All I wanted to Speak about CAT

[somname]

Finally I get to post on the thread I always wanted to.. Finally, after more than 3 years of visting PaGalGuY.com, I get to post on the most sacred thread of all…

Well, here’s my story.

I was never an ambitious guy. Growing up in a small town like bareilly, I used to think that I would never be able to compete with the big-town boys.
This feeling was further reinforced when I got a rank of 16,500 in the IIT-JEE screening and was consequently not able to sit for the mains examination.

I finally got admission into Manipal engineering and was happily whiling away my time till the 6th semester when the results of my 5th sem exams came. I had scored a GPA of 1.72 out of 4.0. Though expected, I had never imagined that I would not even be able to cross the minimum pass GPA (2.0). However, since I had scored better in my previous exams, I was able to scrape through due to the cumulative GPA effect.

But back home, my parents were really disappointed. There were 5 other students in my college from my township and all of them had scored more than 3.3 in the 5th sem. And all this in a industrial township, where everyone knew everyone else. It was going to be difficult to face my parents when I got back home.

During this time, there were two free mock-cats held in our college. One by time, and one by ims. I gave both just to see what all the hoopla surrounding this stupid exam was. Getting 85 and 90 percentile overall in them added nothing to my false confidence. It was impossible for me to get through a competition which involved 1.8 lakh other aspirants (at that time).

However, the news that Infy was coming to our campus galvanized me. I studied almost 2-3 hours a day (a humongous number by my standards) for the written infy test. It’s a different matter altogether that I had finished the George summers puzzles book halfway in the first year itself just to kill time.
Anyways, I made it to infy. The other 5 people from my township didn’t. My parents found it hard to believe that I alone of all 6 could make it.

I went back home and could face my parents again. That’s when my mom brought up the subject of cat/gre/gate etc. She said I had to take at least one among those exams for further studies and to choose one. I had already spent 3 years in engg and didn’t want to waste 2 more years studying technical stuff again. So, cat it was for me.
My mom was a little disappointed by this choice of mine. Why, you ask? Well, the other 5 were all taking up gre.

I spent the 7th sem back in college in as careless a fashion as I had the 5th sem. Meanwhile, another IT company (perot systems) also decided to offer me a job and I decided to join it since they were also offering me a chance to do my final sem project there.

Meanwhile, I had filled up the form for cat-2004 and had decided to give the exam in Bangalore. My preparation for the exam by then, consisted of solving the DI book of ims (taen from my room-mate) and the 2 mocks I had written earlier. Seeing this, one of my friends made a bet with me that I would not cross the 90 percentile mark in cat. I took the bet. Also, on being goaded, I said out loud that I would go for only the top three (ABC) or nothing else. This happened in august and I was the butt of all cat-related jokes for the next 4 months.

I reached Bangalore the morning before cat-day. After spending the whole day looking at the pretty females on MG Road , I called up my old school friend (who was not giving cat, but instead had just a sessional on Monday ) and went to a pub at 10 in the night. We kept on guzzling beer and head-banging to the rock music being played by the DJ till 2 am. After the pub owner chased us out, we went to a restaurant and had chicken till 3 am.
Finally, we decided to call it a day and my friend dropped me at my hotel room at 3:30. The exam was supposed to start at 10 am so I had 6.5 hours to rest.

Or so I thought.

I was rudely kicked awake at 6:30 by my hotel room-mate who informed me that we had to leave the hotel room by 7am. Being in no state to argue, I somehow managed to get freshened up enough to go out with all of my hotel roomies and grab a coffee.

When the papers were handed out to us in the hall, I was a bit surprised to see just 123 questions instead of the 150 I was expecting. Both the mocks I had given had contained 150 questions each and this real thing did not. Judging by the uncomprehending looks on the faces of everyone else in the hall, this was an unexpected blow right in the solar plexus.

During the next 2 hours, gave the paper very calmly. Occasionally even taking time out to look at the more visually enticing members of the opposite sex.

