There was the Cat, there was an aspirant, there was normalization. Story e…n..d….
CUT..CUT…CUT..
It ain’t over yet.
This isn’t a story which would inspire you to take a bhisma pratigya of ‘Bhagwan jab tak CAT na crack ho jaye, seet-geeta ki taraf aankh utha kar nahi dekhunga , or to become a maggu, or to leave everything on faith, but this is a story which confirms the fact that ‘Billi ke ghar der hai andher nahi’ and is an eye-opener for all those cribbers who blame it on just luck for not making into IIM after all these years.
Let me put it this way. It’s a ‘Hard work won’t go unrewarded forever Ver 2.0’ story. (Courtesy : r11gupta)
Below is my profile and I cracked IIM Lucknow. I dedicate this story to people who are under-confident because of their bad profile.
10th : 90.2% ICSE
12th : 61.0% CBSE
Grad : 85.2% B.Tech from a random private college.
Work-ex : 20 months TCS.
Extra-currics : Have some but had no proof for them during the time of GDPIs, so almost nil at that point.
Apart from that PG Dream Team 2011 member, PG Coolest avatar 2011 runner-up.
Flashback
After FMS 2012 interview, I and TnT were returning back to Kolkata. When our discussion came to AIWTSAC, none of us was too keen on writing one, considering that our journey was nothing extraordinary, but I stated that I would write my AIWTSAC, if I convert IIM Lucknow. That would be something extraordinary. So, here I am wasting server space of PG.
Life is 100% intelligence
I was born in a lower middle class marwadi businessman family. Home environment was of studies and studies, to prove this, consider that my elder brother cracked IIT with AIR 729, one elder sister is University Topper in M.Com and almost a CA and other elder sister is a doctor. I never knew what fun really meant. Got cable connection in class 9th and never had a videogame. My father is the most hard-working person I have ever known and my mother is most strong-willed person I have ever known. Sadly, I didn’t inherit any of the two godly traits.
Till class 10th, I used to feel that I was born smart. I still hear the stories about how little I used to study and yet I used to perform great in exams. I allowed complacency to plant deep into me at a very early stage. I used to feel that with my smart preparation and good memeory, I could crack anything. With barely a fortnight effort, I pulled off a 90% in 10th. I was on cloud 9, my father put me back to ground with one statement, “Your elder brother had scored 1% more with 10 times the effort you put in, but world will value him more.” Little, did I know that my father was true, I was yet to meet really smart people.
To add, the greatest sin was already committed. My father’s theory was :-
1 IITian son + 1 IITian son = 2 IITian sons
And I was deported to Bansal Classes, Kota.
Life in Kota was the best part of my life. It was a big leap of faith. I got so lost that I completed a circle and found myself again.
Continuing with my old habit of optimizing time, I appeared, almost unprepared, in the first test at Bansal Classes, topped Physics. Got a under 20 rank in second test. Realized too early, that I was a born IITian and got complacent.
Life is 50% perspiration 50% intelligence
All the unfulfilled dreams of having fun, wanted a bonus bonanza. I started playing LAN games, watching movies, noticing girls and I also started bunking classes. Gradually, I stopped going classes and my results dipped. There were phases when I wanted to make things right but I realized that I wasn’t as smart as I used to think or rather world is full of smart peoples who are also hard-working. I created a reality distortion field and convinced myself that I need only six months prep to crack JEE and Class 12th boards can be cracked in a week, same as class 10th. Long story short, I flunked JEE, studied night before the board exams and scored 61% in 12th (barely passing PCM by 2-3 marks). There was an abyss,1 light year of shit and then me.
I was in shock for months. The smarty pants of whom everyone in the family was proud, had turned into a bozo. My ego took such a hit and I got so under-confident and pessimistic, that I used to think of applying for clerk jobs. I could still perform magnificent during the high times but those times were rare. And after a year drop, I ended up in CSE branch of KIIT University. Uncertain of my future and hating my life to the core.
Life is 100% uncertain
Except for few people who ended up in college through AIEEE, everyone else was very happy with their life and was proud to end up there, so they all were in a vacation mode. I never got into acads but managed decent grades because of the below average competition at my college. But, I did read a lot. There were times when I would read Wikipedia for hours. For the complete first year life was black and white and there weren’t any subtitles. I was flowing with the stream when came the high tide. I fell in love and got committed to my lady. Now there was a motive, a zest to bring back the life onto track.
Not because that I had made it big in life, but just because my life had moved on a bit, I started to become the old person I used to be. My biggest strength is that I make Darwin proud. I can adapt to any situation. I introspected and realized that I had become emotionally very strong. The wind that had swept past me had made me fierce and hungry. I was gradually developing the strong-willed trait of my mother. Old habits die hard and I looked for the shortest route to freedom. The answer was IIM. One tag to wash all the dirt away. Boley to ‘Ganga naha lena’. People told me that I was insane and had no chance because of my profile. I always thought that there is one college IIM C which doesn’t give a damn about pasts and I will target that. With such little hope, I started my journey.
