This is my 3rd and last post on PG which might help you understand different phases before joining a B School. Hope someone will find it useful.
Disclaimer
This post won't directly tell you what to do. I have just given an account of how i approached and what the results are. Listed down a set of suggestions at the end of this post though
Profile:
89 in 10th AP board, 96.5 in 12th AP board, 7.6 in BE, 16 months experience in Business Analytics ( Additionally, 5 months of software exp, broke the bond, so no
experience proofs )
Extra Cirriculars: Was not able to write more than half of my actual ECs on any b-school form provided
CAT 2012 3rd time: 99.85 ( 99.86, 97.66 ) GEM category
Calls: IIMC, IIML, baby IIMs, MDI-Gurgaon ( Didn't apply for any other non IIM )
Converts: Towards the end of this post
CAT Preparation
It's my third attempt ( First time 95 & Second 91 ). Just that Engineering didn't do anything good, its a quest for colorful career.
Have joined a job knowingly that its a 15-18 hr/day job, most of the times including weekends. Couldn't attend more than 3 AIMCATS. Hence took a 3 week off for prep but ended up working from home for 1 week. Hence all that is available is around 2 weeks. Over 2-3 months before that was able to mug-up 3-4 vocab books ( WPME, 6 weeks to words of power, 30 days to more powerful vocabulary, CAT & meanings and definitions of words flash cards )
I am pretty sure of myself in Quants & DI ( comes naturally for ppl from AP ) but English is my drawback ( this also comes naturally for ppl from AP and I have to attend spoken english classes when I was in engineering )
Collected mocks of CL,TIME,VM, of last and current years ( totally could collect around 70 mocks ). Started doing 5 mocks a day. But realized that VA is still pegging me back. Hence collected more mocks and did only VA section for next 5 days (Thats around 900-1000 VA questions ). Slowly got a hold of RCs and got the trick- Don't approach them as RCs: Tackle them as logical puzzles. Then shifted my focus to DI and practiced some tough DI caselets of Byju & Time handouots. Just before a day, revised all concepts of quant.
All through these two weeks, i never calculated my scores or thought of possible percentile scores. Only metric was percentage of correct answers. Made sure that it increases everyday and solved so many questions that the percentage increases. A day before the exam, 214 of 240 questions I practiced were correct.
For the exam, i targetted 100 %ile in quat ( Yes, that's true ) and my only strategy was to identify and leave the speed brakers. One extra care that I took was to first spot the easy questions and then go for tougher ones. Attempted 26 of them, thinking there won't be a single wrong answer ( it turned out that 1 question might be worng based on the marks that i got). Disappointed that I left 4 questions and 100 %ile is no more a possibility, I went into desperation and attempted all 30 of VA
( I guess that's a fatal error: Would have crossed 99.9 if I have left a couple of unsure questions ). Post exam analysis made me think that its an attempt in vain again and I got back to work.
Luckily, results came out good. I am sure that normalization played a role in my score.
Post Percentile circus
I started looking at criteria and slowly realized that I won't get calls from A,B,S,I,K. Yes, that's the return you get for studying 10 & 12 in AP and scoring 4% less than 80 in B.E.. Got only 2 old IIM calls. Took a week off for each. Lucknow interview was pathetic- all the professors bothered was my "Pathetic" score in B.E. My electives & extra curriculars in BE or the performance awards at work didn't even find a mention in their questions. Calcutta interview started with "US Democracy" !
The questions seemed like the ones supposed to be asked to guy defending his PhD theisis in MIT. Then came the MDI Call, just took a day off to attend the interview and it was a 7 minute interview coz i was last in the panel.
Results started pouring in
Reject,Reject,Convert: MDI,Reject,Reject,Reject,Reject,Reject,WL:IIM-Kp.
The decision
After lot of unsolicited free suggestions, peer pressure and financial calculations decided to join MDI-Gurgaon. Delhi.. here I come 😃
Few suggestions
1. Don't overly depend on coaching classes or mocks for prep. Rely more on your self assessment and work on concept clarity and avoid knowing shortcuts
2. For few weeks before the exam: switch off your mobile, de-activate fb, stop following news and concentrate completely on exam. Be in that ZONE !
3. Identify weak areas and work on them well before the exam. Gain confidence.
4. In the areas where you are weak, collect some really tough questions and do them till you feel the ease.
5. Solve questions of Byju's quant & DI handouts. They are the best set of questions I have seen. And don't pay for online coaching. Join few fb groups and keep checking the files section. If you use even 20% of what is available at such groups, you will score 99+
6. Have your own strategy for exam. Don't try to know how a strategy should be. Just devise one based on your strengths, weaknesses and instincts.
7. Maintain a "Bring-it-on" attitude during the exam. There are not more than 10 ( out of 60 ) difficult questions. So all you have to do is attempt the remaining 50 to a good accuracy level
8. Do as many mocks as you can. Questions in study materials are no way helpful.
9. Don't refer to answers while solving any questions. It's fine if you take 2 hours to sovle a DI caselet. But do it on your own. Same applies to quant, especially for questions on number systems
10. Apply for atleast 5 non-iims ( which should be in top 15-18 ). Even if you are confident of making it A/B/C, having few other calls will give you luxury of real time GD-PI practice and also takes the pressure off you for the main interviews
11.If you are GEM with less than 2 years exp and aiming top 12-15 B schools, write the exam only if your target is 99.5+. Else, don't apply for CAT and you can save those 1500 bucks & 100s of hours of supposedly preparation time.
12.If you are working, make yourself comfortable & fluent with your work before you start serious preparation for CAT. Coz once you start prep, the work commitments should not extend to learning new skills to complete the tasks. Moreover, being free of work pressures will let you best utilize whatever less time you find for preparation.
13.Try to find a job that necessitates you to do MBA for career progression, even if it pays less than what you want. Coz explaining the need for MBA becomes biggest challenge once you score awsome percentile
14.Do a research on your capabilities, skills and the kind of job opportunities available for MBA grads in India after graduating from the B School of your interest. After joining a b-school, many people realize tha
15.Most important advice: Don't rely completely on any other aspirant's advice for preparation or strategy or interviews or b-school selection. Do find out the facts and make an informed decision on your own, so that you are answerable to what you do !
All the best for CAT 2013 😁
(I have not frequently posted on PG. Please let me know if I have to remove any objectionable content)
