It was inevitable. My results and their servers crashing.

I was able to get my result after a few hours of trying and several refreshes. Anyway managed a measely 82.94 which is less than my last two attempts when I hadn’t studied (

I need some TLC.

For those interested, try getting your result here.

It came, it saw and it bit, scratched and tore my hair out!

That just about sums up my experience today with CAT 2006.

For more details…

Set out with Anjali, followed her directions and landed up at Thakur College of Commerce. Would have waited there, but for Elroy who called and said the colleges were different. Found out I had to go to a totally different place few kilometres away. Thank God I had a bike!

Did get to the right college well in time. Sat down and waited for 10.30pm. The wait in the classroom just before the paper is simply the worst. I could hear my heartbeats!

Looking at the answer sheet I realized one thing, a different paper pattern with 5 options (instead of 4) and a max of 120 questions.

The CAT format has changed every year for the past two years and so I expected it to be different so wasn’t shocked. However, the question paper was shocking.

Turned out to be only a 75 question set, with each question four marks with wrong answers attracting a penalty 1 mark each.

I’ve given a 75 question paper before so this wasn’t a surprise, the marking was.

Anyway, began with Maths. Attempted 14 and I know for sure 1 is incorrect. Maths was really simple I must say, so simple that everyone could do it. And I managed to screw that up royally and I don’t even know why

Then began Verbal. It was horridly difficult and confusing. And I ran out of time for DI.

Kinda dejected by the outcome of this. Shall await the results patiently and I hope I get into the other places I applied. My tentative scores as per TIME indicate me not clearing any cut-off, not to mention my overall score being horrible. I have a dirty feeling that this time my percentile will be lower than my past two, and then I hadn’t even bothered studing!

Have few more individual tests left. These shall receive my full attention.

And the next two days see me completing the applications.

…from this post I sit down to give one of the biggest exams of my life, viz. the CAT 2006.

Request for all of my readers to please say a small prayer that I will succeed in this.

Thanks!

Sunday was the last of the AIMCATs and I was a bit apprehensive about the same. The AIMCAT was “decent” but as usual I missed the cutoff in Quant by a mark. Managed an 89.8 percentile which is definitely better than last week’s.

Went for the Sunday evening mass. Thankfully it was dragged.

Monday and Wednesday was at my friends place studing all day while on Tuesday the mouse dropped in for a visit.

I’ve got three days left for the exam. Am tensed by am also not letting it effect me too much.

Gave a paper yesterday (Wednesday) and the results were a lot better. It’s going to be simply the matter of timing and choice. Will I be able to do it?

I am going to vent in this post. So, if you don’t like me grumbling then this is where you should you leave! (But do come back)!

And for those who don’t mind me grumbling…

Sunday began with yet another AIMCAT. With two AIMCATs to go I will admit that I am still struggling to get the strategy correct.

I will compliment T.I.M.E. for the excellent mock CATs that they have been throwing at us. This time they went one step further. The AIMCAT was organized at only two centers in Mumbai. Mine was at Ambedkar College, Wadala. Found the place on Google Earth so riding out there was a breeze.

Got there to find the college in a real bad state. The benches were covered with dust, probably because of the Diwali Vacations

Then came the exam. 75 questions, 150 marks in 150 minutes. Didn’t clear a single cut-off. What I realized accuracy took a beating. And, I was so helpless, still am because I can’t figure out how to solve half of them (without the solutions) (

Got home after the paper. The ride home was peaceful and there were signs of rain.

Rain it did, in the evening during the open air mass that we had in church to celebrate Family Day.

We were singing and that came out extremely good (One bright aspect of the day).

The mass had to be moved inside church and it was real wonder that twice the number (if not more) of people, than the normal capacity, fit inside our church.

Following mass was housie (I didn’t play) and dinner. I was a bit apprehensive about the quality of the food especially since my last experience with Fiesta Night. And this time the tickets were only Rs 40, with the rest being put in by the church.

