There is no substitute for hard work! There cannot be one! I realized it this year :P Oh yes, Life plays a joke on you at times... Realizing the importance of hard work at the age of 23 ! LOL! I'll explain...
Unlike most people who appear for all sorts of entrances in their final year of engineering, I decided to take a year off and study! A giant step! Questions thrown at me from all directions, yes, literally directions... But after Engineering, I wasn't sure of what next! All I knew was I want to study more and not get into JOB-JOB right away, but it was too late, I was already done with engineering. I gave up the job offer and decided to appear for entrances... but again WHICH entrances??? MBA entrances or M.S., M.Tech. entrances :P.. Yes, now you realize my degree of indecisiveness. No, but eventually, i took a decision...! It was MBA! for obvious reasons :P
A professor in my college did question my decision, and she was actually shocked to see me not going for higher technical studies, as she expected. . Not that I was that bad at all the tech stuff! In fact at the end of 6th semester I had a crush on IC Engines. In 7th semester Cryogenics took over. I was good at it... in fact for some months I was even determined to do something in Cryogenics. But that evaporated soon enough! Eventually, ended up deciding to MBA :P atleast I’ll make some money if not Cryogenic Refrigerators and all... Though I still feel, somewhere in my heart, that the latter’d’ve been more interesting. But running away from places where one needs to do immense hard work....oh well, that just described me! :D
So, studying for the prestigious CAT for entry into even more prestigious IIM was on the list! But I took the preparation lightly... Yes. I admit. I knew a month before CAT that I’m not going to make it. Also the examination fear that I have. Then with that depressed state of mind I appeared for some more entrances but couldn't perform like I expected myself to perform. But one thing was sure, as I appeared for exams my fear factor reduced a lot and my realization, that I’m taking all this lightly, increased..
I had taken a year drop when actually I could have easily taken up a job and earned and shopped like most of my friends do! So it started growing on me. By then I had lost CAT, XAT.. JMET was good. SNAP was good... NMAT was great! I realized that as the exam season progressed, my comfort increased! I soooo wish that sequence of exams was exact reverse, I'd've done better in CAT. Though can't vouch for it.. since CAT is a stupid exam ! (more on this later)
All exams done with, I was left with the CET ! Knowing that I’d not made it big in any of previous exams, I decided to give the CET a best shot, which is really needed since there's only one GOOD college that one fights for through CET. But I couldn't concentrate well since was busy giving GDPI of SNAP and JMET and also 12th boards were coming up and I had to help Akshay and Shubham with their Maths and Physics. Finally, was free by 14th February! CET was scheduled on 27th Feb! Yes, ten days of real hard study... only I know HOW I pulled it off!
What I did was-
I appeared for all the mocks of my coaching class, where I’d opted for the CET TEST SERIES i remember this friend (by serendipity) of mine telling me, while we were travelling by local, to solve as many mocks as possible. He was in that particular college already! i kept his words in mind. Constant practice. I scored consistently well in those mocks... But I knew some areas which ate up a lot of time.. Like Venn Diagrams, Input-Output types...! Worked REALLY HARD on these topics, solved 600 Questions from the giant book of verbal and non verbal reasoning in 2 days! Solved 200 non verbal reasoning questions in a day! I realized the difference in my preparation at this point of time. For all previous exams, I never really worked upon my weak areas instead I kept reinforcing the already strong ones! That was a mistake... I solved 20 mocks at home...! Now again, I hadn't done this for any exam before... Towards the end I could solve all 200 questions in 150 minutes!!! (It's not that easy, believe me)
So, was kinda all set for CET, went to the exam centre.. Pretty confident (unlike before), sure to score well (unlike before), thoroughly prepared...with special attention on weak links (unlike before)... But then, like I said, Life does play jokes on you, doesn't it?
Murphy was the one I thought about at that instant when I was writing the paper!!! :D
The CET, most unexpectedly, diverted from its normal pattern... and diverted pretty much!!!! It was tough!! Not at all like the mocks I took... or nowhere resembling the difficulty level either... I started solving the paper... In first 10 minutes, where normally in mocks I used to solve about 15-16 questions, here I could solve only 5-6!!! I said to myself -- "Damn, this ONE exam for which you gave your best shot at preparation in such limited time, this ONE exam which was certainly CRACK-able... has turned otherwise" I pitied myself.. I knew it was the end... I'll have to take admission in a so-so college...coz giving one more year for preparation sounded ridiculous! (And after CAT 2010 I actually started fearing cats !! :P :D you never know when will it change its mind !! ) After 2-3min of the panic attack, I resumed solving the paper.
Finished the paper somehow! Had 180 genuine attempts, 8-9 educated guesses and the rest blind darkening of circles!!! Compare this with 20 mocks, where I could genuinely attempt all 200 consistently!!! It was like a slap on my face for the careless attitude till now... Came out, interacted with people and there were like, really good people attempting in the range of 100-130! And that was when I thought I still stand a chance... But you never know how the cutoffs would turn out...!
Meanwhile, converted 2of 3 SNAP calls, missed NMAT gdpi (biggest mistake), did not appear for TAPMI gdpi... still have their call letter in my cupboard...... :P
Then dawned the result day! I was not expecting anything great! I knew how horrible the paper was and how awful it was for me.... Result came out, and as expected, the scores were too low! Hence, it was good for me :) Where I stood after results, there were about 115 students ahead of me...! But a good score, good percentile.... overall good! But it still did not guarantee me the top most college... the next big thing was gdpi! CET GDPI, they say, is a gamble! It's the most important thing, probably more important than the written exam! :D It is that BIG THING that decides your fate! And this time I knew I can't take the GDPI lightly like I did for previous exams.. One month of GDPI preparation, actually 20 days, and I did my best! Towards the end of the month, there were gdpi's conducted at my coaching institute... participated in like 7-8 GD's... (Had not given mock GD or PI for SNAP or JMET) realized where I need to build up! Learnt a lot by observing people... It was a decent crowd that we had... coupla CET toppers, others were also good speakers. Had a good time collecting facts and figures, reading newspapers, watching news, developing my own perspective towards things, was not that hard, it was indeed good ! Used to watch LokSabha TV for hours together to get updates on facts! I enjoyed the process and realized that I’m ACTUALLY working hard for something....! I felt good...
GDPI went great!
But then it was discovered that there were some errors in allocating work ex marks to people who deserved it... So it is being predicted that the final list will deviate a bit from the provisional list. Final list is going to be out on 29th and here I am, two days before that, writing this blog... describing all the fucked up stuff I created for myself to bring myself where I am today! :D
But whatever the result brings out, I don't care (actually i do :P).. But I have learnt my lessons... and that's more important... Hard work pays off ! Work hard, it will never go unnoticed or unrewarded! :)
Life teaches a lot and such bull shit is digested only when you learn from life... There was a time when I used to laugh at sentences like "Life teaches a lot" but today, having learnt from my own life, I can say that!! :) And whatever went in to get me a lesson learnt, was worth it!
After all everything happens for good!!! And whatever unfortunate happened before -- chuck it!!
Because SHIT HAPPENS! :D
(Will update you all about my result, pray for me)
Goodnight/day!! :)
