The D Day!!!
It was Oct 16th 2008, which meant there was 1 month for CAT....
The day is fast approaching, the time is ticking by as fast as ever, the tension rising, CAT is in the air. Everything seems to be changing except for my Mockcat scores. The law of conservation playing its part and keeping my hopes down and buried. I wouldnt have worried too much about it if I dint have the same question on every sunday at lunch from dad,"Son, how was your paper? Can you make it into the IIMs or any other top B schools?" That is when i feel like swallowing a huge bone along with the sunday special chicken or like pouring hot rasam over my head and get out of there. But due to my love for food, I could never do that. I gave the constant reply which I had given him for the past 23 years... "I m doing fine dad. But I can still do better".
It was 2 weeks to CAT and I was desperately trying to improve my scores. I was sitting in the TIME building and trying to make head or tail about some compresension passage when I overheard a pretty girl saying "I got 34 questions right in the last times paper!!! One more right and I could have crossed 98%le". Is she kidding?? How can someone get 34 questions right and be near the 98%le mark. Something somewhere was wrong!!!! I looked at my result immediately to see that I have done 29 questions right all together having attempted 64 questions out of 75. Thats it... I have realized mistake!!!
Thats when I recollected my most hated teacher's favorite words "Aim for 100, you ll get 90".These are the words which are ruining me currently. In CAT, if you aim for 100 you end up getting a 60 like what happened to me. Aim for 90 you ll get 95. The max figure of 75 questions always pushed me to attempt atleast 55-60 questions. From this week, its only 35 questions. I had decided I am going to attempt only 35 questions. 35 questions, 150 mins. Suddenly CAT started appearing a lot easier.
The next weekend was a wonder!!!
Quant: 95
Verbal: 87
DI: 96
Overall: 94
WOW... Vamsi .. your fortunes seem to have turned!!!
The D day has arrived!!!!
I reached the examination hall. I could see nervous aspirants along with anxious parents. I could see students praying, medidating, smoking and all different ways to curb their tension. I went into the hall with confidence.
10:00Am:
The game began. I started with DI as usual and moved ahead and finished verbal. I had done my quota of 24 questions from these 2 sections. Had a look at the watch. It read 11:30 AM. Normally I allocate 40 mins for quant. But now I had 60 mins which meant atleast another 5-7 questions. "Whats happening to me, am I really going to get into the IIMs?"I thought and was alerted by the invigilators announcement, "Last 20 mins!!!!". I was shocked to hear that. I initially thought the invigilator was wrong. I said "Sir, the time is 11:30 . We still have 1 hour". He said "You write for another hour and give your paper to me next year same time same place". I was shocked!!! I looked at my watch again. It was a beautiful masterpiece by SWATCH, only if it had not gone dead at the right moment. The watch stood still at 11:30 AM. I had done my best in the next 20. Once I was out of the hall, the first thing I did was to hit the watch hard on the ground and enjoyed watching it shatter to pieces.
Theres nothing much to do other than await for the results which would be released soon.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Episode 4 of "Dad... I wanna start up my own business"
Law of Conservation in CAT
"Energy can neither be created nor destroyed" , I still remember this phrase which I had learnt long ago in class 11. Which is pretty unusual with me. I have an excellent memory space available, but unfortunately most of it is filled with either movies/games/gossips and sometimes . So if you try to explore my mind, you would get infected too. Studies/acads are the last thing which woud find space in my mind.
Coming to the point, I found a strange similarity between this law of conservation of energy as well as another law which I could recognize over a series of mockcats. Just take a luk at 3 weekend scores consecutively:
Date: 21/9/08
Quant: 94%
LRDI: 23%
Verbal: 38%
Overall: 68%
Date: 28/9/08
Quant: 34%
LRDI: 23%
Verbal: 88%
Overall: 65%
Date: 5/10/08
Quant: 24%
LRDI: 93%
Verbal: 28%
Overall: 63%
A strange pattern is what I observed. My underperformance seems to be shifting from one section to another. The scores reminded me of the fat in my body which never goes out of my body but only keeps shifting from one place to another. Whenever I tried to concentrate on a particular section, I succed in that but parallelly screwed up the other 2. I need to be given a nobel price for having been able to apply the law of conservation so successfully in a field so different.
When things go wrong, we may just pray God and hope that they set right soon, but when things keep going wrong, especially when you do not have any other options available, thats when we start to panic. I was exactly in a similar situation then. Panic, Panic , Panic. I needed a way, a new strategy. I needed to win this war, atleast come out of it alive. What do I do? Where do I start?
