My CAT And GMAT Journey | CAT: 99.28, GMAT: 730

The Change: In the second semester my English teacher brought one of our seniors (he had already secured admission in ISB through their YLP route in 2011) in our class to give a lecture to students about MBA, colleges, admission process etc. That lecture arose my interest in macroeconomics, country’s economic policy, the social structure of our country, our politics. That lecture changed my goal in life. He introduced me to NSE certificates on financial markets and made me realize that to secure admission in a top MBA college, it's necessary to have good academics.

Inside change: From that day I decided that I will work as hard as I could in the time till 5^th semester to take my knowledge and GPA to such a level that even if I prepare for MBA exams in the last 2 semesters, my overall marks would remain unaffected. I studied day in and day out. I started following The Hindu, Economist and Economic Times religiously. Didn't understand even a single word in those initial days in the business pages but that lecture of 4/3/2012 kept me going. Scored a GPA of 9.88 in the 2nd semester and topped my department. Came back home in May but due to certain personal problems couldn't do anything in those 2 months. All that energy gained in that second semester was lost. Was back again to ground zero.

God helps: 3^rd semester started in August 2012. Then something happened which gave me my energy back to do something in life. I had a crush on a girl and decided to do everything (be it topping my college or securing admission in a good MBA college) to get noticed in her eyes. Realized that since I was not interested in any extracurriculars, the only way out was studies and my knowledge. I worked day in and day out on studies, kept only 2 friends, was always present either in my hostel room or in the library reading Hindu, IE, ET, Economist or my course books. I finally secured a GPA of 9.92 in 3^rd and 9.76 in 4^th semester and topped my college in the 2^nd year. Finally, she noticed me but I decided to keep going to be in her good books.

Came back after 4^th semester, enrolled for NSE’s program, cleared 13 modules became a level 5 certified market professional but more important than these certificates was the realization of how important knowing Macroeconomics and other knowledge is for my admission in any top b-school, since I had zero extracurricular and MBA colleges; ISB is known to give a lot of weightage to these activities. It was during those 2 months that I started writing whatever viewpoints I had about any article I read anywhere. I used to first read an article, write any facts in that article and my beliefs about that issue in a copy, and believe me those 6 copies I formed since my 2^nd year till the time of my final results were the sole reason for my selection in all the MBA colleges.

I kept on with my studies and writing articles during 5^th and 6^th semester. Didn't talk much to that girl but kept working extremely hard to be in her good books. It was during 6^th semester that videos and 1 essay had to be sent to ISB for 1^st round. Managed to get through the first hurdle due to good academic record. After the 6^th semester ended, I had to appear for GMAT and write 3 essays during those 2 months to be eligible for next round of ISB YLP. That is when reality struck me.

GMAT saga: Gave my first diagnostic test and scored a meagre 610/800. It made me realize I was zero in verbal (despite reading newspapers for a long time) and extremely slow in Quant. I had only one shot at GMAT and had the mammoth task of improving my score from 610. Again, with the face of that girl in mind (thinking I will have a good impression over her if I get into ISB), I started putting around 8-10 hours every day into GMAT preparation along with some non-fiction books to improve my verbal. Finished OG 14, OG 10, Quant review, Verbal Review, Manhattan set of 8 books, Kaplan GMAT 800, Powerscore CR bible and RC 99 by Aristotle along with few non-fiction books (The Goal, Breakout Nations, successful business essays by HBR). Gradually, my score improved from 610 to 640 to 650 to 670 to 690 to 700 to 720 and in the mock just before the day of the exam, I scored 740. I gave GMAT on 22/7/2014 and scored a respectable 730 (Q=50, V=39). In the AWA argument essay, my newspaper reading helped me. I read an article about Beijing Olympics nearly a year back and used it in my essay and scored 6/6 in AWA. Writing 3 essays also became easy with this mammoth verbal preparation and my knowledge gained from NSE certificates, The Hindu, Economist, EPW.in and ET.

ISB saga: Results came on 1 September and I was shortlisted for interview to be held on 17/9/2014. During those 16 days, I took leave from college and only revised those 3 fat notebooks (500 pages each) which I had prepared during the past 1 year. The interview went for about 25-30 minutes and I directed my interview towards macroeconomics and financial crash. When I came out of the room after 30 minutes, I knew I had nailed the interview. Results came on 31/10/2014 and I was selected for ISB YLP program. All this while my previous good GPA (of initial 3 years) helped me maintain good overall marks even though I had performed badly in 7^th sem due to preparation for ISB interview.

