[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.. :robot:

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. :xmas:

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.
:xmas::xmas::xmas:

[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

[Phoenix@C]

My first post on pg:

The first shot (CAT 2005): Before giving a shot I had the feeling that I would never make it to a top B-School, so I did not prepare at all and did not apply to any other B-Schools, nevertheless I gave a shot at CAT.
But when the results came out I was shocked to see that I had got 98.3 percentile. The initial elation gave way to disappointment when I realized that the application deadlines for almost all of the top b schools had passed. But the best part about the results was that I got the confidence that was needed and it helped me take the decision to give another shot with a good deal of preparation.

The second shot (CAT 2006): Luckily for me, the company that I had got into decided to postpone my date of joining and I therefore got a lot of time to prepare well enough. I Answered both the Mock Cats at Time and the Sim Cats at IMS and was able to perform fairly well in most of them.
Then came D day. Saw the verbal section first and was shocked. Verbal was my strongest area and after going through few of the questions I was convinced that I had no hope of performing well. This was the biggest mistake I made. I ended up missing five questions at the end of the verbal section (Would u believe it - I did not see those five questions).I then moved on to QA, but I had still not got over the shock of verbal and commited some hopeless blunders in the first few questions. Immediately after coming out of the examaination hall I knew that I had no hope of performing even reasonably well.
Finally when the results came out, I had got 97.47 percentile and obviously no IIM calls. But this time I had applied to a good number of institutes. I also got 98.4 in XAT and got an XLRI call. I decided to take whatever I would get. But deep down I had the feeling that I should give another shot at the IIMs. This was when I met Gejo Srinivasan (then product head of IMS). He spoke to me for about one hour and convinced me that I should give another shot at the IIMs.

The third and final shot (CAT 2007): I joined Keane Inc as a software engineer and was bogged down by a huge amount of work. I initially went ahead with CAT preparation but slowly the workload kept increasing and I could find no time for preparation. I started losing all hope of ever getting into an IIM. Then D day came. I could not sleep properly the night before. I went into the examination hall with the feeling that this would probably be my worst shot at CAT. The verbal section was not too different from last time and I had the feeling that I was not alert enough during the exam. I came back home and did not have the guts to check the answer keys of the coaching institutes. But I could not keep my curiosity under control for too long. When I did check the keys I seemed to have done fairly well. Then finally the results - 99.46 percentile in CAT, calls from IIM C,I and K. Without dragging on for too long I will come to the day the IIM results were announced. I had got through NITIE and MDI and was not too confident of getting through the IIMs. IIM Calcutta was one of the first IIMs to come out with the results. The first word that I saw after submitting my roll number and dob was "Congratulations".

My advice to aspirants - Never ever give up (I was about to give up midway and if this were the case this post would not have been here)

[itsmerusty]

Well, this is not my CAT story but a small CAT poem. I wrote this last year when i converted my first CAT call in my third attempt. I hope puys like it. Here it goes:

Meri MBA Yatra

Kabhi humne socha tha mann me,
Hum bhi bananege ek din Manager,
Isiliye Second year end me, [Engg Second year]
Join kiya humne PT Beginner

Jab hua Third year end,
Hum ho gaye Beginner se Regular,[names of PT courses]
Par i-flex ke Placement se,
Taiyariyo ne liya mod Right-Angular

Fir bhi ek kasak dabi thi,
MBA ki lalak lagi thi,
Jab tak na kiya i-flex join,
Tab tak kiya Wordlist ko Fine

Jab hum ban gaye iflexer,
Mila kaam, na mila Time
Socha tha maarenge Sixer,
Par ghar aate aate baj jate they Eight-Nine

Jaise taise de diya CAT,
Pran lagaye, jaan lagayi
Phone par GK padhi-padhai
De daale SNAP, JMET aur XAT

Ishwar ki kripa se,
Result mila Umeed se Dugna
Interview ke liye kiya Bharat-Darshan [all calls in different cities]
Final Selection se hui Pau-Bara

Ab bas yahi hai koshish,
Badha saku sabki Garima,
Kyuki Uma, Jaya aur Sushma
Sabki Pasand NIRMA!!!
--rusty

[IAYF]

Today is a big day for me (some of you allready know while the rest will soon know why) and finally I felt right to put my story here right up with the legendary ones which we have been reading since last year and getting inspired from!

