My Journey To NITIE After 3 CAT Attempts | Ft. Anupam Sinha, NITIE

When You Fail, Don't Give Up

I still remember the day when I started preparing for CAT, 3.5 yrs from now.

21st Dec 2014 → Started the Preparation

I enrolled myself for the TIME classroom program. Started with great vigour. But the AIMCAT results always demotivated me. And finally came the D-Day, I did a few questions but was sceptical about them. And as expected I scored a meagre 74%le.

15th Jan 2016 → The Journey to 2nd Attempt

After cursing my preparation and all the mistakes I did, it was time to start again. As the results were too bad, I could hardly clear any entrance except a 200 in NMAT(Cutoff for Mumbai Campus was 207). So, enrolled again for the test series, and this time both CL and TIME. Again the same routine but my enthusiasm decreased. It became like a usual routine for now. This time my AIMCAT results increased a bit. But, still, it was below par than expected. Without worrying about the results, I gave the exam. It went well and I did most of the questions from RC. I was confident that RC marks will increase the overall percentile. Results came. I scored 72%le, with only 37%le in VARC.

2nd April 2017 → The Journey to 3rd Attempt

It was my dream to study in a top B-school. But my consistent failures always pulled me down and by now, I accepted that I am not worthy. Meanwhile, I started looking for a Job Change, but to my luck, I could clear only 3 out of 11 interviews, and that too all 3 of them kept my offer letter on hold. Again a setback for me. Life was taking a hard turn. At this point of time, I wanted to convey my feelings to someone, I wanted to cry a lot and eventually used to call my mom every single day for an hour. She always motivated me for the exam and asked me to try for one more time. I buckled up again. Pulled out all my books from the rack. I enrolled in AIMCATs and started again from the basics. This time I saw a significant increase in my performance. I used to wake up at 6 in the morning and studied till 10 (with small breaks in between). I tried to focus more on RC, so in-office hours I used to utilize my free time by reading a lot of passages from different websites. Not only at my desk, but also in the library. My office used to get over by 8 and I usually reached my home by 9. After having dinner and usual talks with my roommates, I made it sure to study from 10.30 till 1 in the night. I made sure that this routine is followed on every single day. I hardly missed any mocks this time. Now it was the time for the D-day. As in the previous 2 attempts, this time I went carefree and wrote the exam without any expectations. Results came and Whoaaaa….. To my surprise, I got through with the maximum change in my VARC with 98.68%le. Now I understood, why I couldn’t change the company, why my offer letter with 3 MNC’s were upheld and why it was necessary to fail. I hope, I could be of some help to those who failed in their previous attempts. Cheers, Anupam Sinha

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