What to do the day before CAT?

The simple answer to this is 'Nothing'. The more elaborate answer is "Nothing much". But since I cannot pass off two words as an article, I am going to do the MBA-thing. Say lot of words that convey the same point.

Dont let lack of sleep get to you.
Everyone is going to tell you that you should sleep a lot the day before the exam. But if you have prepared with any amount of intensity, you will find falling asleep tough. Acknowledge that. Keep in mind that the adrenaline on the day of the exam will drown out any fatigue from sleep-deprivation. If you can get 8 hours of the good stuff, great. But if you manage only 4 hours of it, the worst thing to do is to go into the exam beating yourself about this "mere 4 hours". 4 hours is more than enough. Sachin Tendulkar has slept less than that and scored centuries the next day. Going into a critical exam, it is likely that you are too switched on and cannot sleep that easily. Dont worry about this.

Do something that you enjoy, but do not overdo it
Watch a movie, play football, watch youtube videos of Lionel Messi, take a nice ride/drive. Do whatever it is that puts you at ease, but dont do this 2 am.

Get the small details right
Fuel your vehicle, check the hall ticket, verify if the photograph is the same, set aside your favourite pen etc.

Dont fret about preparation, now is not the time to regret the long weekend you took to goof off
However well you might have prepared, give your best shot with that. Do not go in feeling that you are under-cooked. The last day is to gee yourself up, so focus all your attention on conning yourself into believing.

Fly off the blocks, let adrenaline do its thing
In the minutes before the exam, bin all thoughts of percentiles, formulae, strategy, cut-offs and other nonsense. Simplify. Think what Usain Bolt would be thinking before  a 100m dash. He might have prepared his entire adult life for the race. But on the eve of the race, he is going to operate with a simple framework "Hear starting gun, run for 10 seconds". Solving questions is the best way to relax yourself. The least you can do is give yourself a chance.

Remember, this is not such a big deal.
Anyone who does well in the exam has to be reasonably sharp; while the converse is not true. This exam is but one outlet to showcase your mettle. Nothing more, nothing less.

Best wishes from the entire 2IIM team for CAT 2015. 

Why I take CAT every year? - article by Rajesh Balasubramanian

I have been asked this question many times in many fora and I had always provided a 'fudged' answer. So, I thought I could have some fun thinking about the real answer. Ergo, this post.

I completed my Post Graduate Diploma in Management more than a decade ago. And like most of my classmates, I graduated with the feeling that I had already completed one MBA too many. Why then do I take the CAT every year?

There are two reasons for this. The first is the ‘professional’ reason. I run 2IIM, an online education Company that focuses on CAT preparation. I spend gazillion hours teaching students and creating content and so it helps to have a sense of what the exam is all about.

The second, personal reason is probably more interesting. I like the challenge of taking an exam where one has to reactivate the grey cells for three hours. If you have ever sat down to try a crossword, math puzzle or good old Sudoku, you will have a sense of what I am talking about here. 

The CAT provides more context so test-taking is far more than being merely a fun exercise of the brain. The exam setting creates an intensity that is absent elsewhere and this adds to the thrill.

In one sense, the exam is also my own way of saying I can compete with the youngsters today. Of  striking a blow against the ageists, and telling myself that the intermediary years spent on the drudgery of stock-peddling have not (yet) dulled my senses.

The obvious question here is whether there might not be far better avenues of challenging myself. There probably are. But they all probably involve lot more practice and training. For instance, running marathons needs six months of training and the very thought of consuming long miles with just myself for company leaves me with dread. So, I want something that can push me over a few short hours, preferably only once every twelve months or so. Ergo, CAT. Besides, I have saved up long-distance running for the mid-life crisis.

Contrary to popular perception, the CAT is actually a high quality exam. Any testing mechanism can commit two kinds of errors - It can let in undeserving candidates, or it can miss out on deserving candidates. The better exams do a good job on both counts. The CAT is very well designed for limiting one kind of error - anyone who does well in the exam has to be reasonably sharp; while the converse is not true. It is society that perversely assumes the converse and therefore ends up placing enormous pressure on candidates. Standardized tests cannot be created to cater to all types of intelligences. We should be mature enough to accept that.

As a potential candidate, you are probably thinking – I have read this piece about the motivations of a 35-year old ex-banker whose idea of a good time is to take exams. What am I going to get out of this?

My experience as a test-taker has placed me in a unique position of being able to view the exam not only as an involved participant, but also as someone who is pressure-free as far as the wider consequences are concerned. The one input I would give all aspirants is to have a sense of joie-de-vivre while approaching the exam. Try to retain a sense of wonder about the idea of solving problems or cracking puzzles. To cite a sports parallel, football can be associated with either catenaccio or Joga Bonito. As far as CAT goes, Joga Bonito (play beautifully).

Best wishes for the CAT.

An excerpt from this piece appeared in the India Today Aspire issue that can be found here.

The author, Rajesh Balasubramanian is an alumnus from IIMB (2003) who runs 2IIM Online CAT Coaching company. The author takes CAT every year and has the distinction of having scored 100^th percentile in CAT 2011, 2012 and CAT 2014.

What is the deal with CAT and Engineers?

