As far as CAT
and the selection to the IIMs is concerned, there are a bunch of issues on
which students expect more certainty than is available -
1. If I score 99.6th percentile, will I
get a call from the top IIMs, given my academic record? (or some version of
this).
The accurate
short answer for this – “I do not know”. Based on past cut-off trends, the
scores they give for 10th standard, 12th standard and under-graduation scores,
we might be able to hypothesize which IIMs one is more likely to get a call
from for a given CAT
score. But we can do little better than that. More importantly, the answer
to this question does not (should not) make the slightest difference to your
preparation. Think about this, suppose some expert says “with your record, a
99.5 should get a call from all the IIMs”. Are you likely to leave a couple of
questions in each section to ensure that you do not end up scoring more than
99.8th percentile?
Very often,
fixating on this question before CAT leads to under-performance in CAT.
Specifically, two types of errors creep in – i) I can any way not get into the
best IIMs because of skeleton X in my cupboard. May be I need 2 more years of
experience in order to crack this process. Or ii) I need to get 0.5 percentile
more than anyone else, so I need to attempt more questions. The former leads to
a defeatist attitude, the latter to one that makes you attempt the ‘wrong’
questions.
2. CAT follows a normalization process
for getting to the final score. Does this mean I am better of attempting the
tougher questions?: Do not bother with the normalization process.
Questions you consider tough may be benchmarked easy and vice versa. The team
conducting CAT has conveyed that questions carry marks based on levels of
difficulty, but we do not know what the exact process is. As it is, students
need to worry about ‘n’ different things in an exam hall; this is one you can
live without.
3. This is my favorite irritating
question - If I start now and prepare well, will I definitely make it to one of
the top colleges?: This is similar to hypothetical questions we generally come
across on Indian news channels. Students can start in August and crack CAT with
a disciplined preparation plan. This is not a genius-testing exam. This is a
simple aptitude tester. The best colleges prepare you to deal with uncertainty
well. Take the testing process as a starting point for that. The IIMs are far
more transparent now with their process than ever before in their history. But
that does not mean you can predict everything before-hand.
Control
the controllable elements:
Although this may sound like a cliché pouted by some self-help guru, it is a
powerful mantra for simplifying your preparation plan. What kind of paper would
suit me best? Should I take the test in the early part of the window, or is the
later part better? Should I take it over the weekend or weekday? Should I
attempt at least 17 questions in each section? All these questions are
about as relevant as “Should I wear red T-shirt to the exam” (At least this
could have some psychological impact if red were your favorite color). Forget
these distractions.
As the saying
goes, don’t die wondering. The more irrelevant questions your mind ponders, the
less bandwidth it has to for the relevant ones.
Author of
this article, Mr. Rajesh Balasubramanian, an IIT, IIM alumnus, & 2011, 2012
CAT Topper and the author of CAT books published by ‘Access Publishing India’,
guides CAT Aspirants through a series of expert articles on MBAUniverse.com.
In his
previous articles, he guides on
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