When I compared my answers to the various institute keys, I knew I had done well. However, I had said ABC in my arrogance and there was no way I was getting a call from any of the big three. So at the end of the 7th sem (December-2004), I went home planning to join perot systems for my final sem project and the consequential job in noida.

Come December 25th, and I read on rediff.com that cat results had been declared and also that a site called Pagalguy.com had “leaked the results”. That was the first time I visited the site and found that there was absolutely no mention of the results whatsoever. It was just a simple forum where some people discussed cat. Figuring that there would be hundreds of forums like this, I did not think much about pagalguy.com (what a weird name!) and went back home from the cyber-café.

However, the next day there was a lot of coverage in the media about the cat results. Again a went to the cyber-café, and found that the cat results had actually come out. And, surprise of surprises, I had got a percentile of 99.05 overall, which gave me a lone call of IIM-C.
That day, my friend lost the bet. I won something more important, I won my self-belief.

Well, unfortunately the GD-PI process is a whole different ball game from the CAT, as I found out later. Going into the C GD-PI with the same level of “preparation” as I did for CAT, I was a nervous wreck by the time the GD started (my first GD ever, incidentally). Things turned out as bad as they could possibly have. Out of the total 15 minutes given for discussion, I got a total air-time of 10 seconds.
Things went from bad to worse during the interview with the panel members laughing at my answers. It was a relief when the interview was finally over.
I came out of the hall and walked straight-out of the waiting hall without bothering to look back at the people asking me how my interview went.
I knew the result of my interview as soon as I went home to my college hostel. I remember crying a lot in my room. I remember thinking that I had messed up the best opportunity that God had given me in my short life of 20 years. I remember getting up at 4 a.m. every morning for the next one month to go to the temple. I remember sitting there looking at the stone idols hour after hour, second after second. I used to finally come back to the mess, have breakfast, and sleep.
However, all good things have to come to an end, and so do all bad things. I was lucky in the fact that some of my best friends were there with me in the college and they told me in no uncertain terms what they thought of my first attempt. I had proved almost everybody wrong. I had had college toppers come up to me and tell me that I was the “surprise package” for this year’s CAT. There were discussions in the college hostels about who the most intelligent person in the batch was, and my name started featuring prominently in these discussions.
The fact that I could do all this by just writing a stupid exam was shocking to me. I was a perennial also-ran. I was always the guy who came in second. I was always the small-town boy who liked to live away from the glare of the spotlights.
After the cat results however, the reality was different. I had unknown people coming up to me and shaking my hand and saying to me “good try man”. I had people saying “oh! You’re Soham?” when I said my name to them. I felt good.

Well, I finally decided to join infy after college. Since the joining date was quite late, I decided to teach part-time at the local cat-coaching institutes. This ensured that my studies for cat were also upto scratch. I put in some long hours for the exam this tyime around and was doing quite well when I joined infy mysore.
The next couple of months went by smoothly. And I promptly lost touch with all the preparation I had done over the last few months. When the D-day was 4 days away, I was informed that I had to relocate and join the Chennai office on the Monday after CAT.
Needless to say, the exam was screwed up for me. I checked my result only the day after the results came out and the overall was 92 %ile for me. I had screwed up in DI this year (72 %ile) after screwing up in quants the last time around. I had a nasty feeling that somehow, the verbal section was to be my nemesis the next year.
It was in preparation for CAT-2k6 that I finally started getting a lil more active on PG. After CAT-2k6, I even started participating on the cat-retest thread. This was the year when there were lots of mistakes in the question paper and I was not happy about it. On top of that, I had gotten screwed in verbal as I had predicted. For the second time in my cat-journey, I had a 99+ score and a lone call to show for it (IIM-I).
Although I did join a coaching institute for the first time in my life (for GD-PI), my heart was not in it. This was primarily because I had already fallen in love with IIM-C, the same institute which had rejected me the first time I had crossed the boundaries of cat. I could not think about any other institute other than C. It was with this kind of a mindset that I went for the Indore GD-PI. The GD was a bit better than my C interview 2 years back, but the interview was even more pathetic.
I came back laughing this time around, since I knew in my heart that the next year was going to be MY year, no matter whether I converted or not. The horror stories of people leaving converts only to get the same insti the next year again did not deter me. When the final results came, I was wailisted at 68 for I. I still do not know how far the wait-list moved for IIM-Indore for the batch of 2007-2009.