Life is all about CAT
Now that I had some aim, I was in search of accomplice. Of the few smart people that ended up in my college, one was Ranjeet aka ThE_bmr. Since, our aims were similar we became good friends. My first mock, with zero idea about syllabus or exam pattern, was CAT 2008 paper which I downloaded from TF. I ended up with 148 marks and balanced sectionals. Is‘Life 100% intelligence?’; nope I had my demons under control. I never liked the idea of coaching classes so I never joined one. I was appearing in mocks and was performing decent. I knew about PG though ThE_bmr but I rarely followed it. I just knew that there was this PG dream team which had awesome people.
2009 season
CAT'09 : 98.01 No calls (had applied only for IIMs)
XAT'10 : 98.11 Calls: BM and PMIR. No converts.
FMS'10 : 297 marks. (no call)
JMET : 7XX AIR. (didn’t apply anywhere)
Got placed in TCS as one of 252 other ‘bricks on the wall’ from my college. Damn, I hated my life.
I attended XL interviews. I was a noob and I was so defensive of myself because of my past failures that rejects from XL were no surprise.
Life is all about hanging an IT tag around the neck.
I had experienced the monstrosity called Normalization in CAT’09. I had seen the unexpected and brutal CAT result of DT’2009. Was this uncertain CAT, a really good idea? I didn’t want join TCS and I needed a concrete plan. College was over and I was at home preparing for job interviews. Got some rejects and I again realized the importance of hard-work over the years. Luckily or unluckily, my laptop broke down and I was in Kolkata to buy a new one. I came across TIME centre and involuntarily I went inside and got myself registered for AIMCATs. First mock after months and I scored 99.23%ile. The monster within had awaken from the sleep.
In between, I joined TCS and I used to hate every single minute I spent there. The life I had which I hated and the one which I dreamt of were my motivations. Now, I needed some other people with similar aim of cracking CAT. I got a string of 99.xx in mocks and The_bmr suggested me to apply for DT and UDT. I got active on PG and tried my best to help puys. I posted my nomination on UDT and after that I got my first DT nomination from Alex_Mahone (thank you sirji), who edited his original nomination post. Finally, I made it to DT’ 2010. I was elated. I felt as if I had achieved something after a long long time.
Season was bumpy and I made the mistake of joining only AIMCATs. I used to get dejected by my mock performances and since AIMCATs were of single flavor, I kept on getting worse and lost confidence. On the brighter side, I made some good friends- TnT, target_cat2010, DOC, techgodajay, .Z. etc. DT confy was fun and I still cherish those hours. DT’11 never had the bonding which DT’10 had.
2010 season
CAT 2010 : I had appeared on 14th Nov, afternoon slot with DOC and TnT. Paper was very tough. I got the “I am screwed” feeling, the moment I came out of the exam hall. Results got leaked and I got 91.XX overall with 55.XX in VA. Normalization, thou art a heartless b***h. DOC and I were screwed in a legendary way. Because of my past deeds, I had developed a very high threshold and I was amused by my results. There was no pain but only the deep desire to take revenge.
This is it. I needed a plan B. I could see my one year getting wasted infront of my eyes. I wanted to improve my profile. I applied to few companies. Futures First being one of them. I started to focus on my work at TCS. I put in a lot of effort and became a Project Lead in my very first project. In May, the Coolest Avatar’ 11 was launched on PG. I was looking for something to distract my mind and something to add to my CV and so I made my mind on winning it. I put in a lot of effort, 3 weeks to be precise. Ultimately, injustice prevailed and I couldn’t win it. (I am really thankful to team Puyrate for all the effort. In reality, we were the true winners.)
Coolest avatar was the best thing which happened to me in the year 2011. This blow brought me to senses and I felt cheated. I realized that everything is virtual and cracking CAT is only real. I used to spend way too much time on PG and it would be a waste if I am unable to crack CAT. A puy is a real inspiration only when he proves all his shared gyan true by cracking CAT, until then the gyan is only noise. I became inactive on PG and I had a lot of free time. I used all of it for my CAT preparation.
On the personal life front, things were not rosy. I was working in TCS and so was my lady. Her parents were putting pressure on marriage and it appeared that 2011 was the only year I had. My parents were also alone at home and my mother was having health related issues. I took the major step of convincing my parents to move to Kolkata, so that we could live together. Now, I had lot of responsibilities – preparing for CAT, Project Lead responsibilities at TCS, supporting my parent and enjoying life with my lady. Today, when I look back, I realize that I did hell of a job at multi-tasking.
I joined TIME and CL. I also got SIMCATs for free. Mocks were going fine and just because I was doing great at my Job, I used to feel a lot secured about everything. I was regaining confidence. Had it not been for TnT, I would have never joined DT’11 but finally, I felt that I owe it to DT’10. I had to redeem my honor. Again met some really very smart people, Smarep was the first one who had total faith in me. He always used to say that I’ll do it. TnT was evergreen motivator and there was a time when my lady felt insecure due to the frequency of telephonic conversations, I and TnT used to have.
