CAT
Reloaded
The first
CAT was an intestine-wrenching episode. Having recovered from the shock
of the abysmal performance in CAT, and having heard of the re-exam, I
made a firm resolve to make amends for the lack of preparation for the
first time around. I promised myself, that this time round, engineering
would not be an excuse for poor preparation. And this not like the peridoic,
post-semester exam self promise that we all made to ourselves, that we
will try and get 70% next time. This time, as far as CAT re-exam was concerned,
I was dead serious. I planned out my strategy, my time table, how many
papers I would give, when I would give them, how many individual section
tests I would take, everything to the last detail was planned out. My
partner-in-crime, my accomplice was Sonu. For the second leg, we teamed
up, to make a more formidable twosome than paes-bhupathi, to take on a
common foe, CAT.
Soon the semester exams got over. And I and Sonu launched ourselves into CAT. Solving papers on every alternate day, mutually mentoring each other, suggesting improvements in paper solving methods, as well as in preparation, we were displaying discipline a military commander would have been proud of. The performance kept getting better. We were on course to, as a lot of these coaching classes put, bell the CAT.
There were three major differences in the second round though. First was that I had already got my NMAT (entrance exam for NMIMS) marks. And I had performed sufficiently well to be confident that I would get through irrespective of my performance in the GD-PI. With that assurance, I knew that I would not be a struggling, unemployed, engineer after the final exams with nothing to do. That stemmed the flow of enzymes responsible for a high blood pressure and stress.
Secondly, I didn't care about my duties and responsibilities for engineering. I bunked college when I felt like. That raised a separate, nagging problem for me. None of my assignments were complete. I just cut myself from PCT from between the last 7th Sem exam and CAT. I had my commitments for the final Project, the huge Face Recognition endeavor we had undertaken. And I did not shun my responsibilities there. I hope Maurya, Ritesh and Megha would back me up here. There was no support forthcoming from the profs. at the college to make my life easier, considering that I was bunking for an academic cause. The forgiving trait was exhibited by several profs. in other colleges. But you can’t really expect it from people who haven’t even heard about CAT. Well, profs. be damned. I didn’t care what punishments my college would heap upon me, I just went ahead with my CAT preparation.
And lastly, I was better prepared to take failure in CAT. Not that I wasn't confident. Or my good performance in NMAT had rendered me complacent. But having given countless mock CATs I had fully understood the role of the factor called "luck" in CAT. Though small, luck does play a part in getting a successful result. Even with the best of preparation, one little thing goes wrong. and you get a 99 percentile instead of 99.30 and voila! no calls! There's hardly anything that can be done about that. Also, though I managed extremely superlative performances in the mock CATs I gave at home, the best that I could manage in the SIM CATS was a 97 percentile. Apparently, exam conditions did affect my performance adversely. I performed best when I was aloof, and indifferent about the outcome of an exam. That is the reason I performed well in NMAT. Not to say that I didn't "bother" about the outcome of NMAT, it was just that having prepared for CAT, I was very sure of clearing the minimum cut-off at NMAT with ease. That aloofness was beyond me in CAT. Because, even with the best of preparation, I could never be sure of the outcome, and the outcome certainly was critical to my career. Factoring in everything, I knew the statistical chances of not being successful in CAT were reasonably high to not expect any call. But then maybe this whole thinking was a subconscious ploy to force myself to be aloof. I am no psychoanalyst; I will never know how my mental processes worked then.
Eventually what happened during CAT, was a repeat of the first round. The pressure and stress level spiked after having kept them down till the last minute. Consequently, performance took a hit. By the end of 40 minutes, having solved only 30 english questions, I knew CAT was not happening. The remaining 90 minutes, my mind was multi-tasking between solving the paper at a snail-pace and convincing itself that it was ok, I did have NM in the bag, and I would have a good career even without the IIM stamp on my resume.
