IIMA PGPX Essay 2: Describe a situation where you failed and how did you deal with this experience. What did you learn from this? (500 words)

This situation deals with my failure to secure an MBA admit in X previous attempts and the lessons I learnt from it for the fifth one.

After graduating in 20XX, I had started studying for MBA entrance exams while handling my job responsibilities. I did not get the required scores to clear the cutoffs for the interviews. Undeterred, I tried harder in the next three years and studied meticulously for the exams in each of these years. However, I never got the full taste of success as my scores always fell short of desired cut-offs. As a little consolation, I was shortlisted for interviews of a few Tier-2 B-schools. However, my misery continued because I could not get a single admit letter from any B-school I had interviewed with.

So in 20XX, after X unsuccessful attempts, not only was I nowhere close to getting an MBA seat, but I had also not been able to focus well on my job which put my career in jeopardy as I constantly fared average during my performance appraisals. Fearing yet another disappointment, I could not muster up the courage to resume studies and did not appear for any entrance exams since, until this year.

Although I failed, I learnt a lot about what had gone wrong and how I could have dealt with it.

Dedication – I learnt that I was not devoted enough to the goal, as I was constantly worried about failure and often wondered if I should focus on my job than on studies. This fear of failure put a roadblock in my mind, which affected my preparations. As a learning, I decided to go for another attempt at MBA only after reaching a stable stage financially and career-wise. The result is that I have been able to focus on MBA preparation without over-worrying about career.

Planning – I realized I was not studying in a systematic manner, focusing more on my strengths and trusting on destiny for weaker topics. Also, I was not paying attention to practice tests for analyzing my weaknesses. This time though, I planned my studies well, took several mock tests to improve on the weaker sections, and also thoroughly analyzed my scores in the mock tests. The result was that in the GMAT exam, I not only scored well in the quantitative and verbal sections, but also obtained full marks in IR and AWA sections (8 and 6 respectively).

Lack of plan-B – I did not have a plan-B in case of not getting selected in my desired school. This left me in similar situation every year for X consecutive years and I had to start all over again every year. The learning is that I have applied to multiple schools along with IIMA. This has not only helped me to get a real interview practice, but also kept my dream of MBA alive even if I don’t make it to IIMA, since I already have an acceptance from another school.