I had decided MBA was where my future lay. Save your smirk, I know Microbiology to MBA sounds crazy but I belong to that breed – crazy! I had no idea what I would do with an MBA but the acronym itself was so posh that I wanted to do it so badly.
Business schools wouldn’t admit students without having taken entrance exams such as CAT, MAT, XAT and so on. CAT was for a different class, so I chose to do MAT and XAT. With the rush of blood, I planned to attend coaching classes, but my friends who had already joined classes never attended them. They said it was boring. So I decided against it and swore that I would prepare for the exams myself.
I purchased the preparatory materials, visited the college library (still can’t believe I did that) and borrowed a few books on English vocabulary, Math and Data interpretation. I solved problems, deciphered graphs & pie charts and by-hearted a host of new English words (their synonyms and antonyms) everyday. I also started reading newspapers and magazines (this would help in the General knowledge section of the exam). This went on for 2 months and honestly, I was fairing pretty well – my B.Sc. marks were on a downward slope though (As if I caredJ)
It was the day of exam, a Sunday! (Whose idea was it to keep an exam on a Sunday???) I had prayed hard before leaving the room. Sitting in the exam hall, I waited for the question paper knowing that the next 3 hours would more or less decide my professional future. The room was so silent that I could hear the next person breathing. 10’ o clock..the bell rang, I felt a chill through my spine (calm down dude, its just another exam). The invigilator distributed the question papers. He was so slow that it seemed like he would never come to me. Eventually he came and I received the question paper with both hands as if I was borrowing a large sum of money from him on interest.
I opened the seal with my CAMLIN glass scale (I had a scale for a MAT exam??!!). The question paper was a booklet with 200 questions divided among 5 sections – English, Math, Logical reasoning, Data interpretation and General environment. I turned the pages one by one like it was an ancient artifact from the archives of the Vatican. By the time I had looked through the pages, I was sweating, rather profusely. The letters seemed to dance; I did not understand a word. Two months of preparation had gone in vain, my fingers began to tremble..I hated myself for wanting to do an MBA..for sitting there in that cursed room at that moment. But I had come too far, I can’t give up now I had come too far. I had to do something, there had to be a way out. Time was running out!
I closed the question paper..rested on my chair..took a deep breath..re-arranged my stationery on the desk and opened the question paper – it was 10.15. I had to complete 200 questions in 165 minutes, I felt the odds rising against me.
I turned straight to the English section (I felt I could do a fair job in it, at least better than the other sections).
I) Read the passage given below carefully and then answer the questions based on what is stated or implied in the passage:
1) The main subject of the passage is
i. project curiosity as a motivation factor
ii. motivation and……….
read the first question and I started answering them. Actually it wasn’t that difficult as I had thought it would be and I was gathering confidence with each question. I had answered all the 40 questions in the section and the time was 10.40 (Pretty fast). I was feeling better now. I went on to logical reasoning, then data interpretation, Math and General environment. The clock struck 1 and I had attended only 143 questions in all. I had left out 57 questions, most of them from Math (I hate Math).
I submitted my answer sheet and walked out of the exam hall. I forced myself a smile and said ‘not bad’ when asked how I had done the exam. I was broken, my preparations failed me. May be I should have attended coaching classes (may be MBA is not for me!). I consoled learning that my friends too had not done too well.
My seniors had said 650 (out of 800) would be enough to get into a decent institution. I was not confident of even getting a 500! I tried to forget about the exam.
A little more than a month later, the results were announced. I went to the internet center, opened the AIMA site, clicked on the RESULTS tab and entered my registration no. and password. The mark sheet was displayed…I looked at the bottom corner which said ‘composite score’. A moment of disbelief..it read 735.4 (What’s going on?!). It took a few seconds for me to digest what I was looking at. I had earned an astounding 97.8 percentile!! - Thanks to the concept of composite score, I have no clue how they arrive at it till dateJ I felt like jumping in the air. I printed the mark sheet and ran from there. It was exhilarating; I had scored the highest among all my friends! Suddenly I believed an MBA was a possibility in my life.
Two weeks from then, interview call letters poured in from reputed institutions - Christ College, Alliance academy and Loyola (this was through XAT) to name a few. I wanted to join Christ College since I had a heard a lot about that college and more importantly it was in Bangalore, the garden cityJ I learned about the American MBA program there offered by OHIO University and opted for it - this decision of mine was not due to a “western” obsession but because of my liking for their education system.
I travelled alone to Bangalore (a friend who had to come along ditched me at the last moment). I had a series of interviews and eventually got through. It was one of the most fulfilling days of my life, I had secured myself an MBA seat in my dream college! I returned to Coimbatore a proud boy.
Some of the most memorable days of my life were awaiting me!!!
