Imma be real. You didn’t just mess up an exam. You had a day that didn’t match the effort you put in. And that hits hard, especially when you’ve given 500+ hours (or how many ever you have), done mocks, tracked your scores, sacrificed time, and then walk out feeling like you’ve blown it. Anyone telling you “it’s okay, you tried your best” like that fixes everything is just avoiding reality. It doesn’t feel okay. It shouldn’t. You cared about this, you invested in it, so of course it stings.
But here’s where most of you are about to mess up even more than the paper itself. You’re taking one result and turning it into a judgment about who you are. Your brain is doing this stupid calculation: “I worked this hard and still didn’t get it, so maybe I’m not good enough.” That’s complete garbage. Effort is not a vending machine. You don’t insert hours and get a guaranteed seat in return. Sometimes you can do almost everything right and still fall short in a specific moment. That doesn’t invalidate the work. It just means the outcome didn’t align this time.
Let me make this real with my own example. I scored 242, and I still didn’t make it to Indore or Shillong. Did it sting? Obviously (a lot lmao). But that wasn’t the full story. Before IPMAT, I was terrible at studies. I barely passed maths in 12th, didn’t care about academics, and couldn’t sit with books for long. IPMAT prep changed that completely. I went from someone who avoided studying to someone who could sit for hours and actually enjoy it. From being weak at maths, I ended up with a 99.9x percentile in quants in IPMAT and 99.91 in BMSAT for IIM Kozhikode (I was hungover before that exam, LMAO). That didn’t come from one exam day. That came from months of work, consistency, and discipline. In fact, it has built me to such a level that if I were to go and give CAT tomorrow, regardless of the slot, I can confidently say I would get a 99.9+ percentile in quants. That level of aptitude and discipline doesn’t just disappear.
After IPMAT, I had Business Stats in college. Half the batch failed it. I technically did too in the first attempt because I was focused on IPMAT and didn’t care about that subject at the time. But in the reattempt, when I actually sat down and studied, I scored 72 out of 75. That’s when it really hit me; what I built during prep wasn’t temporary. The discipline, the ability to sit and grind, the curiosity to understand things properly, it all stayed. And that’s exactly what you’re sitting on right now, even if you don’t see it yet.
If you think those hours were wasted because you didn’t get one college, then no offence you're an idiot, you’ve completely misunderstood what you were doing. You weren’t just preparing for an exam. You were building a version of yourself that can now outwork most people in any room you walk into. That ability doesn’t expire because of one result. It carries forward. As Bhavesh bhaiya always says, college is just your y-intercept. You decide your slope. Where you start matters far less than how you move from there.
Now, what you do next actually matters more than what just happened. For freshers, if you’re confident you can do better and you’re willing to go through the grind again without lying to yourself about how hard it is, go again. But do it with clarity, not panic, after all a winner is just a loser who tried again. And for the droppers, and for those who don’t want to go through this cycle again, that’s completely fine too. Pick your best available option and dominate there. Because the truth is, the place matters far less than the person.
I know how you feel. I know exactly how this feels. I’ve been in your shoes. And trust me on this, it’s completely okay. Life does not stop here. You will do well. This is not the end of your story.
Right now, you’re hurt. That’s fine. But don’t be stupid enough to let one result rewrite your entire self-image. You didn’t lose your ability, your discipline, or your edge. You just didn’t get one outcome. And if you walk away from all this thinking you’re not capable, then the exam didn’t beat you—you beat yourself.
I have already mentioned this in one of my rcs but imma say it again
For a star to be born, something must happen: a gaseous nebula must collapse.
So collapse.
Crumble.
This isn’t your destruction.
This is your birth.
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Hey, just out of curiosity, If u dont mind, can u tell the reason if u know how u couldnt convert i/r/s at such amazing scores! Like I would die of happiness if I got that much, and yet not making it, man you're really strong
Wanna know too! And also if not iims then which college and course are/were you pursuing?
+1
bro didn't apply for ranchi, and clearly bhai ka interview went mid
it depends on the professors also ig matlab agar yahi interview kisi aur ne liya hota toh might've gotten it in the first list only.
Well tbh in the start, mera toh drop lene ka bhi plan nhi tha, but then I did not wanna have regrets, so took a drop, and decided at that point only indore and ranchi ke liye, but then when shillong came out with their program I decided to not apply ranchi. Now, what went bad? Indore mai I though ki me being a dropper I won't be asked heavy acads (I WAS SO WRONG) I decided to mention finance as an interest in my SOP and did not study shi about it, got asked so many questions that I couldn't answer. I was kinda presumptuous thinking ki with my score even a mid interview would not matter, tho I was so wrong lmao. In Shillong interview actally went nice high-key, in the end i was in like single digits waitlist? idr exactly abh toh but yeah acads might have held me back. (Totally not salty seeing people with 160s (gen) in there-)
Man I feel terrible just imagining that 😭its insane how you are this motivated after all that grind, hats off and thankyou so much for stopping my tears with your story, jo hota hai acche ke liye hota hai!
i heard ur doing the IIMB BBA DBE rn yeh? what are ur future plans? CAT or GMAT or sum other entrance after bachelors? Also why didnt u give JIPMAT or IPMAT Rohtak or any of the private uni entrances (NPAT, SET, and stuff) ?
