A journey is made memorable not by its destination but the little moments that added to it. So is the journey for every MBA aspirant. It is made up of the joy of a good mock score, the frustration that your preparation isn’t going anywhere, the confidence boost by solving a friend’s doubts or the fear of failure.
Same with my journey, I had my ups and downs, moments where I felt stuck but those are times where we all have to realise that the journey is not over but just beginning. After months of hard work, an unsatisfactory performance in CAT, a sudden onset of illness and many hospital visits later, I was quite lost and dejected for XAT. It was then that I realised that more than harnessing your aptitude, these exams are more about your mental preparation. This realisation helped me redirect my efforts and I ended up securing 99.73 percentile in XAT and finally secured admission in the prestigious XLRI Jamshedpur.
It is rightly said that failure is the key to success as with each mistake, we learn something new. Here are a few of the many lessons I learned during my journey:
- Every person is unique in their style of preparation. Some require toiling throughout the day and for some even 3 hours of dedicated and focused study is enough. Find what works best for you and stick to it.
- Don’t let what others are doing get to your head. People around you may be doing or talking about doing all sorts of things from giving 3 mocks a day to practising from 3 different books. At times they are just fooling you or rather themselves. Never panic or drive yourself crazy after them, instead use that energy as a motivating force and as a drive to continue working towards the direction you have set for yourself.
- Amidst all the preparation hustle, don’t give up on life. Continue to pursue your hobbies, spend time with family and friends etc. Locking yourself in the room surrounded by books all the time will only drive you insane!
- Cut off all the negativity and surround yourself with people who support you, understand the situation you are and help you become a better version of yourself. Trust me, keeping people who either put you down or get angry at you for not attending parties anymore, will not do you any good.
- Neglecting your health is one of the worst things that you could do. Being a hostel resident, I developed the habit of skipping meals in the name of preparation a lot, this took a toll on my immunity later in December and I got diagnosed with severe tonsillitis and blood infection which lasted the entire month and I lost all the prep time I had for XAT. So, ensure you eat healthy, avoid skipping meals and exercise regularly to stay fit.
- Don’t let a bad mock score define your entire prep journey and let yourself get dejected so easily. This is the time to identify the mistakes you made, revisit and revise and punch back harder the next time!
- Take some time out to figure out “Why MBA”. The moment you have a concrete reason and not because everybody is doing it, the journey will seem less painful and you’ll be able to enjoy and smile through it.
- Staying calm throughout the process is very crucial, however, it’s really put to test on the D-day. I speak with experience when I tell that a momentary lapse can make all your hard work go to waste. On the day of CAT, I was experiencing nervousness since the morning and it escalated after I indulged in conversations with other nervous candidates who wanted to discuss mock scores and strategy. Carrying the pressure of an unexpected verbal section to the LRDI and quants section was the cherry on the top. A jittery mess, I made many errors like choosing the wrong answer despite getting the right one in my sheets. This served as a good lesson for when I took XAT as I made sure I went with a clear mind and nothing to lose attitude, I utilised the pre-exam time to take deep breaths, hum songs and focused on giving my best. And voila, it worked!