...edited...

Great Chandoo....for people like me its a bible

vahgar Says

^^ lol it is a sticky..from 2 years ago!

he is newbie and ur addicted

^^ lol it is a sticky..from 2 years ago!

hmmm....My sojourn..neither my story is as gr8 as Anupam nor am i a gr8 writer as shrutz..but still gonna write this post...

so where shud i start..lets start it from college first year as b4 cmin to GREAT DCE i dint have a clue abt IIMs...

On Notice Board.."Free Mock Cat" by xyz... me along wid college topper( Rank 1)...
(i always scored 10% less than him in all my exams.. on ly once i got 20% less...).. sardar lets take it.. nyways v r vehla...
results cm....i beat this guy(OG 1)...sorry only DCE/NSIT ppl wud understand.. but for d uninitiated...( 1st rank in outsider general category)
wid doin not so well in acads... i start gettin inclined towards CAT

in second year.. i m chucked in a single seater on top floor in d best hostel of college...i subscribe to ET... write sm more Mock CATs.. perform better than sm seniors.. nd then 22 ppl frm college make it to IIMs.. 3 freshers makin to A..they were much revered "Shashwat Sharma,Shantanu Verma,Aditya Malik"( sorry ppl for a very customised post.. but they were three inspirational figures all thru my CAT journey)... so finally decided goal is CAT '04... meanwhile also studying technical wid branch toppers.. since they scored in 80s.. me maintaining 10% rule.. scored decently in 70s..

fast fwd to Sep '04...joined IMS test series.. did exceptionally well in first 4 mocks.. then a fall.. did exceptionally well again in 7th.. down in 8th....
CAT'04...don't know wat happenend...strugglin wid almost all questions.. specially DI...no idea wat struck me...screwed big time.. haven't seen CAT'04 score card till date...had a tough time provin i got more than 95 %ile.. but saved face by doin well in Mock again..

fast fwd 2x to July'05
joined TIME this time.. as dint wanna join IMS again.. nd none else was there in city of my trainin after grad.. won't disclose d name of d cmpny coz have given them a tough time:-)) .. did well in Mocks.. still remem my score was consistently 50+/-2 in most mocks then 3 weeks b4 CAT .. took leave frm cmpny(bluffed them)... gave 15 mocks in first week.. then 4 in nxt two.. now d day of reckoning
CAT'05- pattern .. i was aware of 90 q pattern but had thought of 90 ques. in 1,2,3 mark format.. so immediately felt cmfrtable wid pattern.. started english.. foolishly started 2 markers in eng first...did sm RCs .. just spent 40 mins.. in eng... then came "THE TIME" in paper.. DI cracked in 22 minutes flat....proceed to QA.. spent 35 mins.. took a few risks.. nd 1-2 guesses just on hunch...went to eng again.. attempted heavily 44 marks.. so that i cud clear cut-off...
came out.. was pretty happy.. even told smbdy that 6 calls is also a possibility.. regretted d moment i said it...coz haven't even chked keys....

came the results...BLACKI...but i was sad coz i dint have ny1 of my friends wid me to prepare for GD/PI.. was all alone in d ocean.. u won't believe it but my confidence took a beatin after gettin calls.. coz of lack of partners....
nyways for GD/PI .. did sm stuff in ahd.. then went to delhi(Malay Sir).. meanwhile i again went on leave but this time officially...

Interviews...hmm... first was L...GD was peaceful..nd only 6 ppl.. did well nd did decently in L.. i was kinda confident that coz of ur %ile LIK will take u.. though not entirely true.. but gosh it happenend.. this belief was 1 of the reasons.. i was extra confident for LIK..
wanna tell u that the same guy told me that it holds for C as well...:-))
then d big day..A interview.. pretty gud GD.. but cudn't have a worse PI.. all basic ques.. nd moi cm up wid d worst of answers possible...
B Interview was pretty strong content wise but just cud not speak well in PI.. i mean articulation wise...GD was decent though...

so finally rejects frm A nd B.. wanna add another word for A reject .. that don't prepare for GD/PI alone.. if u r a fresher nd got sm calls .. nothin like that.. coz u gotta whole bunch of ppl prep alongside.. acads brushin or watever.. no issues...nd u don't even need to take much leave for GD/PI prep... just normal 1-2 hr prep will do...
final calls CLIK.. so if i believe that guy i haven't done nyth after written...

hmm.... thats "ALL I WANT TO SPEAK ABOUT CAT".. pour in wid ur commentary.. wanna start a blog as well.. so just testin d waters
Cheers!
Gandhi

Following up Anupam's post will be hard to do... I won't even be attempting to do it.
My CAT story, is slightly less bumpy and much more happier. (The end result might very well be the same, but ....)

Okay, so where do we begin? Do I begin with the young girl in 10th who bombed in her 10th ;)? Well, relatively. Or the one that ran all around yelling that she had cracked an exam...

Let's start with the Shruti of 12th standard... the one that wanted to get away from her little world in Kerala, but unexpectedly landed closer to the hearth than ever.... In the premier engineering institute in the state, College of Engineering, Trivandrum, 3 km away from home.. Maybe, it was a happy coincidence, because, I don't know what I'd have done anywhere else. Maybe, this post wouldn't be typed. Maybe, I'd be "yet another software engineer" in the ranks of Infy, CTS and the like...
Life is a series of what ifs?
First day I came into my class, I met a girl who would be one of my closest friends through my college life. Her brother had just got into IIM-A.
"IIM? What's an IIM? I have heard of IITs. But an IIM???"
"Indian Institute of Management, Shruti!"
3 weeks later, I had my gang of friends, the five of us who stood by each other. Four years ago, aspirations were small, and we often talked of living together in Bangalore, working for the same company, cooking and having fun.
In the middle, it all changed. GRE, GATE, CAT came into the picture. It was decided (by my friends, of course!) I'd make a lousy engineer and better put my global talents to something else...
My college regularly churns out CAT crackers (Philiptj was one ) Every year, at least 5 used to make it through...
Suddenly, the IIMs seemed a lot closer....
Come third year, TIME put out their Talent Search Examination to award scholarships to students appearing for CAT '05. We all went and wrote. The exam was ridiculously easy. I remember thinking "This can't be CAT. I can't be doing this well.." Once the test was done, I had marked 99 questions out of 100.
The results were put out and I had topped...
TIME's classes began I realised I was way ahead of the crowd in VA and RC, mainly because I was a voracious reader. I devoured books... QA and DI were fine, except that I couldn't, for the life of me, manage to crack all sections simultaneously.
One fine afternoon, I remember logging onto a forum called PagalGuy. I was told I couldn't post without choosing a user name... Hmm... Shrutz it was, in honour of my friends who called me that name :)
And, then, the rest was history.
I posted up my intro and got my first PM (Yeah, Girish... YOU!) and then posted only for AIMCATs.
Had to skip the first AIMCAT because CTS was on campus and we were needed to help.. So, effectively, the second AIMCAT was it...
I got AIR 15.
Things went haywire later...
My ranks went all over the place from AIR 9 to a rock bottom 600 odd. The cutoffs were haywire too. It was weird, because I'd do very well in 2 sections and kill the third and I hated that I was doing badly.
Meanwhile, someone bestowed on me the sobriquet of VA goddess.. (Huh? WHAT???)
I was cracking the CRTs, but the AIMCATs were another cup of tea, altogether....
Met some of the most amazing people on PG... DJK, Aryak, Quinty, Pendyal, Hanoz, Ranjitha, Allwin (PG, the MAN!), and of course, the wannabes... Hahahah, convolutedsignal, anandv, anupam (Drama Queen!), DesiGuru *cough*.. It was hazaar fun and I loved meeting like minded people.
I started studying (well answering papers) around September and enjoyed even that...
Got a load of help from a lot of threads on PG and started even distributing my brand of gyaan. All in all, an enjoyable process, even if I was scared about clearing all 3..

All said, the CAT is not a hard nut to crack.. However, it can be a blow to the ego to realise you are not as good as you thought you were..
Come November 20th, I was in Kozhikode with a trainload of friends and writing a 90 question paper..
English was a letdown... I knew it could swing either way. But, I was extremely happy with Quant. DI... What can I say? I didn't take enough risks and paid for it..
I resolved not to check my scores, because I had a feeling I didn't want to take bad news...
5 days later, I succumbed to the constant pressure of SMSes and IMs from collegemates...
DI was it. :( It was a li'l dicey, and I was hoping that I hadn't somehow screwed it up more than I thought I had.
Then, began the agonising wait for results. This time, the IIMs had all resolved to put the results out at once. I knew that C would come at midnight and again, it was PGites who were up and running even at the unearthly hours...
Finally, the server went up at 01:00 hours, 2nd January and I opened the C site...
GEORGE SHRUTI SUSAN.
Congratulations, you have been selected for the GD/PI stage for PGDM/PGDCM in IIM Calcutta.
My hand involuntarily started spasming and it was all I could do to keep it still...
I'd made it to an IIM's second stage.
The next day, those who had Cal calls were jumping around, when the news that L and A had come leaked..
I called a PGite ;)... Aditya, actually and he was rather reluctant to say I hadn't made it to A. Frankly, I was shocked and took 5 minutes to recover. Which is when, Pendyal called... I informed him that he couldn't have me as a junior. His comment 3 days later was, "You are crazy, I have never heard anyone laughing about not coming to IIM-A"
Then, B, K, and I told me I had made it...
The results told me I had 99.83 with 92 in DI and 99+in QA and VA... Higher percentile in (of all things) Quant.

The GD/PIs began. I went for some TIME GDs and in Trivandrum, those were mild affairs. Talking was never a problem, but I began reading magazines and newspapers in real earnest.
Once, the GDs and PIs began for the IIMs, I realised what a brand name Shrutz of PG had become.
Met some truly awesome people during the GDs and PIs.. Mallus with whom I clicked instantly. We all hoped to get into the same IIM and bug the hell out of each other.
K,L,I,C,B.... the process was done. My mind swung from "Ahh, I am sure I will convert at least 2" to "WHAT? Suppose I don't convert any?!"

Which is when 12th April midnight came up. Again, we had IIMC with results first and again, we had Yahoo conferences. I was in 3... One with PGites like ConSig, Aaradhya, Hahahah, Sajeev and the rest... And the other with my friends...
The results were out!
My hand was shaking as I keyed in my DoB and Registration Number, mentally steeling myself for a rejection.
Congratulations!
It said...
Made it into IIMC! Again, the same St Vitus' dance
Most of the Pagals made it and that was a happy conf. Sheer joy and euphoria all around.
Meanwhile, none of my friends had made it and I was upset. It kind of overpowered the happiness so much that I stayed awake till 4 am with them talking about nothing in particular...
I got up at 7:30 the next morning and had to go to college. That is when I learnt A had come out. So, all of us landed at our comp lab and started checking PG and all the IIM sites.
I keyed in IIM-A and learnt a collegemate had made it and a friend had a WL.
IIMB opened its page and I really didn't want to know. I keyed it in all the same and it congratulated me again. 2/2
Lucknow made it 3/3. Life was really good.
K gave me a waitlist and Indore took me in again. That made it 4.5/5 (my classmates say it was 4/5, but the fraction is infinitely better!)

