Flashback - The Wait

While waiting for the results, I spent more time trying to get information on the PGSEM. Of course, the PGSEMInfo group helped quite a bit - the current students were more than helpful. On top of that, I tried to find a few sites which probably spoke about the interview experience of students for the PGSEM. The following helped quite a bit:

http://ajithprasadb.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-pgsem-interview-iimb.html

http://ashuonnet.blogspot.com/2007/04/pgsem-2007-interview.html

http://piyushkrsrivastava.blogspot.com/2007/05/way.html

http://shamitb.blogspot.com/2008/04/iimb-pgsem-faculty-interview.html

The following page does have all of the interview links posted about, plus some more info:

http://kansal.gaurav.googlepages.com/pgsem@iimb

A couple of my classmates have updated their blogs too:

http://supreethamave.blogspot.com/2009/04/pgsem-2009-iim-bangalore.html

http://sidvishmba.blogspot.com/2009/04/pgsem-faculty-interview.html

Anyway, I went for a couple of events organized at the PGSEM fests, the PGSEM Open House and asked a few questions. Looking back on it now, I think it was quite helpful. The first time I entered IIMB, I was quite overwhelmed by the place. I must have tried really hard to act and sound smart, not make a fool of myself (which I am perfectly capable of doing, thank you), and generally kept to myself since I dont know anyone else there.

But by the time the Open House happened, there was already some activity by students applying this year, we must have met up a few times to discuss our Strategy for the interview (Oh yea, by now I had gotten my CAT results and had applied for the PGSEM. Got shortlisted too, must have been March at this time, sure was a long wait). So, along with the other aspirants, we had gotten together, joshed around a bit, and finally at the Open House, I knew almost 15-20 people there. Not being a fish out of water really helps, I can say that much.

So, when my interview finally came around at the end of March, and I walked onto the campus, it wasn't a person who was trying to put his best foot and impression forward. It was a guy who realized that this place is as tough as it looks, but it's not unfamiliar, you can make it here. And glimpses of the fool came shining through...

Flashback - The CAT

Woke up at 6 AM. Wasn't able to sleep beyond that, the last time I wrote an exam was almost four years ago! Luckily for me, my life didnt depend on this one. At least I could continue working even if things didn't work out fine. In any case, the butterflies in my stomach were happy at being freed after so long and flitted all around keeping me sufficiently nervous. Against all the warnings and cautions yelled at me by the book, I stuffed myself both with breakfast and some last minute quant fundas before rushing away to the centre at breakneck speed.

Must have reached the centre around 30 minutes in advance, the gates were open and people trudging in to the classes. It took me 10 minutes just to find which building I was in. I finally found my seat and sat down. Got my pencil, pen and hall ticket out. The arrangements were very well done. There were loudspeakers at each corner. The paths to the classes had been clearly marked. People were there to help guide the frantic test takers to their rooms and seats. After an announcement that the test would start at exactly the scheduled time, a bell rang and the papers were distributed.

While writing the paper, I must say things went like clockwork. I had practiced enough tests, and knew my plan of action. Saw the question, could do - attempt, couldnt - leave. Kept looking at the clock every now and then. It's very important to ensure you're ahead of time. If behind time, it's very important to see how far behind you really are and if it's worth it. Since the time allotted was now for the entire paper, and not just per section, I started off with what I thought would let me have enough time to get the speed up for quant, and hence began with verbal. I thought it was a good decision, everyone tells me later that was stoopid. In any case, while working on verbal, when I saw that the time I had allotted for it had elapsed, I went on to the next section - quant. And similarly, at the end, DI. When I was done with the paper, I realized that I had left quite a few questions and had some time left to answer some more. I then went back to the questions over the entire paper, which I had marked knowing that if I had more time, I'd continue working on them.

Finally the bell went off, the paper was submitted, and I left for home. It was only when I reached home, that I let out a sigh and went to sleep. No point bothering about the results, they'll only come out this evening, or the next morning. This was November 16th 2008.

The next morning, I went to the PagalGuy forums, set up my answer sheet on their cool scorecard. Saved me a hell of a lot of time, comparing against the expected results. Within a week, sufficient scores were in to let me know how I had approximately done against other people. Looked like I'd get somewhere around 97 percentile A little anxious and excited, I began the long wait for Jan 2009, when the results would be formally announced.