As I started approaching CAT-2k7, I heard myself asking some critical questions. I wondered why I wanted to go through all this torture again. Was I a masochist or what? And to top it all off, I was not too happy with the current state of my career. I understood that if I wanted to do an MBA, I had to draw a line somewhere. I could not go on writing this stupid exam year after year just to prove a point. That’s when I decided to write all the MBA entrance exams I could. I filled up the forms of CAT, XAT, JMET, IIFT, FMS, MDI and even SNAP. I wanted to take admission this year, no matter if I got my dream college or not.
But having screwed up three different sections in my three previous attempts, all I was praying for was that CAT should not contain 4 sections this year.
The night previous to CAT, I did not booze. I went to bed at 10 in the night and stayed wide-eyed and awake all through to the next morning. However, one good thing is that I had logged off from PG for the last 2-3 days and was not speaking much about CAT to anyone.
I gave CAT with as much of a cool mind as I could muster. When I came back home and checked the answer keys of the various institutes, I was getting marks ranging from 124 to 144 out of the 300 possible. I was clearing all the cut-offs by a big margin and I had a huge grin on my face that night. Fate had good things in store for me this year and I knew it.
Anyways, I gave all rest of the exams after heavy bouts of drinking the previous night before, and the results confirmed what I had begun to suspect since my results in CAT-2k4. I was good in these exams, whether I drank or not. The results which were out before the cat results showed my suspicions to be true. I received calls from IIFT, SIBM, IIT-B etc. but all I was praying to God was that my IIM-C interview should be the last of my interviews. I wanted to take all the rest of the GD/PIs as preparations for the big one.
CAT results came, and it was exactly as I had hoped. ILACK, and C was at the last! I finally had my second chance to convince the IIM-C panel about how badly I wanted to join their institute. And this second chance had taken me three more years to achieve.

Anyways, even the results of the exams I gave after CAT came out happy for me. I got calls from all the institutes I had applied to except IIM-B. All my overall percentiles were above 99.6. Just one problem, the FMS date was clashing with my IIM-C interview. Lots of people I knew got their date for FMS changed. I didn’t purely because I did not want any interview after the biggest one. Consequently, I had to skip the FMS interview.

It was during this time that I started thinking about how everything was going according to my plan. Was it because of my hard work? NO. I had worked the hardest in cat-2005 and that had fetched me my lowest marks. Nothing I could think of could explain the way that everything was happening just as I had prayed for.
Except one thing. Destiny. It was the only thing that explained why my IIM-C interview was at the last. I knew then that that there was nothing that was going to stop me from getting into joka this year around. It did not matter that I had filled up zillions of forms. It did not matter that I had even gone as far as pune to give interviews for colleges which I never wanted to join. It did not matter that I had already quit my job.

<continued-below>

[somname]

<contd-from above>

I decided to put my birthday celebrations on 10th april on hold since the IIM results were supposed to come out on 11th april and I wanted to give both my convert and birthday party together. However, the Supreme court gave me a nice birthday gift on 10th by removing the stay order on the OBC implementation. This meant a substantial delay in the release of the results and a substantial increase in my nicotine intake (which went up by 400%). The only thing which kept me sane in this time was the fact that I had converted XLRI.

Well, the results finally came out on the 1st of may. IIM-B declared it’s results at 1:00 am on 1st of may and IIM-C was the next in line at 10:00 am. After checking the IIM-C results (rather getting them checked by my lucky charm), I did not bother checking the other results. I had converted both the PGDM and PGDCM courses and was going to joka at last, 3 years after I had first had the opportunity, and missed it.


At the end of my CAT journey, I realized many things. CAT for me had not been about how much hard work I could give. It had been a question of how many failures I could take, and still have the courage to try. Rocky Balboa’s saying proved true for me.

