Good bye, CAT
And so the CAT sunday passed away....some 2.5 lakh people taking the exam for less than 2000 seats (even lesser if you bring in the admission quotas and reservation math)
I haven't been too different when it comes to CAT - I used my performance in CAT to judge my self worth...and it was pretty kewl becuase I ended up with a good percentile - good enuff to get into an IIM
In retrospect I tend to talk about the event as if I had totally mastered my strategy. I talk as if I knew or I could predict what would happen and how I had the exact strategy for it. I often find myself talking to glaze eyed CAT aspirants about what my 'strategy' to crack the paper was.
Truth to be told - every admission into an IIM has a huge element of luck - at times it is your day and at times its not. As hard it may be to accept - its fortune from the start. Being born in a certain background with some aptitudes, having them developed and right upto that paper on that day which turned out to be "crackable"
Knowing how narrow the odds are in terms of making it, a huge chunk apparently registers but does not appear at all....and then there are the rest - who except for the top 1000 - 2000 return to next year perps or head to some other B School...
I dont know what goes on in their heads when they flunk the CAT - but I am sure its not anything too pleasant.
Why let an external exam judge you? Why take the verdict of CAT on a certain aptitude of your life as THE BLANKET VERDICT on all your life?
You may have bought into the hype created by the zillion CAT coaching classes about the IIMs - but now if you havent made it, its time to get unsold on it.
It is sure a very difficult challenge - but dont let your esteem take a hit for not making it at CAT. Know that success and satisfaction in life are no ways a biproduct of whether your BSchool name starts with 2 Is.
And the IIPM starts with 2 I's as well ;)
So good that CAT's finally over.... with all that it creates for all of us - Good bye, CAT :)
posted by The One at 5:12 PM
2 Comments:
The over-hyped CAT exam. Agree with you there. There's so much luck that goes in to it, and its delusion to judge yourself as smarter by cracking the CAT. While its great to get in, you get perspective only when you get out of the IIM, that its really a lot of luck on that day that 'makes your life'. But that too isn't as pretty as it looks. There was a large bunch of us that was 'truly made' through the IIM; 'Too rich, too soon'. The banking collapse has been quite a humbling experience.
Closer and closer to the exam, things go out of proportion and it all becomes larger than life...one realizes only in hindsight, more often than not...True, a lot of things need to be shown their place in the larger scheme of things
P.S - Good to see you back bro :) Keep writing!
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