It was the summer of 2015; I was finally a graduate. To top that off, I had job offers from 3 IT giants of the world. Life seemed an easy ride back then. Days were spent sleeping and nights on 'Gametracker'. But one evening changed it all. The 'Eat Sleep Game Repeat' mode transformed to 'Dream Study Achieve' mode. That one question of my mother "Why so satisfied already" rattled me up and changed my life forever. Her words got so deeply entrenched in me that I believe they will echo in my ears till I kick the bucket. I decided to make it big and after thorough self-introspection, set off for one of the most challenging hunts ever-Hunting the CAT.
The harder I work the luckier I seem to get
Having already made up my mind to bell this monster, preparations commenced in full swing. My day would usually start at 6 in the morning and end at my study table with me dozing off after some long 12-13 hours. Such was the desire of making my parents proud that I had almost confined myself to my room. One month into preparation and I was already done with the syllabus of the CAT. Now was the time to hit the nets; The Mock CATs. I took the CL test series and my first mock proved to be a milestone in instilling in me confidence about my abilities as I fetched a decent 97 percentile. It was the day, when in my heart of hearts, I had finally started believing in my dreams. The next few mocks reflected my burning desire to ace this beast with me getting consistent scores of 99 percentiles.
Fall seven times and stand up eight
It was September '15. My confidence was on an all-time high and I was literally burning out myself in my 'pursuit of happiness’. I was browsing through some mails on the fourth of September when one mail caught my attention. It was from the HR of Cognizant Technology Solutions stating that I needed to report at their Bengaluru office two days hence. The very thought of finally getting a job call tamed my desire to bell the CAT. In a jiffy, I was in Bengaluru, overjoyed by the feeling of earning for myself and being on my own. Unfortunately, my job was short lived. Hectic work schedules and frequent exams on programming languages which I wasn't adept to started taking a toll on my CAT preparations. I started focusing only on my training module examinations and the dream of acing the CAT slowly turned into a mere dream itself. I had given up taking mock CATs in order to 'save my job’. It was Nov '15 when I finally passed my training module. By then,I had convinced myself that I would only take a trial run at CAT this year. All I had was a fortnight for preparation. I decided to take up the remaining mocks so that I can secure a decent enough percentile; a figure to boost my ego a bit. I took nearly 11 mocks in that short time frame and surprisingly, scored around the 98th percentile mark each time. My failures at my workplace had dented my confidence beyond repairs and these scores in mocks instilled in me some hope. Somewhere deep down, I had started hoping that I might actually make it to a good B School this year.
D-Day
It was 29 November, the day when I would face one of the toughest examinations in India. Most of the people at my test center were nervous. On the contrary, all this while I was only thinking about having 'fun' for the exam duration by solving some interesting problems. The hour hand struck nine and the exam started. The Gods seemed to be on my side as I finished the VA-RC section with ten minutes left for the next section to begin. However, my joy was short lived as I couldn't solve any question in the first fifteen minutes in the DI-LR section. I ended up solving only 10 questions and I knew that it was Game Over for me now. My woes continued in the QA section as I could only solve 23 questions despite the section having a lot of sitters.With only 77 questions attempted, I knew I had lost the war; the war against the CAT and the war against 'me'.
If you don't believe in miracles, perhaps you've forgotten you are one
I was sipping coffee in my cubicle at my workplace when I got a call from my mother saying that the CAT results are out. Having prepared myself for the worst, I logged in with my credentials. '96.58' was what I had managed to secure. For many, it may not be a score to feel happy about. For me, it was my confidence pill. Soon after, calls for GD/PI started pouring in from different institutes. Given my percentile, I did not even bother checking the BLACKIS shortlist. It was the ninth of January when I received a mail stating that I had been shortlisted for the CA being conducted by IIM Kashipur. My 'not so good' percentile had suddenly fetched me 9 IIM calls. Having got a second life, I made sure nothing came between me and my preparations for the WAT/ PI. I spent around 5 hours each day till the day of the interview. My interview went very smoothly with me giving convincing answers to most of the questions asked by the interview panel and made them laugh at the same time with some funny and witty answers. It was the 13th of July when my labour finally bore fruits and I got an admission offer from IIM Bodh Gaya.
If you ask me, do I believe in miracles; every time I would say a YES because the most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen. All we need to remember is that even miracles take a little time. Never give up on believing in your dreams and miracles will follow. All I want to say is miracles come in moments,be ready and willing.
About the Author:
Saksham Prashar is a student of IIM Bodh Gaya, batch of 2016-18.