AIMCATs 1115, 1114, 1113, 1111

Was on a break so could not post the details of 4 of the AIMCATS that have passed since I last posted my score of AIMCAT 1112 (which was basically 1116 but the name was changed due to a typographical error by someone at TIME and hence the confusion).

I'm not going into individual analysis at this point but just posting a snapshot of the last few weeks.

AIMCAT........VERBAL........QUANT........LR/DI........Overall

1115.................99.35.................86.88................68.xx............ 96.25

1114.................89.98...............55.8(Sigh).........54.3(Sigh)......74.81 (Deplorable performance)

1113.................99.63................64.9....................93.8................97.57

1111..................98.16...............75.xx.................68.xx...............90.7

One reason for not going into individual analysis is that nothing much has changed. It is pretty clear that only Verbal is doing the trick for me and I still have miles to go in both QA and LR/DI. I'm taking a different approach now and limiting myself to 2-3 sectional tests in both of them per day (from C.Ls Test Gym) rather than trying to solve the entire study material. Planning to switch to one mock test per day by the end of this month.

Have to do something quickly to deal with my apparent revulsion for the quant section particularly. Whether I'm able to do it or not is another thing but one promise I definitely intend to keep : " I'm going to eat, sleep and drink quant from this moment till the time the last entrance examination is over. "

The ill effects of procrastination..!!

In all the hullabaloo over AIMCATs and completing the application formalities of certain "Early Bird" institutes like IIFT, IRMA etc, I almost forgot about an important test that I had enrolled for nearly a month ago. I'm talking about NSE's Certification in Financial Markets or NCFM as it is commonly known as. It is an online testing and certification programme introduced by the National Stock Exchange over a decade ago to test the practical knowledge and skills required to operate the financial markets.

I have initially registered for two modules - Commercial Banking in India & Currency Derivatives. This whole idea has been filled with hiccups right from the start where there was payment trouble initially (The amount was debited from my card but was not credited to NSEs A/C). After sorting this out, I did not get my study material in the duration prescribed by the NSE (7 days for the curious lot), in fact I did not get it for 15 days from the time of payment. After hours of incessant calling, I got to know that NSE had dispatched the material well on schedule and the fault was with the courier company which said that it could not deliver the material for 3-4 days because of, believe it or not, rain. Now you may get the idea that there was some kind of a deluge in my city of residence, but the truth is the rains the courier guy was talking about was just few odd drizzles. Sigh! Except for 2-3 odd courier companies, the Indian Postal Services are much more timely and accurate guys.

Anyways. Got my material around 17th and in my usual procrastinating way, stacked it up to study later and forgot all about it until today when I heard the word "NSE" from someone. I have the exam on 4th for the Commercial Banking module and am skimming the study material as I'm writing this.

The material is to the point and has oodles of information on the banking industry. A must read for everyone who is from the Non Banking & Finance background but is interested in the same. Great thing is, the material is available free of cost at NSE's website and is open to everyone (no registration required even).

Still no consistency........

Okay, I admit. Consistency is not my niche right now. I had written in an earlier post how my preparation was progressing in a "One step forward, two steps back " mode. Well, AIMCATs 1117 and 1112 were no different.

AIMCAT 1117 :

Same old story. 98.xx percentile in Verbal, couldn't quite manage to clear the cut off in either Quant or L&DI. Although results don't show it as yet, I believe I am making some progress in both Quant as well as L&DI. The answers that I mark now are more precise than the random guesses until a few months ago. A lot still needs to be done and I have a specific plan of action to increase my attempts to a comfortable threshold level in the next one month.

AIMCAT 1112 :

One of the key changes in this one was the use of 4 different sets and normalization by TIME. Normalization is the way of equating scores across papers of different difficulty levels (i won't get into the details primarily because I don't have a clue and also because I think the topic has been expatiated enough after the CAT 2009 fiasco).

