Ahmedabad tailor's son surmounts 'Mount English' to do MBA at IIT-J
Common Admission Test
(CAT), but not knowing English enough to get past the interview stage? Ankit Maurya, 22, a resident of Saraspur in the city, experienced the same challenge.
Son of a tailor, Maurya studied throughout in govt-run Gujarati medium school and then B.Com in a public college. But Maurya challenged himself to surmount the barrier - he succeeded in securing admission for MBA program at IIT Jodhpur this year.
"I appeared for CAT for the first time last year and secured marks that put me in 77th percentile. But in that score, too, my verbal ability and reading comprehension (VARC) was much lower at 40th percentile.
It was a wake-up call as I realised that even if I crack the exam, I would not be able to clear the interview stage," recounts Maurya. He worked with teachers to focus on grasping the language in a race against time. "I did not start from scratch - the reading and comprehension for schools and that for the CAT are two different beasts.
Vocabulary was a big challenge," he says.
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Vocabulary was a major challenge for me. I thus focused on taking a book and reading it aloud and stopping at each word that I did not understand.
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It continued for over six months after which I gained some confidence," Ankit said. Come CAT 2025 and Maurya was prepared. He secured marks that put him in 95th percentile. What came as a huge relief for him was his score in the VARC - it was above 90th percentile. His obvious choices were the IIMs but he candidly confesses that his score was not up to the mark to get into the hallowed passages of institutions such as Amritsar, Visakhapatnam, and Mumbai where did clear the first round.
But he then secured admission at IIT-J with focus on both technology and management.
"My father earns about Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 by cutting the shirt pieces. We live in a 1BHK residence, but we have big dreams. After the MBA degree, I want to work for some time and then become an entrepreneur. My degree will come handy then," says Maurya.
He has a parting word for the aspirants like him. "I have now attained mind to mouth synchronization. I know it's a long way to go, but I have gained confidence. I would tell those wishing to pursue professional courses not to ignore English - but more importantly, not to be intimidated by it. With hard work and determination, anyone can learn it," he says. Satish Kumar, a mentor of Ankit's who helped him prepare, said that his case is a testament to hard work and determination.
"Over the past decade, we have seen a significant rise in aspirants from Gujarat, and Maurya's success shows path to many who are not good in other languages," he said.
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