Being an IIT student one naturally assumes that appearing for the CAT is but the done thing. Well, I was no different and in my third year I too followed the beaten path to make a valiant attempt to enter the haloed portals.

The first two attempts - in my final year and after my B Tech ended in disaster as I did not muster up enough marks to get a call from any of the IIMs. It was not lack of knowledge but just the X-factor required to crack the exam as it never fails to throw up surprises. My tale of woes included unwittingly darkening the wrong ovals in the OMR sheet.

I had earlier identified that my weak area is the Verbal section. I had a natural affinity for numbers. I still have the full records of all my innings as a batsman and would know the overall average, average by position, bowling averages etc by heart. It appears to me that I am invincible in areas concerning numbers and graphs for these are in my blood but when it came to verbal section, I was an ordinary mortal.

My repeated failures in the CAT did not make any difference to me in spite of advice from my friends that it was not my cup of tea. I did not have any problem with peer pressure and I simply took each failure as a stepping stone to success.

I decided to work upon my main problem - English. I devised a method to build the vocabulary from newspapers and other sources to get myself conversant with as many English words, used in day-to-day life, as possible. I also decided to read non-fiction, especially books on philosophy, as RC passages based on philosophy were 'Greek' to me.