Results for CAT, 2008, were declared late on Thursday night. MiD DAY tracks three students as they battle anxiety and hope for the best

It was only a few weeks ago that lakhs of MBA aspirants, brimming with excitement and expectation, worked hard for the Common Admission Test (CAT) to gain entry into one of the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIM). However, when the results were declared late on Thursday night, some rejoiced and others were disappointed.

One of the aspirants, Munna Kumar, who failed to score well and knows he will not get a call from any of the IIMs, looked crestfallen. But he was the clear winner among his friends, who too had appeared for the same exam. Discussing the scores of his friends, Partho Mukherjee and Dushyant Sikerwar, who scored 14.67 and 17.98 percentile respectively, Kumar said, "In the quantitative section I scored 44.22 per cent and in other two sections 46.39 and 9.90 per cent, respectively. Summing up the three sections I have managed to score 23.08 per cent. It's good but not enough. So I will try next year again."

In Verbal Ability (section 1) Dushyant scored 10 (out of 100), which turned to be 0.99 per cent, while Partho scored 40.73 per cent in the same section.

In the second section, which is Logic and Data Interpretation, Partho scored 25.42 per cent and his friend 25.42. In the last section Partho scored 9.90 per cent. For the same section Dushyant performed quite well and managed to score 82.75 per cent.

For many students, who ignored their internal college examinations to concentrate on CAT, the results were very important. Gaurav Verma, a student of Delhi University, hasn't prepared for his internal examination scheduled to begin from today. For him, a good CAT score is a must. He said, "I am yet to see the result on which much of my future depends. My career is going to be decided by this score. This is a make-or-break situation for me," Verma said.