Mr Puneet Manot scored 98.99 percentile in CAT and accepted an admission offer from one of the new IIMs. Puneet who had a working experience of 19 months along with his high CAT percentile, received final admission offer from multiple B-schools including most of the new IIMs.
In this Topper’s Mantra session with MBAUniverse.com, Mr Puneet shares his CAT prep strategy and talks on the challenges he faced during his preparation while being a working executive. He also speaks on his GD/PI strategy and suggests MBA aspirants to prepare the same along with their preparation of CAT.
Interview:
Q: What was your CAT percentile and which B-schools offered you final admission?
A: I scored overall percentile of 98.99 CAT. I got final admission offers from many B-schools including IIM Raipur, IIM Rohtak, IIM Udaipur, IIM Kashipur. I finally chose IIM Raipur.
Q: What was the toughest & easiest section for you in CAT? Why?
A: The toughest section for me while appearing for CAT was Data interpretation. This was because I had not devoted enough time during my preparation in practicing DI questions. I lacked speed while solving these questions and at the end, I had to forgo some of the questions of this section. The easiest section was logical reasoning. I could attempt all the questions of LR with confidence taking less than the expected time.
Q: What were your strategies to handle the difficult part?
A: While preparing for CAT, I knew that I lagged behind in verbal ability. Therefore, I concentrated on VA throughout my preparations by indulging myself into reading books and articles.
Q: How did you manage your weekly study schedule? What should be the ideal duration for study in a week for CAT prep?
A: While preparing for CAT, I was a working professional. Hence, I had no fixed weekly study schedule until a month before the test. However, I continuously tried to improve my verbal ability by reading books and articles. Once the day came closer, I started revisiting the Quantitative concepts, scheduling them on a weekly basis. I gave two mock tests per week. An ideal duration of study in a week is subjective. During the last month, I devoted around 20-25 hours a week to CAT preparation.
Q: One preparation area which influenced your selection to this Top B-school heavily. How?
A: Developing my verbal ability would be the prime reason for my selection to IIM Raipur. It reflected in my CAT score for the VA/LR section and hence my overall CAT score.
Q: What was your long-term preparation strategy for GD/PI?
A: Being in touch with the current affairs and continuously reading opinions about them, was one thing I targeted to prepare for GD/WAT. A thorough knowledge of my field of work came inherently with my working profile. I also devoted some time in self-introspection.
Q: Your advice for CAT 2013 Aspirants
A: CAT is not a difficult test to crack. It needs some preparation on the weaknesses of a candidate without neglecting the core-competency section (something I overlooked and suffered for). If someone is confident enough, there is no need to obtain formal coaching, but there is a need to follow a consistent pattern for preparing oneself. Continuously testing oneself with mock-tests is crucial to develop the required speed and attitude towards solving questions. Reparation of WAT/PI and GD is also an integral part in actually cracking CAT, and it should be pursued passively throughout the course of one’s preparation.
Q: What is the best part of doing/being an MBA?
A: A management course gives individuals opportunities to hone their skills, requisite for handling responsibilities in an organization. The importance of self-management becomes lucid while doing an MBA. But, the best part of doing an MBA is that it provides an opportunity to interact with some of the best brains in the country.
Q: Mention one unique aspect of your Institute.
A: The uniqueness about IIM Raipur is the level of student participation in the functioning of the college on the whole. It provides a lot of opportunities for a student to learn from common managerial issues that one will face in the due course of the corporate journey.
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