"GOD.... Plzz gimme some energy to sort this out", I thought. Just then God answered my prayers. I saw a boost counter at the opposite side of the road selling hot boost in glass as a promotional campaign for the drink. In the next minute I had a mug of hot boost in my hand. I took a sip and thanked god for answering my prayers and giving me Sachin's energy. I took another sip and stared at the TIME's advertising hoarding which said "Just 3 weeks to go for the D day". My heart started beating a little faster. I knew I had to do something and do it fast.
Next episode is a crucial one , keep waiting as I did, along with 2.65 lakh others, for the D day on November 16th --- CAT 2008.
"Energy can neither be created nor destroyed" , I still remember this phrase which I had learnt long ago in class 11. Which is pretty unusual with me. I have an excellent memory space available, but unfortunately most of it is filled with either movies/games/gossips and sometimes . So if you try to explore my mind, you would get infected too. Studies/acads are the last thing which woud find space in my mind.
Coming to the point, I found a strange similarity between this law of conservation of energy as well as another law which I could recognize over a series of mockcats. Just take a luk at 3 weekend scores consecutively:
Date: 21/9/08
Quant: 94%
LRDI: 23%
Verbal: 38%
Overall: 68%
Date: 28/9/08
Quant: 34%
LRDI: 23%
Verbal: 88%
Overall: 65%
Date: 5/10/08
Quant: 24%
LRDI: 93%
Verbal: 28%
Overall: 63%
A strange pattern is what I observed. My underperformance seems to be shifting from one section to another. The scores reminded me of the fat in my body which never goes out of my body but only keeps shifting from one place to another. Whenever I tried to concentrate on a particular section, I succed in that but parallelly screwed up the other 2. I need to be given a nobel price for having been able to apply the law of conservation so successfully in a field so different.
When things go wrong, we may just pray God and hope that they set right soon, but when things keep going wrong, especially when you do not have any other options available, thats when we start to panic. I was exactly in a similar situation then. Panic, Panic , Panic. I needed a way, a new strategy. I needed to win this war, atleast come out of it alive. What do I do? Where do I start?
"GOD.... Plzz gimme some energy to sort this out", I thought. Just then God answered my prayers. I saw a boost counter at the opposite side of the road selling hot boost in glass as a promotional campaign for the drink. In the next minute I had a mug of hot boost in my hand. I took a sip and thanked god for answering my prayers and giving me Sachin's energy. I took another sip and stared at the TIME's advertising hoarding which said "Just 3 weeks to go for the D day". My heart started beating a little faster. I knew I had to do something and do it fast.
Next episode is a crucial one , keep waiting as I did, along with 2.65 lakh others, for the D day on November 16th --- CAT 2008.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Episode 3 of "Dad... I wanna setup my own business"
Before starting episode 3, I would like to ask you guys for forgiveness. I had mentioned in my previous episode that the very next day , I had caught a train back to Vizag. But That was not the case, I had to work for another 2 months and started to Vizag on August 25th 2008.
"To err is Human, to forgive is divine". (I remind myself I am human everytime i do some mistake :P)
CAT , CAT and only CAT.
August 25th, in the train, sitting and sipping a drink beside the window seat, enjoying the view. Guess what I had in my right hand..... Ipod? No. Sidney Sheldon Novel ? No. A pen and a paper, making a clear plan as to how to prepare for CAT in the next 2 and half months.
I started making schedules and plans for the coming months in the train itself. One of my close friends once said , "You fail to plan, then you are planning to fail". But in a week I had realized that, planning alone is not enough, implementing your plan is the mantra in which I had failed miserably.
I had reached Vizag on 27th August after a long journey via Chennai. Vizag welcomed me with its soothing sea breeze, its spicy mirchi bajji taste and not to mention the natural beauty. I was so excited being with my family and friends at my hometowm that it took me a week to realize that I had an exam waiting for me.
Registered at TIME, one of the best coaching centers in India for CAT. A few days passed and I had written my first Mock CAT exam on sunday. I strictly followed the advice given by one of my favorite teachers in school, "Aim for 100%, then you ll end up getting a 90". I realized how wrong it was as far as CAT is concerned only after I had received that week's mockCAT result.
--------------------------
Y.Vamsi Krishna
Quant: 84%le
Verbal: 21%le
LRDI: 11%le
OA: 62%le.
---------------------------
62%le :(
WHen I had checked the B schools which mapped to the score I got, the average salary figure had left me in a state of shock. It was way below what I was currenlty earning, without an MBA degree.
Now I know I would be blasted with questions "WHy do u need the salary statistics when you are looking to start up your own business?"
