It is a fine evening and you are there sitting wondering, Will I be able to crack CAT? What should I do to increase my %ile? Which is my weakest section, how can I figure it out? And then by the night, you attempt a mock and you get 60%ile, and all you are felling is doomed because you think that you are never going to go to the place you have been imagining every night before sleeping. The red brick walls picture which is right on the top of your cupboard, you are staring at it and thinking, “Wish, I could go here”. This is what a normal day of a cat aspirant looks like, doesn’t it?
One month since I have been into a B-School and I could tell you that the moment you decide that you want to crack CAT, you are into a B-school life. No, I am not joking!!
“Once you climb a hill, you realize there are millions of hills to climb”
When I got the news, that I have been admitted into IIM Lucknow, my eyes were drowning with tears of joy and for once I felt relieved and thought that the battle, the one yearlong battle is over only to realize the real battle starts now.
Be it in a B-school, be it outside the B-school, this life gives you a taste of failure the moment you think of giving up. But let me remind you, falling is okay, taking breaks is okay, but there is one thing which is not okay, and that is giving up.
People talk about the methods to crack CAT. But there is one fish which is bigger than all these sections to catch, which is your mental peace. It is not the preparation but the mental peace which decides how you are going to perform. Now, you might be wondering why am I telling you all this. Because I don’t want you to commit the same mistake I did or my friends did. I know someone who was a super-achiever throughout his CAT journey but on the day of CAT, he panicked in his verbal section and messed up badly in his exam. Was his preparation wrong? No. then what was, the mental state of mind!!
Many people with work experience attempt CAT and they have to face 2 things at one time- office and CAT preparation. It is like pulling up 2 horses and both going in different directions. The moment you lose your calm, the moment you can assure yourself, that nothing good is going to come out of it.
So, what can you do to maintain the peace of your mind?
Meditation? What and then go to hills?? Some things are not to be taken lightly and your mind is one such thing especially when you are training it to imbibe all new stuff and keeping it stressed at the same time. Yes, meditation helps.
What else? The most crucial time is when you are sleeping. Usually, we sleep thinking about so many random stuff that our mind never get the peace it deserves. So, while sleeping thinks about one good thing the happened during the day and thank the power of the Universe for giving it to you. What will it do? First, it will make the Universe happy that you think about it. Second, it will make your mind calm that amidst the strange times too, good things also happen.
And what about the D-Day? Just have one thought in mind that you have done enough. You did all you could and there was no stone left to be polished by you. Relax, if you look at the sections and you feel like you are in an alien world, it is not a percentage based paper, but a percentile-based. You are as likely to fail as everyone else is!!
So, close your eyes, take deep breaths and give your best because then, when you will walk out, maybe you don’t get the college of your dreams but there will be no regret and there is no greater power of guilt than regret!
And at the last, Life is not a race but a marathon, run for it, aim for the goal, but keep breaks otherwise you will fail too soon before reaching your goal!