So, on 15th Feb, 2004, my battle with CAT ended. I lost. A wounded pride, but with a rearing spirit, I started looking forward to NMIMS. And the two years that followed, gave me a lot to thank GOD for. Two years after Parshavnath, as I write this from a cubicle in Wipro, (it’s lunch time, mind you!) I know I don’t have any regrets, neither about PCT, nor about not getting through an IIM. NMIMS did give me all that I could have asked for.
Soon the semester exams got over. And I and Sonu launched ourselves into CAT. Solving papers on every alternate day, mutually mentoring each other, suggesting improvements in paper solving methods, as well as in preparation, we were displaying discipline a military commander would have been proud of. The performance kept getting better. We were on course to, as a lot of these coaching classes put, bell the CAT.
There were three major differences in the second round though. First was that I had already got my NMAT (entrance exam for NMIMS) marks. And I had performed sufficiently well to be confident that I would get through irrespective of my performance in the GD-PI. With that assurance, I knew that I would not be a struggling, unemployed, engineer after the final exams with nothing to do. That stemmed the flow of enzymes responsible for a high blood pressure and stress.
Secondly, I didn't care about my duties and responsibilities for engineering. I bunked college when I felt like. That raised a separate, nagging problem for me. None of my assignments were complete. I just cut myself from PCT from between the last 7th Sem exam and CAT. I had my commitments for the final Project, the huge Face Recognition endeavor we had undertaken. And I did not shun my responsibilities there. I hope Maurya, Ritesh and Megha would back me up here. There was no support forthcoming from the profs. at the college to make my life easier, considering that I was bunking for an academic cause. The forgiving trait was exhibited by several profs. in other colleges. But you can’t really expect it from people who haven’t even heard about CAT. Well, profs. be damned. I didn’t care what punishments my college would heap upon me, I just went ahead with my CAT preparation.
And lastly, I was better prepared to take failure in CAT. Not that I wasn't confident. Or my good performance in NMAT had rendered me complacent. But having given countless mock CATs I had fully understood the role of the factor called "luck" in CAT. Though small, luck does play a part in getting a successful result. Even with the best of preparation, one little thing goes wrong. and you get a 99 percentile instead of 99.30 and voila! no calls! There's hardly anything that can be done about that. Also, though I managed extremely superlative performances in the mock CATs I gave at home, the best that I could manage in the SIM CATS was a 97 percentile. Apparently, exam conditions did affect my performance adversely. I performed best when I was aloof, and indifferent about the outcome of an exam. That is the reason I performed well in NMAT. Not to say that I didn't "bother" about the outcome of NMAT, it was just that having prepared for CAT, I was very sure of clearing the minimum cut-off at NMAT with ease. That aloofness was beyond me in CAT. Because, even with the best of preparation, I could never be sure of the outcome, and the outcome certainly was critical to my career. Factoring in everything, I knew the statistical chances of not being successful in CAT were reasonably high to not expect any call. But then maybe this whole thinking was a subconscious ploy to force myself to be aloof. I am no psychoanalyst; I will never know how my mental processes worked then.
Eventually what happened during CAT, was a repeat of the first round. The pressure and stress level spiked after having kept them down till the last minute. Consequently, performance took a hit. By the end of 40 minutes, having solved only 30 english questions, I knew CAT was not happening. The remaining 90 minutes, my mind was multi-tasking between solving the paper at a snail-pace and convincing itself that it was ok, I did have NM in the bag, and I would have a good career even without the IIM stamp on my resume.
So, on 15th Feb, 2004, my battle with CAT ended. I lost. A wounded pride, but with a rearing spirit, I started looking forward to NMIMS. And the two years that followed, gave me a lot to thank GOD for. Two years after Parshavnath, as I write this from a cubicle in Wipro, (it’s lunch time, mind you!) I know I don’t have any regrets, neither about PCT, nor about not getting through an IIM. NMIMS did give me all that I could have asked for.