Just when I thought that I had seen it all, in came a stinger in the name of AIMCAT 1112. Consistent with my "One step forward, two steps back " theory, the percentile had to drop to the 70's and it did. But the overall percentile of 73.xx was not the end of humiliation. the icing on the cake was the 61.xx percentile in Verbal section. (you may recall that i got 98.xx and 99 in two of the previous three AIMCATs.) Couldn't clear the cutoff in any of the three sections. Still praying for some consistency [ hopefully in the upper 90's :) ]

Down but not yet out..!!

PS : Had a decent AIMCAT 1115 scoring 79 in a 60 question (+3, -1 marking scheme) paper. Hoping for another 90 + with this score. Results are not yet out.

Ever heard of Early bird? Now face the EARLY CAT..!!

Rumour has it that CAT will be held from 27th October to 17th November this year. This is a good 2-3 weeks earlier than the usual third Sunday of November. Notification will be out on 30th August and I expect a mad rush for booking slots towards the end of the window, i.e. near 17th November (I intend on joining the mob on this one :D ). While one week or ten days may not make or break 23+ years of aptitude building and 1+ year of assiduous preparation, there are other factors to be considered while choosing the slot.

• CAT 2009 was marred with technical glitches especially in the opening few days of the test taking window. Although I have full confidence that such a thing will not be repeated, why take a chance?
• Once the examination season starts, I prefer it to be continuous rather than discrete. If one goes for an early slot, there would be a month gap between CAT and the next scheduled exam (read IIFT) on 28th November. While this may suit some people and give them more preparation time, I would definitely prefer to complete the entire season in a single adrenaline rush rather than short bursts (Let’s say I’m a momentum driven guy).

One interesting thing is that the IIMs have doubled the test taking window from 10 to 20 days. This will have a huge impact on the overall difficulty level of the question paper. The difficulty level of the paper is expected to come down a notch because it is extremely difficult to prepare around 60 tests on a difficult pattern (around 3000 difficult questions which is a gargantuan task indeed). Something for the underdogs like me to cheer about. This is my personal view, and of some experts from some leading coaching institutes but heck, with Prometric coming up with normalization techniques and all (and keeping them under wraps, even from the RTI), who knows?

Other management institutes like IIFT have come out with their forms. The last updated status of some Examinations I have goes like this (not all are confirmed dates):

CAT : October 27th – November 17th
IIFT : November 28th
SNAP : 19th December
FMS : 5th December
XAT : 2nd January 2011

Time to buckle up the seat belt and press the accelerator.

One Step Forward TwO sTepS bAcK - 1119 and 1118

Ever seen a drunkard stuttering and sauntering towards his destination? This is exactly how I feel regarding my CAT preparation. Its like every time I take a step in the forward direction, something drags me two steps backward.

AIMCAT 1119 :

Back at the right track with 96.6 percentile in this one (after a disappointing AIMCAT 1120). It was a respite from the tough questions in 1120. Verbal section (moi stronghold) had 25 questions while the other two had 20 each.

Scored 99.67 percentile in verbal, which is my highest so far in CAT / Mock CATs.
Missed the cut off in QA and LRDI by 1 and 5 marks respectively though. Still working on that.

AIMCAT 1118 :

Saturday, the 17th of July 2010 was a day which I was pretty confident about. After a good performance in AIMCAT 1119 and about 10-12 days of more solid preparation than I had done before, I was pretty sure of my chances.


"NOT SO FAST you moron!" said the people at Triumphant Institute of Management Education.


Next came 2 hours and 15 minutes of unimaginable torture. AIMCAT 1118 was a massacre of a scale that I had never experienced before. It seems as if the paper setters knew what all topics I had left out in my preparation and desperately wanted me to pay for that. At one point of time, even the monitor stuttered and went blank, with just one green light blinking lazily as if mocking my despair. Even the verbal section which has traditionally been my forte seemed to have deserted me.