So as to why I did not give other entrances; i was happy with DBE, and did not wanna go that far for Rohtak and J/BG. Me and my friends had always planned to start our own venture so gonna do that hi, as to CAT or GMAT doonga for the love of the game
wait so you're ug's just gonna be the online dbe degree right?
Yep!
mera toh 250+ wl tha shillong mei lol
i lowkey don't know what I'm gonna do but I'm lowkey the most fun amiable funny person there is, so samay, watch out, this loss might take me places, places where you might be at danger
how r u this perfect. damnn
Wha-😭
So hello fellow mates and scraggy bhai (idk you are but I feel a connection with you )
I did my ipmat yesterday maybe call aaye maybe shayad naa aaye but the level of growth I have seen in my drop year is immaculate.
So a little about me ig 68 in class 10 th maths took pcb because of parents pressure .gave my whole in it but failed miserably in neet because that wasn't my interest
Got lowest marks in english in 12 th board in comparison to my other subjects .
Took a drop for neet again but the pressure was something I couldn't handle .
Nicotine addiction was on the peak alcohol flowing in. And one night when I was drunk on my bed my father got a heart attack rushed him into the hospital .( He's fine now ) But the whole 2 months I just took care of him and stressing the fuck out with ofc lot of substances
Took a harsh step of following my intrest the 'IPMAT ' nobody supported because everyone wanted me to become a doctor ofc (even my friends even their parents tried to convince me to pursue neet but I took a bold step )
Started ipmat in October with no base in english and maths .but omfg the subjects I just stared loving them .
The DILR sets looked so alluring .The aeon essays omg loved them imagine reading about sleep paralysis and you can tell your parents you are studying haha .
But the thing in me to change myself started peaking got out of nicotine addiction of 2 years daily even alcohol I didn't even drink yesterday when the bottle was in front of me .started running focus on eating clean and yes it worked
Started scoring well I was the best in my coaching surpassing mates who have maths and studying for two years .ik competition all over india hain but it felt good because I haven't win even a lemon race in childhood
Ok yap bohot hogya cut to the chase yes this is the fuckin recarnation of my soul this exam prepared me for life ik how to sit and study how to work hard how to say no to those substance withdrawals.
The best achievement of the exam was I sat and just focused on the exam not even 1 thought out of the questions .
So ya idk konsa college hoga konsa nahi but I am ready for life
Dude this is one of the best posts here, i can relate with you sice i did jee for 2 years and my score wasnt really bad, but it was not enough to get me in a nit ot iit
Ipmat was like a breeze of fresh air in an otherwise suffocating room,
Your story is literally so motivatin dude, i wish you all the best, you can defenitely crack any college if you put your mind to it,
Peace king
exactly what i needed to hear.
You've still got other exams, give it your all!
yes boss 🫡🫡
The y-intercept is temporary but the slope is permanent
How on earth did indore not accept you 😭😭
In a dilemma rn,unsure if I did as much as I could,or will I get enough marks,But one thing is clear this guy I see in the mirror is not the same guy who wrote his boards carelessly with that chalta hai ,ho jayega attitude.
this is my first time taking something seriously. unsure if everything is gonna be serious. feels surreal that I survived IPMAT, surreal that I wrote an exam and not a mock. danggg
niga u a poet
If I would have scored well and not made it, I wouldn't have had any regret. What stings is that despite scoring in mocks and sectionals I won't be able to clear the MCQ cutoff, I won't even get a good score. I know you'll tell me to read it again but no big words no examples of people who didn't clear ipmat but did well in life will convince me that this isn't the end of .y entire world . The exhaustion is on another level too, mental and physical, it's like my body has given up on me and my brain is telling me that I'll mess up both rohtak and jpmat. There's just so much you have to do and still not be sure that you'll get something good
Bruh why does this open to some random german website
the link has a ".at" country code which is austria's lol.
same here ...have nothing to say anymore
I’m not going to tell you “it’s fine” or try to convince you this doesn’t matter. It does. And what you’re feeling right now, this exhaustion, this frustration, is completely valid. But also understand this: you’re not in a state to judge your future right now. You’re drained, and your brain is just amplifying everything negative. That “I’ll mess up the next ones too” thought isn’t reality; it’s exhaustion talking.
