Dear XAT,

A big thank you for showing me how naive a MBA aspirant I am. I guess you are a bit grumpy as your sub-standard cousin of the feline nature has been hogging the lime-light over the past decade, and you choose this time of the year to strike back at the empire. But I am starting to like you a bit. You comprehensively defeated me today. Not out-witting me with petty constraints like time, or difficulty level, or ambiguity. But, in some way, you defeated my thought process. It just made me realise, that *perhaps* I am a one-trick pony and the way I approach a MBA-type exam is not fool proof. It lacks innovative thinking, and how! Thank you again, for trying indicate that I am still a big ball of sh1t. I will be richer for this experience. If you can spare some time from gloating in your vanity, please do read on.

About a month ago, I took IIFT in the middle of my engineering examinations. Like a brash kid, I woke up from sleep and blindly entered the examination hall without an ounce of any preparation over the week leading into the exam. I got out feeling really happy, because everything in the paper made a lot of sense. A month later, I was attributed a score of 46.06 (which dare I say would have put me in the top 25-50 applicants in the country). A sense of  ”I belong to MBA” started flowing through my veins. And I was pretty much convinced that I had the aptitude for these kind of examinations. That I could walk into an MBA exam and still be on par with people who have slogged their backsides for it.

Mind you, I am not proud of being under-prepared. Far from. Circumstances under which I am working have been very acute over the last two years. And I do not have much room to flex my muscles. I know you are having a wry smirk on your face and are trying to indicate that the situation will get worse once I graduate. But believe me on this one, my case is an outlier. I believe things will get better once I graduate. Not the point.

Similarly, I went in today with little “specialized” preparation, and was found out. Stamping your authority, you bluntly stated that aptitude could not be a substitute for methodical preparation. At least in my case. The reason I feel especially violated is because my “intuitive approach” fell flat on its face today. More often than not, when I see a question which I don’t know how to go about, I innovate, back-substitute, punt and get to the final answer in a way that might not be the most efficient path to reach to the solution. But it works. To cut a long story short, I have a knack of “reaching to an answer” in questions where I ideally shouldn’t. The exact opposite happened today. Forget punting to get to an answer, I couldn’t get to answers that I should have. I felt that my innovativeness was still a couple of notches short. Next time when we meet, I hope to hone my punting skills to a level that you want or better I might just be so well prepared that I won’t need to fall back to street-smartness.

Let me appreciate you specifically on a few questions.

Q.  On 1st March, Timon arrived in a new city and was looking for a place to stay. He met a landlady who offered to rent her apartment at a reasonable price but wanted him to pay rent on a daily basis. Timon had a silver bar of 31 inches, and an inch of the silver bar was equal to one day’s rent. He agreed to pay an inch of the silver bar towards the daily rent. Timon wanted to make the minimum number of pieces of the bar but did not want to pay any advance rent. How many pieces did he make?

5     8     16       20     31

-> I wasted three minutes on this. And gave up. While coming back, within fifteen seconds it all fell into place. Total number of combinations for a n bit binary number = 2^n -1. So 3 bits can represent 0-7. 4 bits 0-15. And hence 5 bits can represent 0-31. So you would just need five pieces of lengths 2^0=1, 2^1=2,2^2=4,2^3=8,2^4=16 and you are done. To make it worse, I am a Computer engineering student and have been doing binary arithmetic for four years now. I know I wasn’t sharp today but again, I love you interpretations of basic systems.

Q. The micromanometer in a certain factory can measure the pressure inside the gas chamber from 1 to 999999 units. Lately, the instrument has not been working properly. The problem is that it always skips the digit 5 and moves directly from 4 to 6. What is the actual pressure inside the gas chamber if the micromanometer shows 3016?

->To be honest, I did not even read this question in the stipulated two hours. After the paper, as I flipped through the pages, it took be fifteen seconds without a pencil in hand:(

Isn’t this a classic case of –

Initially – 0 to 9 all available – base 10 (decimal) system.

Modified case – 0 1 2 3 4 6 7  8 9 – base 9

So you are just asking me- (3016)9  = (?)10. Well it is 3*729+1*9+6=2187+9+6=2202.

Again, good question. Too bad I missed it

Recently, I heard reports that Kapil Sibal is getting anxious at your competency and you might be barred from seducing minds from the next academic year. I pray to God that it does not happen. CAT is of the more docile kind, like the female you would perhaps settle down with. You are the firebrand achiever – one part an intellectual and one part a sultry seductress. Making a choice between the two often proves to be the defining moment of most people’s life. I’m at that crossroads too. But I do hope to meet you again, next year. Otherwise, I’ll be ruing the fact that I botched up the only chance I got at scoring with the most alluring lady in the pack. You can have your bunch of playmates for this year. I’ll be back next year, better prepared for one, sharper too. And I will make an offer that you just won’t be able to resist. Ok. Sorry, I know you hate cliches.

Also, to let you know honey, I always err on the side of caution. And estimate on the dearer side. But to be very frank, I think I’ll miss your criteria by not more than 7-10 marks. And that too when I had a real stinker of a paper. Just imagine what will happen when I am sharp and playing to 80% of my potential. The possibilities are endless

Love,

CGK.