile.
I was happy and decided to put efforts, but somehow I did not make any effort to study regularly, though I attended all the classes. I practiced a lot of Quant after my 3rd year exams, because, I did not like the other two sections, so, just did Quant. Time flew and in August 2005 gave my first National Mock with CF. Ended up with 99%ile. It was then that I started preparing seriously and studied hard. In the last few months, 2 other PGites from my college, ‘Zanyzaphod’ (now in IIM-A) and ‘Sonalis75’ (going to IIM-L this year) & me would sit and solve, analyse mocks.

CAT 2005, gave the exam and thought I had done decently, the results showed otherwise.

OA – 96.83

DI – 89.xx
VA – 87.xx
QA – 98.xx

No IIM calls, though I ended up with NITIE, XLRI (XAT=99.60) and IIT-Kgp (JMET rank 486).
Attended the interviews but did not convert any of the 3 calls.

CAT 2006

Joined TIME weekend classroom course (got a discount) and also joined the AIMCAT Series. Did well in the first few tests, but lagged behind badly in the later ones, mainly because I was not studying at all, and the competition was improving with every test.
Gave CAT2006, and again failed to do well.

OA – 96.27

DI – 89.xx
VA – 93.xx
QA – 96.xx

Had applied only to the IIMs and obviously no calls. XAT was 95.xx %ile and again, no XLRI call. It was an uneventful season in terms of calls.

CAT 2007

In May 2007, I decided I would not study for CAT. I was doing well at work and thought I would make a career out of it. Discussed the plan with my parents who thought I was making a mistake by not giving CAT another realistic shot.Went onsite from July to September and enjoyed a great European Summer Holiday. Roamed about Europe for every weekend in those 2 months without a care in the world. We were a group of six 20 somethings and had the time of our lives. (CAT? What is that?). Came back to India and enrolled for the TIME 8 AIMCAT series and decided to give it another serious shot. One AIMCAT was already over when I enrolled, so 7 to go. Mid September to Mid October was spent in serious CAT Prep. (I think the European Holiday refreshed my mind). There was work at office but somehow managed to pluck an hour or two for CAT everyday.

CAT 2007, My first thought on seeing the paper was “I can’t do a single question in this Quant section” (and I am not making this up, it really was my first thought). Started with VA as usual, did 30 mins of it. Then moved to DI, did it for 50 mins, then QA for 50 min, and VA for the remaining 20 mins (this was predecided and this strategy was tried and tested in the mocks and I felt it worked for me). I knew it was a tough Quant section, so focused heavily on accuracy. As I left the hall, I knew I had played a risky accuracy game. I had only a few attempts in all 3 sections and was banking heavily on getting them right. Checked the solutions of QA & DI that night, and knew I was safe. It was only VA which was a mystery and my guess on the answers was as good as anyone else’s.

Results showed I had done well.

OA – 99.68 (129 marks)

DI – 96.27 (47 marks)
QA – 96.76 (35 marks)
VA – 99.77 (47 marks)

IIMs LACKI called me for their next round (B call? My graduation marks played spoilsport)

My preparation for the GD/PI was significantly better than 2 years ago. Spoke to PGites, particularly ‘Zanyzaphod’ (Anand), ‘Rosogulla’ (Joydeep), ‘Krishnan_Sekar’ (Krishnan) and also the mentors assigned to me as part of the Mentorship Programme of the IIMs. All of them gave me valuable advice for the next round of the GDs and the PIs. A big thanks to all those guys who helped me at this stage.

I had in total 8 calls, IIMs LACKI, XLRI, MDI, NITIE and the interviews spanned over a period of 50 days, did decently in all of them (made some mistakes in some interviews, but kept leaning from each mistake).

As for the results I have converted all the IIM calls I had namely, IIM A,C,L,K,I, MDI and Waitlisted in NITIE (which will convert in all probability) and XLRI (which will not convert in all probability). No rejects and that feels good considering I had only rejects 2 years ago.

Going to IIM A & hoping to have a fun filled 2 yrs in what is simply ‘The Best’ institute to be in.

Finally, a little Gyaan on CAT

What I did differently in my year 2007 attempt at CAT.

1) Analysed mocks properly. Re-solved all the questions at home before the next mock the next week
2) Din’t overdo the mocks. 1 mock a week was all I did.
3) QQAD (Quant Questions A Day) periodic tests were very helpful. The questions were good, came in bunches of 25-30 and were fun to do. I did those and analysed them properly.
4) I had begun to read a lot since the last 2-3 years and thus unintentionally my VA skills had improved.
5) I cared nothing about what %ile I got in me mocks. In fact I got something like 79%ile and 80%ile in the last 2 AIMCATs leading up to CAT. It din’t bother me one bit. I used the mocks only to learn from previous mistakes and as a question bank.
6) Each mock exam (CAT included) is different and approach it that way. What you got in your previous exam(s) has no bearing on the next one (I may be wrong here, but that was my philosophy). Of course, that dosen’t mean you don’t learn from the mistakes you made in the previous mocks.
7) Accuracy helps in DI & QA. Avoid guessing in these 2 sections.

Some Gyaan on GD/PI

1) Be yourself. Be Confident. Don’t get intimidated by others.
2) Prepare hard, very hard. Know enough about every detail you put in the IIM forms.
3) Talk to people who have converted IIM calls in the past. They will give you lots of useful pointers.
4) Be friendly & formal in the GD. Content is everything and whatever happens, don’t get overly aggressive. (In my personal opinion, GD is a waste of time if it is short…a 1 hour GD makes more sense)
5) If you have the time, attend the GD/PI session at the Institiute itself (for eg. Give the IIM L GD/PI @ IIM L even if you live in say Chennai, provided you have the time for it). I had to do it with IIM A and the moment I experienced the place, I did not want to go anywhere else, so, extra motivation to get in.