Then began Monday. We had originally planned to fill up a good deal of the admission forms and send it off today.
Started with the XLRI Admission first only to realize that their whole process is so damn confusing. The website backend is pathetically designed. Maybe the designers (Sify) need to hire people who know their stuff!

The Sify helpline is equally pathetic, but isn’t that the case with most of the call centres?

As a result we have to cancel the demand-drafts that we created and go pick up the XLRI forms from Mahim tomorrow. Another long trip in the heat!

Thankfully, we don’t have to face this trouble with each and every form we fill. I like clean, easy to understand procedures. Seems like some institutes want to test your “management skills” even before they think of hiring you!

Half the week is done and today we begin November; just 18 days left before the CAT!

My confidence levels have increased since I began, which is a good thing. Simultaneously my tension also seems to be increasing. While I don’t seem to be displaying it, I know subconciously it is very present. My dreams say it

Anyway, began this week with the weekly AIMCAT. This was my best AIMCAT because I made a 96.56 percentile. I’m happy that my current stratergy worked. I’ve got two more AIMCATs to go and I am going to give this a test again.

Monday and Tuesday were spent completely on getting forms. At the end of all the admissions I would have spent well over Rs. 10000!! Applications sure can be expensive :O

Also managed to make it for choir practice yesterday. We sang for a wedding mass today, followed by food and then once again choir practice for Friday and Sunday. Sunday being the Parish Family Day is a big occasion with a big mass. We’ve learnt quite a few new hymns and it really is a pleasure singing

Sunday so far hasn’t been a very enjoyable Sunday

For one I had a very disturbed sleep and I probably know the reason why.

As a result I was rather groggy early morning as I rushed for the 8.30am mass.

George Burns once said:

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, and to have the two as close together as possible.

Unfortunately, our priests haven’t learnt this yet.

Had yet another AIMCAT today and yet again my DI went down under!
I really need to figure out how to maximize all three sections and time is running out!

Well, the story of my life lately has been pretty much the same with minor deviations here and there.

Began the start of the week by collecting the forms. Thankfully, this time I got them!!

Have finally shut down Humble Reviews. All the posts have been imported to this blog. There wasn’t a jump in the number of posts here as I expected, because the import put the entries according to their original date of posting.
The domain is now for sale. Will post more details soon.

The mouse came over on Wednesday, so it was a good day

Went over to my study partners place on Tuesday and Thursday. Two papers written. No sizeable improvement yet

Wrote yet another paper on Friday. Got a good overall score, but missed out in Maths.

Got a Mock tomorrow as well. So lets see how that progresses.

Questionable.

Have decided and will continue writing a mock exam a day until a few days prior to the CAT or till they run out

Well, gave the first mock CAT paper of TIME today. Am pleased with my overall score. Should have done better in Quant, because that cut-off still evaded me today as well.

Tomorrow I am giving MOCK2, so maybe I will be able to gauge a continuous progress. But for the IIMs, I am still far off

Had two completely antithetical days yesterday and today (actually, that would be day before and yesterday, given the time of this post).

Awoke early Sunday morning and went for the 8.30am mass for which we were singing. I haven’t awoken at 7.30am since a long long time and as a result I ended up feeling extremely drowsy during mass and a good portion of the morning after that.

Would normally have hit the bed for a while, but the geek in me just refused to let go of the computer.

I ended up writing another article and releasing another plugin.

I have also create three new Software Category, where I shall post about certain useful freeware, open-source and shareware programs.

Finally ended up going to bed post 1am Monday morning.

Was up before 9am, did a bit more computer work and then went over to my study partner’s house.

And spent whole of Monday there solving and analyzing a SIMCAT. Performance has to be improved. Reached home only at 9.30pm

This will be a daily schedule (atleast planned) to ensure that we write as many mock exams as possible before D-Day!

Going to sleep now. Good night.