The result was a paltry 54 marks out of 240, a mere 22.5 percent (wayyy under the 50 percent mark I have set for myself before AIMCAT 1110). Expecting around 75 to 80 percentile in this one. :(

I just hope that this is the nadir and that there are no more surprises along the way. Consistency will help a long way in boosting my morale right now.

Waiting for Divine Intervention????

Off Topic but I couldn't help but quote these lines from Eldest (Author- Christopher Paolini) :


" Ask yourself this : If Gods exist, have they been good custodians? Death, sickness, poverty, tyranny and countless other miseries stalk the land. If this is the work of divine beings, then they are to be rebelled against and overthrown, not given obeisance, obedience and reverence.... "


"It seems a cold world without something....more."


"On the contrary, it is a better world. A place where we are responsible for our own actions, where we can be kind to one another because we want to and because it is the right thing to do instead of being frightened into behaving by the threat of divine punishment....."


Something to think about......

AIMCAT 1120 - Moi Mockery..!!

Here comes the first shocker of the season. After securing 97 percentile in the first AIMCAT, I was pretty sure that I was on the right track. It seems that the paper setters at time had other thoughts in mind which brought be right back down to earth. It seems a mouse and monitor work better for me than a paper and pencil. AIMCAT 1120 was a Paper and pencil based test which was free and open to anyone interested (TIME usually comes out with these once or twice a year to offer performance based scholarships and to increase the No. of registered test takers).

Analysis :

Verbal Ability: Traditionally, the section in which I should have done well. It had 11 VA and 9 RC questions. RCs were easy to comprehend and VA section too had some sitters. Just managed to hold my head above the cutoff line but Accuracy in VA is one of the main things that I plan to focus on in the coming AIMCATS.

Quantitative Ability (My Achilles-heel): I have been putting a lot of effort in this section and am pleased to see that pay off. Managed to clear the cutoff this time (had missed it last time by 4 marks). Accuracy is good enough though lot of work still needs to be done on the grey areas like P&C, Probability, Quadratic Equations, coordinate geometry etc. The difficulty level of this section was easy enough where 10 – 12 questions could have been easily attempted.

L&DI: Only one word comes to my mind – Carnage. It was my worst performance till date in any section of any exam. By far the most difficult section of the test, data sets were complicated and tricky. Only a good accuracy would have seen an average student going above the cut off score. Wrong guesses to some confusing questions meant my accuracy plummet below 45 and my score to a reprehensible all time low of 8 marks.

Overall, the test was patterned on CAT 2009 with 20 questions in each section. Barring L&DI, all other sections were easy enough. A good approach would have been selecting fewer questions to crack and achieving a good accuracy within those questions.

AIMCAT 1119 is two days away. Haven’t been able to study anything this entire week due to some factors. Hope it goes well.

Everything of MBA

About 2-3 months ago, while browsing the Web, I came across a website named “PaGalGuY – Everything of MBA”. A whacky name and a bold tagline was all that was needed to entice my curiosity buds so I began surfing. More I surfed, the clearer it became to me that the bold tagline was no gag – It INDEED had EVERYTHING imaginable related to MBA.

Started in 2002, Pagalguy is India’s biggest MBA preparatory resource website. There are thousands of forums in which you can discuss anything and everything related to MBA. What is so special about this place that makes it so diverse from other preparatory resources websites?

First and foremost is the gargantuan size of its registered users. Some 7,00,000 users use this site in order to participate in more than 2 million + discussion posts.

Second USP of Pagalguy is the sheer quality of peers and seniors on board. A great chunk of Current students from almost all major B-schools are Pagalguy users that guide and help aspirants on any topic from the quality of food served to the admission criteria, placements, courses, whatever. You just shoot the question and more often than not, it will be replied enthusiastically by a student enrolled at that particular institute. Information secured in this way is more authentic and elaborate than through advertisements or college websites.

