Ten years have passed since the first time I heard the song, “XL ki kudiya..”. I was in 12th at that time and my older brother was preparing for B-school entrance exams. In those days everything was offline, from filling the forms and getting your admit cards to appearing for the exams (what a period it was…Orkut was cool, Facebook was still new and Instagram was not even heard of!).
Recently, in a field Immersion program by IIMN, I was asked, “Very rarely a Cinema graduate enters the world of MBA.” And my reply to this was, “This is just the upper layer; there are so many things beneath this.”
I come from a small Village Bhauwar from Rewa. I come from a lower-middle-class family but my parents always encouraged us to aim high and try for the best. I started my schooling from a nearby town where I used to travel via public transportation with my brother. These schools were Hindi medium. Although most of the teachers weren’t up to mark, I was always blessed with one or two teachers who used to show trust in me. I completed my 10th and 12th from these schools with 90+ percent which is tough in MP Board. I never thought of giving CAT because I knew that it was an English-based test and I didn’t know how I would get 99 percent in these tests. (I didn’t understand that percentile and percentage are different).
"After I Scored 6.0 CGPA in Xth Standard it become very tough for me to believe on myself"
The worst moments in the life of an inspired person push him beyond every limit to prove his potential no matter how much he is abased. Hope is what the strongest weapon is meant to be. Just like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, something which I almost anticipated as impossible turned out to be possible and happened.
Unlike many students in college, I was clear with my goals and what I wanted to do with my career. But even then, how to achieve that particular dream was kind of ambiguous since there were multiple options in front of me - either going abroad or staying in India. The only thing that I had figured out towards the end of my four-year bachelor’s degree was to pursue my career in the management sector rather than in the engineering sector. When I gave my first CAT exam, I hardly knew anything about it, ranging from the duration of the exam to the actual pattern of the exam. I never intended to pursue my post-graduation immediately. I was held up with a lot of work at my college, both academics, and extra-curricular. So, it was like a mock test for me, and once the results got out, there was no element of surprise. I scored significantly less in the range of 70% tile, but the overall exam pattern, especially DILR and Quants, was very much comfortable for me, and I was confident that I could do better if I try again.
From an economically weaker section student to the school topper, from an uninspired engineering undergrad to 'Star of Internshala', from an introvert to an EY Consultant, from a depressed and unhealthy person not knowing what to do with her life to a happy and healthy ISB Alumnus- every time she felt situations slipping away from her grip, her dynamic outlook and intense zeal for exploration aided her to take the leap of faith and go all-in for her dreams!
Here’s a crisp, honest, and detailed conversation with our host and guest, Oshin, sharing her three-year-long journey towards ISB. Oshin also takes up the 10 most important questions you may have. Here’s what you can expect in the video: A. Oshin’s three-year-long journey to ISB, her failures, CAT attempts, GMAT attempts, personal ups and downs, and most important learnings as a CAT and GMAT aspirant. B. Answers to all these important questions:
Ten years have passed since the first time I heard the song, “XL ki kudiya..”. I was in 12th at that time and my older brother was preparing for B-school entrance exams. In those days everything was offline, from filling the forms and getting your admit cards to appearing for the exams (what a period it was…Orkut was cool, Facebook was still new and Instagram was not even heard of!).
Recently, in a field Immersion program by IIMN, I was asked, “Very rarely a Cinema graduate enters the world of MBA.” And my reply to this was, “This is just the upper layer; there are so many things beneath this.”
I come from a small Village Bhauwar from Rewa. I come from a lower-middle-class family but my parents always encouraged us to aim high and try for the best. I started my schooling from a nearby town where I used to travel via public transportation with my brother. These schools were Hindi medium. Although most of the teachers weren’t up to mark, I was always blessed with one or two teachers who used to show trust in me. I completed my 10th and 12th from these schools with 90+ percent which is tough in MP Board. I never thought of giving CAT because I knew that it was an English-based test and I didn’t know how I would get 99 percent in these tests. (I didn’t understand that percentile and percentage are different).
"After I Scored 6.0 CGPA in Xth Standard it become very tough for me to believe on myself"
The worst moments in the life of an inspired person push him beyond every limit to prove his potential no matter how much he is abased. Hope is what the strongest weapon is meant to be. Just like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, something which I almost anticipated as impossible turned out to be possible and happened.
Unlike many students in college, I was clear with my goals and what I wanted to do with my career. But even then, how to achieve that particular dream was kind of ambiguous since there were multiple options in front of me - either going abroad or staying in India. The only thing that I had figured out towards the end of my four-year bachelor’s degree was to pursue my career in the management sector rather than in the engineering sector. When I gave my first CAT exam, I hardly knew anything about it, ranging from the duration of the exam to the actual pattern of the exam. I never intended to pursue my post-graduation immediately. I was held up with a lot of work at my college, both academics, and extra-curricular. So, it was like a mock test for me, and once the results got out, there was no element of surprise. I scored significantly less in the range of 70% tile, but the overall exam pattern, especially DILR and Quants, was very much comfortable for me, and I was confident that I could do better if I try again.
From an economically weaker section student to the school topper, from an uninspired engineering undergrad to 'Star of Internshala', from an introvert to an EY Consultant, from a depressed and unhealthy person not knowing what to do with her life to a happy and healthy ISB Alumnus- every time she felt situations slipping away from her grip, her dynamic outlook and intense zeal for exploration aided her to take the leap of faith and go all-in for her dreams!
Here’s a crisp, honest, and detailed conversation with our host and guest, Oshin, sharing her three-year-long journey towards ISB. Oshin also takes up the 10 most important questions you may have. Here’s what you can expect in the video: A. Oshin’s three-year-long journey to ISB, her failures, CAT attempts, GMAT attempts, personal ups and downs, and most important learnings as a CAT and GMAT aspirant. B. Answers to all these important questions:
