Lessons on the road to B-School – Part I

First things first, a clarification: this isn’t an attempt at a “how-to” guide for MBA preparation – no one, least of all yours truly, would be in a position to come up with such a generic tips-n-tricks handbook. Neither is this intended to be some sort of inspirational “gyaan” – there are plenty of been-there-cracked-that seniors, instructors, well-wishers and more experienced CAT-takers who could be applied to for that. This is just a simple and honest chronicle of the months and weeks before and after I took CAT, appeared for interviews at four b-schools and finally managed to secure an admission. Encapsulating the entire experience and all that I’ve learnt from it, in just a few paragraphs isn’t easy – but given that I wouldn’t want this piece to substitute for sleeping pills, I’ve made a conscious attempt at space control. Part 1 deals with the first half of the battle – the written exam: CAT. The second part will be dedicated to the next round – the group discussions and interviews. CAT or GRE? This is unarguably the number one dilemma most third year engineering students are faced with. Take GRE, stay tech-focused and hop continents; or take CAT, wave pleasant good byes to engineering and jostle for space with a billion others right here in India. Decisions are often governed by many factors other than just interest and aptitude – the latest IIMA foreign salary reported in the previous day’s newspaper, the US software job situation, the MS funding scenario, the ‘is MBA better with work-ex?’ argument and so on. Happily for me, the choice wasn’t all that difficult – after the "phenomenal" amount I’d been learning in college from the most "outstanding" faculty in a "top-of-the-line" engineering institute, I could think of nothing but … taking CAT! :-) Getting off the blocks … “Six months of preparation, two hours a day, is sufficient to crack CAT”. Needless to say, this wisdom came from a leading coaching class. I wouldn’t say they’re wrong, but I’m uncomfortable with the generality of the claim. One size never fits all – there are many individual factors which should determine how much time you need to put in for CAT. I always had it at the back of my mind that CAT and my seventh semester exams would most likely clash, and felt more comfortable budgeting more than the conventional six to eight months. When the great Mumbai University announced two final semester exams on either side of November 21st (CAT day), I felt relieved I’d given myself the extra time allowance. Lesson: 150,000 people may take CAT every year … but there’s no need to match your preparation schedule with the other 149,999! Down to the Nuts and Bolts Goal setting, self discovery, visualizing yourself treading the corridors of Blah Blah Institute of Management … the first few weeks at any coaching class is likely to be full of such “inspirational” sessions. I’m sure these pedagogical techniques have some sound theoretical foundation, but personally I found them to be a waste. To a certain extent succeeding in CAT is about self belief and motivation, but isn’t that the case with everything? It’s far more important I’d say to get cracking with the nuts and bolts of the exam: Quant, English and DI. Lesson: Cut through the hype and hoopla surrounding CAT. You don’t have to be a Zig Ziglar to achieve a decent score (and by the way, neither do you need to be a Shakuntala Devi!) QED: Quant, English and DI! The first rule of CAT preparation, I was told, is that all sections of the test are equally important. There’s nothing to be achieved by cracking two sections and goofing up one. There is perhaps enough evidence now to cast serious doubts on the credibility of this conventional wisdom, but nevertheless it’s a useful thumb rule to follow. I didn’t find anything a huge struggle but wasn’t particularly extraordinary in any one section either (even my final result pretty much indicated that!). Quantitative Ability: They say all engineers are good at Maths. I’d like to stick my neck out and say that “they” have got it wrong! At most, there’s no discomfort with numbers because of constant exposure to them … but an engineering degree certainly doesn’t inculcate any special numerical powers. My personal quant barometer fluctuated through my preparation quite dramatically – initially I found the going good, then I hit rock bottom once the practice tests began, only to recover towards the end (and thankfully on d-day!) English/Verbal Ability: Probably my most comfortable area … the only “advice” I’d give anybody is: READ. I’m more of a newspapers and magazines guy, but I made an effort to lay my hands on different types of books. Apart from being the best way to tackle RCs, I think reading is a great vocab builder – any day preferable to mugging enormous word