Come November and December, a lot of students start their CAT preparation for the next year. You  join coaching classes, get actively involved in online forums, buy CAT preparation material, download free stuff, set targets, make groups,. You are all energized, all passionate to make it or break it,  and you are certain that no matter what you are all determined to crack the CAT. A lot of you are able to keep up with your will but a lot of you give up in between the preparation. Every year during this time of the year, I start receiving mails from the students saying that they don’t feel motivated enough to carry on. Some people may not give up physically but psychologically they would have comforted themselves with the thought that IIMs are far fetched. To give you an example, I was at Tathagat the other day and a student came up to TG and said, “Sir main IIM Shillong tick karna bhool gaya apne CAT form mein. ” Even before TG could suggest a solution, he said,” koi baat nahin sir, vaise bhi aur business schools hain. IIM mein nahin gaya to kya hua.“  It didn’t surprise me much because that’s one attitude. If you want to get into the habit of making compromises at the age of 22, then you will be doing that all your life. In a recent Wharton admission session, an alum was telling his reapplication story. He told that by the time he was applying again to Wharton, he had figured out what he wanted to do in life and that he was going to do it with or without Wharton. Finally, he got selected that year. It’s just your attitude that will make difference in your life.

I remember last year when my mom used to come up with marriage proposals from different guys, all I used to think of was my future. (more…)

Is there anything more beautiful than a child’s smile? I guess not.

My maid’s 3 year old daughter, Muskaan, was jumping and giggling more than usual today. I went to pick my breakfast from the kitchen and she started jumping again. I asked her, “what happened?” She said,’ Mummy ne mujhe nayi chappal le kar di hai‘. My maid’s face glowed with happiness to see her daughter’s elation. While I was still serving my breakfast, Muskaan went and came back with her stuff toys and animatedly showed “Ye bhi le kar diye hain.” Her happiness had no bounds. It was all smiles and joy at my home today.

I clicked some of her pics. (click to enlarge)

So tell me what makes you happy and what brings smile on your face?

My stint with reading started after I came to Delhi in 2002.  I was doing BBA from an International University but we were asked that it would be best that we also have an Indian graduation degree. I came from PCM background but hated science. So going for B Sc. was out of question and since I had no background in commerce so B Com also took a backseat. I had three options, either I do simple BA, BA in English Hons. and BA in Political Science. BA Political Science didn’t interest me much, BA pass had Hindi as a compulsory subject and English Hons. was tough nut to crack for someone who didn’t know how to write and had never read a single novel in her life. Ooops!  I eliminated political Science on the first thought and eliminated BA Paas because I could study any subject but Hindi. Even if I would have been  given 6 years to complete the degree I would have flunked in all the 6 years in Hindi. The only option left was that I do English Hons. All my friends except one chose BA Paas because it required less studies to clear the examination. By the way, English Hons required both reading and writing skills, we had to complete around 40 books -poems/ literature in three years. My friends warned me against taking the huge burden but I had only one reason that I could not study Hindi.  The other girl who took English Hons was a writer and had been reading novels since her childhood. Anyways, I took the challenge.

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Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.  ~P.J. O’Rourke

One simple way to crack the Verbal section in CAT or GMAT is to read. There is no other mantra. We might teach you the techniques to tackle different types of questions but we have no control over how you comprehend the written words. The rule is simple. If you read more, you will comprehend better; the better your comprehension is, the better are your chances of getting the questions right. We believe in the rule so, we suggest the same. There are two kind of reactions that we get when we ask students to read at least two novels a week.

Category 1. Reading is not for me or I don’t think I have enough time or You must be kidding me.

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Every year I see at least a dozen of students giving up on their CAT preparation. Some have genuine reasons but some of them just lose the motivation to go till the end. Such students either leave the idea of taking CAT at all or they leave the preparation in midway and take CAT just relying on their luck.  Some in the latter group stop believing in themselves, some of them get demotivated when they see others doing better around, and some of them just have a habit of  starting things but leaving the tasks incomplete. An attitude to give up the task midway is not confined to only CAT preparation, this attitude spreads across in every aspect of  life. Such people shift jobs quickly even when they have not exhausted themselves, they get bored of relationships quickly, they  keep seeking new opportunities  even when they have not explored all the opportunities at hand, they love to crib more and work less,  so on and so forth.

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