My Journey To B-School

Hi!! I belong to those group of people who are always searching what is the goal of their life. After completing my Civil Engineering from IIEST, Shibpur ( formerly known as BESU, Shibpur) in 2012, I felt life was so beautiful. Having joined Amec Foster Wheeler with a good in hand salary, I was very proud, happy and satisfied. I enjoyed my first job and started loving it. I made new friends and we partied together. I also had my first relationship started. All these had made my life so busy enough to think about some other areas in career. Gradually as time passed away things changed and I had break up with my girl friend and I was shattered. That was a turning moment of my life. As it is said that each time you fall you rise higher in life. Same thing happened for me. 

I gave a thought about IES as being a Civil Engineer it was the most sought after job in life. It was 2013 and I made a stern decision to work hard for it. As I was not in a position to leave my Job, I started preparing very seriously. I prepared a target map and then a daily routine. I Used to devote 4-6 hrs during week days and utilized the weekends to the fullest. As its a huge syllabus I prepared smartly. Selected some important subjects from each section and focused on them. Then on the D Day some unwanted things happened. I had done selective preparation as per last year’s trend and the exact opposite thing happened and I was like playing hockey when I had practiced for Football. So that moment was like a chill running down through my spine. My one year of Preparation was not effective enough. I gained courage and then again started preparing for the next year. This time I focused on other subjects. 

But!! Wait a second. It was June 2014 and hardly 20 days have passed after I gave my IES exam. I was having a conversation with my closest friend and then she suddenly asked "Why haven't you gave CAT". That was a million Dollar Question. I was just surprised. I told aise hi nahi diya. I have just never thought about it only. Then it made a strike, I started research and then compared it with IES. Whats the Pros and Cons in both the cases. Why most of the middle class people like us don't dare to think about MBA. Why have I never thought about it. I did a feasibility study that even if I continue my preparation for IES along with my job, it would take me some 2-3 or more years and I never know if I could be able to rank on the higher side. On the other side I would be able to prepare for CAT along with my job and it will also develop my soft skills which was lacking in my IES preparation. Hence CAT was the winner!!!.

Hardly 3-4 months left before CAT, I joined weekend Classes in TIME from the next week and from there my journey for CAT started. I enjoyed the Classes as they were so responsive and you can always feel the adrenaline rushing during solving the Questions among your peers. As usual being from Engineering Background Quant was my comfort zone and I used to perform quite good. Regarding DI (Data Interpretation) and LR (Logical Reasoning) I needed some good practice. VA was my weakest zone and I have never been an avid reader. So it was difficult to cope up with the CAT level RC ( reading Comprehension) and VA (Verbal Ability). My habit of studying for long hours after office during IES preparation helped me to work more harder for CAT and the most interesting thing in CAT was it was challenging, it needs your analytical abilities and hence was not boring like some of the technical subjects in IES.

Life is not a bed of roses and hence the journey is not always smooth as we desire. It was September when my father got Stroke in Eyes. Yes Strokes do happen in eyes also (Due to sudden blockage of nerves the blood gets clot and some of the portion in Eyes is permanently damaged) and I was worried and got distracted from my studies as some serious treatment was needed. I also had to manage appointment with the Doctor in LVPEI, Hyderabad, one of the best Eye Hospitals in India. It took a lot of time and I knew that this was my first priority and then CAT. I also couldn't take any leave before the exam as I had to take leave for my father’s treatment just after the CAT. I Even worked till 9 pm on Friday and hence got only one day for thinking what to do in the exam. As usual I gave my best but knew that that was not enough to crack. I scored 82.3 percentile (QA DI- 85 percentile and VA LR - 71 Percentile) almost unprepared. I didn't regret because I knew I can do better. In XAT also I scored a mere 55 Percentile and in NMAT I scored 188 whereas the cutoffs were 207.

So 2014 CAT was out of my sight. I started for the next year; this time with more vigor and zeal to crack it. Being in a Technical Job it’s very difficult to manage studying in office and so utilized whatever time I got after work. This time I took just the Test Series from TIME and CL. The mocks were sometimes disappointing and sometimes they bring smiles. I have given almost 20 Mocks apart from Small duration tests in Smart CAT Cracker by CL. I also took help from some Facebook Groups (I would like to mention CAT Prep by Indrajeet Singh) where people took initiative and posted questions and also some sessions were conducted by the host himself.  As it is said that the CAT is ever changing and the same thing happened. This time IIM A was conducting the exam and they separated the VA RC from LR and made a separate Section and hence there were three sections in CAT 2015 - QA, VA & RC , LR & DI. This was the most undesirable thing to happen for me as now I have to attempt RCs or else would not even clear cutoffs. Earlier some people used to attempt only the LR and leave the RCs. 

I focused on RCs and practiced a lot of RCs from Mocks as well as the previous year’s papers (Specially the 2006 in which IIM A had conducted) before the exam and found my accuracy to be around 10 correct out of 16 and was pretty happy. Having accuracy above 60 percent is considered a decent one in CAT level RC. So I went with a smile on my face and wrote the exam. In VA&RC Section I had attempted 21 out of 24 RCs and 3 Para Completion Questions from TITA (Type in the Answer) - a total of 24 out of 34 Questions and in DI LR which was considered one of the toughest I had managed 15 out of 32 Questions. In Quant I managed 24 out of 34. Later when Results Came I was in a Shock to see my VA Percentile. It was just 59.2 and in DI LR 93.5 and in Quant it was 97. Due to so poor percentile in VA my Overall percentile in CAT came down to 91.22 and I didn't got a single IIM Call. That was the most devastating moment for me. I was shattered into pieces.!!! Period. 

That was not the end of my Journey. I had Cleared the NMAT cutoffs with a score of 209 this time and got the first call of the Season for NMIMS, Mumbai GD PI. As I didn’t had any IIM calls I started late for the GD PI Preparations. I joined Vista Mind and TIME for that. In TIME they conduct Weekend sessions from 10 am to 6 pm where they focus on each areas - Writing Ability/GD/Case Discussions/PI and I got a lot of help from the faculties. One thing which I faced a lot of trouble was sorting out the Question "Why MBA" and also converted the NMIMS (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai) CD PI.  I also scored 96 percentile in XAT from 55 last year and was shortlisted for XLRI HRM GD PI round in XLRI, Jamshedpur. (XLRI HR is considered Asia's Best HR Program).  Some of the other exams where I didn't get interview shortlists but scored on the boundary were IIFT (93.5 Percentile), SNAP (95.5 Percentile), In TISS I scored 68 and missed the Hyderabad Campus call by 1 marks. 

I couldn't convert XLRI HR though my GD and PI went very well which I will never forget. My NMIMS interview was also superb. The best part is I enjoyed all the interviews which I attended this year. I had also converted TAPMI, Great Lakes, Chennai PGPM, IMT Gaziabad DCP and have also had a beautiful experience at VGSOM interview though results not out yet. A bit shattered earlier but now I feel the enthusiasm of going to be part of one of the Top B-Schools in India. NMIMS it is !!