My Tryst with CAT 07

I was one of the 2.3 Lakh aspirants who aspired for CAT this year. I started my "so called" preparation way back in January 2007. I remember the ironic date 23rd January, 2007 when i landed up at IMS,Barakhambha Road & enrolled for the Catapult Course. They said that why not join the APEX batch as your basics are clear enough. I said "Are u going to give me any concession in fees". My first Mgmt lesson.

The classes began with a big boom. My batch was like a mixture of all the indegredients. There were people from IIT's, from DCE's, english gurus from St. Stephens & it also contained me : an avg. Jack. Our faculty was pretty decent. The Maths teacher was too great with his humour & The English faculty had a demanding accent. Well she was a goddess for me as i was a sucker at vocabulary.

The first gyaan i got in class was in Maths remember squares of numbers till 100 & in English remember 1000+words of vocab. The first task was easy enough while the second was next to impossible for me. I was dreaded with oxymorons & stuff like that which became a nightmare for me. As for my vocab it was still :P

With my CAT bandwagon going steadily it was time for summer break for a month due to Semester Exams & etc reasons. I was happy that i was free. When i returned my whole batch had dispersed. Some had shifted to Mumbai, sme joined other batches & i was like a loner.

So, i joined a batch which had a couple of friends from my class of B.Tech. Now the party had begun. The month early July. Every Saturday & Sunday proved to be party days for us. After the pathetic class on Geometry & lessons on Game Theory & all crap on The Alchemist & The Fountainhead i found some respite in the Coffee we had. Sometimes we headed out for a dinner after classes & we were really enjoyin life.

Suddenly, one day it was declared that the course is over. you will now be having your Mock CATS(SIMCATS). I was struck by grief. My moments of pleasure had disappeared. I was awe struck that what have i learnt during these last 5 months or so. But as they say "Once Bad, always Bad". So i thought let the tests come.

They began & i scored. I thought first time lucky. Got 97%ile in First Mock. The next mock a bit low. slowly & steadily the D-Day was approachin. It was 18th nov, 2007. The venue had been decided at Hari Nagar, New Delhi. But rite now mocks were my priority. Though i was scoring in bulk in DI/LR, avg. in QA(Maths) but i was outrite poor in VA. I never managed to score above 70%ile in VA in my entire mock span of 16 Mocks. & my lowest was 40%ile.

The date 11th Nov, 2007. Last Mock , Lst Week bfore CAT. I said Bring it on. I was bambbozled by the paper. It was a shocker. I got just 88%ile. My trust in me was on thin ice. But i never stopped. Enjoyed a few movies that week. One of them "CINDRELLA MAN". I suggest everyone to watch the movie to regain confidence if u think u hv lost it.

THE D-Day. It was a grand day. Since morning i had received tens of messages of Best of Luck wishes. After responding to them & hearing some advice from my parents, i left home for the battleground. On reaching there, my legs were shaking. I was having goosebumps. But on witnessing the other warriors there my fears of defeat disappeared. I just memorised the good ol' days of my life & entered the arena. The test began. The seals broken. Now it was time for my pencil to do the talking. I started with my strength LR/DI. I realised that something was wrong wid me. 45 mins gone & i have just marked 2 questions. I lost my nerve. I closed my eyes for a min & took some deep breaths. Took the Quant portion & one by one the questions were getting solved. Solved 13 questions in 40 mins. Now took to the most dreaded part of VA. I was actually finding VA easy today. Solved 16 questions in 40 mins. I still had another 25 mins with me. Now i started with the back portion of DI. Man! they were like a piece of cake. I was flying through the questions & managed to solve about 11 of them in those precious 25 mins. But i knew the effort wasn't enough. I had fallen short. I reached home & told my dad that Maths was easy, english doable & LR tough cookie. My dad pressed on the power button of the TV & news flashed in the QA was difficult, Eng above avg & LR damn easy. I was in tears & i knew that battleground was lost. But still, i felt that i might make it. By evening the solutions were pouring in. Thru various institutes my scores were like this:
QA: 37
DI: 27-32
VA: 19-34
OA: 83-103
The cut-offs were being projected as 100+ for a single call but i had lost out in DI bcoz the cut-offs were way over 40.

I had to forget it quickly as the next paper was line that was IIFT. I gave the paper & i knew of my fate instantly that i won't b clearin it. The results too confirmed this in the next 15 days itself.

On 8th Dec, 2007 was the date scheduled for JMET. I took to it keenly but the paper was too much for my might & i ended up getting a rank of 3246. Didn't apply to any IIT as it was futile.

The next week was SYMBIOSIS which i don't know why i had filled up. The paper was awesome & i thrashed it. The score which came about was 82.5. I filled up SCMHRD but damn didn't get a call. I was loosing heart.

On 30th Dec, 2007 the last paper of the year was NMAT(Narsee Monjee, Mumbai). Another soft chewy paper & i expected something from it. I got 87 marks & a rank of 1616. I was called for GD/PI but yesterday after the final results i wasnt able to convert it too.

Now came XAT. The toughest paper. It was a disaster for me. With Verbal screwing me again & i getting a meagre 92.97%ile.

After just 2 days was the D-Day for CAT's result. I reached home by 3 & sat on the computer. But it was too cumbersome as the servers had crashed. Then, i received a msg from a buddy who asked me to get my score via SMS. did it & got this:
QA: 97.50%ile Score: 37
DI: 82.22%ile Score: 32
VA: 99.61%ile Score: 44
OA: 98.98%ile Score : 113

I was overjoyed but the thing is i knew that i had lost out on the most prestigious clg i.e. IIMs. Till evening i was trying to witness my result on the net but to no avail. Then, suddenly i got the way thru. The website opened at a snail's pace. I was cursing my service provider that whether he had provided me a Broadband or a Dial-Up cxn. I entered the details & pressed Submit.
The next page had an enchanting moment. It stated that i had got a call from IIM-Indore. Though i missed out on the other 5 IIMs but i was overjoyed with this solitary call.

Now, it was time to prepare.