Well, for me it began towards the end of semester one i.e. around Nov. 2002…My parents had moved to Bhopal from Chandigarh and I had joined the hostel in September…I would call this phase of my life – ‘Getting Introspective’…all along my schooling I had never bothered as to where am I headed or what kind of a man I’ll be, but just a few months away from my parents and I was thinking a lot on these lines…I was like a blank slate which was ready for its script…and I didn’t know what it would be! A week before my semester exams, I decided to go to Bhopal and come back a day before the exams were scheduled to start…after this small break, I had decided that I had to start with a few things and these efforts were focused mainly on my communication skills (public speaking, vocabulary et al)…Now, a few incidents during my first semester had put this thought in my mind that electronics engineering was not my cup of tea and I’m proud to say that I concluded this after putting in a good effort (though not well-directed)

And next thing I remember was that acads weren’t getting much of my time; all that I would think of, involved – words, editorials, music, fiction, extra-curricular events…and that’s the very same period when ‘management’ as a field appealed to me! My brother had sent me the ‘B-School Survey’ book (the one that comes yearly, it was worth 195 bucks then) with all the info on the Indian B-schools esp. the IIMs…it was a great insight into what MBA is about and truly speaking that book inspires me till this day…Moreover, we were a bunch of friends and they shared my enthusiasm towards management as well…and one fine Sunday morn four of us were sitting @ Ekadiken (a small coaching insti in Chandigarh) giving our first mock CAT!

And guess what, I got a mail (snail) from them offering a scholarship of 5k…it was a colored paper in the format of a cheque, that had my name in bold, right on top of it and said this aloud to me - ‘dude, you can do it!’

Next phase of my life had arrived, named – ‘Getting active’…and this went on till the end of 6th semester…after all that introspection and efforts, I was out to get the taste of the real stuff…got into a lot of extra currics, was involved in the organization of a few intra-college and inter-school events and was elected the General Secy. of the placements committee in my college as well…I cherish this period coz of a high rate of growth in the graph of my learning curve…all along the day I would be making plans, or structuring some idea…got infamous for reading ‘The Hindu’ on the last benches of lecture halls…managing above 70% was the target for second year but, as time passed by the target was revised to 65%...this phase ended with me getting a campus placement in CSC on July 4, 2005…

It was all hunky dory till then…I thought I knew life and had experienced a lot…But alas! Life had more lessons to teach me… a few days and incidents later, I had resigned from the placements committee…got bored with extra-currics…life around me was meaningless while people were seeming cynical…got sick frequently too…I wished if I had passed out of the college at the end of my third year… had got a scholarship at Bull’s Eye Chandigarh for the one year prep course but, the zeal waned away after a few classes as I had never taken tuitions and more importantly, as I didn’t agree with their methodology and ideology for preparation…so no more classes or prep as well … bought a laptop, got into stocks for a brief span but mostly just lazed around for days without even attending the college watching and analysing movies, their characters…so this phase of my life should be rightly called – ‘Getting complacent & dormant’…and in hindsight, I think that since I was way too involved with various activities earlier, I got into a mindset where I felt the need to rediscover myself!

Anyway, this was the time when CAT was approaching…test series had commenced and people were gearing up…one of my friends showed me a pamphlet from PT offering a series of ten tests for some 1000 bucks…sounded like a good deal…started with a 92 percentile…then worked on my quant a bit and things were improving…decided to start the paper with quant as then I was able to handle it well…was landing up mostly in the 97-98 percentile region…though I worked a bit on my quant, I didn’t solve a single DI question apart from the mocks, while verbal, I believed, didn’t need any prep! I don’t remember bothering about my sectional scores, I don’t remember analysing a mock paper in depth…and the biggest problem of all…I didn’t take a single two hour test at my place, so had a huge issue of concentrating for two hours at a stretch…but the good part was, I was gearing up…and then on October 16, 2005 in PracCAT 6, I got AIR 65…Unlike all the DT and toru people, who are consistently good, I have always believed in rising to the occasion and managing Just in Time…and this high rank was uncalled for as after that score, complacency set in and I didn’t do much thereafter… didn’t take a test as I was afraid that I’ll spoil that feel-good of top 100 rank, that I had got (though only once)…

November 20 – CAT’05

Had no sort of predetermined mindset here that I guess comes only when you have a history of performing well in mocks nor was I in the ‘main to aise hi dene aya hu’ mode as I had a long association with CAT and knew that it’s basically aptitude and attitude…all I told myself was – ‘let’s see’!