If someone is looking for serious competition during the preparation phase, and by serious I mean SERIOUS, Paagalguy is the place to be. It opens our conscience to an elite group of applicants who are invariably at the top of the table during the Mock CATs. Interacting with these people somehow brings a more competitive feel than say, reading the score of a topper on your result screen (at least it brings out a more competitive trait in my case).

Forums and Threads are easily accessible and information content available is top notch. A major task in keeping the threads clean and informative is performed by the Moderators (Pagalguy users with a helping nature and loads & loads of free time.... just kidding :P) who are somehow, not thanked enough. Kudos to you - You Guys Rock .

All this information is transmitted efficiently, believe it or not, with a Laid Back and relaxed attitude. People actually take time out to help their competitors with their queries, trials & tribulations, aspirations, dejections, etc – which is the real spirit of Pagalguy. The atmosphere is usually fun and browsing the site all day long is a pleasurable experience.

Here’s a link to the PaGalGuY Song : Sung by Sarang Tatimatla and music by Apurv Pandit. Great Work. :D

The PaGalGuY Song

Analysis & Feedback - 1121

The much awaited result for my first AIMCAT of this season is finally out and it is a mixed bag. It is a decent effort with plenty of grey areas as well. A snapshot of my performance is shown above.

ANALYSIS

L&DI: This section looked startling with mammoth data sets. A casual glance could easily have frightened off many test takers. However, on a closer look, the questions were of moderate difficulty level with some demanding serious consideration details. Also there was a set on Cubes which required heavy 3D visualization (Mechanical Engineers wouldn’t be complaining :) ). I was pleasantly surprised at my result in this section as this has never been my forte. Managed to clear the cut-off by a meager 3 marks but its still an improvement from my previous attempts.

Verbal Ability : My strongest section. Traditionally, my overall results in the AIMCATS or Actual CATs have been directly proportional to how well I have done in this section. This AIMCAT was no different with a major chunk of my marks scored of this section. Accuracy was a grey area in which I will have to improve in order to stabilize my scores in this level (My Scores in this section have varied from 89 to 99 in the previous seasons). Questions involving the conclusion of sentences were the weakest link with 4 incorrect attempts out of 5.

Quantitative Ability : It was a decent mix of easy as well as difficult questions but the overall difficulty level was more on the Easy side. This has been my weak point ever since I started my CAT preparations and I have been working tirelessly to achieve a turnaround. Missed the Cut off by 4 Marks but still I’m quite pleased with the Accuracy of 87.5. Still much preparation is required before I start scoring high consistently.

Overall, the Paper was of Moderate difficulty level and 10-12 marks could easily have been scored merely by achieving a better accuracy ad doing a better selection of which questions to attempt and which ones to leave! Pretty pleased as this is my highest ever AIMCAT percentile (2008 season included) though the no. of test takers was low at around 14k. I can expect the same effort to fetch lower percentile three or four months down the line when the number as well as the seriousness of the test takers increases.

In the words of Robert Frost

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
Miles to go before I sleep. ’’

Blast From the Past - AIMCAT 1121..!!

It is a perplexing feeling when you work very hard not to repeat a certain chapter of your life under any circumstances but the exact thing occurs – like a ghost resurrected from the past. This happened to me on the 13^th of June 2010 at 2015 hrs when I finished writing my first AIMCAT of this season. I feel a little brief of my past CAT experiences is required before moving forward:

• CAT 2008: Final year of college, studies were restricted to appearing for the All India mock CATs – No concept building and No Test reviewing whatsoever. Got 94.18 percentile with 98.99 in verbal, 60 odd in DI/LR and 54 in Quant..!!
• CAT 2009: Was settled in a job and had made up my mind towards CAT 2010 but appeared just for the sake of familiarizing myself with the CBT (Computer based test). No concept building and No Test series even this time. Got 88 percentile with 89 in Verbal, 80 odd in quant 61 in DI..!!

