The day I entered my roll number in an input box, the IIM official website gave me a PDF which is my scorecard. After a sad scrutiny of my scorecard, I got to know that I failed to reach my expectations. Something like which can not be expressed in words happened to my heart. I was in a hybrid state of anxiety and fear. Despite those facts that I was spending time on preparation, I was passionate about doing an MBA, and doing everything for the CAT, I fail to reach the horizon. After 3 months over, I got many regrets in my diary. A little bit of introspection such as everyone may have these problems, I decided to introduce them to my InsideIIM readers. This is not a success story or rather a full-fledged failure story. I want to present my journey of failure
CAT 2018. Suddenly, you may wonder and some question marks may start to wander in your mind. One of them may be:
How important is it to you if I fail? Yes, it is vital to you as it is a failure of mine which may happen to you also when you appear for CAT. And you can neglect many faults by reading this answer. Don't put a vapid face, As I will include
my regrets, you may learn some crucial preparation tips here. As our honorable President, Abdul Kalam Ji put the sentence as
"Don't read success stories. You will only get a message. Read failure stories, You will get some ideas to get success.". Please be in a receptive mood to understand the whole story and learn from it.
"Expected" Plan
Ever since I used to bring vegetables to my home and managing all other activities in my family (Pappa was in Saudi Arabia as a daily wage earner) when I was in 5th class, my interest has grown in management. When my father returned to my home town and started a business of Goods vehicles, in that environment, my thoughts were inclined towards. These are two contexts, I can say, which helped me decide to pursue an MBA from the top-20 business schools in India. They may look simple but I believe that childhood always instills some learning objectives in everyone's life, and I was no exception to that. As I got selected in placements, I decided to crack CAT while doing a job. In March 2018, my research on CAT was complete, and I decided to get above 97% in 2018 itself with having 6 months left to the exam. But that went wrong, and brutally so.
Always having "How to do"? In my mind. As it was my last year of graduation, I hardly got a consistent chance to prepare. Pin this "Consistent chances". Every time I got hiatuses from the outside world such as my job, Peer pressure, Academics..etc. I didn't take coaching. Google helped me. I covered all topics from YouTube. Persistently, I followed the Takshzila channel to cover all the concepts. I always save time for a rainy day to watch videos in the office too. I didn't have the materials to solve them. I used to watch videos and leave it. By August, my aspiration margin was
dropped to 95% as I was not pocketing my confidence. All videos were completed by the time of September. I used to read a lot. To the contrary, I didn't even solve 2 of 6 in an RC. I did the same mistake for two months instead of filling the gap between Reading and Reading comprehension. I prepared well in September by solving too many vague questions. Next month, October has gone for a toss. I went home for 4 days for Dussehra. It became clear to me that October preparation was gone wrong. Then once again, the ambit of aspiration
dropped to 90%. I read a lot about mock strategy, mock attempts, mocks, mocks and mocks. Remember, I 'read' a lot, not 'did' a lot. The obvious pragmatism was missing in my preparation. I rushed through 3 mocks where I end up getting 70% on an average. So again, my aspiration
margin dropped to 85%. The last 5 days gave me the confidence to crack in between 85% and 90%. I made big promises to all friends, colleagues and online. These expectations used to pinch my heart always.
A Debacle - Anger in my nerves After 5 hours of sleep, I had the confidence to crack CAT and score above 85%. Eventually, after the CAT exam, I took my favorite Chicken Biryani and slept for 12 hours. It represents my failure because nobody can sleep in happy moments. I was deeply depressed by the way I had attempted the question paper and managed time. At the end of the road, I got a very low percentile which was not even the
reverse of my first aspiration margin. The main purpose of this story is to share my regrets from which I have learnt in these 3 months ( Jan- Mar 2019) after CAT 2018. After having a New Year party, I took a diary and wrote many things. I have been writing all my mistakes from January onwards.
Learnings For Me, And You Too 1. Watching videos is not enough; you need to practice problems. 2. As I am not going for coaching, I need to find some online courses or teachers who can guide me well when I face problems. 3. I need to complete the revision or syllabus as fast as possible. 4. Whenever I see a problem, I will just attempt it. I should get frightened of difficult problems. 5. Take one book and solve it thoroughly. If you solve one book fully, that boosts confidence by a zillion times. So I need to complete a book. 6. Be practical to solve hundreds of problems instead of moving around strategies, attempts, and blah blah. 7. Despite the fact that I am reading a lot, I need to practice real questions to crack VA-RC section. 8. We all listen and admire many strategies of other people, but you will end up applying your own strategy or way of learning. So I can admire many strategies but I must focus on my own way and method of learning. 9. Coaching institute materials or standard books are a good source for any competitive exams rather than online stuff. 10. Each section is as important as the other. 11. Take the mocks as soon as possible. If you are thinking to take mock after syllabus completion, please remember that you never complete full syllabus even after the CAT exam. 12. Don't wander into every website you face which are about CAT preparation. I need to choose some websites and follow those only. 13. Without time schedule, I can't do anything. 14. Solving Sudoku, Kakuro, Loop, Hidato will help you to get in touch with puzzles. 15. Motivation is bullshit. Have a goal, that's all. In the time you want to get motivation, I can solve problems or complete my reading. 16. Don't promote your CAT preparation to all others such as friends, colleagues, and family. 17. Please keep time-bound goals, and fail many times. 18. The way you leave, the place you leave, with whom you are living matters. Skip holidays. Skip parties. I must convince my self.
Final word I understand that I am a needle in a haystack. I need to work hard to get into IIMs. At the same time, I need to be healthy in both ways - physically and mentally. Now onwards, instead of thinking a lot, I must focus on these points.
Please grow silently as Philosopher Confucious told. A ray of hope always there in my heart. This time, in 2019, I am expecting to correct these mistakes. As I pin earlier on "Consistency", Yes,
Daily preparation is only the key to crack CAT. All the best for your preparation.