It was also about testing the limits of my desire for something. CAT demanded both passion and detachedness from me. I realized that just passion for the exam would make me crazy with tension and just having detachedness was simply not possible. That is when I challenged myself. I asked myself whether my spirit to get into IIM-C was so much that it could overcome itself and help me remain calm during the pressure cooker situations. I found that I could answer myself in the positive.

And finally, I realized that it is not what others say that matters, but what you want. It does not matter what percentile you have in CAT, but to get into your dream insti. For me, the objective in my final attempt had not been to hit, maim or kill the cat, but to get into IIM-C.

Finally after 7 IIM interviews, 6 appraisal cycles at work, 5 months of unpaid professional life, 4 CATs, 3 years of preparation, 2 useless 99+ percentiles and 1 bloody good IIM-C interview, I land up at my college-Joka.

Hopefully I’ll learn faster here.

Soham

PS: Thanks for reading all this.

[arko_brad]

i wud agree a bit wid rajesh.. but not totally.. Though CAT is a basic test, but the funda's are high, keeping in mnd the competition. May be u'll find the questions pretty easy as of one's standard but the time n strategy factors is wat one needs to practise on.

I will even stress upon minimum preparation of CAT, even i hardly prepared anythn, just went thru da basic quant techs before da test. But i scored a decent 90 percentile. But then ur preparation strategy will depend on u. One needs to identify where is one lackin or going strong..

Anyways all the best ppl

Arko
IMT- Nagpur

[kjain]

Well here is my take on CAT.

First time I appeared for CAT was 2006. Boozed big time the night prior to it. Was not serious at all & was appearing just for the heck of it. Still managed 95%ile. This boosted my morale for taking it seriously next time around. This helped me crack it next time i.e. 2007.

Got a lone call from IIMK and converted it. Here I am at IIMK.

My only advice to all CAT aispirants is that the day you start believing that you can make it to IIMs, 70% of the battle is won. Do not let that spirit die out at any moment, even if you score badly in mock CATs n all. Remember it is the boxing day that matters not the mock CATs.

Once you have that spirit, all that matters is your regularity. Believe me the most important factor is how you see yourself and not how you see CAT.

Wishing you success


Cheers

[navneet023]

Well...perhaps the first time I got aware of CAT "the exam " was in 2003(yes even way back in 2003, I was equally ignorant), all kudos to Ranjit "Don", the guy who leaked the papers. That time I thought,"The exam must be a very important one if such a mass level hysteria is in the general public!!"(Yes, I heard one of my elder cousins saying"Dammit...fir se padhna hoga 3 months...")

Back then, I was in 12th standard with my results out and my dream of getting into IITs shattered...Also my hopes of fetching respectable marks in XIIth board examination were shattered when I almost flunked in my optional subject.And alongwith that dream, another one that kept me awake(The girl whom I loved all those two years ...11th,12th and could not say a single word to her...Man I was some loser material back then!!!), came to an end as I had to return to my home, and she was still in Ranchi.

However less the margin be,a failure is still a failure.
And I faced a dozen of them(missing the cut offs by silly margins) while looking at my career with a distraught look on my face.That was the first time in my life when I started helping myself out,thinking logically and sorting out the things as they are supposed to be, instead of expecting some miracle to happen and make life heaven..Puys who are reading this, note, "THERE ARE NO MIRACLES, ONLY ORDINARY PEOPLE WHO DO THINGS WHICH LOOK MIRACULOUS TO THOSE WHO DON'T WISH TO MOVE THEIR BUTT"