lists. Data Interpretation: DI is perhaps the trickiest section of CAT. Unlike the other two sections, no one generally ranks DI as their biggest strength or biggest weakness. I was never particularly fond of the number crunching caselets, so I looked to score in the analytical reasoning questions. As it happened, CAT eventually delivered something which fell somewhere in between these two categories and left me quite stumped! Lesson: Don’t assume you are good or bad at anything. Solid practice is far more important than believing your aptitude or background will see you through. The Mock Tests Practice tests are undoubtedly the most important phase of CAT preparation. They give you a feel of the real thing and highlight weak areas much faster than any amount of non-test practice can do. The first thing the mocks did for me is show me the Quant mirror – cut offs of 10 marks out of 50 were hard to achieve and this was demoralizing to say the very least. All I can say is that I’m glad I persevered even after those pretty severe setbacks. But it’s not just about hanging in there – it’s about improving! That’s where the importance of analyzing tests once they’re done cannot be over-emphasized. Most analyses lead to the irritating, but at the same time encouraging, observation that more than a dozen easy questions exist in every section but have missed one’s kind attention. Perfecting the art of sitter spotting is the key, I would say, to scoring well in CAT. Lesson: Use the mocks wisely. Use them to discover strengths and weaknesses and to formulate a strategy for the big day. Many people fret about the second decimal places of their mock test percentiles … this is pretty pointless if not accompanied by some serious introspection. Leading up to D-Day The most stressful part of the entire preparation for me was the time just before CAT. Much to the exasperation of the student community, University exams had been announced to coincide beautifully with CAT. And preceding them was the usual rigmarole of submissions, class tests and vivas. There was little time now to go through new topics (Permutations & Combinations being the first casualty!!) and the Mocks and home tests were all that I could manage. The only time I could seriously relax was the day before D-Day, when – at the cost of my Advanced Microprocessors paper two days later – I decided to hang up my boots and watch some TV! Lesson: It’s ideal to finish off exam prep well in advance so that CAT can hold prime importance in November. But having spent four years in engineering college, I can safely say this is IMPOSSIBLE! So there is no real option but multi-tasking – the most important of those tasks being praying! And then it was done … The paper was a shocker – weighted marking for the first time ever in CAT, 123 questions for the first time ever in CAT, sub-sections for the first time ever in CAT, DI with no “conventional” DI … yikes! My first thought on seeing the paper was: CAT 2005. My next thought, two hours and 60-odd attempts later, was: CAT 2005. Lesson: Never expect anything from CAT … except a frequent change of stripes! Results and Missed Calls The time I logged into the CAT results web site of one of the IIMs, was the first of many tense moments of the last six months. I found that a number was now associated with my name: 99.34 percentile. Actually, there were three other numbers as well – Quant: 98.9, DI: 94.58, Verbal: 97.31. The initially feeling was one of ecstasy – I had, after all, outperformed my mock CAT scores! The next morning though, was like being yanked from the clouds right into a rabbit hole. One after the other, five hallowed Indian Institutes of Management flashed a rather impolite “Sorry, you have not been shortlisted for GD/PI” message. Only IIM Calcutta, for some reason, deemed me fit for the next round of their selection process. Lesson: Two consecutive days are capable of delivering two absolutely opposing emotions! But the others came a-calling! After the five missed calls (or would “wrong numbers” be more appropriate?), there was plenty of “why didn’t I make it” analysis. Actually, to be honest, it was more like “why the &#$% didn’t I make it”! Each time I almost managed to convince myself that my DI score did me in, I’d come across people with lower DIs and Ahmedabad calls! And then there were lower verbals and Indore/Kozhikode calls and lower everything and Bangalore calls!! Thankfully, things just looked up from there on. I got calls from all the other institutes I had applied to: SP Jain, MDI and NITIE. Things were now really looking up ... it was time to shoot out of gloom and begin preparation in right earnest for the four interviews I was shortlisted for! ____________________________________________ Coming Up: “Lessons on the road to B-School – Part II”: The GD/PI experience