How I Converted My Only Old IIM Call

It was 16th may 2017 and I was constantly checking the portal from my office throughout the day. It was around 4:30 pm in the evening when the page suddenly read, 'You have been provisionally selected for admission to Post Graduate Programme in Management at Indore Campus (PGP 2017-19 Batch) of IIM Indore’. Yes, it was my only old IIM call.

It was my second attempt of CAT. CAT 15 was a disaster for me with only 70 odd percentile (with weekend CAT classes). After CAT 15, I decided to take a break for one year as I started working in a reputed telecom company as a Graduate Engineer Trainee. But when the training was over, I was posted in a team which mainly works on programming (which I was never good at right from 1^st year of my college). It was already mid-October when I decided that ‘programming was not my cup of tea’. Hardly a month left for CAT 16.

CAT 16 Struggle:

I was left with only a few textbooks at that time. I enrolled myself for a free test series. With no time to waste, I started preparing on my own for around 4 hours in the evening after coming from work and 1.5 hours in the morning before work. I spent around 10 days for each section and gave mocks during weekends (which I didn’t take seriously). On December 4^th (CAT day), I gave my best shot. I had nothing to lose. Since I didn’t give mocks properly, my endurance was put to test. I got a decent 90 percentile. I was not expecting any call from any old IIM. But to my surprise, as my academics were pretty good I got an interview call from IIM Indore main and Mumbai campus (I got for IIM L ABM which I was not interested in and didn’t attend). It was last chance for this year. I enrolled myself for an online GDPI course and made the most from newspapers (3-4 newspapers that were available at work :p).

WAT-PI Day

My WAT-PI was very early in the mid-February. Had about 40 days of preparation. WAT was about Environmental pollution and steps for preventing it. In  Personal Interview questions were from diverse topics geography, cricket, tennis, total quality management, principles of management, Networking (Modulations, routing, subnetting, DNS etc.), Politics and Budget. Had a good WAT and very okayish PI after which I left the thoughts of converting.

The Agony of being Waitlisted

With all old IIMs releasing their results on the last week of April, all non-converts were desperately waiting for Indore results. I found myself waitlisted. Luckily IIM Indore came up with waitlist numbers this time. It was 29. Based on past trends, it should convert. But it took almost 2 weeks to get it officially.

Finally converted on May 16th and joining Planet-I in a while. Even if you have only one month you can still make it. CAT coaching and test series does not work unless you do.

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About the Author:

R SOORYA PGP 2017-19 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, INDORE.