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ShareBangalore: Finally, the D-day has arrived when hundreds of management aspirants across the country will write the Common Admission Test (CAT), hoping to gain admission to the IIMs and other top managements institutes.
The CAT 2009 is being held from today (November 28) at eight centres in Bangalore, as in other parts of the country and it is being jointly conducted by the seven Indian Institutes of Management and Prometric, a testing company.
The test will be conducted over the next 10 days and conclude on December 7.
With nearly 2.41 lakh candidates across India competing for seats at the seven B-schools, competition can get overwhelming.
But while the anxiety can be killing, experts feel that unlike what the students fear, the tension doesn't necessarily affect a student's performance. It's a common thing to feel nervous before such an important exam.
"When we feel anxious, we try to do everything possible to get rid of it; take walks, meditate or listen to music. Candidates should stop fighting anxiety and accept it. The more they resist the feeling, the more it persists. It's wrong to feel that you are the only one who is nervous, while everybody else is ultra-confident. It's not so," said Abhishek Thakore, author of e-book, The CAT Chronicles.
This IIM-Bangalore alumnus penned the book as a guide for IIM aspirants, but found that a large majority of his readers were plagued with confidence-related doubts.
"I was getting a lot of mails from candidates saying things like: 'I feel like a loser.' There was a clear lack of confidence in those candidates and the mails clearly reflected a sense of panic," he added.
Abhishek plans to shortly publish another e-book addressing confidence-related issues of candidates.
The confidence trap seems to have claimed many at the application stage of CAT2009 itself. "Compared to last year, the number of applicants has come down, possibly due to the test going on-line. The format has had an impact on the number of freshers taking the test. Many want to wait and take feedback from those who are attempting it this year."
Methods to cope with exam-related tension varies from candidates to candidates. Sunny Somani, a first-year student at IIM-B who scored 99.96 percentile, shared his experience.
"The more I studied, the better I felt. I took a number of mock tests which helped me build my confidence. Also, I made it a point not to spend too much time on one question while I was writing CAT. This is a common mistake many candidates make," said Sunny.
"Candidates should only focus on their performance. There is a lot of theories about focusing on the end goal to achieve it. But if you don't believe in reality (what you are capable of) then it can get stressful," Abhishek further explained.
And when the tension becomes too much to bear, many resort to prayers and meditations to maintain their cool. "Whenyou are very stressed, prayers can help calm the mind.
Keeping perspective and not getting intimidated seeing the crowd at the test centre is also crucial," Abhishek said.
Sunny, meanwhile, got inspired by the film The Pursuit of Happyness and made the one-liner "Be Safe, Score 100" his motto in life.
As a last minute advice to students who will take the test today, Abhishek, who scored 99.85 percentile, said that it is imperative to take breaks for about 10 to 15 seconds every five minutes, while solving the questions This helps a candidate maintain calm and remain collected.
Neeraj Jha, an IIM aspirant writing CAT for the second time ,feels confident that his preparations will yield results this time.
"The number of applicants has gone down this time, so there are more chances for students who follow a systematic study plan," he said.
Siddahath Bhartia, a CAT candidate and financial analyst, believes that mental calculation is key to ace the test.
"Compared to last year, computer savvy aspirants stand a better chance to score well in the exam this year. It is not easy to skip questions in an on-line question paper," he observed.
The test duration of CAT-2009 is 2 hours and 15 minutes. It will be conducted across 32 cities through 105 secure computer-based testing centres.
The organisers have made some extra efforts to ensure that the online CAT is candidate-friendly.A 15-minute tutorial will be given to the candidates before the test begins. The candidates have also been given the freedom of choosing to appear for either the morning or afternoon session.
The results have been scheduled to be announced from January 22 onwards.
A few tips to success
For those who are appearing for CAT, here are some of the tips to follow:
You must make sure to arrive at the test centre at least two hours in advance, carry without fail the admit card, the photo identification, the CAT voucher, proof of SC/ST category (if applicable), provide photo identification for scribe of differently-abled candidates, keep track of the time while writing the test and use options like highlighting and reviewing text.
Also don't take any items, not even papers or pencils, inside the test centre. All rough work has to be done on papers provided by organisers.
Observe the 15-minute tutorial given before CAT 2009 begins carefully.
