Preparing for the CAT: Mistakes
Making errors is a necessary part of life. We improve as a result of our blunders. Mistakes provide us with the most valuable life lessons. They are unintended and occur without the awareness of a human being. The only way to prevent making errors is never to do anything. As a result, I believe it is vital to make errors. But what happens when our mistakes, while unintentional, cause harm to those around us? Is that then the proper thing to do? Making errors is vital because they provide us with valuable learning opportunities. We learn about ourselves and how to become better citizens of society due to our mistakes.
After you realise you've made a mistake, you can only learn from it. You disconnect yourself from any prospective lesson as soon as you start blaming other people (or the cosmos itself). However, if you bravely step up and say, "This is my error, and I am accountable," learning opportunities will open up for you. Admitting a mistake, even if just to oneself, facilitates learning by shifting the attention away from assigning blame and toward understanding. Wise individuals readily confess their errors. They understand that when they do, development accelerates.
This approach goes against our cultural expectations about errors and failure, which is that they are embarrassing. We're taught to feel bad about failure in school, in our homes, and at work and to do all we can to avoid making errors. This feeling of humiliation, along with the certainty of failure while pursuing challenging tasks, explains why so many individuals abandon their goals: they are unprepared for the errors and failures they will encounter along the route to their desired outcome. Many people's ideas about success overlook the truth that the more difficult the aim, the more frequent and terrible the failures will be. Your capacity to overcome and learn from your failures will become increasingly important as your objectives grow.
However, acknowledging errors is difficult for a variety of reasons. In many societies, there is an implicit idea that our work reflects us: if you fail a test, you are a failure. You are a mistake if you make a mistake (You may not have ever felt this way, but many people have.) It explains why some of your high school or college buddies act the way they do). We are assigned letter grades (A, B, C, D, and F) to organise us for someone else's consumption, much like eggs, steak, and other good foods. Universities and companies judge young applicants based on their grades and numbers based on results from examinations that are unforgiving of errors.
Life is a scary place for anyone who never discovers a deeper self-identity based on courage, compassionate intelligence, commitment, and creativity rather than on a lack of mistakes. Life is a scary place made safe only by never getting into trouble, breaking the rules, or taking the risks that their hearts tell them they need to take.
Three things are required to learn from mistakes:
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never attempted something new," Einstein famously said. We wholeheartedly agree with this famous mathematician's assertion. The fresh experiences and exposures are the ones that teach you new things. Every new fall teaches you something new. You cannot learn anything new unless you are willing to let yourself fall. If you do not do so, you will continue to have negative experiences, and you will get trapped in a cycle from which you will never be able to break free. This leads to denial, a loss of self-confidence, and the scapegoating of others for your misfortunes. You reach a point in your life when all you can think about is the awful things that are occurring to you. It's not simple to learn from your errors. Nobody said it would be easy. But after you've done that, you'll be able to trust yourself. You feel you have the ability to do anything.
Success, like most things, begins with a positive mindset and well-thought-out plans.
MBA aspirants who are preparing for the CAT exam or other management entrance exams frequently do blind hard work without proper planning. It's important to note that to succeed in a test of this sort, such as the CAT, more than simply hard study is necessary! The main key to success here is hard work combined with smart work. Apart from that, one should strive to avoid making some of the most prevalent blunders made by CAT takers. We will strive to identify such errors in this text so that you are aware of them.
While most students study hard, many do not keep track of their time on a daily or weekly basis. Every aspirant should organise their daily preparation by creating a programme and following it diligently. This schedule should be created in such a way that it can be followed realistically, i.e., "promise more, deliver less" situations should not develop as a result of your overachievement since this might lead to demotivation.
It is necessary to review all of the ideas, equations, and shortcuts learned on a regular basis; otherwise, it may be difficult to recollect them on the day of the final CAT test. In this respect, you may set aside half a day every week or fortnight to review all you've learned thus far.
Many MBA hopefuls mistakenly feel that memorising equations and shortcuts would allow them to grasp CAT 2022 courses. They must realise that obtaining conceptual clarity is the only way to pass the CAT test. In this respect, it is recommended that while answering questions, you comprehend all of the underlying ideas. If necessary, you should gather your doubts and meet with a faculty member on a regular basis to discuss them. It's important to remember that no uncertainty is useless. Therefore, don't be afraid to voice your concerns and questions.
You should not measure the quality of your preparation by the number of hours spent studying; instead, consider the number of subjects covered, the number of ideas learned, and so on. This will guarantee that you are in a far more comfortable place when it comes to the CAT curriculum.
It's important to remember that IIMs and a few other top B-schools use sectional cutoffs when making calls for the WAT/GD/PI round. As a result, skipping a few sections/types of questions while focusing on the full CAT 2022 curriculum might prove to be a costly error. One must thoroughly examine one's simulated performance, identify troublesome areas/chapters, and concentrate persistently on them. This will undoubtedly help you pass the CAT 2022 test.
Keep note of your accuracy levels throughout the parts as you analyse your performance if you're making a lot of errors, attempt to find out why and take remedial action as soon as possible.
It is important to remember that studying for the CAT test is similar to running a marathon rather than a 100-meter dash. There may be times when you feel like giving up on your CAT test preparation. It is exactly at this point that you must self-motivate and push yourself to work even harder. We must learn from our Mock performance, identify areas for improvement, and try to enhance them. Despite doing poorly in the earlier mocks, several successful students have made it to the IIMs. They were only able to succeed in their endeavour because they did not give up, accepted their setbacks in stride, learned from their errors, and maintained trust in their talents, ultimately realising their goal.
Finally, bear in mind that the CAT 2022 test is still a few months away. You can make a huge impact in this period if you prepare beforehand.
Checklist for Learning from Mistakes
What kind of changes is the most challenging for you?