23 Jul 2014

Cracking the CAT exam for Repeaters -

By Patrick Dsouza

There is an interesting fact. More than 80% who score more than 95%ile in CAT 1st attempt invariably end up scoring lesser percentile in the second attempt.  Well what is the issue? Ideally if a person scored 95%ile+ he must be a good student. He has also practiced hard for his second attempt for CAT. So even after 1 more year of preparation he is still not able to improve the scores. There are many reasons for that. One of the biggest reasons for the same is that they are all apprehensive about change. They feel what they do is right. But understand that the only way to improve is to keep changing. If you do not change the way you solve you will never improve your scores.

A lot of businesses have lost because they kept on doing the same thing without trying to change. Ambassador Cars, Bajaj Scooters, Nokia Phones, etc. Why did all these products fail? Reason being they thought they were good at what they did and did not embrace change. Look at the successful companies like HUL, Samsung Phones, Toyota Motors, etc. Would they have been successful had they not changed? Same is the case with improvement in any sphere of life including MBA preparation. If you stick to what you know without learning new ways of doing things you will not improve.

I know of a student who had scored 99.7%ile in CAT. He had come to me for advice. Tried to convince him to change the way he solves, but he was apprehensive telling me that he was good at what he did and was afraid of change. He ended up scoring 99.1%ile and lost out on all the calls from top colleges. Another student who had similar marks and I tried to advise him in the same way. He was happy to change and managed a 99.95%ile. These are not the only examples I have. I know  a lot of students who scored 99%le + and scored miserably in the next attempt.

The reason I am so sure about it is that I myself lost out because of the same folly. When I gave CAT for the first time I had got a call from IIM C, but was not able to convert. Next time I worked harder solving more problems. At the same time I had a friend of mine who was working in the same department. He had taken up CET and had not even secured a seat in any of the top 5 colleges due to his poor score. On the day of the result I was confident that I will crack the exam and that my friend will perform poorly. But to my shock I did not manage to get a single call whereas my friend managed to get all the 4 calls IIM ABCL. As mentioned in the movie ‘Three Idiots’, it hurts when your friend has failed, but it hurts even more when your friend has topped the class and you are nowhere. When I tried to find out the reason for my friend’s good performance I realised that he used to study with a friend of his who had got all four calls last year and could not convert it and was giving CAT again. He managed to change the way he solved the sums learning a lot from his friend.  It is only later when I started teaching students for CAT that I realised that the reason for the same was that though I was good at what I did, but it was not the way to improve. With a few changes in the way I solved I could improve my scores exponentially which is shown by my consistent 99.95%ile+ performance in CAT and even getting a 100%ile twice.

During my training period what I realised was that even if students are not very great and if they are open to change, they can crack the CAT with ease. It is actually very difficult for a good student to change which I realised is his/her own doing. To cite a few examples: I had a student who had taken up CET but did not manage to get into any of the colleges of his choice. He started preparing for CAT and was quite flexible in his approach and was able to score a 99.9%ile in CAT and get a seat in IIM-A. Another girl who had scored a 77%ile in CAT managed to score a 99.38%ile in the next attempt to get into IIM-L. What I realised was that these students did not do well just because they worked hard. There are many such examples that I have. Working hard is definitely required. What they did different was that they completely changed the way they solved questions. Focussed more on getting the methods right. They were not happy with being able to solve a sum, but went on to discuss with others and trying to get the best way to solve the sums and inculcate their learning in the other sums that they used to solve.

So, how do you improve? Try getting a mentor who is better than you or form a group so that the students in the group are better and you can learn from them. Don’t just follow whatever is taught to you blindly. Check it you feel the method is good and whether you can apply it to many other sums. Constantly push yourself to the limits no matter how good you score in your mocks.

As Frank Marshall, a chess master, said "The hardest thing in chess is to win a won game.". Which in terms of preparation for management exams mean that you are very good and capable of cracking the CAT, but become complacent and lose out on the opportunity to do so.

Good luck as you change to conquer the CAT!

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