In short words, we were addicted to CAT. Non-stop discussion on mock
questions, performance, strategy, slot, chances. It was awesome.
Because of the new pattern of CAT, VA was no more an issue. I also solved a lot of GMAT material and memorized a lot of vocab. I also want to thank .Z. (kshitiz) for forcing me to join Simcats. But on the other hand, I was having serious trouble with Sec-1. I was rarely crossing 99 in sec-1 and I knew that in actual CAT, sec-1 is the only savior. Still, I kept faith and was in touch with the basics. I also knew that mocks percentiles are unrealistic because many people practice previous year mocks and get good at specific question types which gets repeated a lot in mocks. This leads to unrealistic percentiles and people tend to believe that they are prepared, when actually the basics aren’t very strong and this is where all the game is in real CAT.
In between, IIM call criteria was released. IIM C betrayed me, it was also taking acads into account. I had to score atleast 99.8X if I was thinking of getting an IIM call. I started targeting 100%ile. Every single time, I told myself that the target is 100%ile.
People say that CAT is just a one day thing. I feel that CAT is a phenomenon. Life is divided between time before CAT and time after CAT. I have lived the CAT life 24*7. People become obsessed, temperamental, have fights, and decide major decisions in life just based on CAT. I would never say CAT is bigger than life but it becomes the biggest thing in life and it is then that a person, who is not born lucky, cracks it.
Life is all about D-Day
CAT'11 : Chose the 4th Nov, 2011 slot. It was Friday. One week before the day, I was very nervous and I caught fever. Appeared in an AIMCAT and a SIMCAT on two days before CAT and I couldn’t clear any sectional in any of them. I went to write CAT with zero expectation but as someone said to me that I am overtly optimistic. In one particular Procmock, I had scored single digit AIR and I knew that I had it in me.
D-day
Section 1: 1st question, could not solve. 2nd question, could not solve (read it wrong.) 5 mins passed with zero attempts. Felt the pressure. Asked myself to be calm. Took a deep breath. Solved 3rd question then 4th. Attempted all QA questions, except 3-4 questions. Attempted all DI questions. Had 17 mins remaining. Attempted rest of the QA questions except for one. 11 minutes remaining with 29 attempts. Revised all the questions. Last 2 mins. 1 question remaining. This question was from Probability. It was my weak area and I hadn't worked a lot on it, but I always used to analyze the questions from mocks, suddenly I recalled a method and the answer was one of the options and the method made sense. Marked the last question.
Section-2 : I knew that I had nailed Section-1 and I could bet 30-0 in it. Only if I nail VA. Started with LR and finished it in 17 mins. Now, I had 53 mins for VA. I went very slow and analyzed every single option. I was running out of time. I attempted 29 questions and then revised, then I unmarked one question in VA and then timer stopped.
I was happy with my performance. I also did well in IIFT and XAT. I applied for NMAT, thinking that in a particular season, one exam is bound to get screwed so let it be this one.
Life is all about results
CAT 2011 : 11th Jan. Server was as expected down. I could literally listen to my heartbeat. Kept on refreshing the CAT site. Suddenly, the page started loading and a pdf opened.
Overall 99.87%ile (Sec-1:99.93 Sec-2: 95.15)
I had killed the CAT. Yes, I did it. For few people this moment is meant to shed tears of joy. I, on the other hand, was using choicest of words for CAT, Prometric and Normalization. After all this pain, I did nail those %*^&^$^#&%&%. I woke up my parents told them the results. The happiness on their face was priceless. I called everyone and got calls from many. It felt so good to see the happiness people shared.
I also did well in IIFT, XAT, NMAT(although, this was the one exam which I did screw.)
Life is all about calls
IIM A didn’t give me a call. I never expected a call from IIM BIKS, and hadn't applied to the new IIMs and ABM programs of IIMs. Now, I was depressed, it was so painful that after all this effort and awesome percentile, I won’t get IIM calls. As per my nature, I composed myself and convinced myself to crack any call I had. I had forgotten about IIMs, when in the evening, I got a call from my lady. I heard only “You got IIM C and IIM L call” and I went blank. It was heaven. I was desperate to convert my calls.
I also got call from IIFT, NMIMS (didn’t attend) , XL HRM (didn’t attend, OMR screwed my QA, so no BM call), MDI, Nitie, FMS.
Life is 100% Prespiration
I never found the CAT part tough. I was pretty good at QA/DI/LR and since VA was based on feel factor, I never needed to put in a lot of effort in prep for CAT. But now came the GDPI. A call is useless unless it isn’t converted. XLRI had rejected me in the past and I knew the exact reasons and I had already made changes to my attitude. But, now what I needed was a hell lot of effort. I was always good at GD, essays and communications. I didn’t want to take any chances and although.
I never believed in coaching, but for my GDPI prep, I joined Backspace Communication by Partha PPD at Kolkata. PPD is an IIM A alumnus and he taught me how to remain calm during the PIs. I also made some friends there who made it to top b-schools and we all were immensely benefited by PPD.
