CAT 2015: Plan well and Set Deadlines; reveals the success mantra by Topper & IIM Student Swapnil Agarwal

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
August 7, 2015
Inspiration to CAT 2015 Aspirants, Pursuing PGP programme 2015-17 at IIM Ahmedabad Swapnil Agarwal has been a student with determination right from beginning
To prepare well you have to plan wll and setting up deadlines serves as a check for your plan aned keeps you motivated Swapnil Agarwal CAT topper

CAT toppers do not come from metros only; aspirants from historical cities and small towns also make it big and convert their dream to get into IIM Ahmedabad into reality.

MBAUniverse.com has brought a round of CAT 2014 toppers’ success stories for the benefit of CAT 2015 aspirants. In the series we present the success story of a determined girl from Agra, Swapnil Agarwal who scored 99.79 percentile in CAT 2014 and converted her admission call to IIM Ahmedabad improving the gender diversity in IIMA classroom.

Pursuing PGP programme 2015-17 at IIM Ahmedabad, Swapnil Agarwal has been a student with determination right from beginning. Born and brought up in Agra, city of the Taj Mahal, Swapnil’s parents have been a great support for her. Her father Dr R C Agarwal is a renowned General Surgeon of Agra and her brother is pursuing MBBS while Swapnil opted for graduation in Engineering.

A versatile personality, Swapnil has not confined herself to the study domain only, she is a good Kathak dancer and a good tennis player. Swapnil captained her IIT Kanpur Tennis team at Inter-IIT sports meet while pursuing B.Tech in Material science and engineering.

Swapnil has consistently been an excellent student. She scored 97.6% in class X and 94.25% marks in ICSE class XII exam of 2010 and in the same year she got through IIT-JEE with a high rank. She completed her B Tech from IIT Kanpur in 2014 with a CPI of 8.2 with an academic excellence award and the best project award.  After that she took up a job with an analytic firm called EXL Inductis. Her role there was to work with the model monitoring team and decide the credit policy of the client.

Although her work experience could not be counted to award her some bonus weightage at the PI round of IIMA, as it was of less than one year, she made it a point to prepare well and crack CAT 2014 with a high score so that despite considered a fresher she doesn’t lag behind. As a result of her hard work and intelligent preparation strategy she got into the top B-school of the country.

Sharing with MBAUniverse.com Swapnil highlights her experience in preparation journey to CAT 2014 and modestly attempts to give the ‘success mantra’ to the CAT 2015 aspirants

MBAUniverse.com:What was your preparation strategy? Share some key do’s and don’ts

Swapnil (CAT topper):

Do’s for CAT 2015 Aspirants
Plan well and set deadlines for yourself. For MBA entrance exams huge amount of syllabus needs to be covered in small time. To prepare well you have to plan well and setting up deadlines serves as a check for your plan and keeps you motivated.

Time-bound practice- Trickiest part of clearing CAT 2015 is to get to the right answer in least amount of time. This can be done only if you practice with a check on time

Good peer group- Working with other motivated individuals helps you to continue even in tough times. You can also discuss tough questions. It also helps while preparing for GD/PI

Get an expert opinion- Talking to an expert (mentors at coaching classes or online tutorial) helps you to gauge your performance against others. They can help you in working on your weaknesses and teach you important time-saving tricks

Practice- There is no substitute to hard-work, this specially holds true for CAT 2015. The more you practice the better you will get.

Dont’s for CAT 2015 Aspirants
Refer to many books- Refer to maximum 2 books on a subject. Too many books create confusion. Some of the books have questions much tougher than those asked in CAT. Preparing from them won’t do any good.

Get stuck on one topic- With a vast syllabus covering so many topics it easy to get stuck on a hard subject. You should remember that everything is relative and spending a lot of time on one subject is not advisable

MBAUniverse.com: What was your strategy in testing room to attempt the questions from different sections: Quantitative Ability & DI, Verbal Ability & LR?
Swapnil (CAT topper): I wanted to play on my strengths so I tackled quants first. In the first go I solved all the questions I was comfortable with and marked those which required time. Then I approached the verbal section and did the easy ones. In the second go I send more time on quant making sure my answers were correct. Once I felt I had done fair amount of questions in quant, I spent the remaining time in verbal section.

MBAUniverse.com: Which all exams did you write? How did you prepare for them? What score did you get?
Swapnil (CAT topper): I appeared only for CAT 2014 and scored 99.79 percentile.

MBAUniverse.com: How many GDPI did you take part in? What were your GD/WAT topics?
Swapnil (CAT topper): I took part in 5 GDPI sessions. My GD/WAT topic was Spread of AIDS among youth, E-commerce in India, Poverty in India among others.

MBAUniverse.com:Few questions that were asked to you during PI round?
Swapnil (CAT topper): I was mainly asked about my job, B. Tech project as I had won many awards for the same and interests. Few questions were also based on general awareness, and essay I had written before the PI round.

MBAUniverse.com: The institutes that offered you admission?
Swapnil (CAT topper): I was offered admission by IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Lucknow.

MBAUniverse.com: Why did you decide in favour of IIM Ahmedabad only?
Swapnil (CAT topper): I felt that the PGP at IIM-A is the best in the country and is well-suited for my requirements. I am interested in a career in consulting in public policy making. IIM-A has a very strong alumni base in this field.

MBAUniverse.com: What advice and tips you would like to share with the candidates preparing for CAT 2015?
Swapnil (CAT topper): On a general note, I would say that clearing CAT 2015 is not difficult if you are following a structured preparation regime. Everything is relative so instead of being a master in one subject and below average in others, it’s better to be good in all the subjects. Just stay focused and prepare well.

MBAUniverse.com: Your message to future MBA aspirants ( CAT 2015).
Swapnil (CAT topper): The entire journey from preparing for MBA and getting into a good college is a great learning curve. So instead of getting nervous about it, try enjoying the process. To get started on things, I would say that one of the most important things is to read. Verbal is the toughest subject for most of the MBA aspirants. Reading good English material helps you to improve your reading skills, vocabulary and grammar. This can save you a lot of time while preparing for CAT 2015. It will also improve your knowledge and make you well-informed.

MBAUniverse.com: Why did you want to do MBA?
Swapnil (CAT topper): Throughout my stay at IITK, I was a gregarious person who enjoyed solving problems working closely in a group. So I decided to move to consulting and joined EXL Inductis after graduation. In a short span of 6 months, my commitment has been noted and appreciated by my colleagues and supervisors alike. However, my experience with EXL made me realize that to add value to an organization and be a well-rounded professional, it is vital to have structured knowledge of management. It is important to learn exactly how all strategic initiatives, functions and people come together to form an organization. This is when I decided to go for an MBA program.

MBAUniverse.com: Any special story experienced by you in your journey from being a CAT "aspirant" to a "successful topper”
Swapnil (CAT topper): Getting into IIM Ahmedabad is in itself a very special story! Every moment, be it preparation, test or interview, was a unique experience.

MBAUniverse.com: Thanks Swapnil for sharing such a valuable guidance for CAT 2015 aspirants 
Swapnil (CAT topper): Thank you very much

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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more success mantra stories and CAT 2015 preparation tips from toppers