CAT’03 had 150 questions; CAT’04 had 123 and continuing with the trend of reduction in number of questions CAT’05 had only 90 questions…while we had the papers in front of us waiting for the bell to ring, I calculated that it should be 10*1 and 20*2 for each section…made a rough strategy and started the paper…first took up quant - 42 minutes – attempt: 21 marks…then analyzed the verbal section and did four two markers in 8 minutes and moved to DI…started with that ‘Olympics venue election’ set- had read about it in news so thought I’ll be able to do it…10 minutes invested but, results – ZILCH! (Mistake 1)…decided to move away…in next 30 minutes, made attempts worth 21 marks…and then I was exhausted (Mistake 2)…in next half hour, my skills in verbal ability were found wanting along with a lack in concentration and I ended up with a total of 21 attempts in VA as well…

I came out of the hall, thinking that the paper was a bit tough than last time and since last year cut-off was 51 this time it should be around 45…next, I met my friend, and he asked me about it…I told him QA 21 – he said with your accuracy –it’s superb…then I said DI 21 – he said Awesome…and then the moment I uttered VA 21 attempts- I could see it in his eyes…he himself had made attempts worth 48 marks in VA and was amazed that how could I do such a foolish thing…

Well, same evening – solutions started to pour in from CL and others…first thing I heard was this - the VA Bond of my batch was getting 3 marks…then came my turn to face it…and it totaled up to 5 marks! Called up the VA Bond and shared a good laugh about it …we both knew that it was over for us this year but were sure that the realization of our dream had only been delayed, not finished by any means…next, it was a relaxed December at home and then XAT was approaching!

January 8 – XAT’06

I was totally relaxed and didn’t even care to know what kind of paper was XAT…anyway, the pattern was new…made close to 60 attempts with just 9 in quant…thought that it would be enough for a 90 percentile…and I was right I got 98.64 overall with 91.8 in quant but where I went wrong was that cut-offs in XAT weren’t 90!
The results were out on Jan 30 and I thought I should get a call…but, Jan 31 confirmed that management education had to wait for two more years to embrace me…Quant cut-off for BM was 92.3 percentile! (And this was the time when I viewed a few threads @ PagalGuy and got introduced to this forum thing…didn’t make an ID though)

A very interesting realization, that I believe most aspirants of management education would have had, is the significant role of these experiences during preparation, mocks, exams, and results in shaping you up as a person! For me all this happened in my phase of personal struggle and thus, had a great import attached to it.

CAT’05 results: QA – 98.2, DI – 97.8, VA – 65 & OA – 96.38!

June 1, 2006 – My parents moved to Mumbai.
June 19, 2006 – I joined CSC @ Noida where I had a bond period of two years.

I knew that I hadn’t done justice to my engineering studies…so through this job I sought to make amends and do something technical…but alas! It was not to be…after getting inside the industry I got to know that there are product based companies and services based companies…CSC is an IT services one…anyway, got the hang of the support work and though it wasn’t very technical, I started to look at the bright side…I wasn’t a computer science engineer or a techie freak who wanted the best work for himself…this profile helped me realize my strengths in communication skills and exercise my faith in team-work as well…got the ‘team-player of the quarter’ award within six months of joining, won a logo competition for my project and was also referred by my manager for the interview with a team from BT for the ‘BT-best places to work in India’ survey (though I completely forgot about it and was chatting in café while my manager’s eyes were hunting for me )

This phase was great fun and had many firsts attached to it – the anxious first day at job, the exciting first salary that was supposed to make all our dreams come true, our first self-rented house et al… heard about CAT’06 as well…read a lot about the luck factor in VA and far easier QA in it supposedly to take in more non-engineers! After reading that entire stuff one thing was sure – CAT was going GMAT way and that meant a very different type of verbal section than we had seen earlier esp. RCs…anyway, Jan &Feb registered the peak in my input towards my job and then in March I started to plan for higher studies…that zeal to do something technical had revived within me and along with a friend of mine, my thoughts wandered in the direction of MS in US…to give our plans some impetus, we took the exam dates for September...next, began all that scanning through the word lists of Baron's…and thus, excess beauty had become 'supererogatory pulchritude' for us...for the next few months at least!

Though the prep was getting along nicely, I hadn't zeroed in on any particular course...I was inclined towards graphics but thought that I should get into it only if I were to get a good exposure of what it was all about...so the approach was to explore the fundaas behind this field and then try to do something in practice which would help me in not only understanding and applying the subject but also in making a strong case for me later in my application for the relevant course...but, as you can see, everything doesn't go according to your plan! I could not extract enough zeal from within to go all out for MS in graphics...engineering was surely not for me! so what was?

I would put number of hours searching for courses in US that accepted GRE score...I loved the prep and was doing well in the practice exams (1400-1550)...and so I thought, 'can this score be used for a course in any other field?'...nd then my mind wandered to what I had always thought as an interesting and possible career option for me - Marketing Research...and to my surprise I was able to find four MS courses in top 100 US universities for Market Research & other related fields...and suddenly I smelled an opportunity...queried, googled, read a lot about these courses...the rankings of the universities and then the inevitable question - MS vs MBA!!!

