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. Pressure, tension, worrying – are usually unproductive, draining, negative. So, pressure handling becomes a key element of success.
Komal’s success story is one of exceptional pressure handling. Where several aspirants see the CAT coaching experience as a high-stake, winner-takes-all, everything-to-lose kind of a journey, she took a completely different view. Her bubbly, effervescent persona helped her excel as much as a thorough CAT prep.
This bright, energetic girl from the Delhi University did have her share of challenges, specifically in Quant! It was a big weakness for her when she started her journey. But that didn’t deter her.
If you belong to the category – “I didn’t have Maths after Xth, so I am woefully out of touch” – then, Komal’s journey should motivate you a lot. The comprehensive SWOT assessment at the beginning of her CAT Prep revealed Quant as a weakness. It was something she already had an idea about, so, she wasn’t surprised or disappointed. In fact, it only made her more confident because this was the primary reason she had opted for ADAPTIVE CAT prep.
During her CAT Prep journey, she underperformed in the QA section in several AIRCATs. But overall she was improving and she took heart from that improvement curve. She did not lose sight of the bigger picture. She had the ADAPTIVE Math module to help her along. But more than anything else, she knew how to stay calm and positive. She literally enjoyed her CAT preparation and loved the perspective the mentors provided by keeping it “chilled out”, as she put it. When you enjoy something you are doing, you focus on the doing part rather than worrying.
Komal Gupta
Starting Point: Fear of Math
Final Point: SP Jain, IMT, TAPMI, GIM
Komal notched up final selections at many prestigious B-Schools such as SP Jain (Mumbai), IMT Ghaziabad, TAPMI, KJ Somaya and Goa Institute of Management. In the short 1-minute video above, she touches upon why she chose MBAGuru, Quant as her weaker area, how ADAPTIVE Module at MBAGuru helped her improve in the same, and how she the faculty at MBAGuru ensured a ‘chilled out” prep by taking away the pressure from it. In my view, it was her chilled out attitude that made the difference. That weaknesses are an opportunity to adapt and improve is a lesson for all CAT aspirants. That’s what adds the ‘extra’ to the ‘ordinary’ and makes it ‘extra-ordinary’.
3 lessons for every CAT aspirant from Komal’s story:
1. Knowing your weakness is a strength, if you have the tools to improve upon it.
2. Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture – don’t let interim failures bother you as long as you are moving in the right direction.
3. Stay calm and enjoy your CAT prep journey!
About the author: Deekshant has sleep-walked through several 100 and 99.9 %iles in practically every section of the CAT. That he is a cricket fan and he writes okay is evident from most of his posts. 1000s of our students swear that he can motivate almost anyone to double his/her percentile through very simple yet powerful inputs. And that’s why every MBAGuru student has direct access to him via mail and Telegram. Oddly, he somehow also finds the time to write songs professionally. And yes … almost missed this … he is an alumnus of IIT Delhi & IIM Cal 