Also, when you said, you wouldn’t have regretted it if you had performed well but still not made it. That means you don’t doubt your ability; you’re just hurt that you couldn’t show it that day. That’s very different from “I’m not capable.” Don’t make a final judgment based on one bad day. Take a breather, reset a little, and show up for the next exams.
Are you serious? I actually stopped judging myself after reading this. Watch me cook all other exams. Thank you!
yayyy, she gets it
Hii bhaiya this is one of the best thing i've ever read, also what happened with me was I have severe exam anxiety and this was the first time I was giving a competitive exam with preperation(am a dropper) like literally I have this huge trauma of maths and exams I can't even explain it. It's so severe that while going to the exam centre I was literally fainting and was so anxious that I wasn't even capable of crying(idk what was going on) and hadn't slept for the past week(got serious insomnia due to exam anxiety) then when I went inside the center sat down at my seat was literally shivering there then exam started and then came the SA section, saw questions I have previously done before but the formulas weren't clicking(had I revised them in the last week before the exam things might have worked out) had to skip questions which I have literally solved before just because of the anxiety so started guessing every answer with some logic applied guessed 6 of them because of no -ve marking...
Now comes MCQ by this time I somewhat calmed down idk how, so solved 2-3 questions then wasn't able to find another question which seemed solvable again started panicking and then started eliminating the options and just blind guessing between the last two options:) attempted 10 questions here...
Then came VA this was where things started making sense to me every question felt like I have attempted them before and things went my way in this section pretty much sure that I'll clear the cutoffs for VA with a good margin...
So honestly being an EWS candidate idk what will happen pretty much sure won't make it in QA so moved on to Ipmat Rohtak I know I won't be that stressed for this exam but I wish I wouldn't have panicked and things would have gone my way during the exam...
Btw bhaiya you're one of the most inspiring person I have ever seen I hope you achieve and get whatever you want in life!!!
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lessgoo
I wanna read that RC again please
Bro, Which college are you in right now ?
thankyou so much man, this helps a lot at this point of time. but how did you improve your mathematics so much in such a short period of time
Answered in another comment do give it a read!
Thankyou bhaiya,hope to see you at the top.
Hey, sorry for messaging late, I wanna know how you improved your maths even after being so weak, I am a bio student taking drop and i am really weak at math, I wanna know how did u prepare to improve so much?
How did you get better in quants? Like any suggestions for quants I'm a 27 aspirant and starting my prep and fairly good in maths but haven't purchased any courses besides afterboards so don't know where to start. And really impressed by your scores can't even imagine how you would have felt after not getting selected really appreciate ur courage.
Honestly, there’s no fancy trick, I got better at quants purely through repetition and consistency. I wasn’t naturally good at maths at all, so I just focused on solving questions every single day, even when it felt frustrating. The goal wasn’t to understand everything at once, but to keep showing up, keep practising, and let patterns build over time. Start with basic topics, get your fundamentals clear, and then just keep solving; sectionals, topic-wise questions, whatever you have. The more you expose yourself to different types of questions, the more your brain starts recognising patterns automatically. It’s boring sometimes, but that’s literally what builds your edge.
Thanks for the tip. Wish you best for your future endeavors ✨️
swayam bhai on the rescue 🩳🥀
whats with the shorts-
i emojified you as "🩳"
I related hard, I couldn't sit for more than 20 minutes without getting distracted till 12th, but this prepration taught me how to sit and focus for 40% the day, from 20 minutes to 10 hours(proud of myslef). Learnt how to actually GRIND HARD. I have De-attached myself from the result whatever it will be, let it be.
That's the spirit bhai 😭.we will do great in our lives fs 😭 .
Will grind till the end 💪 kabhi na kabhi toh kuch hoga
Bhaiya, in the last forum you said don’t think about approaching girls and all… but listen.
When I entered the lab, there was this really beautiful girl sitting in the front row. She said hi and gave me such a nice smile. Our eyes met,no doubt, she is beautiful.
But the messed-up part is she got stuck in my head during the exam
i hope she is not reading this...
One ‘hi’ and bro forgot the entire syllabus 😂
Girl power fr, we don’t even have to try to reduce competition 😭💅
fr yrr
gang........
Almost a 1000 hours ...worth nothing
Read it again.
Bhaiya, everything makes sense until it comes to face parents when they gave in all for you .
Neither a drop makes sense to one person who put 5000+ hrs to something (1000hrs to bs september se hai that too only on aftb ka platform) and it doesn't go the way it should.
anyway bhaiya thank you , you have helped a lot throughout this journey . Afterboards is just ________(fill all the acche wale adjectives urself cuz i don't have words to explain) . Always gonna suggest one to go for it rather than any coaching
I resonate alot with your vending machine analogy, I believe effort is more like a slot machine where your work/time you put in represents your chances(tokens) to get the jackpot (hence increasing probability)
cant agree moree
scraggy bro, may I know which college you are in now?
