CAT 2015: "Don't juggle between the questions" emphasizes CAT topper and FMS MBA student-Shourya Jain

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
October 10, 2015
Shourya Jain, FMS Delhi student motivates and guides CAT 2015 aspirants with his 'go with ease' preparation tips and key advice 'not to complicate' the things to score high in CAT 2015
I dont juggle between the questions as this allows me to assess the time left and questions left quickly Shourya Jain, CAT topper & FMS Delhi student

Busting the Halo effect of studying in IIMs despite being offered admission, Shourya Jain, FMS Delhi student & CAT topper with 99.95 percentile motivates and inspires CAT 2015 aspirants with his ‘go with ease’ preparation tips and key advice ‘not to complicate’ the things to score high in CAT 2015.  Shourya Jain also scored a high percentile of 99.7 in XAT 2015 and was offered admission at XLRI as well.

Shourya didn’t go either to XLRI or top rated older IIMs like IIM Lucknow, Kozhikode and all the new IIMs, instead he preferred to utilize the MBA admission opportunity offered by FMS Delhi.

With a graduation back ground in Software Engineering, Shourya Jain has 23 months work experience at Royal Bank of Scotland to his credit. Shourya followed the strategy not to complicate things either during preparation or in the examination hall. It became instrumental for him to crack CAT 2014 and XAT with high scores. Shourya makes humble attempt to inspire and guide the prospective CAT 2015 test takers

MBAUniverse.com:What was your preparation strategy? Please share some key do’s and don’ts
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): My preparation strategy was simple. I do not like to complicate things.

Few Do's
-- Identify the areas where you can improve which I did by giving practice test and finding out patterns

-- Focus on those specific areas- Quantitative ability can be improved by practicing as it mostly is the case of revising what one already knows. In verbal ability grammar is not something one can master in couple of months so one can learn some basic rules that are commonly tested. Reading comprehension which forms a major chunk of VA can be improved by solving as many questions as one can. LR and DI is also about practice
-- Practice is the key and practice does improve the efficiency
-- Studying for around 1-1.5 hours daily for 4 months is best

Few Dont's
-- Do not stress yourself
-- Focus on practice and not that much on theory
-- Don't focus on areas where you don't see yourself improving rather focus on your strong area in same section

MBAUniverse.com: What was your strategy in testing room to attempt the questions from different sections: Quantitative Ability & DI, Verbal Ability & LR?
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): I don't follow a set pattern and like to attempt from the first question. I don't juggle between the questions as this allows me to assess the time left and questions left quickly. This has been my strategy from the school days and it has been satisfactory journey.

MBAUniverse.com: Which all exams did you write? How did you prepare for them? What score did you get?
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): I appeared for CAT, XAT. Focus was on CAT and did not specifically prepare for others. For XAT there was a month gap but I just practiced a few questions on decision making but apart from that there was not much specific preparation.

I obtained 99.95 percentile in CAT 2014 and 99.7 in XAT 2016.

MBAUniverse.com: How many GDPI did you take part in? What were your GD/WAT topics?
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): I did not attend many GDPIs. In total I attended about 2-3 mock GD and 3-4 mock PI. This was because the interview schedule of the college was so packed that I could not give much time for this preparation. I will advise candidates to give as many mock GDPI as possible but be sure to be prepared before giving them. GD topics were Make in India vs Make for India , Red vs Blue.

MBAUniverse.com: Few questions that were asked to you during PI round?
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): Questions were specific on hobbies and few were on the following-

-- What do you learn from each activity that you do?
-- How do you define ethics?
-- Why MBA?
-- Views on Union Budget

MBAUniverse.com: The institutes that offered you admission?
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): Admission was offered from XLRI (BM & HRM); IIM-Lucknow; IIM Kozhikode and new IIMs and the FMS Delhi.

MBAUniverse.com: The factors that made you decide in favour of FMS Delhi
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): I have taken admission in FMS as the faculty here is world renowned and due to small batch the focus on each student is much more as compared to anywhere else. This campus is also student run which gives real time exposure to students about dealing with situations and this is what matters in real life. The placements here are comparable to any top B-school in India if not better. Being one of the oldest b-schools, the alumni network of this college is beyond imagination.

MBAUniverse.com: What advice and tips you would like to share with the candidates preparing for CAT 2015?
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): Focus on practice and not on theory. Identify areas where one is weak and then filter those areas which you can improve upon. These areas are what you should focus on. Never let stress get the better of you.

MBAUniverse.com: Your message to future MBA aspirants.
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): MBA is about what you can build upon your potential. Quality college is important but it is not the end of world. Life is what you make of opportunities that are given to you and not about what is not given to you. Enjoy the journey. Work hard and Party harder.

MBAUniverse.com: Why did you want to do MBA?
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): My interest in MBA came from the internship I did at RBS. It was the first time I was exposed to Investment Banking world, this exposure kindled interest in me. Then I joined it after completing engineering from DCE.

It was great experience in RBS where interaction with traders and domain trading of various products like Futures, derivatives helped me align my goals in this direction. MBA in finance is the perfect platform for me
to prepare myself for this world.

MBAUniverse.com:  Would you like to share any special story experienced by you in your journey from being a CAT aspirant to a successful topper
Shourya Jain (CAT topper): I do not have a special story or any exciting story to talk about. But I was motivated by a colleague of mine who was preparing for Civil Services while we were working in RBS.

I believe Civil Services exam is a lot tougher to crack than an MBA entrance and when he cracked it and got into top 100, it was motivating for me that this can be done and one cannot make excuse of working hours or office pressure. He was under lot more work pressure than me and still he was successful in his dream and this inspired me to work hard. Each day you find people working harder than us, a simple rickshaw peddler wakes up early than us and goes to sleep long after we have slept. These examples are everywhere and it inspired me to push myself as I could not find any reason to be lazy or stop myself form pushing.

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

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