The Catastrophic Admission Test...

19th November 2006. 1.77 lakh students. 2.5 hours. 3 gruelling sections. 6 renowned B-schools. One renowned – but over-hyped admission test.

No more stats needed – it was yet another year when students sharpened their ‘lead’ weapons and braced themselves for the make-or-break 2.5 hours – yes, 2.5 hours this time as opposed to the 2 hours before. But was it supposed to help collect your energy and supplement the weak chances, or retain you in the cave of strategy and sweat for longer… this was what no one knew about.
Brief additions – as usual my center was in North Bangalore – and I spent the previous nite at my friends’ place. The college was close by and was supposed to be a famous one in Malleswaram – that’s the area. No surprises in the morning – a huge crowd at the center – but yes, this time a majority of the crowd seemed very much prepared for whateva was supposed to come. TIME/CL/CF/PT/IMS/… (and many more…) seemed to have done their job well – though I will reserve my comments for that, later.

Having found the class and relieved myself, I settled in the typical Bangalorean college benches, awaiting for what was supposed to be the media sensation for the day – the question paper. The gleam of the white booklet was so much that in the hurry I forgot to get a very good look at the OMR itself – it had 5 options for every question. 120 questions printed – so well, I had kind of prepared for each kind of question paper pattern – and formulated some strategies. Though I skipped to settle my mind for the 5 option pattern for those few minutes. Mistake 1.

Why does the Admission Committee ask for the entire addressh to be SHADED is a question which still bothers me. Though I could have done without doing the same – probably I wouldn’t have wasted time till 5 minutes after the test began. Test booklet were distributed 5 minutes late – 75 questions - +4 and –1 pattern - and I had just time to shade the relevant stuff and see the pattern – though I was still shading ‘Bannerghatta Road’ – had practised for it, but it was getting irritating. Mistake 2. All of a sudden the bell rang… heh wait a minute – I am still shadin da address dude – cudnt u ask me before ringing it ???

The next moment I snatch the booklet, break it open and begin on my planned journey for the next 2.5 hours. If I can remember properly now – here’s the detailed transcript:

10:35 – Test begins for me – and I notice 5 options for each answer. Ok enough for 75 questions – I can definitely spend a lot of time on each question – but hang on – one smalll thing – the verbal section can definitely get tough as in elimination of options. But it might not be the case. Lets hope not. Lets go ahead and see the questions. Lets relax… Lets…

10:50 – Verbal. 3 shaded bubbles only – a forced attempt. Tough section. Bakwaas type questions. Sweat.

11:10 – VERY easy quant. Contrary to what I had expected. Some questions done and others marked. Can definitely do more. Bhaaaaaaaaai – wahi theherna – main waapas aaoonga.

11:30 – Easy DI – couldn’t believe I was doing well in this section, as it had been my nemesis throughout the preparations.

11:55 – Wtf – what was that ? RC?? One passage took more than 15 min !! What was happening? Verbal was my strongest section or what?? More sweat. Nervous like hell throughout. Gulping some water. Look on top – bhagwaan – main hi kyon??

12:20 – DI. Well done Ashish. Could manage some questions nicely. And the backward strategy worked everywhere. Verbal on mind though. Questions unanswered everywhere.

12:45 – Quant. Ok enough job done – but I could have done much better. Verbal questions still unanswered.

12:57 – Marked all the unsure verbal questions. Kya aur thoda quant karein ???

1:00 – Sorry buddy – time up.

All fancies of 75 attempts etc in paani. 45 attempts in all – 14 in Quant, 12 in DI and 19 in Verbal (god knows here if they were attempts or what – but they were well reasoned out according to me).

The rest is kinda curtains – oops history ;) – one good job done – I stayed away from the analysis and other bull shit offered by the coaching classes till the results – and did a fine job in that. Did not calculate my score. Threw the paper in one corner of the house. Great stuff. Definitely a degraded quality paper in terms of what the IIMs could have come out with. Only later did I come to know that the GMAT too has 5 options for each question. But does it have such pathetic, endlessly debatable Verbal questions? That’s another question altogether. Will be comin up in my verdict – but maybe not so soon.

Bout whether the result was good or not – that’s another story. Kisi aur din – sure… :D :D