Reported at 10:30, the test was to start at 11:00. This half an hour passed as an eternity since was never habituated to sit idle for so long. Nevertheless, found something that could be done - see through the cover page and identify how many questions, sections are there in the test. Could very well make out that the test had three sections of 50 marks each with 30 questions each - 10 of which should be 1 mark questions, and 20 of two marks questions. This also sent a shiver down the body as only 90 questions definitely meant a tougher test - but then the thought came - would it not make it easier for me to score 100 percentile? And the fears were cast aside. I decided that I would not give more than 12 minutes to 1 mark questions in each section, and that I must get all of them done and done right – if I were to score 100 percentile.
Still I had 15 minutes to kill, and then set out to carry out another of my pass-time activity - face reading of people around me. The girl next to me seemed average or may be good with little short on confidence. Some seemed unnecessarily very hyper active, some seemed tense. But one lady in far corner caught my attention as she seemed very certain of herself and determined. Well, the safest part of face reading in such circumstances is that you never get to verify your inferences, and so you can always feel you were right.
I set my watch to 11:00, and pulled out the key so that when the invigilater signals, I can push the key back in position and start my watch.
And the supervisor signaled the test to start. And I immediately started with Quants section as that being my forte, I could solve 9 questions in about 12 minutes, and was through with 1 mark questions in this section. But Alas! I forgot to start my watch at the signal to start the test. And I didn’t know exact time that I took for the section. This mistake was sure to cause me lot of anxiety through the test.
Then I continued with the test in sequential order till I came to the passage on “Derrida”, and yes it was this passage that cost me my dream of 100 percentile. I started reading the passage, and made the mistake of not taking pause after reading a couple of sentences. A must pause that I suggest all my students was ignored by me out of my overconfidence in comprehension. I read about one-third of the passage without understanding much and thought of leaving that passage. And I made another mistake – took it as a challenge. Another mistake that I often warn my students against. I forgot that IIMs can surprise anybody and everybody. I took that passage as a test of my comprehension, and continued reading that and answering questions. It took me about full 10 minutes to do that passage, and got 1 right and 3 wrongs in the passage. 10 minutes and ZERO marks, and up went my dream of scoring 100 percentile.
DI and reasoning section was once again cool, owing to my comprehension of language, analytical skills and calculation speed.
My reading speed is no great, say 280-300 words per minute; but it’s my comprehension that always keeps me in good stead. It is this comprehending ability that ensures that I never have to read a maths question second time. Also analyzing DI and reasoning questions becomes much easy. Good comprehension saves a lot of time in CAT.
My phenomenal calculation speed is also an ability that helps me in such exams. Though CAT is continuously moving away from sheer calculation speed towards intelligent approaches; it is this ability that makes me comfortable with numbers, and helps me deal with multitude of information mentally – without the need for writing down everything. This helped me save much time in CAT.
While these were at the core of my ability to score 100 percentile, my undoing was to rely heavily on my competency, and mismanagement of my time.
Final results were 99.97 percentile in CAT-05, with 99.98 percentile in Quants, 98.74 percentile in DI-Logic, and 98.47 percentile in Verbal. Let alone for "Derrida", my 100 percentile dream would have come true...
This year, am again going for CAT, to realize my dream of getting 100 percentile.
Yes, I would like to mention one fact here that, though I am applying for CAT, am not marking any program in the application form so that I do not get a call at the expense of a genuine applicant.
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