The feeling is yet to sink in.
Shruti George, IIM Graduate :)
What do I expect from an IIM? Not what I expected 18 months ago. I expect to have a good time and enjoy myself... Ambitions are low-key and life cannot be better!!

This is not exactly an inspirational post, I know. In a lot of ways, I count myself a lucky person. I did not have to slog my head off to crack an exam that remains a pipe dream for so many. I did not have to lose an year. (In fact, I was determined that if I didn't make it in CAT this year, I'd give up on it.)
I could remain true to myself and be honest during the interviews and get away with it.
CAT gave me some of the most awesome friends I could ever know. They are those with whom I connected on every level and I love them all for it.
CAT also gave me a wake-up call of sorts.
What CAT did to so many, I could see, and I mourned. Shattered dreams and broken ambitions. It has taken something and someone very dear to me, and I can only hope that it's not broken so much that it can't be mended.
Something else I wanted to add was, an MBA should never be an excuse for you to do badly at your undergrads. An MBA is not a panacea that can be taken to cure-all-ills-of-knowing-your-acads. I see a lot of my juniors who come asking me (for CAT 07!) "When should I start studying?"
My answer is, "When you think you can't waste another second. But not now! Don't burn yourself out."
I also see them offer excuses for not knowing what they learnt for 3 years in college or semi-apologising for being bad at technical questions, "I am more interested in HR."
Of late, I had the fortune to be on the other side of the interview table, when I took interviews for juniors and I saw these excuses offered many times.
This is what I learnt. First do what you are doing well, THEN, try to better yourself. You can only build upon a strong foundation and yes, Never give up on your dreams :)

Finally, I don't know what life holds ahead of me, but I loved every second of this journey and yeah, I am glad to be a part of the PaGaL community.
CAT teaches you about people, CAT teaches you life....

This is all I wanted to speak about CAT.

hi anupam..

words are not enuf to describe that post but just for the sake of it i would term it as very special.. for u as well as for PG and for all of us who are here.. i dont want to talk bout inspiration and all that stuff bcoz by now u must have gathered that from so many ppl.. its just that after reading that post it feels as if cracking cat is not the single most imp thing in life. Its the entire process and the attitude that counts.. similar situations wud block us in various stages of our lives.. its an ongoing battle i guess which doesnt end once we achieve something.. but if we have the kinda attitude and will power shown by u we will come out victorious each time that happens..
hats off to u and hope to meet u some time.. all the best :)
tc

@anupam: mmm..that was indeed one of the most 'straight-from-the-heart' brilliant narratives I have ever read. Words have the magic of inspiring a generation...and this one has all the potential of being one.:) Nothing could have elicited so striking an encomium if not for the 'human element' you had succeeded in adding to the post. I would be very much surprised if that doesnt set many a fire alight..:)

To add 'you deserved it..','the journey has just begun..' etc etc would be redundant and being a 'veteran' myself I know how little it captures...and I know ,inspite of what we would like to believe and advocate, 'CAT' is more than an exam....:)

@The Raven : I loved your matter-of-fact post too..:) It was pretty much reminiscent of what type of person 'you are' and there would be one surprised man this side of the vindhyas if you had written anything as 'narrative' as Anupam . Different people different styles....:)

I like reading this posts for a totally different reason..gives a lot of insight regarding the kind of person one is.
Wish more people take their time to key in their thoughts....:)

Girish...!

I must admit.. writing this post was a shade easier. Replying to all your posts is extremely difficult as I find myself crippled ..
There are at times when we feel good things should be felt and not expressed.. this being such an occasion.

-Vengeance

Nice post Anupam! :D

Without you and HAHA , Hyderabad CAT prep would have been very boring!

I still remember how I met you for the 1st time after an AIMCAT..Both of us were talking to each other in a radius of 2 meters!

THe journey since then has been scintillating!

Btw if somebody wants to know how to solve complete mock in 90 min..contact HAHAHA
if somebody wants to know how to solve 5 Rcs in 25 minutes..then contact

ANd if you want both the qualities..contact anupam

-Clown

@anupam
great post sire..it has elevated the respect i had for you since long..best of luck for IIMB and it was fun reading every word of your experience..i always thought this was your second attempt and you are one of those gifted individuals who study for two weeks and crack cat but through your post what i came to know was certainly diffrent and clearly highlighted the substance which rests inside you..the persevearance ,dedication,commitment and above all the power to chase your dreams that rests inside you is inspirational to say the least.
best of luck at IIMB.
regards
samsite

Dear Anupam,

I have always believed the highest mark in a man is not to what heights he reaches but how many people he can actually inspire to reach such similar heights. You truly have given the spark needed and have set many-an-aspirations on fire. You truly are an inspiration man.

The days anand you and me spent together preparing were easily the most memorable days of my preparation. I miss them! *sighs*. We have learnt a lot from you and I wish to thank you for everything.

Here is to a certain Mr. Hollywood (as someone aptly called him) who is sure to win the hearts of people wherever he goes.

The Geek

I guess the post is too long a one to quote...so me writin this one as a separate post - great series of posts Anupam...truly deserves the line of posts which followed praising them...I havent personally met any of the guys you have mentioned in the post, but wud seriously like to...

The post serves as a big inspiration to forthcoming CAT takers...

Congrats neway Anupam on gettin thru IIMB...I hope to see u in Bangalore soon...:)

Ashish

Pune gets a son.. I a family

I knew this post was coming but never expected it to be THE POST on this thread Kudos. Feels great to have lived that dream with you, I am sure Aarav would vouch for that. Those endless group discussions, strategy sessions, mock CAT analysis. You made it a great learning experience pal. Just two words to sum up that odyssey - Perseverance and Passion.

I am sure your post is going to fuel many more "returns", seldom does one see that level of disciplined effort and a fight back attitude and it would immensely benefit all future aspirants. Enjoy your two years at B and yes our discussions dont cease

I would like to mention one more return here - Vinamara aka vinz. Even though I know him for a short span of time, CAT05 was a similar journey for him. I admire his tenacity and dude this thread is looking forward to your post

Congratulations Sir.. youve done it.. ! IIM C both PGDM & PGDCM
Joy and tears compound me.. another Brett Lee puncho..!!

Is this infectious too?! *sobbing*

Awesome post buddy! Really inspirational. We (U, Aarav, Rohit, myself, et all) had all dreamt being together, but seems that fate has something else in store for us. Neverthless, I vow to return back with Vengeance in CAT06.

@Anupam Guys like u always keep my sprit up and going whenever i feel down and lost i just come to pg read experience of puys just like you who have been giving cat for arnound 2-3 years and feel its just 1 year and u giving up look at them and at very instant i get recharged thxx to u pys for keeping this pace up for u guys its just experience but for us its a great source of encouragment really puys i think everyone should once visit iim to know wht iim really isafter i saw iim this summer i feel its really worth for giving 2-3... years for it keep the good working coming
Gaurav

This used to be one of the best threads on PG...but now its the best !!!

Now i can say i always believed u will crack it and blah blah..but how does it matter now ;)...

personally i feel the journety to CAT is much more fulfilling...people who have cracked it...look positively and those who dont, do learn something out of it..i think its a win win situation...cos u crack CAT or u dont, u make some great friends and make relationships for life...ONLY IF you are on PG

I made two new friends : Monil (reachmonil) and Rohit (estranged_gnrs)
I was impressed by Monil & Rohit ..their attitude.. positive to the core .. with a gleam of determination in their eyes I could feel these onez are for the big future!

just wish that gleam never dies...whatever be the result of our efforts..

estranged_gnrs : (I agree this onezs a repeatition!) Thanx for all those days when I was put up as a Refugee at your place.. you rock dude.. J

Anything for PGites....
I am still waiting for my commission and the years supply of beer..i wish you land up a job with United brewries now

Enjoy..WE ROCK!!!!

Rohit

Guess there's nothing much left to say after all those replies above. But I simply must. :)

Awesome post anupam. Have always wondered what the history behind "anupam will return" was. That post clarified everything. And how!! I myself have been through the trauma of rejection from the hallowed IIMs (once a couple of yrs back, and then on 12th april this year due to an error in my result on the IIMB website ) but ofcourse nothing compared to what you've been through !! Vengeance is truly thy name

Feels great to know you will be my batchmate for 2 years !! Rock on dude !!

the freak

Just would like to add a quote in response to anupam's post:


"There comes a moment when you realize that virtually anything is possible - that nothing is too good to be true." Kobi Yamada

Truely Inspiring post. Your efforts and perseverance cant be appreciated enough in words. So I will not attempt that. Congrats to you

amazing stuff anupam bhai.. truely inspirational stuff..
every cat aspirant shud read this...
the determination n drit i have seen in u.. have never seen in nebody else...
u deserve it bro...
btw me didnt convert my MICA..
where art though neways has been a looong time..

cheers

So finally comes the long awaited post by our own anupam , something for which I had been waiting for a long long time...:)

I had my first interection with Anupam when he had PMed me after a IMS mock XAt to ask me about the contents of the paper.....And after that interaction, all I can say is that from then till now, I have been super lucky to be the pal of one of the most persevering, inspiring and intelligent dude with a heart of pure gold !!!

I remember how, when we were coming back top Pune after our IIMB interview, he told me that he will come up with this post after the results are out......I had no doubt from the time I knew him that he is destined to go the IIMs this year....12 April was just a ratification....And boy am I so glad that he is finally going to the school at whose GD/PI we were together......

I feel so proud to be in your company anupam......Any words in ur praise will never do justice to u despite me having a decent vocab

I was myself coming up with my own CAT journey.........But after seeing your post (after u scrapped me on orkut), I feel like a novice !! I will nevertheless come up with it in due course...

U deserve each n every bit of the appreciation u r geting here.....A perfect ROLE MODEL for everyone....PG is proud to have u here......

My only regret is that I wont be ur batchmate......How much I would have loved that.

Keep rocking and stay connected. lets meet soon in Pune.

@Anupam
Great post buddy. I mean seriously great post. U wont realise the importance of this post. This is really an inspiring note and no CAT aspirant should miss this. Your story is one of perseverence, discipline and "never say die" attitude. I guess, this is what IIMs require. Too bad you didnt convert A, but never mind, converting other 5 is no mean achievement.