There is an insane amount of utter tosh about CAT and Engineers floating around in some of the loonier corners of the internet (website that means education and a website that encompasses the WGSOMM of the MBA-realm come to mind). Every piece of information from the IIMs is viewed with through the glasses "Does it make it easier or tougher for Engineers?"

So, let us take an approach of not sitting on the fence and generally going all out and decimating the two primary myths centered on MBA in India and Engineers

Myth Number 1 - CAT is rigged in favour of engineers

This is humbug. The exam tests basic math, the kind of stuff students are expected to learn in class VI to X. If a keen 10th standard student were to take the CAT, he/she should ace the exam. There is nothing in the exam that engineers have a particular advantage in cracking. There is absolutely no overlap between the math engineers learn in their engineering and CAT. 

Then why do so many engineers crack this exam. Two clear reasons are present for this - Reading this might hurt the good part of the brain a little bit. So, pregnant ladies, people faint of heart and those utterly committed to feeding their delusions are requested to stop reading now.

i. A lot of engineers take this exam. The largest pool of applicants comprises engineers. There is not a stunning revelation, but something a great many fabulously ignore while discussing CAT and engineers. They form a giant proportion of the applicant pool, it is to be expected that they should form a giant proportion of the people joining. 

ii. Most Indian Engineers did not choose to do engineering, they went there because it is considered a good option. Now, this is vital. 90% of Indian 18-year olds do not have a clear idea about what they want to study (90% of the remaining are delusional, but that is an article for another time). Students try to do engineering because it is considered to be among the best options. Now, what this means is that engineering group enjoys a certain pre-selection. A great many try to do engineering. A bunch of them dont get good seats, so do some other course. A further round of pre-selection happens for IITs and NITs. So, the simple truth is that the among the guys who tried to do engineering (a large percentage of the population), some 20% succeed, and within this some 10% get into the very best colleges. Obviously, these guys are the ones who are better-suited to cracking another exam. 

Let me give you a parallel to this. Let us take the leading providers for mock CATs in the Country and select the 1000 guys who have consistently scored the above 95th percentile in one or more of this. The chances are that 50% of these 1000 will make it to one of the top 10. Now imagine a backlash against them where complaints pore in about how the game is rigged in favour of these 1000. Correlation does not imply causality. If you have a large group that has gone through pre-selection, chances are it will do well in subsequent exams. 

Testing basic quantitative ability and verbal ability has been accepted as a decent proxy for gauging ability and smarts. The CAT does a decent job of this. Feeling aggrieved that engineers crack this is akin to feeling aggrieved that the IIMs want smart people. A bunch of IIT-ians and NIT-ians do well in CAT because they are good. Not because they are favoured in any way. The exam is already a level playing field.

The arguments that the playing field is not level should be based on the content of the exam, not on the basis that engineers get in. Contrary to popular belief, the quant tested in CAT is not rocket science. Anyone who took CAT 2014 will tell you this. 

To put differently, "Some people are born to do BA literature, some miss out and land in BA literature, and some have BA literature as the best thing they can do". If you are really smart, and chose to do BA literature rather than have it thrust down your throat, the CAT is the best way to prove it. Asking for a a lower percentile cut off to get into the IIMs deprives BA literature grads the opportunity to prove their worth. 

Myth Number 2. The IIMs in a bid to increase diversity, have rigged the game against engineers

This myth can be exploded with a simple stat. In each of the past 3 years, give or take 95% of the entrants into IIMA have been engineers. Let us take in this stat again. We are not talking about a majority here, we are not even talking about a majority that can push through constitutional change, we are talking about overwhelming, minority-crushing, autocracy-threatening majority here. On the front of game being rigged against engineers, there is no room for even a conversation. 

IIMA, after conducting a rigorous process where they claim to increase diversity manage to select  ~20 students every year who are not engineers. 

So, where does this leave us

If you are not an engineer, shed this persecution complex. Write two things down on a big white wall 1) CAT is not easier for engineers and 2) Correlation does not imply causality. (The second one should be written down on as many white walls as possible)

If you are an engineer, shed this persecution complex. If you are an engineer, you probably have a lot of practice in ignoring stuff written on walls, so do not write anything on a wall. 

CAT tests aptitude, the interview process is also meritocratic. Anyone who puts his/her down prepares with focus and sincerity can crack this exam. (Of course it helps immensely if you have the 2IIM Online Course to help)

Fabulous internet myths on the same theme

1. CAT is rigged in favour of engineers. 

2. CAT has made it extra tough for engineers to get through. 

3. IIMs have increased their focus on diversity this year. (Why this year. Because of astrological reasons)

4. Verbal will be made tougher this year in order to make it tougher for engineers (Engineers are supposedly better at Quant. Why should they be worse in Verbal?)

5. Onscreen calculator has made it easier for engineers (Because they can type in numbers quicker )

6. Onscreen calculator has made it easier for non-engineers (because engineers type in numbers incorrectly)

7. Separate timings for each section has made life easier for non-engineers/engineers 

All of these theories are peddled by people who do not have any better way of spending their time. Thankfully, they are debunked by people who even though they have far better ways of spending their time, have suddenly been so irritated by the amount of "expert gyaan" on silly websites have made it their evening's work to rant on the internet. Have fun preparing for CAT.