CAT – Common aptitude test of IIMs has been the most thought over wordin my brain. After writing 3 CATs, more than 60 Mock CATs, 20 leaves from office, 40 Sundays wasted, I now feel as it has gone all futile.
Years of efforts – all waste. A BIG ZERO
The story begins from my IIT days. Those were the days which seriously made me a fighter. Amongst the flood of diverse talent, I was pushed to find out what I am good at. I was looking for something which would give me some status amongst those talented IITians. I was not good at sports, not good at acads, not so good at other extra curriculars. I was quite sure that with my lower GPA, I would not end up getting those highly sought after jobs in the campus. I was looking for something which would ensure me getting a big break into corporate world. By the end of my second year, I knew about the nitty gritties of CAT. I had become a frequent visitor at Pagalguy.com and had realized that the biggest bottleneck in me getting through IIMs will be my poor command over English. After all I had started reading an English newspaper from the 2nd year only. My reading speed was quite below average. Reading was an interest for me since childhood, but most often was limited to the free content which was available to me (mostly in Hindi).
Time to change gears it was. Used to spend hours reading Economic times, Business magazines, Blogs, News based websites etc. Gradually I was improving. Came the third year – TIME had started their classes in Kgp. I always made sure I attended all of their classes- with full sincerity and concentration (somehow never felt like that for my engineering classes). I was doing well. Later on two people from that classroom got overall 100 percentiles. I remember, I was one of the quickest in quant. Mock CATs started. I was doing reasonably well, often breaking into top 200-300 in TIME’s mock CATs. Came CAT day – somehow got overcautious in the quant, ended up spending a lot of time there. Ended up getting 97.xx with 82 in VA 94.xx in DI and 99.xx in QA.
End of CAT 2006.
Got a job offer from RIL in campus placements, was not satisfied with it. Focused on my strategy for me over next one-two years. I had read somewhere, when u want to reach a top company and u don’t have an offer from the campus, join an not-so-popular company in the same sector. Changed gears, joined Evalueserve- a Gurgaon based KPO. EVS was wonderful. Improved on my verbal ability considerably there.
Came CAT 2007 time. Again Mock CATs and Sundays etc.
Got 99.26 this time. However. Lost in quant. 92.41 QA, 97.41 DI, 99.2 VA.
Got IK Calls. Decided to convert them. Converted them and then thought IK is not a place I will happy. Thought a lot, once decided to go, thought again, and finally ditched. Many people advised me about dicey nature of CAT. Somehow I never had doubts on my caliber to clear CAT. [:P] I cleared level 1 that June. Had appeared for my JP Morgan interview as well by that time. They didn’t gave me a call because they had no vacancy. They said I am on hold.
Again came CAT 2008 season:
I was quite cool about mocks this year. Joined TIME. Just before CAT left my job at Evalueserve to join JP morgan. The joining was on the next day of CAT. So I had got 15 days of leave before CAT.
CAT came ..calculated a total of 54 QA, 50 DI, 47 VA RC. English touch and go. Ended up getting 94.7 in VA. IIMs invented new tricks. 10th and 12th score entered into metrics for IIMA and IIMC PGDCM. IIMB and IIML were never a hope. IIMC PGDM missed by a whisker in English. I end up getting IK again.
Decide not to appear for interviews
99.66 OA 99.xx in QA and DI, 94.7 in VA.
Result: ZERO
IIM still remains a dream. Shall I be able to do it? Ever or it will remain a dream forever.
IIM are now not a necessity for my career, the way they looked when I had started. I am made much inroads into the world of finance. But I again the itch remains..
CAT 2009 I am coming??????????????????
Will big three open their doors for me ever?????????
Labels: CAT, IIM, IIT