It is quiet clear from the above facts that whatever percentile I was getting was hugely due to the verbal section. This sort of a test strategy with majority of marks scored in just one section was in no way going to get me closer to the hallowed halls of the I.I.Ms. So I made it a point when I started studying for this year’s CAT that I was going to concentrate mainly on Quant and DI/LR and turn my weaknesses to my strengths. The process is ongoing and I now dedicate much more time to these two sections while preparation for “Verbal” section is restricted to reading novels or newspapers etc.

In the first mock CAT for this season : TIME’s AIMCAT – 1121, I noticed the first omens when I saw the Instructions: 30 Questions in Verbal as opposed to 20 each in Quant and LR/DI – Similar to quant 2008 where English had more weightage than others. The end result of the examination was:

No of Questions: 70

Attempted: 49

Correct: 35

Wrong: 14

Score: 91

The score is decent but the problem that I am hell bent on destroying is showing no signs of abating for now. Majority of marks scored were from the Verbal section which beats the purpose I’m trying to achieve. Anyways I have doubled my efforts, for if for some reason I do not do well in the actual CAT, it should not be because of lack of tenacity. I’ve learned that life is about Aspirations Vs Dejections. It is like a spring balance between the two and the direction our life takes is the direction we choose to pursue in our minds – Whether we aspire enough for achieving certain goals in our life that we overcome each and every dejection that comes our way or do we let dejections rule us so much that we give up our aspirations. “It is not how hard you fall but how quickly you bounce back that matters’’.

Gearing up for the next AIMCAT.

Foundations....

It’s been quiet a while since I last wrote something here. The rationale for this is the fact that I’ve been on the move quiet a lot during the entire last month. Loads of things have happened since my last update. For starters, I received the much awaited study material (A carton full of books – divided in 3 packages) from Career Launcher. The Test Series from all the major education service providers is underway and I have enrolled in TIME’s All India Mock Cat Series – The first of the 19 AIMCATS is on 13th June 12, 2010 and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that one. A good start to the Test Series will go a long way in boosting my confidence for the Entire term of 20 tests: 19 being mock CAT’s and 20th one the Holy Grail.


I’ve Begun my preparations and slowly trying to gather momentum as it has been around 10-12 months since I last picked up a book (fiction excluded). The one section that has really got me apprehensive is the Quantitative Aptitude section (Yeah…. I know I’m an Engineer..!!). One Topic that has really haunted me is the Number System which is used directly or indirectly in most of the CAT questions. I’ve given myself till 20th June to Master the Concepts and solve as much conceptual questions as I can manage. Conceptual learning will be from 4 sources:

• Study material - TIME
• Study Material – Career Launcher
• Quantitative Aptitude – Arun Sharma
• PagaLguy – The Everything of MBA

The fourth one is imperative for any serious MBA enthusiast. The quality of peers and seniors along with the information one finds there is simply priceless. But more on Pagalguy in a later post (I intend to dedicate an entire one to this wonderful website). Coming back to Number Systems, following are the topics I hope to cover over the next one week:

1. Types of Numbers
2. Squares, Cubes, Square Roots, Cube Roots
3. Prime Nos.
4. LCM and GCD
5. Sum of Factors of any Given Number
6. No. of factors of a given factor
7. Even and Odd Factors
8. No. of zeroes in an expression and a Factorial value
9. The Concept of Co-Prime or Relatively prime numbers
10. Remainder theorem
11. Cyclicity or units Digit of any Expression
12. Successive Division.

On a completely different note, the FIFA World Cup 2010 is in progress and I sincerely hope that Spain lift the trophy this time. Go Torres….!! :)

From the Horse's Mouth..!!

Hey Guys..!! I found an interesting blog written by a student of IIM-A. Here’s the link :

http://sleepless-in-iima.blogspot.com/

Although its a bit old, I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in uncovering the internal workings of the institution and is a Definite MUST READ for those who think life would be all fun and frolic once they are inside the gates of the renowned institute. While we are at it, I would like to suggest a couple of books or individuals whose curiosity is not satisfied by just this one blog.

