As part of our ‘Topper Mantras for CAT 2011’ series, we present to you the interview of CAT 2010 topper Anustup Chattopadhyay. Anustup scored 96.3 percentile in CAT 2010 and 96.7 percentile in XAT 2011. He got final admission call from XLRI Jamshedpur and IMT Ghaziabad. He has decided to join XLRI Jamshedpur for the HRM program. Anustup has done his graduation in Electrical Engineering from NIT Bhopal.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: How many GD&PI did you take part in?
A: I had GD & PI rounds for admission into IIT-Bombay, MDI, IMT, and XLRI. In IIT Bombay, there was a GD in which they gave us a case study to discuss. It was based on ‘how ethical are the corporate houses in taking decisions’. Interview was very chilled out. They were interested in checking my knowledge of current affairs. But those who are having some work experience, they expect a lot from them. They expect the people with a work experience to know their industry inside out, as well as a lot of general knowledge.
Q: Which are the institutes that offered you final admission?
A: I have received admission offers from XLRI and IMT. I was waitlisted for IIT Bombay and MDI Gurgaon.
Q: Which is the institute that you have decided to take admission and why?
A: I have decided to go for the PGD-HRM course at XLRI because it was the best available option and I am inclined towards HR course.
Q: What differences did you observe among the exams you had taken? How did you prepare for each of them? Please share in detail.
A: For CAT 2011, I got a pretty easy set. But every slot had questions of varying difficulty. XAT was the toughest, while FMS was the easiest. When a paper is tough, one should concentrate on accuracy because even a small difference of marks creates a huge difference in percentile. But in an easy paper, speed is important. Preparation should be done in such a way that the basic concepts are clear, so that even if the paper is tough, the questions can be solved.
Q: What were your strategies for the sections: Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation? Please share in detail.
A: My strength being Quantitative Ability, I used to start with that section at first. Verbal ability used to trouble me. So I made sure that I give more time to that section so that I do the questions right. Data interpretation was also not much of a worry for me. But constant practice is required for all the sections. Whatever is the strength or weakness, without practice, nothing fruitful happens during the exam.
Q: What is your advice to the candidates preparing for the computer based CAT?
A: The advice would be to read more e-books, e-newspapers etc. Join online preparatory sites as they help a lot to get one accustomed to the computer based format of CAT.
Q: What should be the overall strategy for CAT 2011 preparation with regards to time management?
A: Time management should be such that equal weightage is given to all the sections. But if someone is especially weak in a particular section, then more time should be allotted to that section. Also, if possible, some spare time should be kept in hand in case one gets stuck in a DI set or a quant problem or anything else.
Q: Any other message you would like to convey to the CAT 2011 aspirants?
A: CAT is a test where not only the speed and accuracy are tested, but also question selection, pressure handling and decision making are tested. If the set is easy, that means one has to attempt more questions as normalization process would eventually grade all the sets on a common scale.
Preparation is a continuous process, one cannot prepare overnight. The better the preparation, the higher is the chance of getting top B-School calls. All the best!
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more Topper Mantras for CAT 2011.
