this man was never a hero by birth failed in business at 21 defeated in a legislative race at 22 failed again in business at 24 his sweetheart died at 26 had a nervous breakdown at 27 lost a congressional race at 34 lost a senatorial race at 45 failed in an effort to become vicepresident at 47 lost a senatorial race at age 49 he was abraham lincoln elected president of united states at 52this was the gist of a seminar on roadmap to success in cat 2005 helping common admission test cat aspirants to draw a longterm strategy in order to be among the elite list of candidates selected for the top bschools of the countrythe seminar was organised by the princeton review in joint collaboration with the education times at chinmaya mission the session aimed at bringing home the difference between preparation and right preparation and that cat is not a difficult proposition to crack with respect to subject knowledge but how to apply your subject knowledge is crucialthe managing director of princeton review nidhi khaitan academic director mansoor agha programme director vivek pandit and cat coordinator mayank narula were the resource persons conducting the seminarthe seminar answered some of the pertinent questions like is management the right career option for me are there normal people like me in the indian institutes of management iims why do so few students make it to the iims is it really that difficult is there an ideal way of preparationsetting the agenda of the seminar mansoor said we are here to demystify cat and analyse as to what makes the test so difficult and how to prepare for a bschool the seminar addressed success secrets and strategies twoyears at a bschool first placement career path and synergies with gre and gmat followed by a panel discussionthe seminar in its introductory note analysed as to why so many students take cat or go for management studies is it because of peer pressure or herd mentality fascination and glamour pressure from parents teachers and seniorsaccording to nidhi before choosing a career know yourself your interests aptitude and personality shortlist careers and get complete information on themsimplifying the iim conundrum the panel observed that 127 lakh students aspire for iims out of which merely 3500 students were called for the next stage of group discussion and personal interview finally around 1000 of them are absorbed at the six iims this implies that for its 1000 seats or a total of 2500