Well, I dont have a clear cut answer to that but thts the way it works in Indian education system, isn't it? The better the average salary of the college , the better it is presumed to be. So I dint have any other means of judging a college. I had to go by the average salary figures.
Coming back to CAT, I had decided 62%le is not going to take me anywhere. I need to do much better than that. But how much? 99.99? 99.55? Atleast 99? My mom said, one of her colleague's son had got 98.4%le last year. He is making another attempt and this time he is aiming for over 99? I laughed at him for his heights of craziness. If that were my score this year, I would be treating my friends at the TAJ, I decided.
But for that I need to quickly figure out what went wrong in the last exam?
"You need to come up with a new strategy" said my instructor, as if I was on a war and the entire enemy army is closing in on me in all directions. But yeah, in India, unfortunately, education is a war, a race , and any lapse on your part is going to leave you buried alive.
The new strategies and new twists in the next episode.
And guys, you need to give me a pat for my commitment, its 3:45 am now. Staying awake only to update the blog :P
"To err is Human, to forgive is divine". (I remind myself I am human everytime i do some mistake :P)
CAT , CAT and only CAT.
August 25th, in the train, sitting and sipping a drink beside the window seat, enjoying the view. Guess what I had in my right hand..... Ipod? No. Sidney Sheldon Novel ? No. A pen and a paper, making a clear plan as to how to prepare for CAT in the next 2 and half months.
I started making schedules and plans for the coming months in the train itself. One of my close friends once said , "You fail to plan, then you are planning to fail". But in a week I had realized that, planning alone is not enough, implementing your plan is the mantra in which I had failed miserably.
I had reached Vizag on 27th August after a long journey via Chennai. Vizag welcomed me with its soothing sea breeze, its spicy mirchi bajji taste and not to mention the natural beauty. I was so excited being with my family and friends at my hometowm that it took me a week to realize that I had an exam waiting for me.
Registered at TIME, one of the best coaching centers in India for CAT. A few days passed and I had written my first Mock CAT exam on sunday. I strictly followed the advice given by one of my favorite teachers in school, "Aim for 100%, then you ll end up getting a 90". I realized how wrong it was as far as CAT is concerned only after I had received that week's mockCAT result.
--------------------------
Y.Vamsi Krishna
Quant: 84%le
Verbal: 21%le
LRDI: 11%le
OA: 62%le.
---------------------------
62%le :(
WHen I had checked the B schools which mapped to the score I got, the average salary figure had left me in a state of shock. It was way below what I was currenlty earning, without an MBA degree.
Now I know I would be blasted with questions "WHy do u need the salary statistics when you are looking to start up your own business?"
Well, I dont have a clear cut answer to that but thts the way it works in Indian education system, isn't it? The better the average salary of the college , the better it is presumed to be. So I dint have any other means of judging a college. I had to go by the average salary figures.
Coming back to CAT, I had decided 62%le is not going to take me anywhere. I need to do much better than that. But how much? 99.99? 99.55? Atleast 99? My mom said, one of her colleague's son had got 98.4%le last year. He is making another attempt and this time he is aiming for over 99? I laughed at him for his heights of craziness. If that were my score this year, I would be treating my friends at the TAJ, I decided.
But for that I need to quickly figure out what went wrong in the last exam?
"You need to come up with a new strategy" said my instructor, as if I was on a war and the entire enemy army is closing in on me in all directions. But yeah, in India, unfortunately, education is a war, a race , and any lapse on your part is going to leave you buried alive.
The new strategies and new twists in the next episode.
And guys, you need to give me a pat for my commitment, its 3:45 am now. Staying awake only to update the blog :P
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Episode 2 "Dad... I wanna start up my own business!!!"
The day I made a decision
It was 21st June 2008 and the days were just passing by. I was doing my ususal job of maintaining the account of a US based client. A typical maintenance project. It was on 28th of June when I was having a conversation with my Dad. Normally, the conversation would be a typical dad-son conversation filled with work life, salaries, savings etc, but this day was a little different.
Me: Dad, I have something to tell you.
I could sense a change in tone in my dad's voice.
Dad: Well, what is it?
Me: I have submitted my resignation today.
Dad: What??? WHat are you saying? R u serious??
Me: Dad... WHy would I joke on issues as serious as this?
Dad: Yeah there were occassions like your tenth results, your college brawl etc when i really wished you were joking. But they all turned out to be serious.
Me: Dad, but this is not a negative decision like tenth marks or college brawls. I have taken this decision keeping my future in mind. I cannot continue in an IT job throughout my life dad. I knew I had to quit and follow my dreams someday and I think the day has come.
