The CAT-alogue (Edited )

( Disclaimer :- This post contains many terms familiar with CAT aspirants, unfamiliar with the common public... Please bear with it )

Well.. my hobnobbing with this fair lady has ended.. The scores were better, the sectionals were better, and may be I expected a lot based on TIME and CL verbal keys... Anyway ., thats the end of it...

Looking back, it was in 2003 that I first tried this...

In the first attempt, ( which I think was my best paper till date ) , my chances were runied by a guy called Ranjit Don who leaked up the paper and sold it for as high as 16 lakhs as per the news reports.. The retest didnt go well.. DI-LR was the main culprit that year...

Second attempt in 2004 was a whitewash..Was not serious , was perhaps a bit carried away with my work in Oracle..etc, it was a big flop..Thats when I started studying well..

The third attempt was in 2005...After giving one of the toughest CAT-papers till date, I had a bit of hope..And that hope translated into a single IIMB call.. Prepared well for the interview...had a decent interview , but slipped to the Waiting list..and ultimately lost out.... Later on enlightened ppl told me that that they give weightages to sectional scores, overall percentiles etc in the final selection.. And, that did me in that year..

The fourth and final attempt was CAT-2006....Had put in one more rigorous year of mocks and preparations... And, I thought I performed well.. Seeing the verbal keys of TIME and CL , my expectations went sky high... Only to be brought down on Jan - 2 ... Still the score and was better than last year..and the sectionals were reasonable... ( QA - 90.28 , DI - 98. 25 , VA - 96.8 , Overall 98.08 ) ..Somehow, hopes of an elusive call was still kept alive .... Slowly by slowly, each IIM killed the hopes.... Seeing Pagalguy threads, I find there are much better deserving ppl than me who missed out..So, I shouldnt be complaining... Eitherway, thats the end of it.. Got to find something more interesting ...

Below is a link to an interesting thread in PG which mocks the selection criteria at IIMB .. Nice read.. Atleast I think B deserves some criticism

( Added later : Yesterday I remaked to my friend .." Seeing the call patterns of B and L, it seems its not worth preparing for CAT if u have low acads.." .. This was a bit of rash statement..For, regarldless of how arbitrary the process is, if u manage to get in, an education
wich can change your perspective awaits you... So, its something thats worth preparing.... But then, be prepared to take slips like this.. For, if couple more questions in QA/VA would have turned correct , I would have put posts here like 'how to crack CAT ..etc ".. So, its all a game.. A game which requires you to have a basic aptitude , a good day and lots of luck... But its a game which can go wrong too... )


Ajith