CATrified!!!!!!!

CAT 2007, My first attempt at the so-called toughest exam for MBA admissions was quite an event worth remembering. I don't know yet, how it went, since I haven't checked my answers and I would not do it as well. I have seen peoples' confidence crashing down after checking their answers.

After the exam, I was chatting with this guy, who we (Koramangala junta) believed, would score quite high.

Vishal: Hey, I got 43.
Me : Great, in which section?
Vishal: Total.......

Another coversation..

SURI: I think I will clear the two sections but English. I am getting ZERO in English, might be negative also. (This was his third attempt)

Another one...

Me: Checked your answers??
Kunal : No.
Me: Why?
Kunal: Mainu ki farak painda.....(How will it matter to me).

I cannot let this happen to me. Till the results are out, I want to believe that all my answers are correct. I don't want to be depressed and frustrated like all the other fellows who have determined how much they are going to score approximately. I haven't seen a happy face till now who is satisfied with his predicted score.
I am also not very sure about the correctness of the solutions posted by several institutions on their websites. I have already heard about some questions being answered differently by these institutions, especially the questions in english. So guys, dont give up hope yet. Who knows, the IIMs answers might just match with what you have marked. I haven't given up. Just wait for the results.

But, my real fear is not about getting a very low score. I had no preparations at all. That wont bother me much. But, if I get lucky, and score somewhere around 98, or may be more than that, I will consider myself a genius, atleast among the Koramangala junta. May be I won't get a call from the IIMs, but I would certainly miss the chance of applying to other colleges, like SP Jain, NITIE etc, if this were to happen. So, right now, I am in a dillema. Should I check my answers? Just the thought of it gives me shivers. It is actually a very brave thing to do after the CAT exams. One of my friends shut himself up in his room while he was doing this, and came out of the room after 2 and a half hours :-)

There is a strong urge to check my answers, but when I think the after-effects, the optimistic "me" denies to do this. I cant take this pressure any more. I am eagerly waiting for the IIMs to declare the results. I have another fear too. I dont want to score the lowest among the Koramangala junta, else, I have to treat 4 people. But, I have a feeling that, when the results are declared, the koramangala junta will celebrate another DIWALI,not with crackers but with LAUGHTERS. I want to be there when the results are declared. I think we already know, who is going to be the BAKRA (score the lowest and treat others). While deciding on this bet, we thought that this kind of a condition would push everyone to perform better. After we agreed to this, one of them(Felix) , deliberately didn't send the application for submission (He said he didn't have his degree certificate with him, I don't believe him) . After the exams, 2 of them tried to back off. Me and Suri are the only ones that still believe that we wont get the lowest scores. But, anything can happen SURI, we still have time to cancel this whole thing. Decide now!!!!


On a serious note:
CAT is not everything in my life, morever, this was my first attempt, a real live MOCK CAT for me. And I have already started preparing for the next year's CAT. It just takes a MAN to crack the CAT.

Smokers vs Non-Smokers

My smoker friends, have you ever realized how much money and time you spend on this activity (smoking). You might have a rough idea about the percentage of your salary you would be spending on cigarettes per month. I tried to work out a daily average(number of cigarettes per day) a person would smoke. My data showed that the magic number was 14.75. I have calculated this based on the person's mood or the ocassion, since the number of cigarettes consumed is directly proportional to these two factors(mainly). This statistical data might disappoint the more aggressive smokers, but nevertheless, for such people, I guess, we can increase the daily average figure by 4, i.e, 18.75.

Please see the figures for further details.















So, now let us calculate the average monthly expenditure on cigarettes per person.

The number of cigarettes an average smoker will consume per month = 442.5 wow!!!!!!

If you take the average cost of a cigarette to be Rs. 3.50/-

Then the average monthly expenses will come to around = Rs.1548.75/-

Well, so a normal smoker will smoke Rs.1550/- worth of cigarettes per month. For the more aggressive smokers, this amount might well go upto Rs.1800/-

Now, if we do our calculations for a Leap Year(366 days), the annual expenditure on cigarettes will be roughly Rs. 18,585/- for a normal smoker and Rs. 23,625/- for chain smokers. Are you surprised!!! The next section might just throw you off the ground. Please read along.

Now we will try to calculate, how many extra minutes people spend smoking or on smoking related activities as compared to the non-smokers. Since, it is safe to assume that nobody will have their cigarettes delivered at their doorsteps every morning along with the newspapers (well, this is a damn good idea), I would use the following values for calculations:

Number of trips to the Cigarette ki Dukaan(Shop)/Day = 4
Average Time spent on each trip = 30 minutes
Average Time to consume a single cigarette = 4 minutes (Not for cigars)
Average number of cigarettes per day per person = 14.75 (as calculated from above)

So, Minutes / Day = 179
Minutes / Month = 5370
Minutes / Year = 64440 (44.75 days)

We all know that time is money. Lets assume that 1 minute is equivalent to Rs. 0.50 (for NITK guys only), so the total equivalent money spent will be = Rs.32,200/-

So, when we add up the two totals, we arrive at this fact that, the normal smokers spend away about Rs 50,805/- annually more than the non-smokers.

This is quite interesting. Is Bill Gates a smoker? Mukesh Ambani (just bet Mr. Bill Gates as the richest) is surely not a smoker . I saw it on some interview of his somewhere. I googled a bit more and realized that, none of the top ten richest persons in the world are smokers. I thought, Mukesh Ambani had great management skills, but now, I dont. I am not still sure of Bill Gates though. Is he really intelligent or is he a non-smoker?????? I will try to find out.