80 crack CAT from Gujarat, more expected

AHMEDABAD: The results for the Common Admission Test 2008 were declared early Friday morning. CAT aspirants spent a sleepless night, trying their luck on the website. Of the 8,000 who took the exam from Ahmedabad, 80 confirmed getting through at least one of the six Indian Institutes of Management, including several Gujaratis.
The CAT is conducted by the IIMs for admissions into the Postgraduate Programme (PGP).There were 2.7 lakh students who took CAT 2008 in the country.
Last year, 100 of the 6,900 who took the CAT from Ahmedabad got calls from IIMs.
The results have surprised many this year as not everyone who scored 99.4 percentile got calls from IIMs. CAT trainers believe that this year, the IIMs have given calls not just on the basis of CAT scores, but the academic performance throughout has become an important parameter in the decisions.
The verbal section was tougher this year and thus, the number of engineers getting call from IIMs have reduced. Monisha Nakra is one of the CAT aspirants from Ahmedabad who cleared six IIMs. What makes her case very special is that while she was preparing for CAT, her infant baby demanded equal amount of attention. Nakra said, ���I had a two-year work experience before my two-year break when I had my baby. I always wanted to pursue my management studies, and I thought this was the right time to get back���. She had taken the exam from Ahmedabad, but her husband was transferred to Cochin soon after.
Meet the toppersKrunal Patel: 98.96 percentile
Calls from IIM-Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Indore
One of the few Gujaratis to have bagged calls from six IIMs, Krunal Patel hails from Bharuch, where he was born and brought up. Patel, an Information and Technology engineer from Nirma University is still trying to settle down with the news.
Patel's strong academic background throughout proved to b of great help. "I have a lower percentile than many who got the calls but I think it was my academic background that they considered while giving the calls," he says.
Studying in a Gujarati medium school, Patel says, he conquered the drawback of weak english by putting in extra efforts.
Sidharth Somani: 99.95 percentile
Calls from IIMAhmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kanpur, Indore
This pharmacy student is waiting for January 15, when he gets over with his mid-term exams, so he can throw and party for his friends and start preparing for interviews. After all, this CN School pass out has to prepare for the biggest interview of his life.
Somani is a final year student of LM Pharmacy College. Preparing for the IIM interviews is going to be the next big thing on his agenda. He says, "The verbal section was tough in this year's CAT . I am glad I could make it. I had spent a lot of time preparing for that section by reading novels and newspaper".
���Being from the pharmacy sector, I aim to look at corporate profiles, but in healthcare sector,��� says Somani.