GATE or CAT???

Note: I do not guarantee the grammatical correctness in the matter I have written.

Yeah, these are the 'Strange names' , that a student entering the final year of his BTech normally encounters. Even I had to face the same problem. After getting the job, I felt very bored. Not so many students in the hostel were placed , at that time. So I decided to try my luck in management. ( The only source of inspiration was an S grade in the Principles of Management Course , we had in the fifth sem. I am not going to explain much abt the course, bcoz many of my friends know what we had studied in that course.[:D][:P])

I started to browse the net and downloaded the previous year question papers. I also joined in TIME. We had classes on all Saturdays from 9 to 5pm ...I hope...I did n't like the English classes, the quite obvious reason was " I was not able to follow the vocabulary classes that they were teaching". I understood that some of my friends also faced the same problem. So within a few weeks, I realized that ' I am a BIG ZERO' as far as vocabs are concerned. But I liked the Data Interpretation part of it. I also came to know that THE CUT OFFS IN ALL THE SECTIONS SHOULD BE CLEARED FOR GETTING A CALL : So it was now quite obvious that I was not going to clear the English part. I decided to go and try my luck in the exam,instead of wasting my energy by studying English. I wrote the CAT exam 'very well' . I wrote all the questions in the English Section: marked the option as C for all the questions. ( By the way, I have a superstition. If I don't know the answer to some question in an objective exam, I will mark the answer as C. It has helped me in many places. ) [:D] [:P].

The results of the CAT exam were announced by the last week of December. I got 88.9 percentile. 97+ %ile for DI and Maths, 32 %ile in English (DID NOT CLEAR THE CUT OFF )...Ha, ha ...But, I was happy.Got 32 %ile without even looking at the questions. Gud!!! But I was not going to get a call from any insti...[:(]...

Jan 30th 2007. So after getting screwed up in the CAT, I had gone home for collecting the GATE admit card. GATE::The only option in front of me for higher [??] studies.. Shit!! Again I have to mug up the technical stuffs. Just thought the long list of subjects I had studied in my BTech, till the seventh sem.. Fluid Mech, Solid Mech, Manf Sci, Mathematics, Thermodyn,Gas Dyn, ..................Long long list.......No it is impossible to study all of these in such a short time.. So I was sure of the FAILURE infront of me. But I wanted to have a DECENT FAILURE. I came back to college on Feb 2nd. About 10 more days for GATE!!

The only option in front of me : COMBINED STUDIES. We made some crap time table and decided that " only 3 days of study (24*3=72 hours) will be sufficient for cracking the GATE. After all we are all NITians. We have sufficient tech knowledge. " So we decided to start our studies on a Thursday. ( The GATE exam was on Sunday). That Thursday was a holiday for us. Some SPORTS Fest or some thing. I went to Suresh's room by 10.30 am. " Da DDLJ kandallo..Kure kalamayi athu kananamennu vichrikkunnu...(Da Lets watch DDLJ..)".Some one who was using his comp told. Yeah , we ( almost every one in E Hostel) watched it. Justice was done to Malayalam Film Industry also by watching Thoovanathumbikal of Mohan Lal. Thus we people were totally exhausted after watching two films back to back. It was about 6pm at that time. Suddenly, the thought of GATE came to our mind. We wasted one full day . " Tonight lets have a NIGHT OUT and study some thing. ha ha." ..

After dinner, " Where to start?? What to study?? " ...The usual questions before any exam..

The solution to all our problems....Some 800+ pages of Mechanical Stuffs+ previous question papers. When we started to read that, by God's grace, I was not able to answer even a single thing. Again, I observed that most of the answers were C. ha ha. We realized that if we studied Mathematics properly, we could score around 25 marks. We were happy. SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING.

Studied some important topics on the day before the exam. Some crap in Merchant's circle, Mohr's circle, PERT, Machine Design..Some Tool Life...Thus we finished the entire Mechanical Engg BTech in just 5 or 6 hours. All of us were mentally prepared for the exam. The night before the exam was really a memorable night. By 7pm , we ( Myself, Vishnu, Vinod,Sarun , Orkka..) had gone to SHANGRILLA for Orkka's placement treat. Came back to hostel by 10.30pm. I felt very sleepy and slept peacefully..

The GATE exam that we wrote the next day, was yet another exam. We were able to answer more than what we had expected. I answered around 45 questions. (including 6/7 guesses) .I hoped to qualify the exam. The GATE results were announced on 15th March. Most of us got good results in it.