” I need one more chance..I know I can do it,” these were the exact words I said to my Maa when she suggested me to join a local b-school in Bangalore, which I have joined.
I finished my Engineering in June 2009. I got campus placed but the company had asked me to join in June 2010. I wanted to work for 2 years and then pursue my MBA abroad. But as I pondered deeply, MBA abroad? any can but CAT where only 1% of total students taking it up will selected for the next round was a challenge and I wanted to try it. I had tried for NIT’s, couldn’t get through , I got a poor rank in my State CET because I was confused whether to concentrate on AIEEE or Karnataka CET though my 12th Std grades were best. All these came to my mind and I decided to take CAT 2009 and give myself a chance to be in the elite group
I enrolled in coaching centre, started preparing and did not think of the job which I had because I didn’t want to play safe. I wanted to win. Mocks started, all the 3 sections, negative marks. This went on and on in all the mocks and finally in my last Mock, I cleared the cut-off in English and DI section. I had improved and now it was all about strategy on D-day
The D-day arrived, the malware which had attacked computer systems, the negative environment surrounding CAT 2009 since it went online had a great impact on my mind and in the exam hall, I panicked.Even though I knew the methods to solve, I couldn’t, it was a disaster. The results were out in January, I logged onto CAT website and there was my result – ’10 percentile.’ I cry rarely and that was the first time after 10 long years I cried. Not because I failed but because I panicked.
My other exams were disaster too since I had no idea as to how to approach it. All these exams and this journey was new to me. I had entered into a world which was entirely new and I knew the risks of not being successful when its tried for the first time.
My Maa was the only moral support and so were my friends who helped me come out of that shock. They knew I was blaming myself for the disaster since I thought it was my fault to swim in an ocean without getting acclamatised with it
June 2010 arrived . I joined an IT company, but my mind and heart was still in CAT, I compromised for a short period of time.
What happened next?? Did I take another attempt or multiple attempts?? How did I land up in a local b-school in Bangalore.
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