the CAT saga!!
Well thought I should be penning this down to just look back and be reminded about the last year. …April 2005 till now. It could probably be the most important defining moment as far as my career is concerned and so here it goes.
April 2005…
After a long time I decided I wanted something real badly and it was an MBA tag to my name. Was thinking hard about my future and decided I would sulk all my life if I don’t get it. First thing decided to enroll myself for classes and well joined TIME. I don’t know if one really needs to go to classes to crack CAT but I am doing it because I have decided this is going to be my last attempt at it and come what may have to get it and to not end up regretting not doing something I just decided to join. Well this is my first step of the journey, which I now would be long and tiresome. Well the classes started and things went pretty fine. I was getting warmed up to the task ahead and I was actually pretty focused about things for the first time in my life!!
The mockcats begin….
Mock 1:
Decided to just go and take it as it comes and do an evaluation of what needs to done. Well my rank was 102 and I assumed I was on target and pretty much happy about my strategy in taking the exam!!
Mock 2:
Decided to implement the same strategy and well my rank came to 283 and well was pretty much happy.
Mock 3:
Tried to change my strategy with what someone in TIME told me and this bombed. My rank was 2764…. the confidence level went real low and doubts started creeping in especially since this was an all India free mock cat. Got into my shell and tried to do some serious introspection. Wasn’t sure if there weren’t any cracks in the defence!
Mock 4:
This was a decent comeback with a rank of 925 and thought things weren’t as bad after all.
Mock 5,6,7,8,9:
My rank in the fifth was real good and there was no looking back after that. Was an all up ride for the next 4 weeks and my ranks were 76,137,184,194,131.Was pretty happy with the level of consistency I had reached and was on a confidence high about reaching the IIM’s after all!!
Mock 10:
Rank was 839.Didn’t do all that well and thought it was just a burn out and nothing more to it because had been doing the same that I had done before!!
Mock 11:
Rank was 169. Now started thinking things are under control and I had to just keep the momentum going for the next couple of months to win the battle!!
Mock 12:
Rank was 1288.Didn’t know what took me and was just blanked. Told myself it was a one off occasion and things would fall into place soon!!
Mock 13:
Rank was 635 and this kind of soothed my ego that the previous one was after all a one off occasion!!
Mock 14:
Rank was 1539 and this freaked me out because I realized the more I tried now the worse it went. Thought had reached my threshold and decided to take a break for a week till the next one hoping the break would solve things for me.
Mock 15:
Alas it didn’t. Rank was 1694 and my confidence was shattered to pieces. And everyone around was just peaking at the right time and they were all doing good and started wondering if my luck is just running out at the wrong time.
Mock 16:
With just some 3 weeks to go for the cat time guys decided to give a damn easy paper with the quants section being pathetically dumb and I badly needed this tore store my confidence and I got a rank of 67. Felt damn good!!!
Mock 17 and Mock 18:
Had decided not to think much about how I performed in these 2 tests with just some 10 days to go for cat. For the record my ranks were 648 and 277.
Before getting into what happened on the cat day I need to remind myself about a few things about my social life. I happened to meet a lot of real nice people during this period (who are some of my good friends now) and realized how special some of my friends were. Am sure you guys know I am talking about you and a big hug to all you guys!!
Nov 20 2005!!
Battlefield: Raja Rajeshwari College of engineering
Well this college was put up pretty much on the outskirts of the city and after having been wished by almost every soul I knew I set off to the place thinking of all the nice things about life and humming my favourite songs!! The hall was one totally screwed up Machines lab I think and when I put the OMR on the table the paper got soiled. I told myself to stay cool and asked for the IIM representative and this moron from IIM K asks what to do about it and tells me to go ahead and nothing will happen. Told myself well the same thing and well the paper was a total surprise. Thought I had managed pretty decently though got into a pretty defensive mood which really did me in I think when looking back at that day!
Well people all around still kept my hopes up by saying I will end up getting a single call atleast though my initial reaction was I had screwed it up and wouldn’t get a single IIM call.
Well then the other exams (iift, jmet, xat, fms) came and just took it pretty chill and I gradually started expecting to get a single IIM call.
Well my scorecard after all the exams stood like this
Bumps from IIM’s, SPJIMR, MDI
And ended up with calls from NITIE (my lone CAT based call), IIFT, IIT’s, XLRI, FMS!!
The irony was that I ended clearing every other exam but cat though I had prepared only for it all along!!
Well the really special interview was the IIT B interview. Found all questions really insightful and was really happy about the whole thing was because I could be myself and didn’t need to put on anything to sell myself across!
The next one should be NITIE I think because it was more like me giving guest lecture on ethics, business, being a great leader and those types!! And ya they have a really sexy campus and the lake rocks!!
The next should be FMS because I think I exceeded my own expectations in the extempore! The topic was “Stop clock” and was blank about it for a split second then the dude just showed the stop clock in front of him and his hand went down and it reminded me of the axe falling on someone’s head for the death sentence and well I started of on life’s clock stop clock called death and how people should live life to its fullest and enjoy life and stuff like that!! The panel was actually impressed and complimented me for my extempore but I think it was one of the weirdest correlations I have ever made but well ya who cares!!
Have admit from NITIE and waitlist from FMS and XLRI!!
Waiting for those two. Would be happy enough to go to either of the places!! Well this ends right here and think I have been pretty lucky to be in this position in spite of the CAT goof up!!
