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.