I met anupam, aarav, govi, rohit et al for the first time in august when i was just one month old at PG. Before meeting them i thought that people join PG for purely selfish reasons (to gain something out of it that would help them get through CAT). But after spending some time with these guys, i was taken back by the commitment these guys had towards PG. They would always try and help one as and when possible. I can vouch that if it were possible, Aarav, anupam would not sleep and keep writing on PG and guiding others.
After my debacle in CAT05, i was broke ( i still feel like crying when i think of the blunders i committed). it was my 3rd attempt at CAT and i ended up giving my worst performance. After that day, i had decided that i would give up my dream of getting into IIMs. Anupam and I have similar stories (In my first attempt at CAT, i had offers from some colleges but didnt take those. In second attempt, i had 98.84%ile but no IIM calls and last was the worst).
But after reading ur post, i am thinking about writing CAT again. If ur post can inspire a CAT veteran like me, then imagine how motivating it would be for ppl who are writing CAT for the first time.
Keep up the good work. I know that even in ur busy schedule of IIMB, you will not miss a single ocassion to write on PG.
All the best.

Extremely well written narrative, Anupam. People will feel highly inspired.

Writing an inspirational narrative of your experiences is as big an acheivment as cracking CAT. My story is very similar to yours. After getting bumped off in 2004, I dropped 2005 and made it to IIMs this year. I started writing my experiences and realized it was no easy task. Cracking CAT seemed easier than writing an inspirational narrative.

Hats off to you and best of luck at IIM-B.

Whoa.. what a reaction..
@Aarav sir : Everytime you make me unanswerable.. high time you pay me back with a BLACKI in CAT'06!
@Khanna_Sumit : I'd always been your fan.. maybe lady luck din't smile at you this time.. but perseverance pays.. and you shall epitomise it.
@crack_d_cat : Heartening to see my juniors@PG .. I personally believe you've taken a good decision .. afterall doing what ...your heart says is life.. isn't it ?
@cyberdude : You may not be the famous types.. but you are still my junior.. start networking and ur introvertecy ( not sure we have such a word ) will dissapear.. :)
@shrinky : hey need not patronise me so much.. I feel embarrassed now!
@anupamd : Greetings to another anupam.. :).. Congrats on NITIE.. now rock Vihar lake for two wonderful years!
@prathi_25 : maybe.. we can adjust some more gyan sessions while sajeev's dining thanx for ur wishes..
@RTE &,cool_manav,Mumbai & Abhishek : thanx for your kind words.. keep rocking.
-Vengeance

Hi Anupam,
I'm one of your juniors at IIIT-C , but not so popular, so u'll not be able to recognise me. This post of urs reflects much of my aspirations and dillema. I also came here to become a hardcore techie, but after 1 yr in the industry, I've got disillusioned. Your post is indeed very inspiring and i hope i also have a similar result this time ( this is my 3rd attempt too). But i wanted to know 1 thing. Does the formula of networking and doing group studies work even for slightly introvert ppl? 'coz then even i'd think of meeting the PG kolkata forum.

anupam sir........hats off to u for such a fantastic post..........although new to this forum in the strickest of sense....i have been a regular visitor of PG (which i discovered just by chance) for arnd 2 yrs now........and whenever i used to see ur posts last year.......i always felt as if "anupam will return" also refferred to me .......my name being the same as urs and was in the same boat as u.......i.e preparing for my 3rd attempt at CAT (after having scored 82 and 86 %ile in the first 2 attempts)..........neways .......while i have been able to make only a partial sort of RETURN this time round(97.8%ile) with final admit in NITIE.....my heartfelt congrats to u on ur full and final RETURN.........and thanks a lot for i have drawn a lot of inspiration and motivation from PG........u being an important part of it.......btw my this RETURN would be the final one for me as i will join NITIE........hope to see lots of gr8 posts from u.........congrats once again.......

Rest of PG.com : I still read my suicide note..a note which arguably made me famous on PG.com J.. I can never forget the amount of love and support you gave me.. you guys deserve the best in life! All the best..
-Vengeance (once named awr ..)
PGPM Batch of 2006-08,
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

Kudos to ur efforts man.....................
Inspirational.....................................

@ anupam

and u say that I give gyaaan sessions?? .....
rest apart grt posts anupam..lots 2 learn from u..hope I'll join the league next year.. then I can give genuine gyan sessions!!:satisfie:

btw howz ur chicken pox..n whr r u ..in hyd or jamshedpur??

I feel fortunate to have met a person like Anupam who to me epitomises perseverance with enthusiasm. The only regret I have is that I had to break the news of his non-selection to IIM A.

Some things in life come with greater difficulty than the rest. And when someone like Anupam makes it big thru some struggle and wait, the story of success becomes inspirational.

After reading ur post all I can say is........A W E S O M E !!

It makes an aspirant who is repeating the CAT to see things in positive aspect...


way to go!!!

The GD/PI journey :
It was sheer fun.. waking up at 5:30 in the morning .. strolling my way across Banjara hills and waiting for HAHAHA & his bike.. Aditya seldom came on time J ..
The two of us used to go for TIME classes @ Secunderabad.. attend 1 / 2 GD sessions and while returning we used to analyse our performances.. and that was good!
Refugee @ Mumbai!
Networking has a lot of merit and refugeeing at estranged_gnr's place proved it right!
For all my 5 interviews I must admit I troubled Rohit and Vijay (teesra_banda) with food, internet and sleep J .. but Beers must have enjoyed those paranthaas.. not to mention Aryak!
"I thought Chicken pox affects only kids" says shrikanthk J ..
well I agree I'm an exception heard just now.. kool's the second exception! J
11th April,2006 : I rest in my hospital bed.. away from PG.com .. with every hour.. I grew restless.. results tomorrow ??? will my fate be sealed tomorrow..? Do I have the courage to contest for one more year ?
That night .. I get a phone call from Aarav.. a typical Rahul Sharma typo: "Hello Sir.. kya hala chaal hai ?" ..
I knew this was one guy who made me feel good for the first time in 3 years.. I knew he'd another mission..
"Man on a mission.. 12th april kal hai and you'r gonna lemme know my results .. no matter what happens.. good/bad.. ur calling me and informing me.."
Man on mission : Aye sir.. as you wish!
Redemption or .. The Return!
12th April,2006.. I still lay in my hospital cabin.. Aarav's call wakes me up at 12:06 am..
"Congratulations Sir.. you've done it.. ! IIM C both PGDM & PGDCM"
I woke up.. was it a dream.. ? No.. it wasn't .. my CAT journey ends.. I can't believe it!
Joy and tears compound me.. another Brett Lee puncho..!!
Morning.. Aarav came up with the remaining results .. that of B, L , I and K.
My story with CAT comes to an abrupt end!.. but I shall post more pretty soon..
PGites whom I've not yet mentioned but owe a lot to :
Vahgar : For all the support you gave to me in torrid times.. you stood by me when it mattered the most!
Dr.Watson : Alas.. very few people would be lucky to have roomies like you. You sacrificed a lot for me.. still remember those days when I would be studying in my room and you would do everything in this world to make me comfortable.
Somneel : You just rock dude.. if I've learnt perseverance.. it's from you.. now rock IIM C and Merryl Lynch!
estranged_gnrs : (I agree this onezs a repeatition!) Thanx for all those days when I was put up as a Refugee at your place.. you rock dude.. J
teesra_banda : My Indian Idol , a person who gets selected in IIM L thrice and rejects it thrice.. you are for the Big one Vijay.. Keep rocking!
Rest of PG.com : I still read my suicide note..a note which arguably made me famous on PG.com J.. I can never forget the amount of love and support you gave me.. you guys deserve the best in life! All the best..
-Vengeance (once named awr ..)
PGPM Batch of 2006-08,
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

