Students’ Speak: What if your CAT performance doesn’t meet your expectations?

By: Abhishek Desai

Aspirants can use their CAT experiences and score really well in other exams (SNAP, XAT, NMAT, CMAT, CET etc) as these are comparatively easier.

Studying for an exam is entirely in the hands of the student, but getting a good score isn’t. There are numerous cases where aspirants had diligently prepared for CAT but ended up with a lower than expected score. One need not regret the result if they had put in the required efforts. There is no harm in failing in life, for it is a failure which teaches us more than success. And a sincere candidate surely bounces back from such setbacks and makes amends by scoring well in the next exams (or next year’s CAT if they are willing to join only an IIM).  

Upon getting the result, one should positively take it in their stride and aim for scoring well in the forthcoming exams such as SNAP, NMAT, XAT, CMAT, CET, etc. It is always advised for MBA aspirants to keep a backup for an entrance exam and not solely depend upon it.

There are examples of aspirants in the past learning from their CAT experiences and scoring really well in the other exams. Since the likes of the aforementioned exams are comparatively easier than CAT, there are pretty good chances of a candidate getting a high score in them.

Since the syllabus of all MBA entrance exams remains more or less the same, now an aspirant just needs to alter the test-taking strategy (which can be done via mocks) and revise the basic concepts thoroughly.  This, evidently, won’t take a lot of time.

To shortlist different colleges accepting various percentile ranges, you can refer to the information provided on Shiksha.com. Check for the cut off scores of past five years to get more clarity on the probable cut off next year. Always keep the return on investment (ROI) and brand name in mind while choosing the colleges; a college having a better brand will always provide a great learning exposure in those two years of MBA/PGDM.

Based on the scores in the recent mocks, you can get a fair idea of which college to be ideally aimed for. Keep a wide range of good backup colleges. For instance, the usual cutoff score of SIBM and SCMHRD (the premier B-schools via SNAP) is 95+ percentile whereas the same for other good colleges (SIIB, SCIT, etc) is roughly 90+ percentile.

When it comes to giving suggestions on increasing the scores, observe whether you are spending more time than required on a particular question/section or not since most of the upcoming exams would be more speed-based. Keep a tab on the time as well as the accuracy during the mocks. Ask your peers and professors for more help and make use of articles and videos posted on the Internet on how to use shortcuts and tricks to solve a particular type of question. 

About the Author:  

Abhishek Desai is currently pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in e-Business from Welingkar Institute of Management. He has done his Summer Internship in the field of Market Research with 'TimesofMoney'. He's also served as Secretary of the Green Committee at Welingkar.