My journey to IIM Calcutta

When I was preparing for CAT and later gd/pi, I found the experiences people had shared very good. I could related myself to those articles and gauge the situation better.
So here I post a piece of my experience on How I made to IIM-C?

Common problems:
Killer QA Section - In my previous CAT attempt, I got single digit score in QA, a small score in DI, and a good score in VA. It was same in all mocks. I devoted a lot of time studying mathematics. I can mention that maths has been my favorite subject, I was very good in maths, YET here I was unable to do more than 6 QA qs in one paper. So what wrong ???? Call for an RCA - d Root Cause Analysis. And I came to a conclusion that out of 25 qs in a QA section of a paper, I knew or I could easily solve 15-18 qs. But due to poor selection, I always hit the difficult q and wasted lot of time on it, just to realize midway that I should move to next q, which again by my wrong algo would be one of challenger qs.

Coaching - to do or not to do - As I started to prepare for CAT 2008, I faced this dilema. Surely poor score in QA was eating me. And with coaching, one always expects to become 'regular' in studies. I say thats crap. Another RCA - A person who wouldn't study regulary, would not attend classes regularly. Thats my belief. That said, I think coaching classes are good if one has been little weak in studies in schooltime or is totally out of touch. Take a test, read these terms - probablity, permutations, time distance, rational number, pi, tangents, altitude - If majority of these terms are alien to you, go for coaching, if you remember these, but not fully, brush up your basics and retake the test. You decide, if you still face the dilema. Well, I didn't and now I was on my own.

How to attempt simCATs - I am an IMS fan, I love their simCATs and the analysis section. Its awesome. But, just going for a test, devote 150 mins and come back to sqaure one 'is to be avoided'. The term here is 'strategy'. Choose your strategy for a mock, and see how it goes. Well I tested my sequence of attempting 3 sections, time management - round robin or time slicing or random and lot more. You'll see which suits you best - the idea here is to keep your brain active, positive and not to stress out. Also, I prepared a maths section well for one week and did all qs on that in my weekend simCAT. This helped me boost my confidence in those sections. But, beware, the week I prepared trigno, there was 'zero' qs in next simCAT on trigno :-) So, prepare most of the topics, yet be best in your fav.

Before CAT/on CAT day - Just relax. You have studied well. That knowledge is still present in your memory. Now, you just need to believe in yourself. C'mon you know yourself, and you know you get nervous in real test and go blank for a moment - what to do ?? Listen this, on my CAT day, there was this wedding, and loud music was playing right next to my CAT center. For first 20 minutes, I could not read properly and got a headache. BUT, that was my day, I wouldn't let anyone get that. So remember what you know - Pray once and FOCUS. You will realize 2 hours have ended only when the bell goes out. Till then, its you and your paper. Nothing else - not even your thoughts to crack it or not to, or any any thing. Just you, those qs, a nice selection, and darkening the right circle.

GD/PI - Well well, I confess, this is harder test than the written one. You see the profiles of candidates, their long list of extra-curr and then back at your small oneliner :-). Doesn't matter. Then you see that people know much more about eco, pol, fin n blah and you realize you recently came to know what inflation is. Doesn't matter. You see people from IIT, DCE and blah. Then you look at the unknown college of your small city in your profile sheet. Doesn't matter. Even on GD/PI days, you see people giving fundas about different colleges, and you realize you only know IIMs. Doesn't matter. NOW, what matters ??? Answer is simple, its 'Power of YOU'. You are unique, you are passionate, you can visualize yourself in IIM class performing best, you can visualize yourself at a managers seat making effective well informed decisions - This all matters. Make yourself aware of 'you within'. And be confident, just show them 'that you', the day is yours !

There is lot more I can write. But I leave that for you to do one year from now !!