Dad: So what plans now? How do you wish to approach?
Me: Dad, I think I need to do MBA to learn all the tricks and techniques of business. So CAT awaits me on the third sunday of November. I ll give it a shot and hope for the best.
Dad: CAT is an exam where lakhs of students takeevery year. And with your potential for preperation I would be surprised if you even qualify. Anyways, I just hope you know what you are doing.
Me: Definitely Dad.
And there ended the call.... I wish I were as confident as I sounded. I knew CAT was a tough nut to crack. Infact I would call it a stone in the form of a nut. One of my bookworm friend had given it last time and had scored a 91%le. And if anyone who knew us had to rate our studying capabilities on a scale of 10, they would give him 10 and me 1. (Or they might even slide down to negatives had they known me too well).Hence, I knew I had to set a realistic target.So, I had set a %le of 80 as a target. I just thought of one thing, "Education is equivalent to Goddess Saraswati. So it is the same everywhere, let it be in the IIMs or any other so called B grade B schools. After all God is omnipresent." Hence I decided I would get into some mediocre B school and learn everything I can about how to run a business.
So next day, I caught a train back to my hometown, Vizag, with only 1 thing in mind... CAT.
.............. (To be continued)....
It was 21st June 2008 and the days were just passing by. I was doing my ususal job of maintaining the account of a US based client. A typical maintenance project. It was on 28th of June when I was having a conversation with my Dad. Normally, the conversation would be a typical dad-son conversation filled with work life, salaries, savings etc, but this day was a little different.
Me: Dad, I have something to tell you.
I could sense a change in tone in my dad's voice.
Dad: Well, what is it?
Me: I have submitted my resignation today.
Dad: What??? WHat are you saying? R u serious??
Me: Dad... WHy would I joke on issues as serious as this?
Dad: Yeah there were occassions like your tenth results, your college brawl etc when i really wished you were joking. But they all turned out to be serious.
Me: Dad, but this is not a negative decision like tenth marks or college brawls. I have taken this decision keeping my future in mind. I cannot continue in an IT job throughout my life dad. I knew I had to quit and follow my dreams someday and I think the day has come.
Dad: So what plans now? How do you wish to approach?
Me: Dad, I think I need to do MBA to learn all the tricks and techniques of business. So CAT awaits me on the third sunday of November. I ll give it a shot and hope for the best.
Dad: CAT is an exam where lakhs of students takeevery year. And with your potential for preperation I would be surprised if you even qualify. Anyways, I just hope you know what you are doing.
Me: Definitely Dad.
And there ended the call.... I wish I were as confident as I sounded. I knew CAT was a tough nut to crack. Infact I would call it a stone in the form of a nut. One of my bookworm friend had given it last time and had scored a 91%le. And if anyone who knew us had to rate our studying capabilities on a scale of 10, they would give him 10 and me 1. (Or they might even slide down to negatives had they known me too well).Hence, I knew I had to set a realistic target.So, I had set a %le of 80 as a target. I just thought of one thing, "Education is equivalent to Goddess Saraswati. So it is the same everywhere, let it be in the IIMs or any other so called B grade B schools. After all God is omnipresent." Hence I decided I would get into some mediocre B school and learn everything I can about how to run a business.
So next day, I caught a train back to my hometown, Vizag, with only 1 thing in mind... CAT.
.............. (To be continued)....
"Dad... I wanna start up my own business!!!"
It was 20th of June,2008, and that was when I was on phone with my dad from my beloved office.
20th June:
Me: Dad, I wanna start up a business of my own
Dad: Hmmm.... Not enjoying job?
Me: Not really. But I do love the culture in this office.
Dad: So have you thought of as to how to start up and what and when and where and other obvious questions like that?
Me: I have a vague idea but a clear cut picture is getting out of my mind. But nevertheless I am telling you this in advance so that you would not receive it as a shock later.
Dad: Well... I have received enough shocks from you already in life which have actually made me shock resistant. So carry on. I can only wish you all the best.
21st June: (To be continued...)
20th June:
Me: Dad, I wanna start up a business of my own
Dad: Hmmm.... Not enjoying job?
Me: Not really. But I do love the culture in this office.
Dad: So have you thought of as to how to start up and what and when and where and other obvious questions like that?
Me: I have a vague idea but a clear cut picture is getting out of my mind. But nevertheless I am telling you this in advance so that you would not receive it as a shock later.
Dad: Well... I have received enough shocks from you already in life which have actually made me shock resistant. So carry on. I can only wish you all the best.
21st June: (To be continued...)
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