Flashback - The Preparation

Woohoo! The most difficult part was done... filling out the application form! (In retrospect, I seem to easily think that what I just finished was the most difficult part. I'm a sucker for milestones! ) Now "all I had to do" was prepare. So I hopped and skipped along into Landmark, got one book for GRE (Kaplan) and one for CAT (a TMH book). (Here's a funny story, I was thinking of also giving the GRE so I could really really decide between doing an MS or an MBA. Ha ha, no? Such an idiot.) With these books tucked under my arm, I swipe my credit card (swish, money that is not mine used by me. The wonders of Mastercard and Visa. And Amex.) to probably make the ONLY futures investment that I followed up on and which paid out BIG for me.

As I was bound to do, the first two weeks I lolled about, reading up how to prepare for CAT, the numerous success stories and the innumerable failures. I told my office that I was going on vacation, and then I put my phone off. I plugged out the internet cable. I stopped short of yanking out my motherboard. And then, as an afterthought, plugged the internet cable back in, and promised not to go to orkut and facebook. Pbbffftt! Yea, like that happened!

The two weeks before CAT was intense. It's very easy to think "Oh, quant and grammar. Easy stuff." WOAH! The TMH book had one "orientation test". Apparently it could say how ready I am, and how much more I needed to prepare. Took the test, and checked the scores. I was shocked at the type of results, apparently I'd get a 50 percentile. Goosebumps here and there, I started checking each answer. The quant appeared to be right reasoning, the verbal was very suspect, very very suspect. But still, the book is always right they say, so I went through the theory. The one good thing this book had... was tips.

Apparently, it's very important to not get into an ego war with the question. The paper-setters have really enjoyed their task. The questions look deceivingly simple, especially in quant. You start it and then you begin wrestling with it. It's a big no-no to keep wrestling. 30 seconds into the question and u know whether you can do it. If you can't, LEAVE it. If you can, another 30 seconds to solve. If you cant finish it, LEAVE it. There are a LOT more questions waiting to be solved. In DI, you look at the sub-questions... if they are something you're familiar with, attempt it.. if not, LEAVE it. The same logic applies: if you're reasonably sure you can do it, then do it, else leave it. Base your action on periodic feedback "Does it look like the time remaining FOR THIS QUESTION is worth continuing to solve it".

Verbal, the book suggested a different approach. It said "Use ONLY 5 minutes to read and comprehend the passage". Then answer. So if the passage looked too long, I left it. I came back to it, if I had time in the section. It took a little practice to get over ego-wars for this one. I mean, its just a few words, you can read the rest of it... yeah, right! So these were the basic guidelines. Personally, I thought the book sucked at Verbal. Maybe I'm not willing to accept my English is bad. But it sure came out a winner, when it came to dishing out punishment. It says in the introduction, that these papers are set along the lines of the old CAT system, 270 questions in 180 minutes (or sometihng like that). IF YOU can crack this or score reasonably well, then you MIGHT get a call from one of the IIMs.

My target was 97 percentile(Apparently, you need atleast 95 to be even remotely considered for the PGSEM course. 97 seemed safe). A call from atleast one IIM means I would have gotten around 98%, that seemed like a good thing. So I figured, yes, now I've read the theory, solved some sample questions. Let's kick some paper-ass! Shudder. Oh, the memories... the horror.

Another priceless tip that the book passes on, is to write the mock CAT (and the previous year question papers) every day AT THE TIME of the actual paper. Apparently, this helps your mind orient and prepare itself for "flogging-time", keeps it ready.. alert! This really helped. I'm sure just thinking "I am in the CAT hall, I am in the CAT hall", getting goosepimples and then writing the paper helped big time. With absolutely no distractions, I wrote three or four mock CATs, got reasonable average scores (put me in the 80 percentile). And then there was just a week left for CAT.

So I spent the first two days just checking up on the basics again, watched some TV too. The next three days I wrote the actual CAT papers of 2005, 2006 and 2007. 2005 and 2007 put me in the 98% percentile, 2006 put me in the 89% percentile. It sucks when you know that your scores will not be very consistent. You get scared all the more. But in my opinion, scared is good. The last day of preparation, I looked over a few fundas, and basically chilled out a bit. Then in the evening, it suddenly hit me that I was going to write the actual test the next day. So panic set in, and I rushed through a couple of RCs and slept at 10 PM. Sleep - very important before an exam. VERY.