With less than 60 days to the ‘D-day,’ all aspiring students have only one thing in their mind. ‘To Bell the CAT!’ is the ultimate mission. The simple question here is, do you have the right weapons in your arsenal to fight the battle and emerge as winners against it? For those who answered ‘no’, this'll probably help you. And for those who answered ‘yes’, this’ll definitely help you.
They all say that life is a race,
A race in which winning is everything
And so with a fear of defeat,
I dived in and started swimming.
Flashback!!
I’ve made it to IIM Ranchi today, but six months ago, I too was in the same boat. The funny part when you tell your relative or a distant friend that you’ve made it to an IIM is that extraordinary percentiles and some serious respect start popping in their brain. Yes, high percentile is a key to open the doors to this surreal world, but it’s just the key. The real fun begins once you step foot inside the door. I very well know that these 60 days will fly past like 60 seconds but will drain you as if it’s been 60 years. There’s something that I have to share to make it a bit easy.
Back to present!
Planning your day is the success mantra they say, I followed the process to plan the entire week with each day dedicated to a topic. Six days of learning and practising while Sunday to revise and test what you’ve learned in the past six days. Never go easy on yourself on Sundays. Try solving the most difficult questions on those topics from the best sources available to you. You'd be fooling yourself if you started to believe that you knew the subject after solving problems of the same difficulty that you’ve been doing the entire week. Collaborate with a friend and prepare tests for each other. You can go for online assessments that are now available in plenty! Plan well. Looking for a good planner? ‘It’s inside you.’
Quant is usually the toughest nut to crack, especially playing with numbers and geometry. You don’t realize when numbers and geometry start playing with you. A lot of practice and mugging up formulas is a must, but the essential part is to get clarity of the concept and formulate your perspective and methods to solve a problem. Addressing a variety of questions will help build confidence.
Quick question: - Find the area of a triangle with sides 11, 4 and 6.
Answer: - This isn’t a triangle. (Sum of 2 sides is not greater than third)
If you got that in a jiffy, it’s time you focus on practicing. Do not leave numbers and geometry for the last! Strike the right balance between quant topics of the week that you take up. A bad combination can exhaust you on very second day.
Verbal, Logical Reasoning, and DI are very subjective to one’s ability and comfort with the topics. Practicing and solving a variety of questions is vital. Remember, the Etymological approach proposed by Norman Lewis still works! One tip from my end would be not to read the comprehensions only to solve the questions. The topics that you read will stay with you, and you might not know if they might turn out to be helpful during your Group discussions or in your Interviews. ‘Critical’ reading for verbal ability and ‘Critical’ thinking for LR and DI would be the perfect approach. And from where would get these? ‘It’s inside you.’
And now as I grow older and my body weak,
The vision of my dream destination slowly seems to be fading.
But I have not held-on so long to die halfway,
And so to travel that last mile, I’ll keep on swimming
One thing that neither is a part of any subject nor taught by any institute, but is the most essential for CAT is ‘Self-Belief.’ Put in all you can for 59 days to come, but the only thing that’ll help you with the ‘D-day’ is self-belief. Go there relaxed in front of that computer screen with confidence that you’ve got it all covered. I being a music fanatic used to listen to my favorite songs an hour before the exam. Trust me; it works wonders. Go in as your best self and not only ‘Bell the CAT’ but also ‘Tame the CAT.’ Where will you find your best self? ‘ It’s Inside Me’ is your answer.
So where do you find the key to an IIM? ‘It’s Inside Me’ (IIM).
Party hard after the exam and start preparations for GD and PI rounds. Fun and Hard work complement each other, and this is something that I learned after joining IIM Ranchi. B-school is a whole different world. It’s an experience you’ll need to live to feel. So once you ‘Bell the CAT,’ join us and get ready to ‘Bell the lion.’
I now have realized that life is but for sure a race,
But this race is not only about losing or winning
It is about getting back to your feet after every fall
Stronger than before, and “JUST KEEP ON SWIMMING!”
All the very best to all the aspirants!