Prior to this, he worked with Agilent Technologies as software engineer. His hobbies include playing basketball, watching movies and hitting the gym!
MBAUniverse.com spoke to Abhinav on his success, his plans ahead and his advice to Gen-next of MBA aspirants.
Q: What is your percentile in CAT '08 and how does it feel getting call from prestigious IIMs…
A: My percentile is 99.64 and I have got four calls from the IIMs – IIM Bangalore, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore and IIM Kozhikode. It makes me feel great now as my hard work and dedication has finally paid off. I have given CAT earlier also, but missed it by inches, but this time, after getting the calls, I am really on the top of the world. As of now, I am looking forward to the next round of GD/PI and hope to crack it too.
Q: In your view, what are the key factors that helped you in doing so well in CAT?
A: The key factors that helped were time management, focus, hard work and complete dedication to the schedule.
Q: How did you prepare for CAT '08? What was your preparation strategy?
A: I have given CAT earlier also, but missed the English cutoff. So this time, I focused on the English preparation and just brushed up my Maths and DI skills. I had also enrolled for the Mock cats from Time and CL which gave me enough practice.
Q: Now, how are you preparing for Group Discussions and Personal Interviews?
A: For the GDs, I have enrolled with an institute for mock GDs to get a glimpse of the actual IIM GDs. For the interview, I am keeping myself abreast of the latest happenings around the world, and grooming myself on my presentation and personal awareness.
Q: What do you think about the role of the coaching institutes for MBA test preparations?
A: The coaching institutes have increased the competition by a large extent, because one who does not want to join, and prepare on his own, has no choice, but to join them. Else he would be lagging behind the others. The institutes provide guidance on the basics and advanced topics which students can benefit from, but ultimately it is the hard work and the meticulous preparation of the candidate which helps him in the longer run.
Q: For the aspirants who will take CAT 09, what would be your advice to crack CAT?
A: Start early, because there is too much of competition. Identify your strengths and where you are weak at, have to plan to plug those weaknesses and scoring well with the help of your stronger sections, while at the same time, just clearing the cut off for the weaker sections as well. Above all, a positive bent of mind and ability to take pressure is most important of all.
