CAT 2014 topper: No call from IIMs despite 99 percentile; Shocking story revealed

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
April 27, 2015
True story of Sukvinder Singh who despite scoring a high percentile of 98.9 in CAT 2014 has not been able to receive a call from single IIM is sure an eye opener for CAT 2015 aspirants
High sectional percentile in CAT 2014 was also very important to get shortlisted and to get a call from IIMs

The true shocking story of Sukvinder singh (name changed to protect the identity of the candidate) is shocking and could be a guiding star for CAT 2015 aspirants to prepare in accordance to the requirements of shortlisting criteria. It is not only your percentile in CAT 2015 but other important factors that can help you get and convert your call, are also responsible.

The true story of Sukvinder Singh who despite scoring a high percentile of 98.9 in CAT 2014 has not been able to receive a call from single IIM is sure an eye opener for CAT 2015 aspirants. Sukvinder was initially very happy on scoring such a good percentile but is quite upset as he has not received call from any IIM. Adding fuel to fire, the candidates with CAT 2014 percentile as low as 95 or 96 have received the call from older and newer IIMs and are hopeful of converting the same.

The first person account presented below is to guide and inspire the CAT 2015 aspirants to avoid the mistakes that this candidate did and adopt right preparation strategy and follow it meticulously to score high balanced sectional percentile in CAT 2015.

Sukvinder Singh is a working professional, hails from Jharkhand and works in Mumbai. The candidate pursued the school education from CBSE Board with a moderately high score. Let us have the first person account right from Sukvinder Singh.

I am an Engineering graduate from an AICTE approved Institute and have always secured fairly good score in the examination.  I have a work experience of 2 years with an IT company and have been drawing good salary.   

After completing my graduation in Engineering I have always aspired to pursue MBA from IIM A,B,C,L or from some other reputed B school. Since the gateway to get admission in any of them is to go through CAT with high percentile, the first priority was to prepare well for CAT 2014.

I prepared well for CAT 2014

I quit my job, joined an institute to prepare well and give my 100% to CAT 2014 preparation.  I devised number of tricks and short cuts while sharing quant sessions with the CAT aspirants while for Verbal I used to share the material and preparation tips from faculty members and students alike.

Despite all the changes in CAT 2014 which had different type of questions, less time left per question to solve with more number of questions, my hard work brought me 98.9 percentile in CAT 2014 and I was sure of getting one of the older IIMs.

My order of preference went like IIM B, A, C, L, I, K, S.  I didn’t give much weightage to new IIMs in view of their current infrastructure, learning experience and not so good placement. Other top rated institutes in my favoured list included MDI, NITIE, IMT, FMS, DMS-IIT Delhi and new IIMs.

Not shortlisted by IIMs

It’s shocking but true that IIM A,B,C,L,I didn’t send call to me not to say of converting it. I received call from IMT, MDI, NITIE, DMS-IITD, FMS but not from any IIM.

Uneven Sectional Percentile shattered dreams

My CAT 2014 percentile is not balanced. Overall it is high at 98.9; in quant 99+ but low in Verbal with 80+. High sectional percentile in CAT 2014 was also very important to get shortlisted and to get a call from IIMs. High sectional scores in CAT can also compensate for some low scores in PI round if you are shortlisted.

Besides my academic record in 10th and 12th standard stands at around 73 & 71 percent marks.

Work Experience would have helped if I had got shortlisted as the older IIMs award extra weightage to work experience. But since I was not shortlisted, no benefit of work experience I could get

Plan to prepare for CAT 2015

• I wish to pursue MBA from a top rated B school and to achieve this goal I will focus on both the sections. I am a bit weak in Verbal so will focus more on it especially Grammar part. IIMs need a minimum cut off sectional percentile of 85 to 90 in Verbal Ability. I will target 100 percentile to get an edge over others and to compensate for my moderate academic profile.

• I have however been lucky enough to get my job back and I do not propose to quit it now. I will go for a mix of weekend offline coaching and a regular on-line coaching to give my best.

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