Be smiley at the irony :)

“AS YOU SOW SO YOU REAP. no point crying over split milk. its not the lack of aptitude its the lack of attitude……”, this was the sms Dad sent me from Sabrimala when CAT results came. It irritated me so much then; still I stored the message in the inbox. Yes I failed. But I tried my best. Can’t blame him for he was indeed disappointed. He scolded me for not being serious about XAT exam and how aloof I was during the winter holidays. All I could tell him was “please wait for XAT results”. But then I was afraid of it myself…

CAT... The exam I felt I was thoroughly prepared for. All the mock tests had told me I would succeed. The seriousness was at its peaks near the exam date. The practice I had, the late night sessions with the books at home, dad monitoring, mom doing her part by preparing juices in between and Ranju somehow maintaining silence at home. The lead up was tense with me counting down every single day in my diary and every hour towards the end. I received many wishes the night before the exam and was highly confident of it. Mom kept ‘vibhudi’ and Dad accompanied me to the exam center, full of advices on the way. Went to the exam hall with two watches (in case one failed!) and was there an hour before the test. Took the exam with full concentration (didn’t even see all the nice girls in my room!) and before I knew, the exam got over. Compared my answers with the keys released by various institutes and felt I had done it to the fullest. Life was so easy…

XAT... The exam I never gave myself a chance. Had heard stories that the Verbal section is the toughest in XAT. After CAT went well, I became presumptuous and started enjoying the holidays without caring about the exam ahead. Went to Bangalore, started getting hooked to internet, often went out with friends to movies, missed one mock XAT test also but surely didn’t miss out on any form of entertainment I could have got. Thought would prepare something the last week before the exams but eventually didn’t. Got negative marks in Verbal section in the only mock test I took! Who cares! The lead up to the exam was very relaxed, being online till late nights. Not many wished, no tension, was infact seeing off Dad to Sabrimala the night before. With no one to accompany me, I rode to the exam hall in my old Scooty, having only one watch this time. Wasn’t able to concentrate that hard during the exam and I was wishing for the thing to get over soon as I was very eager to get back to college the next day. I felt that the exam didn’t go well, especially the Verbal section…

Disappointed with the CAT results (Verbal again!!), this was my last chance this year. The results were expected by the end of January. But suddenly yesterday night at 2 am, when I was spending some nice time with my juniors, I came to know that they had released the results. Without any frills, I went to the XLRI website and typed my roll number only to find out that I have got calls from XLRI for both the courses they offer. At last! Something! I was relieved more than anything else. Was more pleased to find out that I had got the best percentile in the Verbal section!

The scorecard read (in percentiles):

Verbal Ability: 98.11
Quantitative Ability: 96.60
Reasoning and Decision Making Ability: 96.27
Total Percentile: 99.41

I delightfully deleted that message from my inbox. And when I started writing this post, I got another one from him.
"Congratulations on your unique performance. waste no time and start equipping yourselves with current affairs, G K. READ TIMES OF INDIA THROUGHLY "
aye aye captain!