CAT04: Turbulent times
My father was serious but thanx to the almighty he was recovering on time. CAT had slipped out of my mind for some time ..
12th Nov.. I realized Id to rush to Khozikode for my CAT.. afterall Id spent two years preparing for it now .. 15th nov I make my way to the spice capital of India..
CAT04 had this 1 and 2 markers which tested our on the spot judgement skills as well. I remember the day.. it was one of the worst days in my life..
I always thought DI and Quants were my strengths .. CAT04 proved me wrong!
This time I completed my verbal ability in 20 minutes and went on to attack DI ( supposedly my strength! 99.40 in CAT03) .. but alas! Whatz this DI.. I misread a 1-marker caselet in DI and spent 10 minutes there without attempting a single question. The pressure was mounting and Id attempted a paltry 8-9 questions in 30 minutes.. I was sweating.. never ever in my life did I come under so much pressure in a comfort section. I cursed TIME/CL/IMS for not introducing me to such a pattern! But.. I had to attempt questions.. curses can come later on..
Jittered.. I moved to quants.. the relatively easy quants section helped me cool down my nerves.. Once quants was done I moved to RCs and this time completed 3 RCs in 25 minutes.. with just 10 minutes remaining.. I moved back to DI.. The next 10 minutes were nightmarish.. couldnt think of a strategy to attempt the DI section.. shame on me .. these were the words under my breath..
1:00 pm : STOP was the call I knew Id come up with another award winning performance!
Pune gets a son.. I a family
After my Initial learning program at TCS, I was asked to move to Pune. A new city, new friends,a new environment were all I needed for a recharge I resolved to continue with the combined study group formula. With whocarez getting into IIM C, I knew this formulaz a sure success .. the need of the hour was some like minded people..
The first person whom I met in Pune was Sachin Kadam (Govi ) J. A guy who by appearance looked the academic types.. wow.. seems Im gonna enjoy some serious gyan session now. Together we pen down the plan to form a study group. The way to find people would be through a Pune PG meet .I heard from Govi that Pune PG meets are usually dull with very few people turning up every time. We resolved to change things this time.. so the stage was set for the first ever Pune PG meet of 2005!
At the same time I got a PM from someone named Aarav (Rahul Sharma)..
Aarav.. hmm.. who the hells he ? .. I remember coming across so many Pgites but Aarav.. never heard an A of him before..
The Mystery shoots off when we meet.. here I was sitting in Barista with the legendary Ghulam (aka Aarav ) a person whom I respected ( and still do) for his moral/ethical values (not to mention his quants )
The first Pune PG meet was a big success and helped me get in touch with some really serious aspirants : Govi, itsrahul, Catalytic, Jackal,Subu, Aarav & me..
I got the family which I wanted! J
Way to CAT05! Fun, frolic and a friendship to cherish..
Pune PG meets became the routine of the day. Every week we had a PG meet with most of the regulars turning up and everytime we had this burst of newbies.. J who seldom came the next time!
The first All India PG meet was held in Essel World @ Mumbai. Pune was well represented by Manpreet, Aarav and me. It was a wonderful meet ! I met the likes of Allwyn(pagalguy), Apurv,Subu (urMad), Sowmya (Simba) amongst the biggies..
I made two new friends : Monil (reachmonil) and Rohit (estranged_gnrs)
I was impressed by Monil & Rohit ..their attitude.. positive to the core .. with a gleam of determination in their eyes I could feel these onez are for the big future!
Coming back to Pune, we had a meet after every MockCAT.. with Aaravs home being the preferred destination.. thanx to his bachelorhood and location advantage J
Tied up by a hectic schedule, Sachin made it a point to pay us a visit whenever possible while itsrahul was at his very best with accuracy in mocks..Both Govi and itsrahul are very similar when it comes to demeanor.. the corporate types.. J
And it was fun.. studying at Aaravs house till late in the evenings.. round that off with a movie and then back again.. its a full night out with INMO problems! J
Hyderabad chapter : A geek and a clown meets ..well.. another clown J
Office front my work load was increasing and Id to sacrifice my appraisals for my CAT aspirations. I was soon shifted to a new assignment which required more than hard labor.
My new assignment forced me to land up in Hyderabad Likewise my formula had to continue here too.. sooner or later I bump into a geek (Aditya aka HAHAHA) and a clown (anandv ) J..
It was a lot of learning from the two.. either it be attempting 5 RCs in 25 minutes or attempting MockCATs in 90 minutes! J Competition was something these two guys taught me.. not to forget those analysis sessions when all of a sudden the clown will crack the weirdest of PJs and bring down the mood of the discussion to more bearable levels J
CAT05 : The grand finale..
I wasnt more prepared this time.. realistically speaking.. I was more mentally strong this time.. I knew lady luck had been eluding me for quite sometime and if I remained patient and persevered .. my goals not far away..
The moment I saw it was a 90 question paper, I got this in my mind that the paper will be slightly tougher and the focus needs to be on accuracy.
I always started off with English (as this was not only my weakest section but also the section where I marked more number of bubbles in the least time), I gave some 42-45 mins to English and attempted questions worth 41 marks. I did have this feeling that I may not end up with a satisfactory score in this section but thanx to my pathetic accuracy (ended up with a net score of 17.66).. I decided the only way out for me was to attempt more number of questions.( People strong in english will surely come up with better methods of tackling this section )
Next, I come to my strength : Quantitative Aptitude. I realised I had more scoring oppurtunities in the 2 markers.. hence gave 20 minutes to the two markers and attempted 6 of them. The next 10 minutes were spent with the 1 markers where I attempted just 6 questions.
My net score in quants in 30 minutes was 15.33 (got one 2-marker wrong)
Now I'd 45 minutes in my hand .. I decided to move on to my next strong section : DI and LR .. but for a moment thought I needed a better score in english.. hence moved back to Verbal. With almost all questions answered in verbal, I found I hadn't answered the Derrida RC (my BIGGEST mistake!). I spent some 6-7 minutes on the Rc and to my horror found none of the questions answerable! I decided to mark one answer ( went for a blind fluke! #mistake number 2).
I realised I'd arnd 35-36 minutes left for DI.CAT'04 I was murdered in DI.. for a moment I thought I was going to repeat that performance yet again.
I again found that there were 1 markers and 2 markers present here.. ALthough 2-markers were more scoring..I decided to attempt the 1 markers first..( to gimme bits of confi).. spent some 10 minutes there and attempted questions worth 7 marks.Next, I moved to the 2 markers. Since I had 25 minutes left.. I first attacked the tennis caselet and finished it off in 10 minutes. Next I went to the Olympic caselet, spent some 3-4 odd minutes there.. but cudn't make much sense of it. For a moment.. I made up my mind to take my chances and so some guesswork.. but Holla! CAT'04 perpormance's haunted spirit stopped me from doing so. Next went to the UP/Bihar caselet and cracked it just in time.
My net score in DI was 15.33
I knew Id not done as well as I wanted it to be..
Frustrated.. I wrote down a suicide note J .. a note which made me famous..
The response to that note was tremendous.. even today when I sit back and remember those days.. I get emotional..
2nd January,2006 - I end up with BLACKI Alas lady luck smiles.. The results were declared at 12:00 am on 2nd jan.. I didnt have the guts to check my results.. the man on mission Aarav ( the man with golden lips ) informs me of my calls..
I was overjoyed, punched the air lile Brett Lee.. J but.. alas my joy was short lived .. most of my study mates (Aarav,Govi,Monil,rohit,.teesra.. cudnt make it to the next stage)
Next comes Vengeance..

CAT'03 : The prelude to my Cat expedition ..
I'd enrolled for the IMS Simcats that year. Since I started preparing on August '03, I'd very little time to go through the basics. Honestly speaking I touched nothing of quant/di.. the only thing which I worked on RCs.. and a bit of vocabulary/grammar.
I never performed excellently in my mocks.. but I was consistent.. I usually hovered around the 97th-98th percentile and could clear the cutoffs only on 2 occasions out of 8! (thanx to a section they call verbal ability! )
Then comes D-day and with it Goosebumps, henpicks, turkeysnippet J and what all..
The paper was given to us .. the first thing I did was to smell it! At 11:00 am sharp, the invigilator says "START"..
11:35 am and I'm still stuck with verbal ability.. would you believe it ? didn't touch a single RC by then.. I could sense sweat everywhere..
12:00 pm done with verbal ability and 1 RC ( so much for English & reading speed.. ).. with 1 hour left I'd two sections but the best part was.. they were my strengths..
12:30 pm done with DI - attempted 26 questions.
1:00 pm done with quants - attempted 25 questions.
I quickly checked my attempts : 26 + 25 + 32 (English) = 83 attempts!
With a feeling not so good.. I made my way back to my hostel.. was disappointed for not performing well in English.. As soon as I reached my common room.. someone came shouting : "CAT'03 stands cancelled .. thanx to Ranjit Don"
Pagalguy.com : another forum on the wall ?
I knew God won't give me any better chance than this. Here I screw CAT and the test stands cancelled what more can I ask ?
I'd this habbit of surfing the net during my free time and on one such occasion I bumped into an interesting forum named www.pagalguy.com The name struck me.. !!! pagalguy.. hey sounds cool.. maybe some resemblance.. let me check this..
And what do I find there..with some 400-500 odd members, here we have an MBA forum which discusses almost everything under the sun! whoa.. that's my cake!
I found Gods like philiptj (100%iler), puneet(100%iler) and many more posting in this forum. Now, I needed to jump in .. so what's the first thing well create an ID and register..
So here goes .. my first id on pg.com : vision_mission
I used to spend most of my time reading about how pagalguy.com was created..(thanx to Alwyn J ), CAT'03 scores, strategies. Slowly I started getting involved into a lovely community .. It was so much fun.. take a mock.. post your scores/analysis.. and the interaction was of high quality..
Then we had wonderful threads where we usually had heated discussions.. PG.com was a part of life now.
CAT'03 : the retake..
"I may fail once.. now that God's given me an opportunity.. let me make best use of it."
These were the words I said to myself when I entered the exam hall.
11:00 am sharp we start answering.. I discover quants/di was tougher .. while English looked the same!
11:25 still stuck with verbal ability.. what the hell.. was I going to repeat the same performance again ?
.. "YES" I did! .. repeated the same performance.. 11:55 pm done with English ( full VA and 2 RCs! ) L
with just 65 minutes at hand .. somehow I made hay of the other two sections. My attempts : 21 (quants ) + 27(di) + 34(English) = 82 and another performance to crib!
As soon as I left the exam hall.. I could hear people shouting.. "Me attempted 105.. arrey me 110.. and so on"..I knew I hadn't done well!
With a lot of courage I calculated my score later that evening :
Quants: 14
Di : 21
English : 14.33
Net : 49.33 L
All coaching institutes came up with their analysis with cutoffs at a strict 58+ for atleast 1 IIM ( IMS went to extremes declaring 78+ for atleast 1 IIM call J )
That night I wept.. all my aspiration were going down and to add to my woes.. I was so confident that I had skipped the placements at my institute.
SP Jain & MDI to the rescue..
97.33 (99.40 in DI,96 in quants and 78 in English)was bad.. I mean pretty bad considering I'd my eyes on the IIMs. However I got calls from MDI and SP Jain. I attended the interviews since I'd applied to them. I was elated to know that I could make it to the merit lists of SP & MDI. J
For a few moments I let go my IIM aspirations.. 1st attempt at CAT and I could get into 2 of the best institutes in the country.. wasn't it an achievement ?
That evening.. I called my pals at IIM A and informed them of my results. They were happy but one of them said this : "Good.. but don't u think you can give CAT another short.. ? Remember your promise.."
I soon realized my promise.. all my joy was out in seconds.. I knew I'd a mission to accomplish
anupam will return : boy.. what a strange Id ?
Those days we had this points concept on PG wherein you could add colours/sparkles to your profile in exchange of points. The points were generally earned and we had some generous divas who actually donated them too..
One could also change his user id in exchange for 3000 points and this is exzctly what I did Overnight vision_mission vowed to return for CAT'04.. this time as: anupam will return!
Final year in engineering , the first thing I'd to do was to get placed and then prepare for CAT. I needed a company which could offer me with a cool life .. after some analysis chose TCS J
I also felt the need to network, form study groups and go on with the preparation. Being in Calcutta I knew very few people from PG there. Most of my time I'd to be online on PG trying my hands at the quant threads/ verbal ability sections.
One day I come across Praveen Agarwal (whocarez) a Pgite.. preparing for CAT'04.. the platform was set..
I enrolled for the TIME AIMCATs this time. I felt the need to enroll for another Mock CAT series and hence enrolled for CL too.
Every Sunday we had AIMCATs and every Monday whocarez and I used to meet.. spend the next 3-4 hours analyzing the paper at Barista/CCD outlets they issued us regular membership coupons for our cinematic visits! J
This group study thingie was working My performance in the Mocks skyrocketed.. the first 8 AIMCATs.. I'd got into the top 100 on 6 occasions (and cleared the cutoffs everytime !)
Consistency is the key to success and I was proving it again and again!
18 mocks in TIME : I got into the top 100 on 11 occasions.
10 mocks in CL : I got outside the top 100 only once!
I was pretty sure I was going to make it BIG this time.. at nights I used to sleep and imagine the same Rock @IIM A.. I knew I was getting close to my dreams.
I was soon placed at TCS and had to go to Trivandrum for my initial learning program. 10 days into my training ( in October) .. and one night I get a call from my mother : My father's ill and I would have to rush back home..