I did following for my GDPI prep :-
Life is all about surprises
One day, I got a reply to my application to Futures First. I was shortlisted for the selection process, which was to be held around early Feb. I took a lot of help of ABCLIKS(Omkar) for this. I wasn’t expecting to convert this considering that I had no connection to trading or finance. I prepared for 2 days and prepared smartly. I had good idea of the selection process and I thought of a good story to tell in my interview. I adapted myself for the process. There were 30 people attending the off-campus drive and one was to be selected. One by one, I cleared each round and in the final round, I was pitched against a CA, who also had trading experience. It was a lost battle but I tried my best and life is full of surprises. I cracked it. I was elated. I had a backup. I felt free.
Life is all around GDPI and Converts
I was really confident after cracking FF. If I could handle their stress interviews, I could handle anything. There was no scope of mistakes. I had to be perfect in each part of the process. IIFT was very short PI and I was doubtful but I was waitlisted, which would eventually convert. Nitie was good and again I was waitlisted, which would eventually convert. MDI was awesome, it was a convert but their selection process is a joke and a vestigial event.
Now came the big day, IIM C. I was very nervous but I did well in essay and GD. It was the only GD which I couldn’t start and I didn’t have a positive feeling about it. I was the last one to be interviewed and what I got was mere 9 mins of panel’s time, when initially they were interviewing for 30 mins. PI was too random and it appeared that the process was a formality. I knew that I had lost it. I was devastated. After all the effort, what I wanted was a fair chance. My heart filled with hatred and I vowed that this reject will be Joka’s loss.
I had to give my best at IIM L and I did give. I was very happy with my essay, GD and PI performance. I feel proud of the way I handled the almost HR interview. Link : IIM L Experience ([2012-2014] IIM Lucknow Essay/GD/PI Experiences)
I knew that it was a convert but I had some doubts, thanks to my profile.
IIM results were out and I got rejected by IIM C. Reject by IIM L was a shock but after seeing the batch profile of IIM L present batch, I knew that converting it was impossible. I had little hope with the second list of IIM L.
I was all set to go to Nitie. FMS remained, but given the random GDPI process they have, I wasn’t hopeful. I attended FMS process and it was 5 mins long. Thanks to my high CAT score, I converted FMS. I was elated. I made it to to top-5 b-school. Nothing can define the feelings I had at that moment. I am not a girl so I didn’t cry.
Life is all about redemption
I went to FMS, took admission and was waiting for the classes to start. I was happy and I felt that even if I had IIM L convert, I would have joined FMS. Funny are the ways which the faith uses to test us. I convert IIM Lucknow in the second list. Again, came out the choicest of the words. With all the hoopla around IIM call criteria and converts, this is somehow the first reaction.
Slowly, I came back to reality. I had converted a big 4 IIM. One of the ABCL. All these years, the journey which I took was for this convert. The inception of the idea was an IIM tag. It might be too easy for someone else to choose FMS over IIM L, but it wasn’t for me. I am a materialistic person and I was hungry for recognition, for brand, for a campus life. I was indebted to my parents and my father wanted me to join IIM L. He had forgotten that something like me screwing JEE ever happened.
Life is all about uncertainity
Now, I have joined IIM L. Unsure of what the journey ahead has in store for me. Presently, I am really happy. Not feeling insecure about my future with my lady. Soon, we will be engaged. Life will have its own ups and downs but one thing is sure that never, never will I give up in life. Never will I stop fighting. Competition is fierce, it always was.
If where I was can become where I am, then so will it become where I want to be.
Story is all about a happy ending
I want to thank my parents. It was never possible without the values they gave me. I want to thank my brothers and sisters, who always guided me. I want to thank my lady for always being on my side, for supporting me, for coping up with my temperament and for making me dream again in life. It all belongs to you.
I also want to thank Pagalguy for providing me the forum where I made such good friends.
Finally, I want to thanks the readers who stuck with this story till here.
If I can do it then so can you, just adapt as per the situations. Keep things simple and be optimistic. Being a cry-baby never helps because then one would never become confident as one always has to cry about something more which could have been had. Take mocks seriously and you need to crack a mock just once to realize that you have it in you. Then just focus on it. CAT is all about confidence level. If someone is calm and confident then nothing is impossible.
Start working on your profile and your weak areas. High percentile never ensures a convert. One reject can be blamed on luck but multiple rejects are one’s own doing. Never ever give up. If you don’t have the regret of not giving your best shot then whatever may come, you will be confident on D-day and during GDPI.
CUT..CUT…CUT..
It ain’t over yet.
This isn’t a story which would inspire you to take a bhisma pratigya of ‘Bhagwan jab tak CAT na crack ho jaye, seet-geeta ki taraf aankh utha kar nahi dekhunga , or to become a maggu, or to leave everything on faith, but this is a story which confirms the fact that ‘Billi ke ghar der hai andher nahi’ and is an eye-opener for all those cribbers who blame it on just luck for not making into IIM after all these years.