Anyways, time passed quickly once I got into a nice Engg. college...not those biggies...but still a nice one(Yeah that's what you say when you don't get what you desire...get habituated to it as there will be many things in your life which you wont be getting...CAT might just being one of them...So make CAT something which doesn't damage your life if u don't get it)
College life was good...we enjoyed(like everyone in college...and we rocked...even if no one cared..New friends,new life..new-found freedom and a single room...what more can a bachelor ask for??
Then came 2nd year and I heard some of my seniors preparing for CAT...i was surprised!!"Why are they preparing for another exam when they have got comfortable jobs??", was the first question that popped in my mind.I simnply could not understand why they were trying for something to study when they were having their engg. degree...Why they were trying to put in vain everything they learnt in 4 years?
Anyways, many students in my college joined a nearby coaching centre(a famous one).
I followed the suit and asked my parents for a huge sum(13500 INR, which was later invested in making calls to my so-called-GF, the same girl from Ranchi, my school days). They asked what it was for, I told them I wish to do MBA.
Surprisingly, they were delighted!!So, I enrolled into the institute for 1 week trial period.
Also attended the first class and performed well. BUT(yes that's a big but), never went for the classes ever again. No special reason,I thought it was too much of an effort to maintain a discipline of going to classes(Now when I think of this, going to CL classes every weekend, and managing my hectic job as well, I just smile at what I was at that time).
Anyways, the CAT saga for my 2nd year was only this much and noting much happened afterwards.


Come 3rd year and everyone was mugging up the books and magzines and every single source of any information...GOD!!I came to know a bit later..1 months...that they were all preparing for the campus selection which would take place at the end of 3rd year. In my usual style, I brushed away the concern saying, "The first person to be selected for campus from our batch is ME". Many people hated me for saying that. Perhaps they still do. I don't care.
As the pre final year drew to a close, we had our University examination and the first company was scheduled to visit the college merely 5 days after the last exam.Infosys.Yes,like many others, that was my dream job also(Now I sometimes thank GOD taht all my dreams don't come true!!).GOT REJECTED IN PI ROUND.Cried for the first time on phone while talking to my parents. Anyways, time flies by quickly and seldom we give a thought to the fact that how priorities change(form college to gf...from gf to job...again from job to gf....from gf to career...from career to family...and finally from everyone to one's true self). My GF dumped me(perhaps for the 100th time in 5-6 years) and I started once again from the scratch.Sharing things with my diary was nothing new and now that I was all alone(barring a few friends who always have been alongside, come what may), it felt nice to vent out all the frustration on my diary.



10th-11thjuly-2006
Got the job. Not my dream job, certainly, but still,a slice of a cake is better than a hungry and aching stomach.
That fateful night me and some of my closest friends decided to go for the CAT as now we dint have anything to be bothered about(Job in hand..GF gone...it really becomes a free life!!). Filled the form and started preparing in a group.I knew it from always quants was my stronghold and used to score 35-40% in it(read % ,not %ile) and DI section was also in the place. What worried me most was my performance in EURC section. I did get good scores, but was not consistent.


Never took a mock test all the way and suffered as a result.
FIJs.Yes I know you are aware of them now but on the C-day in 2006, that was like a lightening bolt from hell...and it did struck me.Got a pathetic 1 in EURC(after calculating 32 a/c CL and 28 a/c IMS). 99.5%ile in QA and 95.3%ile in LRDI were not enough to help me cross the barrier and the year ended up as a disaster.


Took JMET and XAT also, cleared the cut off for JMET but never got into the merit list of any of the colleges.


CAT-2007:- Didn't fill the form coz of a newly joined job and a desire to get atleast some work ex along with some experience of working in an office.


CAT-2008:- Working on it. Hoping to add something more to my not so illustrious career just in order to be able post here with some proud.

P.S.:- If you think you can do it, you can. If you think you can't, you can't.
Thinking about my GF of 7 years??Dont think much friends....she's married now..not meeeeee..some other guy...Life goes on ...and no one cares..

This, by no means is the end of the saga...I'll see if I can sail through or get drowned....Coz if I sail through,its all ok...and if by chance i drown, he he he...then i'll get a whole new world to explore. CAT is by no means the end of the road for me. I believe in oppurtunities....not the results...I think of CAT as one of the many roads which I travel in my journey of life. What if I fail? No issues...I do lose...everyone does sometime...but the point is...that when you lose, don't lose the lesson. I want to learn as much as I can from my pursuit of CAT.

Also, this by no means to represent the whole story....abi to poori kahaani baaki hai...this is just the prologue...we'll see....and we'll rock!!!

[soumyadut]

Mine is a different story.I was fiercely against CAT in my schooldays(with no specific reason,I didn't even know what CAT