April 2005…
After a long time I decided I wanted something real badly and it was an MBA tag to my name. Was thinking hard about my future and decided I would sulk all my life if I don’t get it. First thing decided to enroll myself for classes and well joined TIME. I don’t know if one really needs to go to classes to crack CAT but I am doing it because I have decided this is going to be my last attempt at it and come what may have to get it and to not end up regretting not doing something I just decided to join. Well this is my first step of the journey, which I now would be long and tiresome. Well the classes started and things went pretty fine. I was getting warmed up to the task ahead and I was actually pretty focused about things for the first time in my life!!
The mockcats begin….
Mock 1:
Decided to just go and take it as it comes and do an evaluation of what needs to done. Well my rank was 102 and I assumed I was on target and pretty much happy about my strategy in taking the exam!!
Mock 2:
Decided to implement the same strategy and well my rank came to 283 and well was pretty much happy.
Mock 3:
Tried to change my strategy with what someone in TIME told me and this bombed. My rank was 2764…. the confidence level went real low and doubts started creeping in especially since this was an all India free mock cat. Got into my shell and tried to do some serious introspection. Wasn’t sure if there weren’t any cracks in the defence!
Mock 4:
This was a decent comeback with a rank of 925 and thought things weren’t as bad after all.
Mock 5,6,7,8,9:
My rank in the fifth was real good and there was no looking back after that. Was an all up ride for the next 4 weeks and my ranks were 76,137,184,194,131.Was pretty happy with the level of consistency I had reached and was on a confidence high about reaching the IIM’s after all!!
Mock 10:
Rank was 839.Didn’t do all that well and thought it was just a burn out and nothing more to it because had been doing the same that I had done before!!
Mock 11:
Rank was 169. Now started thinking things are under control and I had to just keep the momentum going for the next couple of months to win the battle!!
Mock 12:
Rank was 1288.Didn’t know what took me and was just blanked. Told myself it was a one off occasion and things would fall into place soon!!
Mock 13:
Rank was 635 and this kind of soothed my ego that the previous one was after all a one off occasion!!
Mock 14:
Rank was 1539 and this freaked me out because I realized the more I tried now the worse it went. Thought had reached my threshold and decided to take a break for a week till the next one hoping the break would solve things for me.
Mock 15:
Alas it didn’t. Rank was 1694 and my confidence was shattered to pieces. And everyone around was just peaking at the right time and they were all doing good and started wondering if my luck is just running out at the wrong time.
Mock 16:
With just some 3 weeks to go for the cat time guys decided to give a damn easy paper with the quants section being pathetically dumb and I badly needed this tore store my confidence and I got a rank of 67. Felt damn good!!!
Mock 17 and Mock 18:
Had decided not to think much about how I performed in these 2 tests with just some 10 days to go for cat. For the record my ranks were 648 and 277.
Before getting into what happened on the cat day I need to remind myself about a few things about my social life. I happened to meet a lot of real nice people during this period (who are some of my good friends now) and realized how special some of my friends were. Am sure you guys know I am talking about you and a big hug to all you guys!!
Nov 20 2005!!
Battlefield: Raja Rajeshwari College of engineering
Well this college was put up pretty much on the outskirts of the city and after having been wished by almost every soul I knew I set off to the place thinking of all the nice things about life and humming my favourite songs!! The hall was one totally screwed up Machines lab I think and when I put the OMR on the table the paper got soiled. I told myself to stay cool and asked for the IIM representative and this moron from IIM K asks what to do about it and tells me to go ahead and nothing will happen. Told myself well the same thing and well the paper was a total surprise. Thought I had managed pretty decently though got into a pretty defensive mood which really did me in I think when looking back at that day!
Well people all around still kept my hopes up by saying I will end up getting a single call atleast though my initial reaction was I had screwed it up and wouldn’t get a single IIM call.
Well then the other exams (iift, jmet, xat, fms) came and just took it pretty chill and I gradually started expecting to get a single IIM call.
Well my scorecard after all the exams stood like this
Bumps from IIM’s, SPJIMR, MDI
And ended up with calls from NITIE (my lone CAT based call), IIFT, IIT’s, XLRI, FMS!!
The irony was that I ended clearing every other exam but cat though I had prepared only for it all along!!
Well the really special interview was the IIT B interview. Found all questions really insightful and was really happy about the whole thing was because I could be myself and didn’t need to put on anything to sell myself across!
The next one should be NITIE I think because it was more like me giving guest lecture on ethics, business, being a great leader and those types!! And ya they have a really sexy campus and the lake rocks!!
The next should be FMS because I think I exceeded my own expectations in the extempore! The topic was “Stop clock” and was blank about it for a split second then the dude just showed the stop clock in front of him and his hand went down and it reminded me of the axe falling on someone’s head for the death sentence and well I started of on life’s clock stop clock called death and how people should live life to its fullest and enjoy life and stuff like that!! The panel was actually impressed and complimented me for my extempore but I think it was one of the weirdest correlations I have ever made but well ya who cares!!
Have admit from NITIE and waitlist from FMS and XLRI!!
Waiting for those two. Would be happy enough to go to either of the places!! Well this ends right here and think I have been pretty lucky to be in this position in spite of the CAT goof up!!
posted by sat at
12:20 AM
2 Comments:
my.. what an interesting read.. ur cat experience was almost entirely different from mine.. all ur highs seem to have coincided with my lows and vice versa..
so who r u? do v know each other thru time?
U knw wot..this is one i read thru each n every line anxious n curious abt the end...looks like u can write to lock the readers.
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