On PagalGuy :

I would like to keep this short & sweet. The next time somebody asks me anything on MBA education in India, my answer is going to be, “have you heard of PagalGuy?"

[varunspidey]

Wow it sure feels good to write here!! I never thought it would be possible not so early at least…..but here I am
Well my story has no CAT’0X to it, it began and ended this year. And I am writing here not for sympathy or for those thanks below the post (liar liar) but just hoping that this will inspire atleast someone out there and allow all those guys with not so brilliant profiles to rest their brains and stop worrying.
Its bin like a rollercoaster ride up and down, up and down, but its been fun too, a good learning experience with some etched memories.
It started somewhere around in 2002-03 when I started preparing for my JEE. I remember the slogging 12 hrs 14 hrs the sky was the limit!…..there r people who call it drudgery but nah it’s a sacrifice yea that’s the word….but a pity that after all the hard work and 2 attempts didn’t get thru both the times…..cleared the Screening but not the Mains
Then I had to stick to VJTI coz that was where I was…..lost all interest in studies and screwed up big time got a pathetic cgpa!!…….was down in the dumps big time this was upto my 6th sem of course and the magnanimity of the situation just struck me!.....I knew it was gonna be a tough journey from here on…and that just got confirmed in the placement season…….I will never forget this incident all my life
There were a lot of companies who came to our campus to recruit and had to do a lot of requesting to let me sit for their companies…..most of them “at least” had a criteria of 6cgpa and here I was with something worse! While most were polite in their refusals there was this one guy from a reputed company, don’t want to take its name, who laboriously went through the task of explaining to me why it would be a waste of his resources to interview me! …....I remember telling him to change the aptitude test cut-off for me and raise the bar for me and I could still prove to him……the guy told me “I wont change the apti cut off but mebe u need to change ure attitude”… I remember wanting to smack him right across the face but just resisted it coz I knew that it was his day that day and one day it would be mine..….that was when I decided that I had to shut a lot of people’s mouths and decided to take the CAT.
---continued---

[varunspidey]

Had a good project going at Godrej, part of my course (Production)…….would work for a while, study for CAT the remaining time and on it went like this for almost 4 months prior to the CAT…..SIMCATS, MAXCATS, mocks at home….the percentiles and comparisons were crazy that’s all we did for weeks on end! It was interesting at the start coz I have bin the kind a guy who likes math and crosswords and puzzles…and CAT to me was just that, a maze of puzzles……But the stakes were high and that was the difference! Finally the D-Day came
I reached the centre and there was this maze of people swarming the centre like bees on a honeycomb …….and there was the media too focusing especially on the guys who were very nervous…….I’d be lying if I said that it did not unnerve me…….but in I went leaving everything to God having told my parents that don’t expect too much, u know the odds 2,40,000 v/s ME!......sat on my desk and that half an hour wait before receiving the paper was the worst wait of my life…….tried lukin at the birds and the non existent scenery outside……but somehow cudn’t chill it just wudn’t happen…….As it is was jittery before the start and the Quant section made matters worse took over an hour for it, 50 minutes for DI and the rest few minutes for Verbal.
Came out braced myself for the next year’s CAT……There was no way I could clear it after givin like 40 minutes for Verbal that too when I always believed in maximizing my attempts in that section……But surprise of surprises!! I checked the answer keys of various classes and found a decent though fluctuating performances from each key
On the results day just prayed that the best coaching class Key was the IIM’s key lol……stood before God with my cell and sms’ed for the results
And there it was QA-96.01 Verbal- 94.7 DI- 98.75 O.A-99.17
Calls from IIM C, K, MDI
I was shouting for a long time poor grandma she had no choice but to bear up lol…….then of course with the results came the “burden” of havin to prepare for the interview…….burden because I had to read the Economic Times which I had neva done all my life…….but anyways I did what I had to….got done with my interviews, they were good and of course the low gpa was a thorn they neva missed lol….they questioned probed tried to corner me…..but what is, is….and that’s that…….I just spoke of all the recent positive happenings and how I was optimistic of good change to come…….and stuff like that… my extra currics aren’t too fancy either…..just a lot of reading, a bit of TT, debates nothing fabulous trust me.…Dunno how convinced they were but finally ended up converting IIM Calcutta and MDI…..IIM K did not take me inspite of a fabulous interview, I guess the thorn was too poky to swallow …..
And still I got thru which is where the moral of the story begins. I wrote all this to just tell all u low academics guy or this problem guy and that problem guy to just believe. Belief can move mountains. I got in for what I was becoz I was different…..there were 8 pointers and 9 pointers who had 6 calls but cudn’t convert ABC this is not to demean them or boast about my achievements But to tell u this that yes ure past matters but not to the extent as ure present! The present “u” is what they are lukin for……if u’re the guy they are lukin for with a lot of potential (trust me they kno!) then those thorns on ure CV just fade away…..and just ensure that ure smiling ure best and most confident smile out there! Remember one thing an interview is only as good as ure capability to steer it the way u want…..There are people who go with this mentality that yea I’ve read up so many GK buks now u can fire at me all the questions u want…….Trust me I’ve never had an interview where they ever went to current affairs or GK neva it was always about me, me and me……there was neva a dearth of stuff I cud tell them abt myself and I wud go on and on and they wud lissn….I’m sure ull have a lot to say too, its after all like story telling ……if u spoke and they heard u out throughout the interview then rest assured u must have had them enchanted (or terribly bored lol)
Anywayz all the best guys! Hope u cud relate to something from my journey and it brings about some change in ure thinking.
Rock on! And keep faith in that journey of ure’s, keep groping in the dark someday u’ll reach the light at the end of the tunnel