The story of an average guy who dared to dream BIG!
I was never interested in CAT.. In my engineering days at IIIT-C, I always aspired to be an IT nerd or should I say programming Geek! I'd my eyes on GRE. The trend then was work under a set of distinguished Proffs.. take GRE when you are fully prepared , apply to the US Universities and then get a big chunk off your expenses using those coveted recommendations. My target was no different! But what drove me to CAT ?
I found some of my classmates glued to IMS/TIME material right there in the 2nd year .. Holla !!! what was that.. and what exactly is CAT ?
One of them replied.. you dunno CAT ? ( with a big frown in his face! ) CAT's supposed to be an extremely tough exam( realized later.. CAT's nothing but an extremely hyped test! ).. you crack it and you make your way to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Managements.. wow.. sounds attractive but why the hell should I pursue it ? Afterall.. I always wanted to become an IT nerd!
My NDA dreams still disturb me
I always wanted to be in the AirforceI knew being the only child of my parents I would be discouraged .. but what the heck.. I decided to take extreme steps..
When I'was in my 11th standard.. I purchased the NDA (National Defence Academy) form.. appeared for the test.. got selected.. was called for an SSB interview for the Indian Airforce at Dehradun went there aced and got selected! And all these without caring to inform my parents!
Gosh.. when the final call letter came.. I got the bashing of my life! And for the first time in my life I cried this is what I wanted to be
Coming back to CAT.. In our third year of engineering we had to do a summer internship in an organization. I'd offers from PriceWaterHouseCoopers and Tata Consultancy Service Ltd ( well wasn't an Ltd then).. and was very sure to do it from PWC. But one of my pals comes to my room one lovely evening and tells me.. "Heya. Ditch PWC.. we'r gonna go to IIM A!!!"
My reply : "IIM A.. pagal hai kya ? wat's me supposed to gain from there.. me need corporate exposure and not IIM expo.."
Somehow this pal of mine convinces me to ditch the corporate offers and join him. So here we go..come june 03 and we'r on our way to the Mecca of Mgmt !
All it takes is just 2 months. no more
I still remember my first reactions when I stood right in front of IIM A .. the reaction of a "wow" in my lips and an "awe" in my belly..
The next two months were breath taking. Me and my pal were put up in one of the dorms of IIMA.The work load was extreme to say the least.. but fun never deserted us.. I took my time to make a lot of wonderful acquaintances there I saw people running with sandwiches clubbed in their mouths and hands in their zips.. trying to zip the last thing before entering the classrooms..
Aw.. what was this ?
"We've a surprise test now.. will catch u later" was the reaction!
Me was dumbfounded.. the next 15-20 days.. I made it sure to take some time out of my work and observe the life of an MBA grad.. and the results were tempting!
The two months at IIM A were good enough to motivate me.. for CAT. Now, since I'd to do something filmy..
I went to a rock ( they call it the CEO's rock primarily because most of the IIM A junta sit there and sip tea ) .. touched the rock and promised to crack CAT! (To be very specific I promised to return to IIM A .. only this time as a PGP student )
My first MOCK . Quant + DI are my strengths!
Motivated.. I returned to IIIT-C.. this time with a determination to crack CAT. Now what's the first thing to do.. take some material and start over ? Nah.. lemme follow what IMS asks us to do..
So.. one fine Sunday morning I set off for the nearest IMS center to take the preliminary test. The test was modeled on the pattern of CAT 2002, and I spent 1 hour doing Quantitative Aptitude and the next 1 hour with DI/LR J
"2 hours up.. now Students please calculate your scores and let us know .. please note at this stage even if it's a 20 you should be glad " was the call ..
10-13 took the test and their score hovered around the 15-25 mark. I calculated my score.. it was an encouraging 44.75 ( with a negative marking of 0.25 ).. "Wow" remarked the counselor.. did u take CAT before? "NO " I said with a broad smile.. Oh boy.. was I to crack CAT without any preps ? J
The counselor asked my sectional breaks:
I replied : 23.50 in quants and 21.25 in DI.. The smile in her face trimmed down to a frown now.. "what about English ? "
"English".. why the hell should I go for English when I can score in quants/Di ?
What followed was a hoard of laughter.. ( and it still rings ! ) Never ever had I felt so embarrassed! The counselor explained me.. in CAT you need to perform equally well in all three sections.. only then will you be eligible for the IIMs..
Afflicted and determined .. I returned home ..

Hi Guyz, :neutral:
I am confounded in this perplexing situation. First the facts:
--> Fresher engineering (IIT)
--> Calls in CAT'05 --->A,C,L,K,I
The sad part is i could convert only Indore. To be true i had never considered Indore and had always thought that i would convert A,C or L definitely.

I just wanted to know whether it is justified in your opininion to take another try at CAT to get ABC. I already have a good job at a sales & markting US based consultancy firm, ZS Associates at hand.

Also though i have only done a couple of courses in Marketing and one in Finance i had always believed that Finance could be the thing for me.
So if i go ahead with the marketing job and give CAT again say after 2 years would a transition from Marketing to Finance profile be viable or is it going to be difficult??
Or shud i jump into IIMI and get a taste of finance right away.

I know that cracking CAT again after some years will be a helluva job. Waddya guyz say, should i take-up IIMI or work in Marketing for some time hoping that the work-ex will be advantageous to me and will help me know more about what i want to do in life!!!

As for the job, its a CTC 6.5 package, so money isnt an issue i guess. Wud appreciate your advice.

Thanks for helping out

I think cracking CAT is not only about slogging good number of hours. Practise is definitely at the core of the activity but the most vital thing is to deliver big on the D day(jo jita wahi sikandar).


The best thing is to enjoy CAT preparation, not getting obsessed of it.

Finally hard work always pay off and as saying goes " It pours when it rains", so guys keep the tempo , all of you deserving souls will be rewarded.

Bye,
abhishek

..... contd

Series of events since the XLRI results in Feb 2004.

Feb 15 : Wrote CAT re-exam.

Feb 21 : XAT Interview - A dream interview.

Mar 06 : Joined Pagalguy

Mar 07 : All CAT results out. Got call from IIM-K

Mar 15 : I reject onsite offer in hope of XL convert

Apr 01 : I am the fool of the day with dream interview bringing
nightmare results.

Apr 14 : IIM-K interview. Average GD, Average PI.

May 01 : Reject onsite offer again in hope of converting K.

May 10 : Final results. I am not in first list.

May 15 : Reject onsite offer for a third time, in hope of K second list

May 22 : K second list out. I am not there. Still hope for a call after start of session

Jun 30 : K session has started. No call. End of my MBS plans for the year.

Now the important part. Key learnings.

1. Be clear on career goals.
a. Do not have more than 1 goal.
b. Remain commited to your goal during interview period.
c. You can always change after you are selected.

2. During the exam, do not get excited if you are performing way
beyond expectation.

3. In CAT quant, do not guess. Murphy is waiting.

4. Avoid any reference to philosophy during interviews.
a. Philosopshy means different things to different people.
b. It is a vast area and you can be asked anything.
c. Philosophers seldom agree. So if the panel has a philosopher,
you are in trouble.
d. Philosphy is a personal thing. And it is better not to expose
it to attack by the panel.

5. Conform to the current society's standard of ethics in replies to
questions on ethics.
a. Professors are usually idealists.
b. They want to produce both effecient and ethical managers.

6. If you do not know the answer to a question, admit it. Do not try to guess.

7. During the interviw period, keep a positive feeling about your employer.
a. Negative feeling against employer is viewed as negative against you.
b. If you keep a negative feeling and lie in direct questions, you
may unintentionally say something against your employer in
indirect questions.
c. Highlight learnings from the work experience during the introduction.

8. Do not waste introduction time talking about thinsg that do
not reveal positive information about you to the panel
in the context of MBA admission.

9. Even if the GD gets boring, be enthusiastic.

10. Good CAT score matters. With 97 percentile and 77 in Quant, do
not be too hopeful.

11. Beware of real cool XL interviews. Most cool XL interviews result
in non selction.
....... To be contd.

I am an SCRA and would (have) soon joine (ed) the Indian railways as class I gazetted officer. After clearing UPSC in 2002 I knew I could clear any exam (boastfull eh?) and thus decided not o join any coaching!!In any case near Jamalpur (SCRA training centre) there IS no coaching insti. On 20 Nov 2005 I was at jamshedpur for CAT. While my exam was decent enuf, my mobile was stolen from putside the test center and hence my day turned out to be really baaaad!!! I knew that this is one exam I would not make !!! However on2 Jan 2006 my comp told me that I have qualified for 5 IIM gd/pi (all except IIMA). i was ecstatic. I had no access to any coaching insti/mentor/senior etc. Also I was a bit complacent due to my existing career. still I appeared for my gds with only my parent's advices for the possible questions and answerr. As luck wud have it I converted IIMC,I,L(w/l)
I still maintain my IIMB pi was great but god prbbly wanted me to be nearer to home hence JOKA here I come.
TO all CAT aspirants, it does not matter if you make it to IIMs or not. I still feel they are a little overhyped!!! It is the input that you have given that matters.
A coaching insti may help you get into an IIM, but remember in life there is no coaching to take you forward(no offences to neone). Believe in yourself and u'll make it to the top.
I go to IIMCal not dreaming of stratospherically high salary but of learning something new. (I mean it guys believe me!!!)]
Best of luck to you all,
Ram Ram
Arvind

My journey to IIM-C

The IIMs had always been a dream for me. My first attempt at the CAT (the entrance exam for the IIMs) was in 2003. Had prepared a lot for it and had a good exam. But the moment I came out of the examination halls, I heard that my effort had been a wasted one, for the CAT papers had been leaked, and the CAT would be reconducted.
The CAT was reconducted in Feb 2004. But somehow, I just couldn't motivate myself for the same level of preparation. I don't know whether it was the frustration of the wasted effort, or just my usual complacent attitude, but I wasn't motivated enough to take the retest. Even with the half-hearted approach, I managed to secure 98.82 percentile. I would have managed to get a few GD/PI calls from some of the IIMs, had it not been for a technicality called sectional cut-offs. My percentile in one of the sections was too low. A case of so-near-yet-so-far!...................(More)

November 2003 - First Attempt at CAT .. in my final year with 0 preparation -> 92.1%ile ... obsviously no calls :neutral:

November 2004 - Second Attempt at CAT .. in my first year at job and with the help of time test series -> 95.8%ile ... obsviously no calls :neutral:

December 2004 - Joined Pagalguy.

August 2005 - My Project manager messed up my yearly appraisal.

November 2005 - Third Attempt at CAT .. frustrated with a bad yearly appraisal -> saw no future in IT -> with the help of time test series and CL coaching -> 99.86%ile ... Calls : IIM B, I, K and MDI.

Jan 2006 - Enrolled with Mr. Malay Ray and converted IIM I, K and MDI. Though the IIM B nightmare PI is still bugging me .... but just had a bad day.