Let me put it this way. It’s a ‘Hard work won’t go unrewarded forever Ver 2.0’ story. (Courtesy : r11gupta)
Below is my profile and I cracked IIM Lucknow. I dedicate this story to people who are under-confident because of their bad profile.
10th : 90.2% ICSE
12th : 61.0% CBSE
Grad : 85.2% B.Tech from a random private college.
Work-ex : 20 months TCS.
Extra-currics : Have some but had no proof for them during the time of GDPIs, so almost nil at that point.
Apart from that PG Dream Team 2011 member, PG Coolest avatar 2011 runner-up.
Flashback
After FMS 2012 interview, I and TnT were returning back to Kolkata. When our discussion came to AIWTSAC, none of us was too keen on writing one, considering that our journey was nothing extraordinary, but I stated that I would write my AIWTSAC, if I convert IIM Lucknow. That would be something extraordinary. So, here I am wasting server space of PG.
Life is 100% intelligence
I was born in a lower middle class marwadi businessman family. Home environment was of studies and studies, to prove this, consider that my elder brother cracked IIT with AIR 729, one elder sister is University Topper in M.Com and almost a CA and other elder sister is a doctor. I never knew what fun really meant. Got cable connection in class 9th and never had a videogame. My father is the most hard-working person I have ever known and my mother is most strong-willed person I have ever known. Sadly, I didn’t inherit any of the two godly traits.
Till class 10th, I used to feel that I was born smart. I still hear the stories about how little I used to study and yet I used to perform great in exams. I allowed complacency to plant deep into me at a very early stage. I used to feel that with my smart preparation and good memeory, I could crack anything. With barely a fortnight effort, I pulled off a 90% in 10th. I was on cloud 9, my father put me back to ground with one statement, “Your elder brother had scored 1% more with 10 times the effort you put in, but world will value him more.” Little, did I know that my father was true, I was yet to meet really smart people.
To add, the greatest sin was already committed. My father’s theory was :-
1 IITian son + 1 IITian son = 2 IITian sons
And I was deported to Bansal Classes, Kota.
Life in Kota was the best part of my life. It was a big leap of faith. I got so lost that I completed a circle and found myself again.
Continuing with my old habit of optimizing time, I appeared, almost unprepared, in the first test at Bansal Classes, topped Physics. Got a under 20 rank in second test. Realized too early, that I was a born IITian and got complacent.
Life is 50% perspiration 50% intelligence
All the unfulfilled dreams of having fun, wanted a bonus bonanza. I started playing LAN games, watching movies, noticing girls and I also started bunking classes. Gradually, I stopped going classes and my results dipped. There were phases when I wanted to make things right but I realized that I wasn’t as smart as I used to think or rather world is full of smart peoples who are also hard-working. I created a reality distortion field and convinced myself that I need only six months prep to crack JEE and Class 12th boards can be cracked in a week, same as class 10th. Long story short, I flunked JEE, studied night before the board exams and scored 61% in 12th (barely passing PCM by 2-3 marks). There was an abyss,1 light year of shit and then me.
I was in shock for months. The smarty pants of whom everyone in the family was proud, had turned into a bozo. My ego took such a hit and I got so under-confident and pessimistic, that I used to think of applying for clerk jobs. I could still perform magnificent during the high times but those times were rare. And after a year drop, I ended up in CSE branch of KIIT University. Uncertain of my future and hating my life to the core.
Life is 100% uncertain
Except for few people who ended up in college through AIEEE, everyone else was very happy with their life and was proud to end up there, so they all were in a vacation mode. I never got into acads but managed decent grades because of the below average competition at my college. But, I did read a lot. There were times when I would read Wikipedia for hours. For the complete first year life was black and white and there weren’t any subtitles. I was flowing with the stream when came the high tide. I fell in love and got committed to my lady. Now there was a motive, a zest to bring back the life onto track.
Not because that I had made it big in life, but just because my life had moved on a bit, I started to become the old person I used to be. My biggest strength is that I make Darwin proud. I can adapt to any situation. I introspected and realized that I had become emotionally very strong. The wind that had swept past me had made me fierce and hungry. I was gradually developing the strong-willed trait of my mother. Old habits die hard and I looked for the shortest route to freedom. The answer was IIM. One tag to wash all the dirt away. Boley to ‘Ganga naha lena’. People told me that I was insane and had no chance because of my profile. I always thought that there is one college IIM C which doesn’t give a damn about pasts and I will target that. With such little hope, I started my journey.
Life is all about CAT
Now that I had some aim, I was in search of accomplice. Of the few smart people that ended up in my college, one was Ranjeet aka ThE_bmr. Since, our aims were similar we became good friends. My first mock, with zero idea about syllabus or exam pattern, was CAT 2008 paper which I downloaded from TF. I ended up with 148 marks and balanced sectionals. Is‘Life 100% intelligence?’; nope I had my demons under control. I never liked the idea of coaching classes so I never joined one. I was appearing in mocks and was performing decent. I knew about PG though ThE_bmr but I rarely followed it. I just knew that there was this PG dream team which had awesome people.
