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.