The four universities where this MS course was offered, were not in top 20...and MS was not meant to prepare you for a job as MBA is..and thus, it was simple for me now -- If all I wanted was to get into management education then MBA should be it -- and then the next part was easy too...I wanted to get into an Indian B-school--GMAT was not an options coz of the financial factors and a few other reservations...I took a leave from office and was off to mumbai for around ten days...got back on June 19, the day I completed one year as an IT engineer

I had made up my mind and on the blessed day of June 26, had made a PG ID too!...was reading 'The World is Flat' those days and got introduced to a new term 'IAYF' coined by Bill Gates...decided to use it as my name here! my initiail month was mostly spent in verbal prep section...Para jumbles, RCs, SCs and the best - the vocab thread...found people like Vyomb who were updating the threads very sincerely with questions and answers as well! posted on the CAT prep for working junta about my profile and approach and got my first reply from none other than - 'Greenspan'...he had very encouraging words for me and told me to hop in to the CAT journey! and I followed!

[IAYF]

I appeared for the all-India free mocks for PT and TIME in August...got AIR 85 in the PT one with a pathetic score of 65 which confirmed that not many people were taking it even when offered for free...screwed up in the TIME mock with 55 minutes spent on QA and a net score of 3!

and then the best thing happened to me - minkuvg (VG from UDT) , 2months (Jayant - not very active on PG) and me joined hands! VG was taking the TIME series from the beginning and was doing good while me n Jayant decided to stay away from the mocks for at least a few weeks more, to work on our skill-set first...and then if this wasn't enough, in the beginning of september I was blessed with BBLT!

this was a great experience - Tanveer, Deep, Hameed,mohit1984, ankit_insane, fringant, obsessed_bout_mba, buck_was, jimmygoogle, chakde, Pawanpadekal, Vineet.nitd, made_for_iims - can't thank these guys enough...we poured our hearts out @ the thread...pushed each other to do well despite all those disasters mock after mock...even the non-members had found a new home - marijuana_user, ameya_ahr - with wonderful words flowing out in the thread...and for this very reason, I think it was the best thread of last year!

apart from this online life, minkuvg, me and Jayant were zeroing in on our weaknesses as well...we talked a lot about the exam, the thinking that went into making it, what would click for each of us and what would fail us...while my dread for quant and comfort in VA was shared equally by Jayant which showed in our TIME mocks, minkuvg was giving rocking 99+ performances...and then we took two good decisions: one to take mocks form CL, IMS et al and second, to work on our concentration levels which we were sure was going to be a huge factor in a 150 minutes long exam...it was October the thirteenth and we decided to take two mocks back to back on our own...even though, one can be confident of his/her ability, that satisfaction of giving good results adds zing to your prep...and that's what these two mocks did to me...we sat there for continuous five hours and when I got the cut-offs from the PG threads, I had scored 99+ in both of them with quant being the weaker section...the very next day, in mock all India SNAP I got AIR 55 which sparked further my journey for continuous improvement...I experimented a lot to know what clicked for me...two mocks on saturday - TIME mocks on sunday - then one CL/IMS one on thursday and things were looking good...I was getting 99+ regularly at my place but in the TIME sunday mocks, things were stuck between 92-96 with an occasional 82 as well...so I knew I had to take that comfort of sitting at my place to TIME's test centre now...

As I had managed quant two years back, this time too I had left it late to tackle this section...decided to try two-round strategy with first period of 30 minutes to tap in on 6-7 sitters to make sure I was close to cut-off and also to mark 3-5 doable questions for the second round of 15-20 minutes...after a few mocks, this was fine-tuned and was working out great for me! one more lesson was not to leave DI for last as it had been disastrous for me...so, through those 15 odd mocks, I had attained a good understanding of my strengths and weaknesses...now was the time for the final lap with less than 50 days to go for the exam...Greenspan wrote a superb post on how to utilise the month of october in our prep and we had quite a few yahoo confs as well...took 3 mocks towards the end of October and DI was bothering me...worked on the problems and finalised two-three strategies to take into the last 15 days...left for Mumbai on 7th November and decided to take 5 mocks in the next 5 days...this ensured that the change of environment didn't spoil my groove that I had got into after months of prep...things were looking good...be it PT, CL, IMS, TIME and whatever pattern , I had achieved consistency in my results which were around 98 prcntl at worst and 99.3 at best...so, I should get MDI on my worst day and IIM L on my best - this is what I would tell myself...then in the final 4 days, just picked up the 25 odd mocks that I had taken...analysed them while scanning the earlier CAT papers as well...and next up was November 18...the C-day as we used to call it!