CAT 2014- Didn't write CAT as was happy with ISB that time and also got a job in an analytics firm. But slowly over a period of 3 months from November to January as I researched more and more about MBA and colleges, I came to understand the inherent weakness of a 1-year MBA and cons of ISB. That is when I decided to put my heart and soul in CAT 2015.

CAT 2015- I knew that this would be my first and final attempt at CAT, as I had to graduate as early as possible from a top 10 MBA college to have an early shot at a group A central government job (That’s my final aim). So, I started preparation in February. During this time, I was doing an internship and had a lot of free time so decided to utilize it to the fullest. Got time and BYJU’s material from a friend and finished all the basic material till May. During all this time, my GMAT verbal preparation helped a lot. Started mocks from June and scored well in mocks (attended close to 70 mocks).
These are my mock test scores:

TEST NAME	QA	DI	VA	OA	AIR
AIMCAT 1624	93.48	NA	98.8	98.52	109
AIMCAT 1623	83.82	NA	99.88	98.7	92
AIMCAT 1622	97.98	NA	99.82	99.79	20
AIMCAT 1621	89.59	NA	99.79	99.33	68
AIMCAT 1620	99.86	NA	99.37	99.91	12
AIMCAT 1619	99.63	NA	96.71	99.67	39
AIMCAT 1618	99.01	NA	99.64	99.84	25
AIMCAT 1617	NA	NA	N A	NA	NA
AIMCAT 1616	93.61	NA	96.11	97.42	398
AIMCAT 1615	96.6	NA	97.54	98.64	239
AIMCAT 1614	99.21	77.37	97.79	98.14	413
AIMCAT 1613	97.4	87.49	99.87	99.42	130
AIMCAT 1612	94.06	99.08	96.8	99.11	153
AIMCAT 1611	99.47	98.83	99.55	99.87	27
AIMCAT 1610	99.45	95.6	96.72	99.4	84
AIMCAT 1609	99.3	92.47	99.89	99.76	45
AIMCAT 1607	97.23	88.49	95.44	97.46	320
AIMCAT 1606	99.9	99.6	98.88	99.9(206)	In top 50
AIMCAT 1604	95.82	91.49	99.53	99.05	125
AIMCAT 1603	99.36	96.82	97.28	99.56	45
AIMCAT 1602	96.2	96.31	98.28	99.08	62
AIMCAT 1601	95	95	97	99	75
SAMCAT 1602	89/150	NA	71/150	160/300	NA
SAMCAT 1603	63/90	NA	56/90	119/180	NA
IMS PM1	92.96	NA	99.69	99	153
IMS PM2	98.13	NA	99.8	99.86	20
IMS PM3	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
IMS PM6	98.71	86.92	97.92	98.57	201
IMS PM7	96.04	98.29	NA	NA	NA
IMS PM8	99.23	82.77	92.84	97.77	326
IMS PM9	95.17	96.43	97.67	98.34	224
IMS PM10	90.98	98.8	90.11	97.47	245
IMS PM11	98.36	72.82	75.63	91.73	NA
IMS PM13	96.63	89.67	99.64	99.06	79
IMS PM14	97.61	86.86	95.84	97.29	240
IMS PM15	97.41	97.01	96.01	99	99
IMS 102	99.XX	NA	80.XX	97.52	NA
IMS 103	99.XX	NA	99.XX	99.77	NA
IMS 104	97.69	99.95	99.89	99.97	NA
IMS 105	98.66	96.07	99.73	99.92	NA
IMS 106	99.59	99.98	97.43	99.93	NA
CL PM1	88.67	NA	99.65	98.64	34
CL PM2	97.18	NA	93.52	98.01	46
CL PM3	90.26	NA	99.91	99.57	12
CL PM5	96.7	NA	84.4	95.1	200
CL PM10	87.54	95.57	99.5	98.56	92
CL PM12	94.27	86.51	99.54	98.31	92
CL PM14	94.54	89.59	87.77	94.5	300
CL PM16	98	98.6	97.6	99.65	20
CL PM18	90.7	94.7	97.7	98.07	96
CL PM20	87.4	89.7	99.2	97.26	115
CL PM22	NA	NA	98.42	NA	NA

As is evident, in my mock scores I could perform well in verbal in most of the mocks due to my GMAT verbal preparation.

