A personal Interview is, first and foremost, an interaction. When you meet someone for the first time, your first takeaway is an impression from that interaction. The impression is usually qualitative – good, bad or umm.. unremarkable. Unlike the first stage of the selection process, wherein your CAT preparation results in some tangible numbers and percentiles as an objective...Read More

One of the major drag-downs on success in any field, including CAT preparation, is the tendency to take a lot of pressure. For most of us ordinary mortals, pressure has a negative impact on performance. It takes away a lot of energy, it can cause a brain-freeze at crucial times, and it doesn’t help us improve....Read More

It was March 2001, if my memory serves me right. It was the day of my IIM Cal PI. The IIM Placement reports had just come in and a couple of days old Times of India front page carried the headlines of an IIM Cal student getting a 1 crore per annum package! Yes, this...Read More

I tend to relate a lot of cricketing stuff with CAT Prep. Tendulkar was really good when he was just 14 years of age. He was smashing school records and dominating the best bowlers in the Mumbai circuit. He wasn’t a novice when he played against a formidable Pakistan pace bowling attack as a 16-year old...Read More

The one area that seems vast and undefined for your B-School/IIM Personal Interview prep is awareness. During the first phase of your CAT preparation journey, you know the topics you will be tested upon and hence, the defined syllabus allows you to prepare accordingly. But this changes completely when it comes to the second stage of your...Read More

Not all CAT coaching success stories are struggles – some are relatively straightforward with just an occasional twist. But am sharing this one because it contrasts with the previous story of Hitanksha. She was a Journalism student of the Delhi University. And for her, it was the reunion with Quant after a long gap that presented a challenge....Read More

Sometimes we tend to complicate things just because they are important. We feel they must be complicated just because they are important. It happens all the time during the CAT preparation process as well. Even the best CAT Coaching institutes tend to encourage this because somehow it adds the perception of value being added to the CAT coaching experience...Read More

Often, when a CAT aspirant begins her/his CAT preparation or joins a CAT coaching institute, she/he expresses an apprehension. Usually, it is something similar to “I am weak in Quant” or “I didn’t have Math after class 10th”. Or some other version of ‘Quant-phobia’. It is probably the single most prevalent disease among CAT aspirants :)....Read More

Over the next few months, every week I will share with you snippets of stories of young students who were in the place you find yourself today in. They were unsure just like you may be today; they were faced with the challenges of CAT prep just like you are today; and they finally overcame those to garner success just like...Read More

Indulge me because I do end up picking up a lot of cricketing examples in relation to your CAT coaching journey. It is partially borne out of my affection for both CAT and Cricket. And partly because it just makes a lot of sense. But since you’ve been really patient with what I’ve been sharing over the...Read More