What does CAT-2010 results say - first view

 

So CAT-10 results have been declared. Many journalists asked me the other day - what is your analysis of these results? So, what should be my answer? This is what I think

First, The results are on expected lines. No major surprises. 
This statement surprised many students - specially those who had followed various post CAT analyses and were expecting a different outcome (at least for themselves). Some of them were in for some real shock.

I have met at least five students after the results, who expected very poor results, based on all the analysis they had heard, read & believed. Quite sadly, they are now sitting with 97-98+ percentiles and they have not applied to some important B-schools assuming a much poor show for themselves. 

On the other hand there are quite a few who did not perform as well as they expected themselves to. The list includes

A very bright girl who took test series of three leading coachings and I know that she took each of those tests quite diligently

A consistently bright boy who had been the star performer this year. It was widely believed that he would undoubtedly crack the CAT this year.

Many, who believed that they just needed to clear cutoffs of their weaker sections - rest will be taken care of by their strength areas.

However, cold blooded as it may sound, this is not new neither surprising. 

I wish to attract your attention to what I had written immediately after CAT2010 here. Every CAT-10 aspirant must read it and propagate it to their junior batches to help them prepare better, because I believe that you can now relate to this post better.

Second, it strengthened my belief that consistent and steady prep works to get you selected.
As a matter of pride, I had four with 99.5+ percentiles & two top scores of Indore sitting besides me the same day as results were announced. Just look closely at these students and you find that they were quiet workers who were consistent & sincere at their preparations. They cut through the hype around them, were focussed and worked through their weaknesses as they cruised through their preparations.

"CAT is one exam where it is quite possible that you deserved a selection but you might not make it. However, it is extremely rare that you did not deserve (ie did not prepare well for) it and still you cracked it."

So next time some "Gyani" tells you that he/she cracked the CAT in a couple of months by simply appearing in some test series - simply ignore the advice.

Third, Yet again the results set to rest, the theory that getting IIM calls requires work experience. Believe it or not out of eight odd students that I met on day-1 with 98 plus percentile - just one had work experience (one year).

By IIM's own criteria as published on their official sites - the weight to work experience is approx. 5%. In fact many give more weight to tenth and twelfth results.

All fresh graduates - remember you can crack the CAT. Just ensure that you give yourself some time and regular effort. Somehow, this is not a test to be cracked with a super human effort in a couple of months.

More than anything it establishes the importance of performance in 10th and 12th class. Students in our area often spoil their future by too much focus on IITJEE prep and hence compromising on their high school and higher secondary results.

Fourth, Engineers seem to be ruling the charts.
However, it needs mention that somehow not many non-engineers in our area seem to carry the patience to live through the steady and often torturous grill that they require to bear for performing. Their graduation and school studies generally never exposed them to the required tenacity levels.

Of course, there are bright exceptions to this and so take my statement with a pinch of salt.

End Note :
Since CAT is now a CBT (Computer Based Test) - I appeared in the CAT after almost 15 years from the last time when I was myself an aspirant. It was satisfying to achieve a 99.1 percentile despite the fact that my academic head had categorically asked me to focus on the verbal ability part of the test. Damn him, I could have achieved a 99.9 had I focussed on Quanta (which by the way is my known strength.)