November 29, 2009 :THE "CAT" DIARY

So, what do you expect from the new CAT( Common Admission Test) on the day of your exam? For some do not expect anything( just like me) while others burn the midnight oil to find out what CAT might have in store. My CAT was scheduled on 29th November, 3:30pm at Thakur College of Eng., Kandivali, Mumbai. As for me, the day was like any other day and I woke up at 8 in the morning not realising the IMPORTANCE of the day. The first thing I did in the morning was...........morning ablutions, attend to the nature's call and brush my teeth of course.......then I went down my 5th floor flat( through the stairs that is) and read a few newspapers at the public reading room, which is what I normally do. So, there it was "CAT 09 begins with Technical Glitches" the front page news of a national daily. My first reaction was......yawn...............  .yawn...................... .yawn........(that's three reactions) . I expected that in the first place not because I doubt the credentials of Prometric ETS, the testing company which has been awarded the $40million 5 year contract to conduct the online CAT, but rather due to the shaky Indian connectivity infrastructural problems we face every now and then. So, while flipping through the pages of the daily newspaper I saw a news article informing me that the Train Services in the western line, where I was headed for the CAT, will remain affected due to construction work going on.What to do then? I started reading the newspapers at 9 in the morning and by the time I read this news it was already 10:30 so I had to take off early as suggested by the news article.

I ate nothing( against the wishes of my friends) and collected all the exam paraphernalia and headed to my destination, Kandivali east. Dadar station, from where I was to board the train for Kandivali, was as usual, Chaotic. Before I went inside the station, I made sure I had something to eat( it is a different matter then that I had to eat Wada Pav which i intensely hate). I bought the ticket, boarded the train and after 35-45 mins was in Kandivali. From there, I took an auto to the testing site. After a few enquiries about the exact location of the site from the local people, I was standing there right in front of the exam site gate. The CAT blues were nowhere visible in me until I saw hordes of Indian media people outside the gate. They made me realize that this day is different and important. I had a few worried heartbeats which I, surprisingly,  managed. The ordinary day was no longer ordinary as the media people wanted it to be a day of embarrassment for both the Prometric and the IIMs. A TV Today journalist was approaching every possible thing coming out of the exam gate.

It was around 12 and I was already getting tired when, through God's grace,  I  saw two beautiful women standing outside the exam gate. They seemed to be in their early 20s, had brown hair and a couple of conspicuously BIG THINGS.  It was all easy after that: why? I kept staring at them for the rest of the time I was outside the test gate. The entry started at 1 pm, which  gave me plenty of time to explore every possible body part they had (and also fantasize a little). Oh yes I forgot to mention, I had a Business Today magazine with me which i pretended to read while staring at them. So that's how I passed my time outside. It was 1 and the entry began. I got through the security measures, the long Q and everything else they had including the fingerprint detector. Still, exam was 2 hours away and sitting in the computer lab in front of a dead PC was no less than a test of patience(should have given marks for that). After a few failed timepassing activities like clicking the mouse, pencil gazing, finger watching,etc., the exam instructor directed us to start the tutorial, which I gladly did. So, after the 15 min tutorial the test began, which was around 30 mins earlier than my scheduled test timing of 3:30. Anyways, I didn't mind that( after all, what can you do in 30 mins when you have not done anything in the last year).

Thus, the CAT began. There were no surprises this time around, except for the fact that the marking system was not specified( what difference that would have made anyways ). The Test was deceptively easier than last year. Quant( which i was hoping to be difficult) was doable, which came as a bolt from the blue for me as it would mean high cutoffs for quant. The other sections were more or less on the same pattern as last years and the difficulty level were also comparable. A good paper for someone who has done a lot of quant while preparing for the CAT( that is not for me). So, I did a few questions in all the sections while thinking about the next CAT at the same time. This would give you an impression like I am giving the CAT next year as well( hell I am). The only saving grace for the day was that I finished my test without any technical glitches(thanks to my good friend who kept her fingers crossed for me). All in all the test went as expected.

After I had finished my exam, I took off for Dadar. While on my way, I saw something truly amazing. I saw a group of people performing a laughter session on the street side. Nothing amazing, right? But, when you consider the fact that this group of people was different in a way that they were dumb and deaf, you realize the significance of what I saw. There was a performer standing in the middle of the group.  The performer was so articulate with his hand movements and gestures that he made me forget the language I know. The communication among them was impeccable and seamless. Every single one of them was laughing and I can bet that that was real happiness which I witnessed in that short span of less than a minute. Even after the CAT exam not going too well, I realized that " LIFE IS MUCH BIGGER" than a few aptitude questions. Right?