2. Single-minded focus: Once you have locked in on your target, then there is no time for dawdling. Do whatever you have got to do to be successful (obviously, I am still suggesting only ethical measures). Don’t leave any scope for lamenting later - as they say in football- leave all you’ve got on the field.
3. Optimism-level Honey Singh: If Yo Yo can harbour dreams of winning a Grammy, we all have no excuse whatsoever in any of our pursuits. So summon your internal Yo Yo before the D-day.
4. Ability to handle pressure: Now, you might feel that your life is riding on this result somehow, but trust me it isn’t. So, calm down, bow to a life-sized portrait of Kohli and just give it a good right go. CAT will be unexpected, so you will have to deal with its idiosyncrasies. In CAT 2015, while attempting my DI/LR section, I was actually mulling over the meaning of life for a good 5-10 minutes because I had given up on the paper. Somehow, I calmed my nerves and thought of giving the final section (Quant, which happened to be my weakness) its due respect before losing all hope and voila, it worked.
5. Ability to be blind and deaf to leeches: On your journey, you might encounter many life-sucking individuals who would project their own insecurities onto you in every possible manner. Just let them know this:
“I’d like to see things from your point of view, but I can’t seem to get my head that far up your a**.”
6. Ability to laugh: As they say “Laughter is an instant vacation” – make sure you don’t build up too much stress regarding CAT or later for WAT/PI preparation. Don't make CAT the centre of your life; always keep some time reserved for fun. This might seem contradictory to point#2, but it really isn’t. Your life is bigger than any examination, so definitely work hard but always spare some time for laughs. Obviously, there still might be times when all seems doomed, but at all those times keep calm and watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
PS: Obviously, for the final selection, having a good profile would be a big booster so work towards that, if you have the time and resources.
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About the Author:
Utkarsh Goklani is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad (2016-2018). He scored 99.62%ile in CAT 2015. Prior to joining IIM A, he worked as Macroeconomics Analyst at Credit Suisse.
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Comments
IIMs SoShitLOL
No offense but these abilities won't do jack if you don't have good past academic record. CAT score doesn't mean anything , its all about past academic records and thats why selection process is flawed.
30 Mar 2017, 10.08 AM
+Read Replies (1)
Rachit Pathak
Arcane e-Solutions
Agreed.
30 Mar 2017, 08.40 PM |
Meenakshi Subramanian
Luck is the main thing.. inspite of good cat score, excellent acads if you are an engineer and belong to the general category you don't get a call.
6 Jun 2017, 10.02 AM
Aditya Kwatra
Very informative article. Please keep writing articles related to the same topic, so that we can know what is the difference between normal aspirants and iim A aspirants
22 Apr 2018, 01.12 PM
Priyansha Dwivedi
Good article. Please also let us know about what all needs to be done in order to secure a seat apart from getting the required cat score for IIMA; the kind of preparation you went through for gdpi and about the extracurriculars.
11 May 2018, 12.21 PM
Siddhivinayak Shende
If you are a GEM with poor acads, then all you need to get into IIMA is reincarnation!
11 May 2018, 12.33 PM
Utkarsh Goklani
Global Ecomomics at Credit Suisse
Hi guys, I am quite infrequent on this platform. However, I do engage extensively on Quora, so you can connect with me there, if required.
11 May 2018, 12.36 PM
+Read Replies (1)
Shreekar Ramesh
Shreekar Ramesh
Sir plz give me more tips :P
11 May 2018, 04.26 PM |
Advaith Bhaskar
MBA aspirant
What a ridiculous article. It's far too generalised. You can essentially apply your quotes for nearly any avenue in Life requiring persistence. It's an appeal to insideiim to regulate and view your content, as of late the quality of your articles have dropped dramatically.
11 May 2018, 04.30 PM
Ichchha Arora
I'm a BBA student so can you suggest a few things upon my profile building
4 Jun 2020, 11.13 AM
Shashank Brahapuriya
An individual with a clear goal clarity and focused towards his career and has immense potential. I want to gain expertise in Finance and a sincere CAT aspirant. Currently pursuing BBA from IMS Ghaziabad. With the time I have developed certain soft skills which are prerequisites in Management field.
Could you please tell how to make a gpod profile in the upcoming 6-8 months.
6 Jun 2020, 10.44 PM