Oct 2003 - Realization dawned upon me that I was heading nowhere in life. I had been working at Infosys for 2.5 years. Done nothing great and
saw no scope of doing anything in the future. I considered various options and conclude that MBA in India was the most feasible ones. Luckily I had already applied to CAT just to satisfy my parents.

My idea about CAT at that stage - A silly exam where one has to solve hundreds of maths problems in a limited time. Speed was never my forte.Thats why I had never given CAT in all the previous years.

My idea about MBA - The domain of pseud guys. Outside the ambit of introvert, down to earth guys like me.Did not even know that there was an IIM at Indore. Never heard of FMS, XLRI, MDI or IIFT.

I decided to join some coaching institute to get myself acquainted with the syllabus. But by then the last date for registration even for crash courses was past. At last found an institute 'Scholar's League' which was starting a weekend crash course. There people told me that XL was a good institute too and I applied for XAT too.

The coaching institute was run by grads who had done their BTech from IIT and MBA from IIM-L. They were quite good and it being a new institute, the batch strenth was 5 of whom none were serious aspirants. But I got good personal attention and was able to get a good feel of
what CAT exam was all about.

Then came the actual day of CAT. Went in expecting some surprises. But exam turned out to be an anti climax with the same old pattern of 3 sections having 50 questions each, similar to the previous years' papers and the Mock CATs. The climax however came after the exam when news came out that the paper had got leaked and the exam had got cancelled. My luck. Every time I take a exam, the paper gets leaked and exam gets cancelled. Same thing had happened to me in my IIT JEE also.

Meanwhile I wrote XAT. XAT paper was fantastic. The GK paper had humorous quotations which had to be completed and I really enjoyed those, though I has never heard the quotations before. After cracking the GK section, moved on to English. Here again I was delighted to find most of the passages from Shakespere as I was very comfortable with Shakesperean language. By the time, I came to quant, I could not believe I was doing so well in XAT that I wasted 5 minutes feeling surprised before I got back to solving the problem sets on probability, combinations, number series etc. I guess the minutes wasted reflected on my Quant score, which was a mere 80 percentile. But the final results turned out good fro me. I had 99 percentile in XAT, with 99 in GK, 98 in Verbal and 80 in Quant. Got a call from XLRI, Jamshedpur for the PM & IR course.

Having got a call from XLRI, I was no longer that desperate for CAT. But anyway took TIME Mock CATs for the re-exam. Was consistently ranked outside the top 3000. Then came CAT again. Once again it was the same 3 section paper and my performance was very similar to my first time. The IIMs seemed to have run out of ideas.

Let me take a chronological break here and move on to the CAT results. I had managed 97.45 percentile with 98 in verbal, 92 in DI and 77 in Quant. Inspite of low CAT score, I got a call from IIM-K.

So that was my tally for the year - XLRI PM & IR, IIM-K.

I will continue with my GD/PI experiences in the next post. I have been dreaming of writing this for the past 2 years from the day I read Chandoo's posts. So its going to be a bit long winded and span across posts.

May 2004 - I had 2 calls - XLRI, IIM-K. Failed to convert both. Chandoo posted his experience on this thread. Highly inspiring. I dreamt one day I would post here.

May 2006 - I have final admits from IIM - A, C, I, XIM-B, MDI. Waitlisted at L.
And I am going to post my 'experiments with CAT' in a triology of 5 posts.

This is 11th April 2006 and tomorrow I shall know my fate. Fate, as always, is not without a sense of irony. The choices that we make come and haunt us everyday. I'm feeling the usual butterflies in my stomach but honestly I don't care. I don't care about the results as they don't matter to me anymore. I have not found salvation or something, I just don't care.

May be I shall not convert any one of the call.
So what ?
I shall not die.
The world will not stop.
My parents will not start hating me.

Ok, I shall get that sympathy look in other people's eyes and I won't be able to stand it. But I can always take my eyes away it. Why should I care?

If you care you get disappointed all the time.

Yes Sir, totally agreed. Me too facing D-Day tomorrow. But as you put it, even the worst will not mean the end of the world! So lets chill out! And hope for the best!

As far as my view of the CAT goes, I believe with the amount of publicity that it has got in the last few years, you just can't expect it to retain the same pattern next year. The last two years have progressively made us concentrate on accuracy more than speed. Especially CAT 2005. So now, all the coaching classes will start flooding the students with similar mock tests. And the students will be geared up for accuracy. And that's exactly the reason why I expect CAT2006 to revert back to the larger number of questions format. Just to throw all calculations into disarray.
Having said all this, I sincerely hope I won't need to appear for it again!!

Cheers and Good Luck!

Hi to all,

My preparation has been much like that of Chandu. Yes, those two hours in the exam hall are utmost important. Don't take any risk there and esp. not of attempting too many questions. But it is not as easy as it looks. We(especially I ) can't stop attempting more questions. I knew I had messed up by attempting 'too many' questions in a couple of simCATs, but I repeated the same mistake in the real CAT-05 and the rest is NOT A HISTORY. I could get only 85 percentlile while those of my friends who used to get similar percentile to mine got 95-99 %ile. So guys, be satisfied with the number of questions you can handle and don't try to mess up on your accuracy.

i have read a lot of posts stating that CAT is a test of yout intelligence!!IS IT???

my batchmates in my college (especially ppl from the north) were xtremely good in mechanics(dese guys try for years and thn get into REC),they were abslutely brilliant and never even once did they mention that they had studied these subjects bfore, for their entrance!!!
one day we had a lecture from a prof , he is also the visiting faculty at MIT,and he is an absolute gem.HE said dat "no one is born intelligent..if some one says that he knows mechanics or for that matter ne subject without ne prior studying of that subject,he is lying"..very very true..soon i found dat all my frnds had actually studied these subjects while preparing for their entrance.

ppl who claim to have cracked cat without ne prior preparation,its very hard to believe!!...Is cat an exam dats tests ur intelligence???absolutely not!!!
Its an elimination round dat tests ones skills in maths,di and eng...

the guys who bell the cat without ne solid preps for it, definitely have honed their maths and eng skills over a period of time,mite be during their engg,during school or during their preps for JEE...which guys like me have not(a big mistake)..
nobody is born knowing CAT maths or english,its improved over the years..

taking 2 years to get those skills back(during cat attempts) ,rather to improve such skills does not make ne1 a bad manager!!!!!its jus paying for the mistakes u have committed earlier on....

P.S---this is in reply to ppl who claim dat cracking cat with 3 years of preps makes them bad managers.

In the US there is a calculation on the time duration of an exam/credit course and the number of hours that needs to be spent for that.

The amount of time people spend on studying for this exam is a national waste and I would put the total value wasted upwards of 100 crores every year. I am not kidding here. I am not counting the lowered self esteem and the losing of self worth that will come to the majority after writing this exam...

For a 2 hour exam I would say studying for more than 100 hours will actually hurt your performance because of the undue anxiety it creates on the day of the exam...

Personally I wrote 14 AIMCATS in a real test environment and looked at 2 other AIMCAT papers casually at home... Probably one more hour each paper for analysis at home done thoughtfully but not entirely wholesome...

I definitely did not solve all the problems in the AIMCAT papers... The many i did not solve in the exam were forever left unsolved... other than a few questions here and there...

Also looked at CAT 2004... All the questions... Did not touch probability or permutations etc... Casually did a few questions from previous years CAT papers

All my actual preparation for the CAT like looking at previous years questions for the CAT was in the last two weeks before CAT. YES that is 100% honest.
And in this time i was actually lookin at some fun books in math and general reading actually... Used this time to solve maybe 50+ CAT math problems in total... Absolutely very few questions of verbal or di done in total... In the last month i was glancing through 5 odd interesting books just for fun and as in supposed preparation for EU
Ofcourse I was wasting(?) time on the forum all the time

I could say I slogged real hard in the last two days before CAT. Slogged as in upto 10 hours each on the last two days... purely because I knew i was not upto it in the math and had forgotten the concepts and had lost my great touch in math

Remember that in the end... you are on in each section for 40 minutes
Yes in the end for a 40 minute section most of you have wasted an entire year... In this small period... your prep hardly matters... Luck being a key factor what matters is how you instinctively spot the questions you could answer and persist just enough to solve them...
What matters most is the split second decision to leave a question or answer it... What matters is if you have the guts to decide right there that it would be crazy to attempt that second RC even though all previous CATs had 5 and attempting atleast 3 or more of them was extremely important... What matters most is maybe a real time decision that this time maybe 40 minutes for each section is a bad idea...

So all your yearly prep is not only an absolute waste of time beyond a certain level of prep but it actually makes you anxious, nervous and apprehensive in those crucial 2 hours of mini decision making...

So think wisely and look around you... There might be far more interesting things to do than slogging 4 hours a day which in the end is actually harmful to your chances...

At the end of the day those who have studied an entire year sloggin 3-4 horus a day would have still got the same score if they had studied for less than 1 hour a day... but ofcourse there is no way it can be convincingly proved...
But remember that there are a lot more people who slog 3-6 hours a day and dont get a good score...

Just at the end of the day you only hear from the successful people who say hey I worked real hard and I cracked the CAT. What you dont hear is the guy who is equally intelligent and worked equally hard but did not make it...

What I am saying is that your prep means shit after a certain reasonable limit whether in the end you crack it or dont

K

Hi all,
Truly impressed by chandoo's post, like I guess everyone on this thread is.
Thought I would share my CAT experience with all of yu. I finished my engineering in 2004, so in my final year when I gave the CAT, we were the lucky batch who got to give the CAT twice( one in Nov 2003 then in Feb 2004). I knew I was good with the verb section, worked hard on quant and DI. That year had one of the easiest DI's of all time. Hardly any calculations and very little in terms of logical analysis. It was more about just going through some tables and solving some very easy questions. And i made soo many silly errors in that. my percentile slipped to a 98.18 with a split as follows:
Quant : 99.91
Verba : 99.48
DI : 31.47 ( That is not my percentage score, thats my percentile!!!! )
And if you thought that would be the end of my stupid oversights....well...you are wrong.
After college, I joined Infosys, and planned to give the CAT again . Only CAT, didnt apply for any other colleges, thought pushing a 98.18%ile to a 99+ shudnt be too tuff. Submitted the form ( for CAT Nov-2004), and on the first week of november logged into their site to check the status. My form was rejected because I hadnt signed anywhere on it. The whole form is to be filled using a Pencil, except the disclaimers and the signature next to the Address Box with a Black ball pen. In Both places I hadnt signed! They rejected my form. I called up my elder sister who was in IIM-A that time, asked her if anything could be done. Well she tried, but it was only 12 days to the CAT. It was wayyyy too late to do anything. So that was it, second attempt at CAT and what an anti-climactic no show!!!

Didnt want to lose touch with my preperations, so gave the XAT, the only exams whose forms were available at that time. Cleared the XAT. Didnt get through the interview, simply because I didnt even prepare, something that I will avoid this time around.
This year, for CAT- Nov-2005, bought the form. Filled it carefully. Xeroxed it and kept a copy. Scanned it to my friends and had it proof-read. And kept checking their site to see the form status. The sheer joy I felt on the day it was accepted, didnt even feel that great after getting the iim-a gd/pi call!

Gave the XAT as well, cleared that too. So basically after that one fiasco for CAT-Nov-2004 all the tests where I have signed on the form I have been able to clear. So basically, the most critical aspect of my preparation was signing!!! So ladies and gentlemen, kindly do not waste any time...and practice your signatures. Bring out the black ball pens and sign on every empty scrap of paper you see..!!!!
Thats what I have learnt...and I am passing my wisdom along!!!

hi chandu bhai i usually come to this thread when i feel down or when i need a mental support but today i read ur post must say great write up u really gave a great fight this was my first attempt to cat and why iw ent for cat??the reason are almost same as urs money mental peace etc but above all it was my dream to study in iim i had tht aim since i was in 11th but after my cat i landed up at 93.13 and now i have lost my confidence tht i would be able to crack the cat06 so now im aiming at other bschools i knows its not fair to give up ur dreams so easily but thts life i have seen so many persons getting lower percentile in second attempt and i dont want to fall again so thts why im aiming at second and third tier school but after seeing ur post im sure i would be taking a drop if i dont get thr mica thankx a lot may be i deseerve iim may be some day i will proudly say tht im a IIMIAN

srikrishnan Says

.........That's it folks. Thanks a lot for the time that you guys have taken to go though my reallyyyyyyyyy longggggg post. Bye.

One of the best posts that I've come across so far @PG. shall I say a perfect example of what CAT teaches us in the long run...
Moral of the story : No matter what goes wrong .. face the world positively.
Kudos to you and your spirit Srikrshnan..
:)

Edited By oxymoron: tut tut...now now Anupam you must of all people know better than to quote long posts..:)

Now I am a lot stronger mentally and I feel more comfortable living with myself. Hell I didn't crack CAT but I surely made myself a better human being trying to crack it. It is for this simple reason that I feel that CAT has been invaluable to me. I may never crack CAT or what do you know!! I might be in IIMA next year.. But I feel either ways, I have won. There is a feeling of genuine happiness and content that I seldom had even when I topped the class at school. This is what CAT has given me.
My 2 cents to CAT 2006 aspirants( This is for the below average guys like me all you studs can take a hike .. Anyway I am not qualified enough to advise you):
First and foremost, dont think about your academics and correlate that with your performance in CAT. The director of IIMC himself has said that they look at a person's academics only by his CAT scores. It DOES NOT MATTER IF YOU HAVENT DONE TOO WELL IN YOUR DEGREE. IIMA might be different but you dont have to worry about this as things like this can take care of themselves post CAT. People who crack CAT aren't exactly Ramanujams. You don't have to be special to crack CAT. All that you need to be is to just be yourself. Stick to what is your strength and try to maximize it. Try to nullify your weakness or atleast reduce it as much as possible. Take mocks seriously. The results of the mock CAT have absolutely no correlation with performance on DDAY but it is extremely important that you analyze your mock CAT papers. The importance of this in particular can never be overemphasized. Build your basics slowly and strongly. Never move to the next topic without being clear with what you've already studied. I feel that I faultered here as I tried to rush through this particular phase by finishing off the materials given by TIME as early as possible. Always have basic materials of more than one institute (I had TIME and IMS' materials). As you approach CAT, even if you have neglected a few topics here and there, stick to your strength. I feel that in order to crack CAT, your strategy plays a bigger part than knowledge of topics. I would put it down to 70% strategy and 30% knowledge. However, I put this down with due caution as I don't want to misguide people into believing that you can crack CAT without putting too much in terms of preparation. I am just trying to emphasize the importance of having good strategy. Good strategy is not essentially a single strategy but learning to be flexible and adjusting your strengths and weakness according to the pattern and difficulty level of questions in the paper. I feel that this can be reached only with regular practice and taking as many mocks as possible. And last but certainly not the least, remember than ATITUDE IS AS IMPORTANT AS APTITUDE.
Some books that I can suggest:
Verbal:- If you have lots of time which I guess anything more than six months is, then going through Barrons GRE is not a bad idea. Apart from this, I would specially recommend All About Words by Morris Rosenblum and I feel that it is a must read for everyone interested in expanding their vocabulary. If you aren't too confident about your verbal ability, try digging into one of the old Wren and Martin lying around in an old second hand bookstall. For parajumbles, I guess mocks should do the trick. Cant comment on extensive preparation for English because I hardly prepared much here anyway. Was fairly confident of getting 99.** . But got only 98.
Quantz: The most feared section especially for non-engineers. Trust me guys.. Unless you are IIT material or some reallyyyyyyy gifted guy, engineers find it as tough or as easy as others. I would recommend any insti material like TIME or IMS or CL (I used TIME+IMS) for building basics. I think its always better to have materials from atleast 2 institutes. Apart from this, once you are through with basics, try " How to Prepare for the Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT" by Arun Sharma. The book is excellent and contains some really tough questions. Considering the fact that CAT papers, year by year, are getting tougher in terms of difficulty levels of problems, this book is an absolute must.
DI/LR:
This was what did me in as far as CAT 2005 is concerned. Try to work out as many handouts as possible as I felt that they were of higher difficulty levels than most of the exercise problems in the insti study materials. Also, mock problems also closely resembled what we got in CAT. Once again, refer to Abhijit Guha's book which contains both quantz and DI. I wouldn't recommend the book for quants but would certainly say that it is the best for DI. It contains several strategies that can be useful when mastered and the difficult level of exercise problems is also pretty high. Also, the book is quite comprehensive in itself as far as the DI section is concerned. Was fairly comfortable with LR. Would say that mocks are enough as far as LR goes.
One final word(or maybe para): Have fun while preparing for CAT but take it seriously cos it damn worth it and remember that the means are as important as the results. If you do the processes well, the results will take care of themselves. (Finally I know what Dravid means when he says that).
That's it folks. Thanks a lot for the time that you guys have taken to go through my reallyyyyyyyyy longggggg post. Bye.

Yet Another Below Average Student's Experience and Guide towards Cracking CAT
Well, I don't have any other work today. So I've decided to relive the most amazing journey of my life - CAT. To start with, this is not a success story .I doubt if this will be anything close to motivating. But I am writing it anyway. I am just a below-average (not even close to average with my academics) run of the mill engineering guy who studied in one of the thousands of private engineering colleges located along the suburbs of Madras. I remember that it was around December 2004 that I decided to prepare for CAT. I didn't know the reason exactly then as to how an MBA would help me. The best reason that I could think of was that my engineering academics were below average and I even had a couple of backlogs in my second semester (what do you expect from a below average guy) and MBA meant instant money. Also, I wanted to do then was to do something different. While the whole class started preparing for GRE, joined classes, mugged wordlists and so on, I wanted to take a different route. Even if it was GRE that I wanted to write, I wasn't convinced by the concept of coaching classes for GRE. Verbal can only be imbibed by one and not taught by one to another. At least, that was by feeling and still is. GRE math was child's play and seriously wasn't worth preparing too much. I still feel the same way though the difficulty levels of questions have moved up. So I decided that my exam would be CAT. After getting to decide I would take up CAT, I joined pagalguy forums. I then mailed seniors in IIMs to find out how to start preparing and which coaching class was the best for me. All of them suggested that TIME was the best in South India especially here in Madras. So I joined TIME almost on the same day last year. Started attending classes with enthusiasm and excitement. Got back home and worked out the handouts and tried my hand at the problems given in the institute study material. This continued till about august. Then the pressures of engineering started catching up. Slowly started bunking English classes as I saw little use in them anyway. Math and DI were what I was after. DI was demoralizing in particular as I was poor at number crunching and the whole class would shout out answers even before I got down to work. Once again consulted seniors on pagalguy to help me out and they all said the same thing once again. PRACTICE. That seemed the only way out of DI. So started paying special attention to DI. Time passed and we were supposed to appear for our first mock that was by mid August. Wrote the first mock and it was then that I understood where I stood. Math bombed and surprisingly DI was okay. I was fairly confident in English;however, I felt strategy had to be fine-tuned. The number of attempts had to be increase as they were too low. Even in English, I realized the importance of reading speed as I found that if I could master reading speed, I could easily max out English. I got my hands on a speed reader software (once again thanks to pg forum) and started working at my reading speed. Then, in the mocks that followed, started doing well in English by feel to abysmal lows as far as math was concerned. Once again, DI seemed "manageable". It is at this stage of my preparation that I feel I faltered. I never got down to the absolute basics of math and never fine-tuned DI. I should have easily spotted this as I was always erratic with my percentiles in DI and consistently low in Math. Then came another shocker. I couldn't get myself into a decent software company when everyone around me seemed to do it with relative ease. Wipro came, Caritor came and TCS came. I could not make it. All this seemed too demoralizing and together with my mock CAT results, made me question the very reason for my existence on this planet for the past 20 years. All this prompted me to take up GRE that seemed the easiest and safest option then despite my ordinary acads. Spent about ten to fifteen days mugging up Barrons. Never touched the quants or analytical writing parts and appeared on the GRE. Did maths and analytical writing well as expected but bombed in verbal with a score of 500ish. Now that GRE was over, the whole mood changed. I thought I could give CAT the final push that was needed. Chatted for a long time with the guys who had made the cut to the IIMs and drew inspiration from their performances. Filled with renewed enthusiasm, I worked away day after day. It was October end before I new it. Now was the time for some serious business. But wait. I didn't know a word of engineering in the seventh semester. So had to prepare for that. So I was down to burning the midnight oil as I had to manage my semester exams together with CAT. Decided to skip the model exams at college and got myself into big trouble by doing it. HOD had a real go at me. I just ignored him. Then came the timetable from Anna University. The semester exams were to begin on 17th November and CAT was on 20th November. So the exam fever had kicked in. The first paper was Professional Ethics and the exam that followed CAT was Environmental Science and Engineering. So the first couple of exams weren't a problem. But I was worried about the other subjects. So I completely ignored CAT by the last week of October. But hell, the semester exams that began by 17th Nov ended only by Jan 2nd. We ended up having only a couple of exams every fortnight thanks to the rain that played havoc on the city. Cursing myself for not spending the last few days preparing for CAT,DDAY drew closer and I now started writing CRTs(CAT Replica Tests-> old CAT papers). Finally after the Novemeber 18th, I decided to wrap it all up. Then came November 20th. (I've narrated my experience of DDAY on another post on my blog). After CAT, sat analyzing and got what I thought I would get. Finally the semesters got over by Jan 2nd. Results came. My percentile: a pathetic 90.12 including 98 in Verbal. I faired well in what was my inherent strength and fared abysmally in what was my initial and now almost inherent weakness-DI.
Where did I go wrong?

This was the question that kept ringing through my head a thousand times after seeing the result.

1. I was never a master of the basics.
   
2. Never analyzed mocks seriously.
   
3. Preparation was irregular and was hardly systematic.
   
4. Should have been more focused especially when I was feeling demoralized(after the initial mock CAT results and failure in campus interviews)

What has CAT given me:
CAT is as much about attitude as it is about aptitude. I realize now that where I really failed was in the attitude part. My weakness could have been easily nullified with more effort. However, the lack of mental strength did me in. It is extremely important in believing in yourself especially when you go through lean phases knowing that you are good enough. CAT has made me realize that mental strength is indeed the most precious strength that one posses and the difference between those who make it big not just in CAT but in every aspect of life and those who don't is essentially this very quality. Life after CAT is so much more different from life before CAT.

My story...

I've been a passive participant al pagalguy since august.. Thought of posting only if I get through the written..Just 1 of those things.. Superstition mayb

Anyway im posting... So obviously the results are good..:)

I was always a good student.. Top 10 in 10th.. even in 12th.. Didnt know what to take up in 12th so took up science.. 1ce again took up engineering as it seemed that is what intelligent ppl did.. But engineering frankly did not give me too much.. It was just cramming and more cramming.. N vomitting everything the next day in d exam.. So wen it came to what next it was always MBA that came to mind.. Maybe that would actually give me a passion in life.. Let my creativity.. My intelligence( how arrogant:) ) come to the fore.

So I joined Career Launcher in summer 2004.. Started with verve..completing all assignments etc.. then let go somewhat a little later.l.In fact stopped studying completely to be honest. It was in august sometime that i once again decided I WAS going to get through.. and that could only happen if I started studying..

I started putting in some effort(Nothing like chandu mind you.. Ive never been the hardworking kinds).. A couple of hours in the beginning.. and progressed gradually to 4-5.

Some things I learnt while preparing(These are NOT generic rules but worked in my case):

1. If your english is strong (dont want to sound pompous but mine is as i've been an avid reader since I was 5) theres not much that can be worked upon besides vocab.. Reading speed can be imoroved only after many months' hard work.. I didnt even do too much vocab as I thought I would be better off using my time elsewhere.

2. My reasoning was strong from the beginning.. The key is that if you enjoy something.. in all probability you will be good at it.. And I enjoy sudoku.. Those Rita Sita questions etc.

3. Maths was my weak point(My mock scores always bordered <=cutoff) but that too became fine once i understood some facts.. You must do only questions that you think u will be able to answer at first shot. Come back to the rest ONLY if you have time..

4.Be Clever.. Do approximation.. Substitute the options if u've narrowed down to 2 options.. Even attemting on gut feel may give results(at times).

5. To my advantage my speed was good(accuracy was not).. So I WORKED TOWARDS MY STRENGTHS..

Keeping these points in mind.. I understood an important fact about this mother of all exams.. Each person must devise his/her own strategy for attempting..

More importantly.. CAT IS NOT A FUNCTION OF HOW MUCH YOU STUDy.. BUT HOW INTELLIGENTLY YOU STUDY.. It is not how you perform in your mocks but how you perform on that very day..

I didnt study the last week.. watched a lot of movies.. ate a lot of chicken.. Saw jo jeeta wohi sikander the day before.. N gave the exam very calmly.. As i had planned

I thought my exam went OK but even so didnt calculate my scores for fear that if I scored poorly i would spoil my upcoming sem exams too. So tore up the paper and relaxed..

2nd Jan.. Results
Calls: A C L I K

Im ecstatic jubilant, exuberant.. just very very happy and hope I get the calls converted too which would be the perfect end to my story..

To put into a word, I can do with couple of words - A lot.

to elaborate on that lemme put it this way:

Perseverence. Hardwork. Hanging In. Never-Say-Die-Nature. Fighter. Words, and word are all we have!

Before you think that these wise words can motivate you enough to endure for one more precious year and you will taste the success then, deside whether it would be worth investing? Make ur own calculator and do some calculation as in the balancesheet. Coz making a profit is the most important part of game since IIMs are neither a destination nor it tells you success story as in achievement. If you hang in there for one more year and may be one more after that and you would portray urself as a Fighter and live up to ur much-advertised usp Never-Say-Die nature but think what r u going to get out of it?

I am exhorting you to consider this, and consider it pretty much seriously, coz there are two aspects one cannot overlook: The beauty of designing CAT and The lack of transparancy in issuing calls.

The Beauty of Designing CAT:

Everytime you write CAT and you will feel you cud have done better. Everytime you write the CAT, you find it difficult, very difficult, in the exam hall and if you solve it few moths later you cry out in public for not cracking it being it silliest of all. Everytime u take CAT and you think you did millions thing but this, you thought of billion other things but this and you expected trillion different and new changes but this. And, thats why I call CAT a beautiful young lady whose intellect is unmatchable! Can you take her in ur stride? Think before u decide to go for it again...

The lack of Transparancy in Issuing Calls:

This issue has been discussed umpteen number time on various therads in this forum, various other forums, media and at lot of "chai-ki-lauri" and lot many "smoking zones". We have a living exapmles of Aarav, Anubhav and others (unfortunately the self included) who are, more than regretting, searching for the answer of that trillion dollar question "WHY". Once you take CAT and get rejected, you never know why it happened and the best thing about it is, you also can't make out studying the pattern of the calls given. So, it helps you come up with all these encourageing words which help you waste, err, invest one more year dreaming for the mirage! Nonetheless, all the call getters desrve it duely but my only contention is those who did not , especially wen they were better than or equal to those who recd the calls. Then, do they not have right to ask "why" for which they hae spent so much of money, spent so many sleepless nights, have sacrificed a lot and gave this exam the first priority and prefer studying to everything else. Do they not have right to know where they went wrong, whether they really made bludners or simply they don't have something which is mandetory to get into the best school of management in India. I wish all the IIMs could put all these "WHY" under FAQs section and we, yes all of us, cud have access to the answer of it.

At the end of the day, IIMs were, remains and will be the best school for anyone who lives in the country called I-N-D-I-A. But, how long u can wait for it and how far u can chase it, depends on how gud ur at calculation. Make sure that u make profit. :-)

well, whatever you decide, decision will be yours but make sure you are not cheated or decieved by your miscalculation. Weigh all pros and cons and march ahead to realise your dreams and always stand by your decision.

ATB,
a pagal.

PS: sorry, i had to post it on this thread eventhough i posted on the other thread, this being the most apt one!

Hi Guys,

I been thinking about this whole CAT thing. Consider a scenario, a guy goes to IIT, he can get a decent job with an IIT degree,but with an IIT + IIM he can get more. Greed sets in. So he prepares for CAT, cracks it goes to one of the IIM's and gets a good job.

But after all the hardwork in studying, preparing for CAT, the job one gets is even more demanding. Late nights, work pressure, travel, in short a hectic life full of work, work and some more work.

Isn't it a bit silly that we study hard, get a good MBA degree to get a good life. But on the other end of the river, the situation is just the same. I might be sounding a little depressing here, but thats the reality.

It's thus important to get your priorities right. Even if you are an engineer from a B-grade college, or just a B.com you can still live a quality life. A peaceful life!!!

So as Morpheous asked Neo which pill do you want the 'RED' or the 'BLUE' one. Ask yourself this question. Which life you want to choose, cause once you choose it, there is no turning back.

Think about it.

Regards
big4guy

http://www.big4guy.com/

hey chandu.......... i must admire u for the kinda foresight u had as a 1str yr student..... to be honest, one never thought beyond exams and scoring well in the 1st year cos most of us were still in the same 12th std mode of riting exams.......... but i'll level up wid ya and tell ya......... cat's not about preparing for 2-3 yrs.it's such an unpredictable paper that if u give the same paper on 2 different days, u'll get 2 tottaly different scores!!!
during college life if one has actively participated in inter coll events like quizzing, trivia, math and logic etc, it becomes easier to do reasonably well in the cat....cos after all if one thoroughly analyses the cat paper........ it only tests ur high school basics( maths). in english, if one has been an avid reader throughout his childhood, scoring in the cat exam is not that difficult...... coming to di... the puzzles part becomes easy if one has participated in coll events... the graphs and the tables purely test ur calculation speed......... all said and done, why do ppl still screw up in the cat inspite of being good in all 3 areas????? it's not because they dont know much....... it's bcos they haven't mastered the art of question selection...it's because they haven't experimented enough in their mock cats...... of course there r a variety of other reasons like getting overtly tensed or anxious during the paper...... but nothing can beat the power of positive thoughts while giving the paper....... it's a fact no jokes......... You would have seen that for some tests just after the first 2-3 questions you get a good feeling about the test and you do well but in some others afer the first few ques you feel like somthing is wrong.....not on the surface but there is some feeling deep down that something is wrong....if you are able to control that feeling it can work wonders. Positive thoughts really can work wonders ........ try solving a mock cat when ur in a really good mood..... believe me u'll see the difference

Gaurav Dixit Says

Really a wonderful post chandu,it made me realise how unstructured my preparation has been till now...

Hi gaurav, chandu made that post long ago..and referring to such posts now will clutter the forum unnecessarily..soo if that appreciation is intended for chandu alone plzz PM him...dont post individual messages

Cheers,
Deepu.

garimaa Says

can ne one pls tellme that what r good colleges to apply if one is getting percentile b/w 50to 70.n my no. of attempts r just not increasing my score ios conatant n does not depend on whether paper is easy or not plls help me i will appear for cat this year 2005

Hi garima not the right thread for asking such questions..plzz continue in this thread i m sure u will get good responces thr..
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-related-discussion/9934-cat-preparation-strategy-advice.html

Cheers,
Deepu.

Really a wonderful post chandu,it made me realise how unstructured my preparation has been till now...

hey chandu
tht was certainly very enlightening for a cat aspirant and mind u was definitely very impressive on ur part.:razz:
i am definitely a pure fresher as i plan to give my cat entrance next year.....i have a basic querry to ask u is :as to ur opinion wat is the sufficient time of coaching a student requires to b well prepared 4 the entrance??i am confused as to when i shud begin my coaching?(i am a second year bcom hons student in delhi)
kindly suggest it to me!
garima

can ne one pls tellme that what r good colleges to apply if one is getting percentile b/w 50to 70.n my no. of attempts r just not increasing my score ios conatant n does not depend on whether paper is easy or not plls help me i will appear for cat this year 2005