Remember-Remember, the CAT November

So this it! All the hoo-halaa and fuss died today. For almost a year now students all over the country were waiting for this ‘D-Day’ and then all of a sudden it all got over in just two and a half hours (technically 3). Today over 2.25 lac students appeared for, what can be called as the most anticipated exam of the country, CAT.

All knows what the CAT is (not the meow but the other one). For those who do not, let me quickly tell you it is the exam to make your life (yes hell, but apart from it) a successful one. Well technically speaking there are no exams which can make you successful in life, but apparently this one is considered to be, as it paves your way to the IIMs, the most prestigious institutes for studying management in the country and getting into the IIMs entitles you to a hefty pay check. So theoretically you become a successful person. Hence you may call it as ‘Career Architecture Test’ but I think ‘Constant Agony Test’ (taking into consideration the torture you are subjected to while preparing for it and after getting a bad result, which you are bound to get because your preparations were like a torture to you) suits it much better (although CAT= Common Admission Test).

Otherwise an ordinary Sunday, became larger than life for over 2 lac students, and every year the month of November becomes so important in the life of people that for some it even become question of life and death. So ‘Remember-Remember, it’s the CAT November’.

Coming directly to the point, last year the pattern of the paper changed, and they started providing us with the separate 30 mints to fill up the particulars on the answer sheet. Now these 30 mints were one of the longest of my life. Filling of the particulars hardly takes 5-10 minutes, but I don’t know why they gave us 30. To add to it, we were made to sit there 15 minutes before we got the sheet to fill in. So all this made it a total of 45 minutes, 45 damn long minutes. Now during this time we were not suppose to do anything, apart from filling up the answer sheet and even which became a big issue for many people who were sitting around.

First of all, in the address column we were not supposed to fill the city name, for which a separate column was provided. So many were bogged by the idea of not filling the city/state name and kept on enquiring about it to the invigilator (what the heck? Can’t you see there is a separate column for it?). Then the second issue was about the name of the place in the declaration. “Excuse me madam is it C.P, Brakhambha Road, or Modern School?” only the room no. 107 (the one in which we were sitting) was left uninquired and no one asked about the actual place i.e. Delhi! These were the doubts of the would be managers.

Coming back to the passing of 45 mints, although everyone was doing it differently, but out of 40 students in my room (37 actually, 3 didn’t showed up), no one was tapping their feet in nervousness. Well does it mean they were not nervous? I don’t think so. Especially after hearing the complete pin-drop silence, in which one could have listened to his own heart beat (along with the constant sound of invigilator’s high heel sandals, which kept on coming while she was making rounds of the room and kept on driving the point that yes she is there, doing ramp modelling). Or is it just tapping of feet in nervousness has become very old fashioned? God knows!

So there was one gal worth mentioning here (considering her way of killing time). She was not carrying any bag except a small pouch, which contained her pencil, eraser and sharpener and going by its size I don’t think it could have accommodated anything else. But to my surprise she took out a hair brush from it, and started brushing her hair. Getting ready for your ‘Date’ with the paper madam? She kept doing it for almost, what 10 mints (preparing thoroughly, must say). Great utilization of time!

Then there was a guy, obsessed with sharpening his pencils. He was having 7 pencils and he kept on and on sharpening them. And when I say on and on, I mean on and on. As once done with the procedure he again picked up the first one, examined it closely and then started with the ritual again. He must have repeated this for at least 3-4 times and made the place around looks like a pool of pencil peels (looks like sharpening your skills dude).

Well there were other things about which I can mention, but I think it is enough to make a post about CAT. People mention the ways how to prepare for it, they will tell you to make strategies and all sort of stuff. But this post told you what you should not do, and please put some heed to it. Even if you will not, and do something odd like this (as per my parameters) then also it is cool, after all ‘Remember-Remember, it’s the CAT November’.

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