Average Acads? Do not Drem BIG!!

With CAT 2013 preparation in its kick-off   phase, here is what an aspirant with average academics should think before starting his preparation.  Given the fact that any percentile less than 99.6 would fetch you not even a single call from the elite b-schools, it is time to introspect about your decision of CAT.

For the first timers, here, I would like to quote some figures. Let me divide the number of applicants into three categories

1.       Candidates who have wonderful academics throughout i.e. greater than 80 throughout your career.

2.       Candidates who are fortunately lucky or unluckily unfortunate  i.e. greater than 80 in 2 out of 3(X XII and graduation)

3.       Candidates who are utterly helpless i.e. if you have at least 2 out of 3 less than 80.

Candidate belonging to third category needs to worry the most. Let me take an example out of my experiences. Let’s say your academic scores are 85, 79.9 and 79.8 in class X XII and graduation respectively.   No matter what your CAT score is, you are straight away shown the exit door from IIMA, IIMB, IIMK, IIMI, IIMS which constitutes 5 out of 7 older IIM’s. If you have a sigh of relief that you can book a seat in remaining two older IIMs i.e. IIMC and IIML , let me tell inform you , the cut off for these 2 IIMs hovers around 99.6 percentile. Unless you get a 99.6+ percentile; your dream of studying in an elite b-school with IIM tag is bound to be shattered. 99.6+ percentile simply means you have to be in top 700-800 out of the little over 2Lac applicants. Not to end with a disappointment, you should be thankful to few institutes like older IIM’s, FMS, IIT’s, MDI, and NITIE for providing a fair chance if you clear the cut off. Do not forget that the cut off for these colleges usually fall above 97; exception being MDI.

The second category of candidates as I call them fortunately lucky because they would have a fair chance to be shortlisted by IIMK as it gives same marks for all the applicants with greater than 65% in graduation. In case you have a score of less than 80 in either class X or XII; the door is closed. Also a score of just above 80 would not fetch you a call as IIMK does normalization of the score across different boards. Your score should be close to the highest score of your board; if not the highest.

The first category of the students enjoys the dignity of their good deeds during their school and college days.  It is to be kept in mind that the closer you are to 80, the lesser number of calls. If you have 90 throughout 95+ percentile with both sectionals being 90+, you can be sure to get most of the calls.

I am not asking you not to stop thinking about MBA, cracking CAT etc. My point is simple

“You have been an average performer, so do not dream BIG; lest you may hurt yourself”

ALL THE BEST