2009 season
CAT'09 : 98.01 No calls (had applied only for IIMs)
XAT'10 : 98.11 Calls: BM and PMIR. No converts.
FMS'10 : 297 marks. (no call)
JMET : 7XX AIR. (didn’t apply anywhere)
Got placed in TCS as one of 252 other ‘bricks on the wall’ from my college. Damn, I hated my life.
I attended XL interviews. I was a noob and I was so defensive of myself because of my past failures that rejects from XL were no surprise.
Life is all about hanging an IT tag around the neck.
I had experienced the monstrosity called Normalization in CAT’09. I had seen the unexpected and brutal CAT result of DT’2009. Was this uncertain CAT, a really good idea? I didn’t want join TCS and I needed a concrete plan. College was over and I was at home preparing for job interviews. Got some rejects and I again realized the importance of hard-work over the years. Luckily or unluckily, my laptop broke down and I was in Kolkata to buy a new one. I came across TIME centre and involuntarily I went inside and got myself registered for AIMCATs. First mock after months and I scored 99.23%ile. The monster within had awaken from the sleep.
In between, I joined TCS and I used to hate every single minute I spent there. The life I had which I hated and the one which I dreamt of were my motivations. Now, I needed some other people with similar aim of cracking CAT. I got a string of 99.xx in mocks and The_bmr suggested me to apply for DT and UDT. I got active on PG and tried my best to help puys. I posted my nomination on UDT and after that I got my first DT nomination from Alex_Mahone (thank you sirji), who edited his original nomination post. Finally, I made it to DT’ 2010. I was elated. I felt as if I had achieved something after a long long time.
Season was bumpy and I made the mistake of joining only AIMCATs. I used to get dejected by my mock performances and since AIMCATs were of single flavor, I kept on getting worse and lost confidence. On the brighter side, I made some good friends- TnT, target_cat2010, DOC, techgodajay, .Z. etc. DT confy was fun and I still cherish those hours. DT’11 never had the bonding which DT’10 had.
2010 season
CAT 2010 : I had appeared on 14th Nov, afternoon slot with DOC and TnT. Paper was very tough. I got the “I am screwed” feeling, the moment I came out of the exam hall. Results got leaked and I got 91.XX overall with 55.XX in VA. Normalization, thou art a heartless b***h. DOC and I were screwed in a legendary way. Because of my past deeds, I had developed a very high threshold and I was amused by my results. There was no pain but only the deep desire to take revenge.
Life is all about dreams(2 of 3)
Life is not all about CATThis is it. I needed a plan B. I could see my one year getting wasted infront of my eyes. I wanted to improve my profile. I applied to few companies. Futures First being one of them. I started to focus on my work at TCS. I put in a lot of effort and became a Project Lead in my very first project. In May, the Coolest Avatar’ 11 was launched on PG. I was looking for something to distract my mind and something to add to my CV and so I made my mind on winning it. I put in a lot of effort, 3 weeks to be precise. Ultimately, injustice prevailed and I couldn’t win it. (I am really thankful to team Puyrate for all the effort. In reality, we were the true winners.)
Coolest avatar was the best thing which happened to me in the year 2011. This blow brought me to senses and I felt cheated. I realized that everything is virtual and cracking CAT is only real. I used to spend way too much time on PG and it would be a waste if I am unable to crack CAT. A puy is a real inspiration only when he proves all his shared gyan true by cracking CAT, until then the gyan is only noise. I became inactive on PG and I had a lot of free time. I used all of it for my CAT preparation.
On the personal life front, things were not rosy. I was working in TCS and so was my lady. Her parents were putting pressure on marriage and it appeared that 2011 was the only year I had. My parents were also alone at home and my mother was having health related issues. I took the major step of convincing my parents to move to Kolkata, so that we could live together. Now, I had lot of responsibilities – preparing for CAT, Project Lead responsibilities at TCS, supporting my parent and enjoying life with my lady. Today, when I look back, I realize that I did hell of a job at multi-tasking.
I joined TIME and CL. I also got SIMCATs for free. Mocks were going fine and just because I was doing great at my Job, I used to feel a lot secured about everything. I was regaining confidence. Had it not been for TnT, I would have never joined DT’11 but finally, I felt that I owe it to DT’10. I had to redeem my honor. Again met some really very smart people, Smarep was the first one who had total faith in me. He always used to say that I’ll do it. TnT was evergreen motivator and there was a time when my lady felt insecure due to the frequency of telephonic conversations, I and TnT used to have.
