My Experience with CAT / My MBA Dream - 2

My Experience with CAT / My MBA Dream - 1

I always had this dream : 'I start writing some nice stuff and post it in my blogs and people like it immensely that eventually results in more and more number of hits that drives me even more'. But I'm this lazy bugger who dont have time to spare for blogging but can shag for hours in my room watching porn. Damn it!!

Anyway I thought of sharing my CAT experience in my last post but couldn't conclude it as my concentration strayed to some other kindling issues of my mind.

Though I got enrolled in one and half year classroom program for CAT, I can say that the most sincere part of my preparation is for only 3 months (Aug - Oct). We used to have classes daily during this period. I better call them self study sessions than classes. Mock Tests were held every sunday and Full Length Tests (FLT's) on weekdays. We used to give more number of FLT's as we approached the D-Day almost everyday. My attendance in my engineering was not even 40%(dont be surprised because they dont mind it) but for CAT preparation I never missed a class.

In my initial mocks, I didn't know of any strategy and the time division to each section seemed extremely difficult. I usually started with my strong area Quant and usually tried to attempt every question and only after 90 mins into the exam I come back to my senses to know that I'm left with only one more hour to attempt 2 more sections. Then I'd proceed with the Data Interpretation section which I'm not so good at and finally attempt my weakest section - Language in the last 15 mins. This way I used to get good score in Quant, poor marks in DI and miserable marks in Language. Even this way my total score used to around 80-85 percentile.

Then one day, our Quant faculty took us a session on stragies and in the order that one should attempt the sections. Then he took us a simulated FLT in which he guided us during the exam to switch between the sections. He said that the ideal strategy would be:
"Give 40 mins to each section and allot the last 30 mins to the section(s) which one thinks he's not done well to clear the cut-off or to a particular section to maximise the score in case he is confident of clearing cut-off's in all sections. The order of attempting the sections should be : one should attempt his strongest section first, next the weakest section and finally the third section."
The confidence that one has cleared the cut-off in a particular section comes with experience as one writes more and more mocks. I thought I perfected this but CAT tricked me.

Later I used to spend equal time on all the sections and always managed a good score in quant, seldom cleared cut-off in DI and almost never cleared the Language section. I employed various strategies. Some of them were 1)first DI, then Lang and finally Quant 2)Quant, Lang, DI 3) Lang, DI, Quant etc. I always tried to attempt the Language section in the beginning or in the middle but never in the end. It is extremely difficult to read and comprehend the RC's in the latter part of the exam where the mind gets a little bit exhausted. I managed to clear the cut-off in Language section once in a while when I'd attempted this section at the beginning. So as I'm almost nearing the D-Day my strategy was to attempt the Language section first and next the DI section and finally Quant section as I was sure of clearing cut-off in Quant even if I remain with only 30 mins with this section. Suddenly my quant scores dropped a little and I was barely able to manage to clear cut-off in this section and I thought that my performance in the Lang and DI sections had an affect on how I'm going to fare in my Quant, which is my strongest section. And I thought this shouldn't be the way. So with just 3-4 FLT's remaining before the actual,real FLT, I changed my strategy. What I did was to attempt the Quant Section in the initial 30 mins and attempt as many as I can without wasting much time on any question, then attempt the Language section for 45-50 mins and spend the next 45 mins on DI and then come back to quant so that I can perform well in my strongest section. I almost worked well for me in those remaining 3-4 FLT's and I thought this is going to be my final strategy. I always managed to score 90+ percentile in mocks and often it shot up to 95,96 and 98 as well. The major contributor to my score was always the Quant section with always 98+ percentile with almost 100% accuracy. What my faculty said was: if one consistently scores 95+ percentile in mocks he'll be able to get 99+ in the actual CAT. Though I couldn't always managed to get 95+ percentile, I was confident that I can do my best to reach that coveted landmark. Of course , regardless of one's scores in mocks and FLT's one should always be positive minded and should be pumped with confidence while facing CAT. And so am I.

I went for a sightseeing the day prior to the exam and walked for many kilometers so that I get tired a lot and can have a sound sleep in the night. I had my strategy revisited in my mind on the night before the exam and had a sedative tablet for cold so that I can be cold free on the exam day morning as well as I can get a good sleep. I had this experience of not sleeping for the whole night before the JEE exam 03 and finally screwed up on the exam day. So I had a good sleep of 7hrs before the exam. After I went to the examination center, I waited patiently for half an hour before they allow us inside the examination halls and waited another impatient half an hour before we actually open the seal of our booklets. There was no change in the question paper pattern compared to last year. There were 25 q's in each section and each question carries 4 marks and -1 for every wrong answer. As usual I started off with the quant section. I thought of attempting very coolly without taking any pressure and wasting time on any question. But somehow there was this pressure like 'what if I cant solve this, 'Am I spending more time on this question? what if I dont solve this even after spending this much time'. These sort of questions were running in my mind and I couldn't attempt the quant section confidently and every question seemed to be tricky. Next I attempted the Language section as I'm already in the groove and so I didn't think of what if's in my mind and I attempted this section without much worry. And finally I came to the DI section and I was in state of worry after seeing the big tables in the first question. I didn't tried to choose the questions and attempted this section in a confused manner. And in the final minutes I tried some EU questions and some quant questions. Overall scenario : I attempted very less number of questions in Quant, DI (only 10 questions each in both these sections) and attempted 19 questions in Language where I absolutely cannot guarantee the accuracy thing as every question seems to have a more than one alternative correct. I was sure of my attempts in Quant, but I was worried a lot about DI where I attempted very few q's and not sure of some of them. In total I'd attempted 39 questions out of 75. I was totally relieved after coming out of the examination hall regardless of how I performed. Finally I gave my first CAT, could've been great if it was also my last but it's not the case.

Post CAT scenario and results in the next part of this series.