Bad Decision Make Good Stories

I registered for CAT'17 in September of 2017

Why?

I have no idea, because some of my friends were taking it, I also took the CAT

I had no idea how many sections were there in the exam.

26th November 2017

CAT day, 2nd slot

The paper looked easy for some reason, because I had not seen any CAT papers before

and I had no targets, I was just there because I filled the form.

I came out of the hall with a smile, called a friend , easyyy paper, did all in VARC 20+ in

DILR and 25+ in QA

He asked how many of them are you sure about?

I said all of them, he knew I was done for , because everyone was crying about how tough

the LRDI section was this year, I was eating golgappe outside the hall when I told my friend

how easy the VARC was(A pleasure I haven't had since then)

Fast forwarding to results day

My hands started shaking after I saw the results

Staggering 94.64, with a 99 in VARC(not much, I know but it was amazing at that time, I did

not expect it) and for a person who has never seen 90+ scores in his life, this was something

out of the ordinary

I went forward and posted it on my college whatsapp group, I was on 7th heaven(The fall

was very hard from there), Later I realised it was not enough, only filled IMT and IMI, went

unprepared, got rejected

In IMI they asked me what my dream company is, I said AT kearney, I had read about it on

some website(had done some research lol), they asked me which sector do they operate

in?, I had no idea

In August I planned for CAT again, filled the form on the same day I decided to take CAT,I

bought TIME mocks and started comparing my scores with a friend. 99+ in CAT'18 was the

goal. I was very confident that my 80-90s will become 99+ in CAT

"CAT is easier than the mocks"

Was my go to

Took NMAT,SNAP,XAT and IIFT as well

Did not study hard enough and hence, ruined my CAT

Got 210 in NMAT but did not clear sectionals

The D- day came, I was crushed my own overconfidence and incompetence

CAT’18-93.12

SNAP-96

I worked hard for XAT and managed a 97+ %ile somehow

Had calls from XL BM+HR, IMT,IMI

Converted IMT, almost paid the fees but withdrew at the last moment,I did not want to be a

part of something better, I was aiming for the top 10, I had one chance to break the shackles

of mediocrity and I was willing to go for anything if I do not make it this time.

I started preparing diligently, met some people who were also preparing on a social media

site(Pagalguy), and then the grind began, my overconfidence was crushed, my driving force

was the zeal to do something better this year, I had to cross that 99+ %ile mark and so I took

mocks, analysed them properly, worked on my weaknesses, My scores reflected my

hardwork and it started to bear fruits.

D-day 2019

I went through with the paper< i had full confidence in myself and it paid off

CAT’19 -99.6 %ile, I was elated with joy

Converted MDI,NITIE,IIMU but decided not to join because of the covid scenario, taking

another chance, at this moment it almost felt like I was getting excited just by taking the

examination, but that was not the case, I was actually willing to put in the effort to achieve

something better.

So I started with my prep again and this time, working on my shortcomings and making

improvements more diligently, got in touch with some amazing people and we prepared

together, this was the time.

D-day

Paper went good, it was a 2hr test for the very first time, thanks IIM Indore

After a week we got the ans keys

I calculated my VARC score and cried at the moment. I was not ready for this,Q1-5 all of

them were wrong,in the end I just managed 17 marks and had no hopes of clearing the

cutoffs even with a good overall score I would get no calls.

I started preparing for XAT and IIFT

When the results came I was the happiest person alive, I had an 80.28%ile in VARC, I felt

even more lucky that a 0.1 reduction in my scaled score would have landed me at 79.8, and

I would have missed out on my IIMC call.

I got calls from FMS, XL, Calcutta and Shillong this time, the interviews went well but the

results did not reflect

IIMC WL-100+

Shillong WL-350+

FMS and XL rejected,

I had let so many people down, I was rethinking my decision

I had lost all hope, Started preparing for GMAT, gave my full attention and time to GMAT

applications

On 29th of May, everything changed, a friend told me that C WL had moved by 120, I was

surprised, I said that will be XL because it had moved by 120 a few days back, I logged in

and I was filled with joy, I had Finally converted Joka, I was now a Jokar..

All those years of hardwork had finally paid off, it was time to celebrate until classes started

and with the passage of time I forgot the pain of getting here, as I was obviously getting used

to the pain of surviving here, hahaha, what I have learnt is that our stories are different, they

are not linear, neither they are stairs to a destination, it could be a sine curve rotated at a 45

degree angle(Yes maths prowess showoff is a must for jokars) that keeps going up but there

are downs in the way and all you have to do is keep hustling.