In short words, we were addicted to CAT. Non-stop discussion on mock
questions, performance, strategy, slot, chances. It was awesome. Because of the new pattern of CAT, VA was no more an issue. I also solved a lot of GMAT material and memorized a lot of vocab. I also want to thank .Z. (kshitiz) for forcing me to join Simcats. But on the other hand, I was having serious trouble with Sec-1. I was rarely crossing 99 in sec-1 and I knew that in actual CAT, sec-1 is the only savior. Still, I kept faith and was in touch with the basics. I also knew that mocks percentiles are unrealistic because many people practice previous year mocks and get good at specific question types which gets repeated a lot in mocks. This leads to unrealistic percentiles and people tend to believe that they are prepared, when actually the basics aren’t very strong and this is where all the game is in real CAT.
In between, IIM call criteria was released. IIM C betrayed me, it was also taking acads into account. I had to score atleast 99.8X if I was thinking of getting an IIM call. I started targeting 100%ile. Every single time, I told myself that the target is 100%ile.
People say that CAT is just a one day thing. I feel that CAT is a phenomenon. Life is divided between time before CAT and time after CAT. I have lived the CAT life 24*7. People become obsessed, temperamental, have fights, and decide major decisions in life just based on CAT. I would never say CAT is bigger than life but it becomes the biggest thing in life and it is then that a person, who is not born lucky, cracks it.
Life is all about D-Day
CAT'11 : Chose the 4th Nov, 2011 slot. It was Friday. One week before the day, I was very nervous and I caught fever. Appeared in an AIMCAT and a SIMCAT on two days before CAT and I couldn’t clear any sectional in any of them. I went to write CAT with zero expectation but as someone said to me that I am overtly optimistic. In one particular Procmock, I had scored single digit AIR and I knew that I had it in me.
D-day
Section 1: 1st question, could not solve. 2nd question, could not solve (read it wrong.) 5 mins passed with zero attempts. Felt the pressure. Asked myself to be calm. Took a deep breath. Solved 3rd question then 4th. Attempted all QA questions, except 3-4 questions. Attempted all DI questions. Had 17 mins remaining. Attempted rest of the QA questions except for one. 11 minutes remaining with 29 attempts. Revised all the questions. Last 2 mins. 1 question remaining. This question was from Probability. It was my weak area and I hadn't worked a lot on it, but I always used to analyze the questions from mocks, suddenly I recalled a method and the answer was one of the options and the method made sense. Marked the last question.
Section-2 : I knew that I had nailed Section-1 and I could bet 30-0 in it. Only if I nail VA. Started with LR and finished it in 17 mins. Now, I had 53 mins for VA. I went very slow and analyzed every single option. I was running out of time. I attempted 29 questions and then revised, then I unmarked one question in VA and then timer stopped.
I was happy with my performance. I also did well in IIFT and XAT. I applied for NMAT, thinking that in a particular season, one exam is bound to get screwed so let it be this one.
Life is all about results
CAT 2011 : 11th Jan. Server was as expected down. I could literally listen to my heartbeat. Kept on refreshing the CAT site. Suddenly, the page started loading and a pdf opened.
Overall 99.87%ile (Sec-1:99.93 Sec-2: 95.15)
I had killed the CAT. Yes, I did it. For few people this moment is meant to shed tears of joy. I, on the other hand, was using choicest of words for CAT, Prometric and Normalization. After all this pain, I did nail those %*^&^$^#&%&%. I woke up my parents told them the results. The happiness on their face was priceless. I called everyone and got calls from many. It felt so good to see the happiness people shared.
I also did well in IIFT, XAT, NMAT(although, this was the one exam which I did screw.)
Life is all about calls
IIM A didn’t give me a call. I never expected a call from IIM BIKS, and hadn't applied to the new IIMs and ABM programs of IIMs. Now, I was depressed, it was so painful that after all this effort and awesome percentile, I won’t get IIM calls. As per my nature, I composed myself and convinced myself to crack any call I had. I had forgotten about IIMs, when in the evening, I got a call from my lady. I heard only “You got IIM C and IIM L call” and I went blank. It was heaven. I was desperate to convert my calls.
I also got call from IIFT, NMIMS (didn’t attend) , XL HRM (didn’t attend, OMR screwed my QA, so no BM call), MDI, Nitie, FMS.
Life is all about dreams(3 of 3)
Life is 100% Prespiration
I never found the CAT part tough. I was pretty good at QA/DI/LR and since VA was based on feel factor, I never needed to put in a lot of effort in prep for CAT. But now came the GDPI. A call is useless unless it isn’t converted. XLRI had rejected me in the past and I knew the exact reasons and I had already made changes to my attitude. But, now what I needed was a hell lot of effort. I was always good at GD, essays and communications. I didn’t want to take any chances and although.
I never believed in coaching, but for my GDPI prep, I joined Backspace Communication by Partha PPD at Kolkata. PPD is an IIM A alumnus and he taught me how to remain calm during the PIs. I also made some friends there who made it to top b-schools and we all were immensely benefited by PPD.
I did following for my GDPI prep :-
- Read TOI and ET every day.Also read the economists.
- Read NCERT 11th and 12th books for PCM, to defend my class 12th marks.
- Read Stats and lots of higher maths.