Job and before CAT: My joining came in September and the workload increased. But since I had to only give mocks, it was not a problem for me. However, DI/LR was still a nightmare. Even in the months of October, I was not able to score well in DI even after continuous efforts. I decided to just clear the cutoff in DI and maximize score in other 2 sections. First came IIFT. It went well and even DI was good. Poor performance in Quant was compensated for by an excellent one in Verbal.

CAT, XAT and God helps again: CAT - First section was English and since I had performed well in most of the mocks, I was sure of doing well here. Did to the best of my capabilities. Then came DI. Was the toughest section of CAT. But since I was already very weak in DI, I just thought to clear the cutoff here and not get baffled by the difficulty of the paper. Quant was also normal. (Most important gyaan from this experience is that I was normal and not at all excited/nervous by the fact that its CAT. Just take it as another exam and you will nail it. I know people who scored well in mocks but failed in CAT due to this nervousness/excitement/pressure). XAT came and went, I didn't practice even a single question for DM as some literature on AWA in GMAT deals with DM. Again GMAT prep helped. CAT score came. And I believe I was the 2^nd person in the country to see the score through that source code method at 4 AM in morning. I had scored 93.xx in verbal (Gyaan- Never rely only on verbal. It can ditch you anytime. I scored well in mocks but was ditched by verbal in actual exam), 90.xx in di and 99.96 in quant. I was happy with lone IIMK call. And then my XAT results came. Here quant ditched me, but I scored well in verbal and DM here (Gyaan- All these exams are very unpredictable and take a drop from job or repetition of a year at your own risk. You might perform well in one section in 1 exam and flunk that same section in another exam).

Interviews:

Gave IIFTD, SP, IIMS, MDI, SSC, Bank PO, XL BM, XL HR, IITD, IIMK. Causes of selection/rejection (some gyaan again):

1)IIFTD-Directed the interview towards the country’s and world economy and answered everything.

2)SPJAIN-There were 2 girls in gi2. The topic was related to feminism and they stole all the limelight. Gyaan-If there are too many girls in your panel and topic is related to women/feminism then God help you. There is no other way you can get selected in such an interview with such a topic. All 3 boys in our group got rejected due to this thing.

3)IIM S- Related to GK and nailed it due to newspaper reading of 3 years.

4)MDI- A very general interview.

5)SSC- Again was based on GK and Indian constitution.

6)Bank- GK

7)XLHR- Ethics.

8)IIT D- No idea why I was rejected here.

9)XLBM- Spoke very less in GD and questions on academics led to rejection.

10)IIMK- It was the best interview I had. It was based on the Indian economy, world economy, Indian Politics, World politics, RBI, NSE modules, ethics, our banks and what-not. Was 30 minutes long. Selection in this interview was also a result of extensive newspaper reading of 3 years.

I still have crush on that girl, she even congratulated me on Facebook yesterday. But she still doesn't know about my feelings for her although she was the sole reason for me reading The Hindu and starting MBA preparation.

Random gyaan:

1) If possible try to do official guide for GMAT.It will improve your verbal skills a lot.

2) Join at least 2 test series-TIME and IMS are the best. No need for coaching.

3) Never ever get disheartened by low mock scores in the middle phase. Rough patch hits everyone.

4) Analysis after every mock test is the most important key to success.

5) If you are a normal person like me (GEM, no old IIT tag, no international/national competition winner, no extracurriculars) newspaper reading, NSE certificates and reading magazines like economist and EPW will help you nail interviews. I know few people with awesome profiles who could not clear ISB interviews but a normal person like me did due to awesome GK knowledge.

6) If you have ample time you can read novels to improve English. But if you are like me (I have read only 7 books in my lifetime), again GMAT books and The Hindu can help you a lot.

7) CAT and all other exams are very unpredictable. I know people who scored 99.8ish in one year and then repeat again for A,B,C but land in 98ish. So if you are above 99 percentile and have put your best efforts and had already landed in a top 10 college, it makes very less sense to repeat again. Note that u graduating from XL/L/K/FMS/SP at the age of 24 and being among top 50 students is much better than someone graduating from C at 28. You will have 5 extra years of post-MBA work experience than the person 2.

9) Most Important: Most important quality that is tested in any exam is how you will perform under pressure. So treat CAT as any other exam without pressure and you will come out with flying colours.

Disclaimer: All the above points are my personal opinions. They are not to hurt anyone’s beliefs.