At this juncture, it doesn’t take a magician to see what kind of anxieties aspirants might be going through. A small fraction of you have got the calls you want and are excited and nervous about the impending interviews or the results of the same, others have  GD-PI calls but are not sure whether the b-schools that have given them the calls are really worth it, and still others knowing that this year is done have hit snooze-mode till June.

This post will primarily deal with the dilemma of those in between — to re-take or not to re-take the CAT. It is not an easy call to take but your task will become easy if you ask yourself the right questions and give the most honest answers you can to them.

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A look into the mirror

The answer to the re-take conundrum depends on three things

• your evaluation of your ability with respect to the CAT
• your evaluation of your mental state when contemplating another attempt
• your evaluation of your aspirations

Let us try to make this a bit objective by making it a Q & A situation

YOU versus CAT – ABILITY
The first question you need to ask is — is this the best shot you could have given? Was this a full-fledged, completely-immersed-into-CAT attempt? Do you believe you have exhausted the limits of your aptitude as far as CAT goes? Answer all these questions and then answer the question below.

Question #1
Do you believe that you have maxed out and cannot go any further in terms of percentile if you give another attempt — YES/NO?

YOU versus CAT – STAMINA
The next question is whether you have enough mental fuel to mount another campaign. Do not count the attempts that you made just like that. Is this your first, second or third serious attempt?

Question #2
Have your attempts so far taken so much out of you that you dread the thought of another attempt despite knowing that you can get better — YES/NO?

YOU versus COLLEGE
What do you think of the options in front of you right now? How do you view yourself vis-a-vis the options you have?

Question #3
Do you believe that all you need is a decent degree and a decent break and will make the most of the opportunities you get irrespective of the brand or do you believe that your aptitude, your profile and your ambition deserve a better college than the options you have in front of you right now — YES/NO?

If your answer to all the above questions is YES, then you should NOT RE-TAKE and get into a college this year.

If your answer is NO to all three then you should definitely re-take the CAT but also evaluate the GMAT depending on your profile and aspirations, which as mentioned will be taken up in the next post.

These are not easy questions to answer and I am sure there will be other personal considerations and pressures from different quarters that you need to factor in. But understand that this decision is purely about your career and hence the decision has to be taken keeping only that in mind.

Not everyone might be happy with your decision but satisfying all is satisfying none. As far as your career goes you are the only one who has to be satisfied.

So you really need to answer these questions for yourself and make a decision.

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If you decide to re-take

The moment you decide to re-take, other questions start popping up

• Should I quit my job to re-take for the CAT?
• How do I go about my prep? What should be my mindset?
• Do I need to take classroom coaching? what materials should I use?
• How should I go about my prep section-wise?

I’ll be putting up posts on the same soon.