- Read 6 engineering subjects and did a lot of research on my work profile.
- Read a lot about marketing- almost read Kotler and a marketing blog.
- Read India Unbound, Argumentative India, The Goal, Liar’s Poker, Steve Jobs Biography and few other books.
- Read a lot about cooking to defend my hobby.
- Read the 2011 yearbook and became aware of all the events of last one year.
- Read GK, India, constitution, history and what not.
- Read about finance, Ops, HR.
- Made notes of every single thing related to acads and my profile so that I could revise them later
Life is all about surprises
One day, I got a reply to my application to Futures First. I was shortlisted for the selection process, which was to be held around early Feb. I took a lot of help of ABCLIKS(Omkar) for this. I wasn’t expecting to convert this considering that I had no connection to trading or finance. I prepared for 2 days and prepared smartly. I had good idea of the selection process and I thought of a good story to tell in my interview. I adapted myself for the process. There were 30 people attending the off-campus drive and one was to be selected. One by one, I cleared each round and in the final round, I was pitched against a CA, who also had trading experience. It was a lost battle but I tried my best and life is full of surprises. I cracked it. I was elated. I had a backup. I felt free.
Life is all around GDPI and Converts
I was really confident after cracking FF. If I could handle their stress interviews, I could handle anything. There was no scope of mistakes. I had to be perfect in each part of the process. IIFT was very short PI and I was doubtful but I was waitlisted, which would eventually convert. Nitie was good and again I was waitlisted, which would eventually convert. MDI was awesome, it was a convert but their selection process is a joke and a vestigial event.
Now came the big day, IIM C. I was very nervous but I did well in essay and GD. It was the only GD which I couldn’t start and I didn’t have a positive feeling about it. I was the last one to be interviewed and what I got was mere 9 mins of panel’s time, when initially they were interviewing for 30 mins. PI was too random and it appeared that the process was a formality. I knew that I had lost it. I was devastated. After all the effort, what I wanted was a fair chance. My heart filled with hatred and I vowed that this reject will be Joka’s loss.
I had to give my best at IIM L and I did give. I was very happy with my essay, GD and PI performance. I feel proud of the way I handled the almost HR interview. Link : IIM L Experience ([2012-2014] IIM Lucknow Essay/GD/PI Experiences)
I knew that it was a convert but I had some doubts, thanks to my profile.
IIM results were out and I got rejected by IIM C. Reject by IIM L was a shock but after seeing the batch profile of IIM L present batch, I knew that converting it was impossible. I had little hope with the second list of IIM L.
I was all set to go to Nitie. FMS remained, but given the random GDPI process they have, I wasn’t hopeful. I attended FMS process and it was 5 mins long. Thanks to my high CAT score, I converted FMS. I was elated. I made it to to top-5 b-school. Nothing can define the feelings I had at that moment. I am not a girl so I didn’t cry.
Life is all about redemption
I went to FMS, took admission and was waiting for the classes to start. I was happy and I felt that even if I had IIM L convert, I would have joined FMS. Funny are the ways which the faith uses to test us. I convert IIM Lucknow in the second list. Again, came out the choicest of the words. With all the hoopla around IIM call criteria and converts, this is somehow the first reaction.
Slowly, I came back to reality. I had converted a big 4 IIM. One of the ABCL. All these years, the journey which I took was for this convert. The inception of the idea was an IIM tag. It might be too easy for someone else to choose FMS over IIM L, but it wasn’t for me. I am a materialistic person and I was hungry for recognition, for brand, for a campus life. I was indebted to my parents and my father wanted me to join IIM L. He had forgotten that something like me screwing JEE ever happened.
Life is all about uncertainity
Now, I have joined IIM L. Unsure of what the journey ahead has in store for me. Presently, I am really happy. Not feeling insecure about my future with my lady. Soon, we will be engaged. Life will have its own ups and downs but one thing is sure that never, never will I give up in life. Never will I stop fighting. Competition is fierce, it always was.
If where I was can become where I am, then so will it become where I want to be.
Story is all about a happy ending
I want to thank my parents. It was never possible without the values they gave me. I want to thank my brothers and sisters, who always guided me. I want to thank my lady for always being on my side, for supporting me, for coping up with my temperament and for making me dream again in life. It all belongs to you.
I also want to thank Pagalguy for providing me the forum where I made such good friends.
Finally, I want to thanks the readers who stuck with this story till here.
If I can do it then so can you, just adapt as per the situations. Keep things simple and be optimistic. Being a cry-baby never helps because then one would never become confident as one always has to cry about something more which could have been had. Take mocks seriously and you need to crack a mock just once to realize that you have it in you. Then just focus on it. CAT is all about confidence level. If someone is calm and confident then nothing is impossible.
Start working on your profile and your weak areas. High percentile never ensures a convert. One reject can be blamed on luck but multiple rejects are one’s own doing. Never ever give up. If you don’t have the regret of not giving your best shot then whatever may come, you will be confident on D-day and during GDPI.
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