Ah I'm in DBE rn
Omg same!
Hahahaha I am coming there soon too !!
Aaja aaja ab toh stats ka term 1 is bearable
Ty🥲
agar koi thokar kha ke bhi haar jaata hai uska kya?
thokar khaye bina haarne waala toh fir kaisa hi insaan khilayega na
yaar pichle saal bhi SA ka dar tha is saal bhi pichle saal jaisa dar hai
mat dar bhai
we hv talked many times on aftb and i genuinely know tu merse better position mei hi hoga and ik you WILL clear the cutoffs overthink mat kar and get started with next prep
mujhe trust hai terpe bhidhu abhi tu yeh worry shurry mat kar
hmm
i’ve done my part honestly, now i’ve completely left it to god… no point overthinking anymore
and i’ve got full trust in you too bro, both of us will make it, see you in indore 🤝
hopefully see you in indr
God's plan less goo (favv drake's song)
on god
There is no shame in falling, shame is in staying there.
[deleted]
duh-
Gang maybe not delete your questions so i can actually answer em- 😭😭😭
sorry mate - i though you got angry on previous ques. hence ignored me
here was the question -
how do you convince one for drop or say something for case like this -
take me for example - i have given everything in 11th & 12th -- countless hours in improving maths etc (still messed up math boards, hehe), and now putting in everything for cuet, clocking as much hours (mocks) as possible. aiming for eco hons top college, which is quite hard.
unlike ipmat, as you know cuet is conducted in shifts + normalization (it its hard when score is < 200/subject no matter whatever the difficulty is) so taking the luck factor aside.
what would you say for one who has given this much and still didnt convert it and im not at all ready to take drop because what im giving/gave so far is the best -- i can not grind another year for this exam this hard
so my question is who do one cope up with this kind of situation? feeling of studying in a college which is not worth (the environment, the peers etc) by peers i mean the academic rigor aspect; i know each and everyone is different and capable of doing one or other thing extraordinary.
btw, im completely optimistic about my prep and exam, this is just a thought of "what if i dont make it; i dont have any other options". quite haunting me.
i know, this post answers alot about this but still im unable to make up my mind 😭
i'm sure that i wont give up till the last question & last second of my exam 💪
ps. sare exams hogye, ab nhi lgta srcc milega (even north campus mushkil lg rha h)
Ah gimme some time this is a long one I'll reply ache se
Bhaiya my score will be around 160...will i be able to make itni indore ...obc candidate
Honestly, I don’t think everyone should take a drop, and your case is exactly why. A drop only makes sense when someone still has energy left to give. If you’ve already spent 11th, 12th, and now post-boards grinding day after day and genuinely feel mentally exhausted by this entire cycle, forcing yourself into another year of the same pressure can backfire badly. Sometimes the smarter decision is not one more attempt, but choosing a path where you can finally grow beyond entrance exams. College matters, yes, but your trajectory after entering college matters way more than people realise.
And about the fear of what if I don’t make it almost everyone preparing seriously has that thought, especially when they’ve attached years of effort to one outcome. But trust me, people massively underestimate how much they can still build from a decent or even average college through internships, skills, networking, competitions, LinkedIn, societies, freelancing, CAT prep later etc. The environment helps, yes, but it is not the sole deciding factor behind someone’s career. If your exam goes well, amazing. If it doesn’t, it won’t erase the discipline, work ethic, and resilience you built during prep. Those things compound long after these entrances end.
Can we know what went wrong with you, bro?
Like, 242/360, is a crazy enough score to clear Indore with a good Interview, yeah, Shillong was a new batch so they might have had different reasons that we may not be able to gauge, but, yeah, what went wrong?
It may be a sore topic for you, one that you tried letting go and succeeded after a long time, but, if it doesn't reopen old wounds, maybe some of us would really be interested to try to not make the same mistake, if there was any, from your side?
made a post about this! my interview experience do give it a read
umm, anyway to grab the link? like, aftb doesn't have forum history on a user's profile, right, soo...?
also ngl i think I might be like, i might be like immune to ts failure shi the way I've been at it for the last two years🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 these failure university of India ppl want me sooooo bad🤣🤣 calm down ladies
Bro missed the entire point of the post-
Bhaiya my score will be around ~160...
Obc candidate...have scored enough to clear sectionals...
My academics was decent...93.4 in 10th and 94.8 in 12th...
Will I be able to clear indore ???
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I know that you sound like my personalized ChatGPT, I just can't prove it yet
ChatGPT better take notes 💅💅
what are you doing now, i have heard that you couldn't convert indore, so are you in some other IIM or what are you doing now, also what went terrible that even with such a great score you couldn't convert indore
Already replied to this, scroll down a bit! Thank you