The Final
I had a choice of coming for this exchange in France either as a “tourist” (spend all my parents’ money just clickin’ pics to show my friends on Facebook), or doing something much more, which I couldn’t do back home. Fortunately, my purpose was the latter one…
“Negotiation” is something I barely had any idea of just 20 days back. It was simply a mail that came into my inbox from a professor about this competition to be held sometime soon, and he was looking for ppl interested. I had to choose from either signin up for that, or going for a trip to London. Well, guess I made the better choice. There was an internal selection round..I prepared the night before only from Youtube (:P) and went the next day. By the end of the day, I was among the only 3 chosen ones to represent France in the competition.
Cutting the long story short, this is THE biggest negotiation event (as you can guess by the name) across the world, and the top law (and some business) universities come & took part. Nobody even knew us! It was held in Leipzig, Germany..a very very, beautiful city, in this university called HHL, Europe’s oldest business school. The last 2 years were won by Harvard, and undoubtedly they were the favorites this time. The whole competition was soooo well organized, and the experience was truly international. They treated us like government delegates, and the venues for each round were simply breathtaking. (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=138838&id=203916733923)
Here’s the team I had: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BKze2K8FEg (My first video, btw!) 
12 incredible teams, 4 tough rounds, had to stay in the top 3 in every round to make the finals! It was not only about striking a deal in each round, but get the best deal possible.
Round 1: Against the best law school in India, National Law School, Bangalore. Bunch of egoists, rude, stuck-up people who made life hell for us in the very first round. We somehow managed to get a deal..but that woke us up, and made us realized the level of competition.
Round 2: In the Leipzig National Football Stadium (venue for the Football World Cup 2006). http://bit.ly/bYqvcv It was nothing short of a dream, deal was about the football manager with a famous football team. We got the best deal then. That’s when it all began. People started asking “Who the hell is IESEG?!?!” and suddenly we were the talk of everyone. Of course with fame, comes jealousy..and teams planning to pull us down…
Round 3: The toughest 1 hour of my life..was an individual negotiation. I was alone against a 7 foot Serbian (who hated our team) and an American rugby player, studying law in the 3rd best Law school in the US. They told me on my face in the beginning that they were going to crush me..not let me win that one. I looked into the Serbian guy’s eyes, told him to wish he was never born 
Came out 2nd on top in the end..never had my nerves held on for so long…had the most terrible headache after that.
Round 4: In the Leipzig Opera House..beautiful…
Final: Against Univ of California, Hastings Law, in the Federal Administrative Court of Germany, with the Mayor of Saxony, German Ministers, and a real “Judge” as judges. We sat in this 500 year old room watched by a crowd of 500, telecasted live on Youtube. We had made it to the final, beating all other teams (including Harvard Law School!!!) The negotiation was the toughest one..we came really close. Lost out only because of the language..we got the better deal in the end..but the judges were impressed by their “style”…Americans after all! I was the only one in my team who could speak smooth English..the other girls were from Poland, and France…
Anyway! They were more professional, much older after all! They deserved it…We were really happy..our coach had tears in his eyes..I couldn’t believe the experience =)
Some pics from the final: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=154798&id=203916733923
with the first mock CAT of the season rolled out, it surely would have made several tremble, some bemused and some give up already! I hope you enjoyed the paper as much as I did (yes, I also attempted some bit of the paper while handling the operations at Delhi
)Overall, I would say it was a slightly tough paper compared to how the CAT usually is, so stop worrying if you didn’t do so well! The first mock is ALWAYS like this (I remember getting 70%ile in mine
..I was like “crap, I guess I’m not upto it”) You’re like freshly baked bread right now, let the taste settle in with time, don’t expect things to turn out magically great so early.
My Analysis:
Although I wasn’t able to attempt the entire paper, I did go through it roughly and also from the interaction I had with other students,
Quant -> A bit tougher than the CAT level
DI -> Pretty decent (you can expect the same level or more in this year’s CAT, since DI hasn’t been tough in a long time)
English -> Tough, as compared to the usual CAT papers (expect CAT09 to have a tough English section, since CAT08 english was really easy). Though I’m likely to change my opinion once I attempt the complete paper. I was more curious to check out Quant and DI today.
Analysing this paper:
Alright it’s done! Now what? The Analysis! This is the part which differentiates the 99.99%ilers from the ‘rest of the mortals’. From here on what attitude you pick up and actions you take decide whether that coveted IIM seat has your name on it or not.
I’ll briefly tell you how to go about it. Pick up the paper, and attempt it once again, including the ones that you missed out on or couldn’t do due to time crunch. Time yourself and repeat this cycle until you have all the questions attempted at least once.
Then, for each and every question see:
-> The ones you got correct – See whether the approach you took was the best one, compare with the solutions. If you took the best approach, try similar questions from the material you have and increase the difficulty level.
-> The ones you got wrong – See why you got them wrong. Understand each and every concept that was involved in the solution of that problem. I cannot over-emphasize how important the last step is! Make a note of them and try and solve elementary questions based on each of those concepts. Finally when you are COMPLETELY clear with the working of ALL concepts involved, try the question again (which involved all the concepts together) and see if you’re able to do it now. You’ll be amazed to see how easy it was to begin with.
Remember, each CAT question is nothing but a combination of small BASIC concepts clubbed together to form a tough-looking problem. If someone’s clear with the basics, it’s child’s play! 
Repeat the exercise for each question, and at the end of your analysis session you’ll feel much enlightened. A good analysis session takes anywhere from 6-8 hours. I also used to laugh earlier when my mentors told me that, but honestly, I learnt myself, once you’re in the groove, you don’t feel like leaving it in between. Suck up the juice from the entire paper. Only then would you be ‘above the rest’. It’s all upto you!
All the best for your results. The next time, be prepared to expect the unexpected. That’s how CAT is!
Cheers!
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Underestimated my own strength
Bring it on!!!
Take the ‘How many angry monkeys could you take in a fight?‘ quiz!
]]>Note – Site is supposed to start functioning from 9th January, 2009.
You can also download the Official Key released by the IIMs this year here: http://catiim.in/downloads/Key08fin.pdf
For those who did not appear for the paper, you can download it from here: CAT 2008 Question Paper
This was preceded a day before by a sudden rush among everyone when the site opened for a few, but surprisingly failed to work for anyone else! I myself tried checking the DNS records, but to no avail. Looks like technology isn’t the forte for the IIMs 
Anyhoo, All the Best to everyone who took “the toughest exam in the world” this year =)
]]>This time around though..things would be different. As I get my domain renewed, and try out a new hosting..I vow to post regularly. But of course, once I’m done with my exams i.e. =)
Adios!
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