1. “Everything you Desire” by Harshdeep Jolly
2. “Second Degree” by Prashant John

Both the books are first person narrations of the experiences that the authors went through at their tenure in IIM B & IIM A respectively. Although a bit on the boring side, the books bring out the emotions, aspirations, trials and tribulations that a person has to go through inside the halls of the hallowed institutes. Won’t reveal much though…. It is up to you to read and satisfy your inquisitiveness for there is no greater pleasure than swimming in the depths of an unfinished book along with a mug of cappuccino. Happy Reading..!!

Plethora of Options..!!

One of the first decisions that one has to make after he/she decides to appear in CAT is the choice of a good coaching Institute. With over hyped B- school placement figures and the current recession scenario, it seems like almost every eligible person in this country wants to go for an MBA. One segment that makes merry of this kind of climate is the Education Service Providers (more wanna be’s >> More training required >> More Training = More Profit). Millions of coaching centers have sprung up for Management Entrance Exams right in front of my eyes in the past 5-6 years. The marketing strategies and Success Ratio figures that are advertised would surely put the executives of many well known blue chip companies to shame.

Well for me the choice was always between TIME, Career Launcher and IMS, i.e. the Big Three of Management Education Service Providers. I have always been biased towards TIME frankly because it has the best Mock Test series in India. The questions asked in Time’s AIMCATs are shockingly close in difficulty level to the real CAT(Opinions may vary on this..!!) . Having said that, the past track record of both IMS and Career Launcher is as good as that of TIME or any other Management Entrance Training Provider in this country.

I am not in the mood for classroom programs because of the obvious reasons of scarcity of time (moi being a working entity). Hence, I’ve opted for Career Launcher’s Study material and a couple of other modules (Test Gym and CAT Scan…. which translates to numerous Topic Wise Tests and Previous years CAT papers and strategies respectively). This is an added bonus since I already have the study material from TIME (being an ex time student... a year and a half back ….Final year of College). The test series does not start for another month so I have decided to push that to the back of my mind for the time being…. Although I have a nagging suspicion past experience has already influenced my grey cells on a decision.

Humble Beginnings........

As the title of this blog suggests, it is about a CAT story…. For the unacquainted and the inquisitive few, the Common Admission Test (or CAT as it is popularly known as) is an entrance exam to get into the elite management institutes (read IIMs) of our country. So what is the fuss about this exam? Well only the fact that more than 2, 50,000 students sweat it out every year to fight for 1400 odd seats. Statistically speaking, it is much easier to get admitted into any of the world renowned institutes like Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford etc than to reserve your seat at the hallowed halls of the IIMs (The selection rate is a dreadfully low 0.5 % of the total applicants.)

The journey from beginning your preparation to entering the Mecca of Management Education (in India at least) is a daunting one. Although it depends upon the individual, it typically takes one year of perspiration and resolute perseverance to even consider the prospect of making it (exceptions are always present…. Some people are born with it and some do not have what it takes..however hard they try..!!)

Well it’s been about one week since I really decided to embark on this journey. Having appeared for this exam twice before I have a fair idea on the ecstasy and distress that lie ahead. It is going to be one crazy ride till November 2010 (Till March 2011 if I crack it) filled with Highs and lows, anxiety, stress, relief, delight, pressure and a whole lot of other emotions. This is the Third time that I’d be attempting this examination. With decent scores in the first two endeavors, I believe it is high time to put the foot down for one final stroke of oomph and cross the finishing line this time. I had promised myself to document each and every twist & turn as I trotted on the road towards my goal. This blog is a fulfillment of that promise. Future posts will track my life as it unfolds. Whether or not I reach my target will depend entirely on the effort made in the next few months. I sure as hell, do not want to be found lacking..!!