was sent to bed by mum-dad @ 2200 and you know, you can not sleep that early when it's C-1 day! was thinking all sort of things and amidst all that - I had the urge to tell myself - "let's start with DI tomorrow"...with the sane part of my mind, intact of all these anxieties, telling me to take it as it comes I was reminded of one of my posts @ BBLT where I had mentioned that the ones who had made it through in the previous years were the ones who had applied themselves well during the exam, who had kept the presence of mind to use their instincts in order to maximise the results! As we saw last night in the Champions League final, even the top scorer in English football choked while taking the penalty against Cech and froze in front of the goal...

November 18 - CAT'07

the pattern hadn't changed, so I assumed that the content of the exam had the so-called surprise that we expected from CAT year after year...one scan, and I was proved right...verbal had short RC's with three questions each along with seemingly vocab based questions and DI had no signs of reasoning in it! followed my gut-feel...started with DI and after 30 minutes had done 9 questions,slow and steady, making sure the calculations were exact...thought about shifting but decided to carry on in order to continue with the momentum as this seemed a good opportunity to bag a good score in DI...50 minutes and I had attempted 14 questions...was satsisfied so far...next up, first round of QA...30 minutes and did 7 questions...used short-cuts nd jugaads here a lot...so wasn't sure if I had done well...then, made foray into VA and 25 minutes in, I had done 3 Vocab, 4 PJ and 3 Para Completion questions...RC's seemed confusing to look at and Sentence Correction had me in awe...and panic button was about to be pressed...but, decided to take a break here and fill up the ovals to relax a bit...then, with renewed confidence just stared those Sentence Correction questions in the eyes and cracked them in a few minutes...then did the RC's and made an attempt of 21 in VA with only ten minutes left...approached QA again for the second round after holding myself from attempting the third question of an RC after doing the first two as it would have affected my balance in score...96+ in both QA and VA is much better than 99+ in VA but 90 in QA! did two more questions with double and cross checking my answer and was on my way to the third one when the bell rang! I had to calculate X-Y...had calculated Y but no X yet...made a guess and submitted the answer sheet...and came back to find the X in fifteen seconds and also that I had marked a wrong answer! so 10 attempts in QA and 1 was surely wrong!

my first thoughts - I had the feeling that the last guess in QA was the only wrong that I had done in the stipulated time and would manage a good DI and VA score...but QA? this had me worried...maximum I could get was 35...I had the practice of guessing the over all cut-offs after the mocks and since I always scored around it, my guesses were close more often than not and CAT'07 seemed to me a paper with possible cut-offs in the region of 115...

later in the evening was surprised to see Directors from the coaching instis coming out with expected cut-offs of around 95-100...nd then, the soultions poured in!

DI - 14/14 = 56 marks
VA - from various keys it was between 34-54
and QA - 9/1 = 35 with sectional cut-off expected to be around 25...

and I punched the air with joy!!!

January 8, 2008

CAT results were out!


DI - 56 - 98.97 percentile
QA - 35 - 96.76 percentile
and VA - 54 - 99.93 percentile

OA - 99.90 with all six calls!
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I won't delve much into the GD -PI phase but would give you the option of going through my experiences...here are the links

IIM L: Feb 1---
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...tml#post975310 ([2008] IIM L GD/PI Experiences)

IIM K: Feb 20---
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...ml#post1003175 ([2008] IIMK GD-PI Experiences)

IIM I: March 3---
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...ml#post1019349 ([2008] IIM Indore GD/PI Experiences)

IIM A: March 8---
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...ml#post1025378 ([2008] IIMA PI Experiences)

IIM C: March 13---
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...ml#post1031586 ([2008]IIM- Calcutta GD/PI Experiences)

IIM B: March 20---
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-an...ml#post1040741 ([2008] IIM Bangalore GD/PI Experiences)

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May 1, 2008

Converts - CLIK
Waitlist - B (#35)
Reject- A
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Today, on May 22, @ 1610 hour Mr. Bhaskar Rao from IIMB admission office called up at my place and informed that my waitlist had cleared!

And so with that, finally my season came to an end with me landing up in my dream business school! :hurray::hurray::hurray:

Thank you Pagalguy and thank you all for reading through my dastaan-e-CAT...


The world is ours...now and forever!

P.S. - minkuvg with 98.39 percentile in CAT has made it to IMT and is currently waitlisted at MDI (PGPM & PGPIM) and 2months (Jayant) is joining IIM Calcutta after he got 99.60 and four calls CLIK...