CAT 2015: Maximize score with time saving approach success mantra from Parina Kolhe CAT toppe

Parina Kolhe CAT topper with 98.09 percentile is a fresher and is an example for CAT 2015 aspirants who think admission to IIM is difficult without work experience.
Parina has no IIT background and pursued her engineering in Electronics &Telecommunication from Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering & Technology, Nanded, Maharashtra. She is presently pursuing her 2 year Management Programme at IIM Ranchi.

Parina belongs to Mumbai. Her father isserving Indian Air Force as Group Captain and gets frequent transfers. Parina couldpreparefor CAT partly in Chennai and partly in Bangalore. She was offered job in IBM after her graduation but she preferred to pursue herfurtherstudies in Management atIIM Ranchi
MBAUniverse.com brings a round of her success story with preparation and testing room strategy for the benefit of CAT 2015 aspirants.

MBAUniverse.com: What was your preparation strategy?
Parina Kolhe CAT topper: I made sure I study at least 5-6 hours daily for CAT in final year of Engineeringin spite of tight college schedule. I alsoresorted to readingarticles from various websites to improve reading speed and vocabulary. In addition, I ensured thatmock tests are taken seriously as I considered it the most important part in preparation. It helps in assessing &identifyingstrong &weak areas whichsubsequently help inimproving speed &accuracy. I believed that, just solving questionswillnever help in totality but, it is important to havetime saving approach towards every question which will ultimately help in maximizingCAT score.

MBAUniverse.com: What was your strategy in testing room to attempt the questions from different sections: Quantitative Ability & DI, Verbal Ability & LR?
Parina Kolhe CAT topper: Quantitative & Logical Reasoning were my strongest areas and I made sure thatevery question in these sections are attempted with confidence&sincere approach. Other areas likeDI and RC were given second priority as these sections required alot of time. But with practice I started coping up with this by identifying easy questions among the sets given. With this strategy I was able to balance my CAT score in both the sections.

MBAUniverse.com: Which all exams did you write? What score did you get?
Parina Kolhe CAT topper: Along with scoring 98.09 percentile in CAT, with my preparation I obtained fairly good score inNMAT (208) and MAHCET (96.908 percentile) as well.
Since I wantedto see myself as part ofone of the IIMs, Icompletely focused myself forCAT examination. In addition, I knewthat CAT score is accepted in most of the well-known B-Schools as well institutes likeMDI, NITIE & SJMSOM, which would give me a leap for admissionin one of the bestB-schools.

MBAUniverse.com: How many GDPI did you take part in? What were your GD/WAT topics?
Parina Kolhe CAT topper: After getting 98.09 percentile I got call for GDPI from IIM Kozhizode as well asnew IIMs (Ranchi, Raipur, Trichy, Udaipur, Kashipur, Rohtak). In addition I was called by IITs at SJMSOM Mumbai,Delhi, VJSOM Kharagpur, Kanpur& Roorkee. In addition options were available atSPJIMR,NITIE, IMI Delhi, KJ Somaiya at Mumbai andNMIMS at Mumbai.
The GD topics were varying from institute to institute & few of them included topics likeSmart work vs Hard work, Smart use of natural resources, Should girls change their surname after marriage or not? etc.

MBAUniverse.com: Few questions that were asked to you during PI round?
Parina Kolhe CAT topper: Being a fresher, my interview mostly had technical questions related to engineering. It is very important to be familiar and well versed with the concepts of your domain. PI questions variedfrom Institute to Institute.For example, NITIE focused entirely on engineering subjects as they take only engineers. IIM Kozhikode, IIT Delhi, SJMSOM and NMIMS had a lot of questions related to current affairalong with technical subjects.Most frequently asked questions to me was how I would be able to compete with people having work experience. PIs are all about how confident you are about yourself.

MBAUniverse.com: The institutes that offered you admission?
Parina Kolhe CAT topper: I successfully converted most of the colleges which gave me an opportunity for interviews.These included new IIMs(Ranchi , Raipur, Trichy, Udaipur, Kashipur, Rohtak), IIT Delhi (DMS), NITIE, IIT Kanpur, VJSOM (IIT KHARAGPUR), IMI Delhi, KJ Somaiya Mumbai, NMIMS Mumbai.

MBAUniverse.com: Why did you decide in favour of IIM Ranchi only?
Parina Kolhe CAT topper: I am now part ofIIM Ranchi for two year Management Programme. Most difficult part was to choose between NITIE and IIM Ranchi. NITIE had a legacy of 50 years in Industrial Management. I did not want to restrict myself to only Operation Management. So finally I decided to chooseIIM Ranchi. IIMs give an advantage ofexploring all the fields of management with an equal focus on personality development.

MBAUniverse.com: What advice and tips you would like to share with the candidates preparing for CAT 2015?
Parina Kolhe CAT topper: It is very easy to crack CAT provided youidentify your strong &weak areas and decide a strategic approach to solve the papers with restriction on timeframes. For this it is essential to practice & undertakeas many mock papers as possible. It is important to be calm on the day of CAT exam & concentrate on it because it is all about focus & accuracy in those threehours that will determine your destination.
MBAUniverse.com: Your message to CAT 2015 aspirants.

Parina Kolhe CAT topper: CAT examination is just the initialstep towards the dream of getting into a top B school. There is a need to getprepared for the subsequent rounds of tests & interviews from day one. We need to refresh ourselves aboutthe concepts fromrespective domains & fields.

Reading newspapers & magazines on a daily basis helps a lot for current affairs & improving vocabulary. Be very clear why you need an MBA and how it will help you in future. From cracking CAT to getting an admission in one of the Institutes like IIM takes a lot of effort for whichyou need to be patient & you need to have faith and confidence in yourself till you get into one of the B-Schools you desire to be in.

MBAUniverse.com: Why did you want to do MBA?
Parina Kolhe CAT topper: As a fresher I am only technically sound. MBA is envisaged tobridge the gap between technical and management skills in oneself. It will also help me indeveloping soft skills aswell as interpersonal skills.It will develop my personality to deal better with people in the corporate world. It will give me the best opportunity and boost my career exponentially.

MBAUniverse.com: Any special story experienced by you in your journey from being a CAT aspirant to a successful topper
Parina Kolhe CAT topper: I realized that when you are really determined to achieve a goal,nothing can really stop you from doing so. Wherever you come from & whatever resources you have, its up to you to make best out of it to reach your goal. Like I did my graduation from SGGSIET, Nanded which is a small town in Maharashtra, which did not have any coaching centre for CAT. AllI had was correspondence course material & my self confidence in preparation. With my initial efforts, in first attempt in CAT 2013 I could score 87.9 percentile which was not adequate for getting in IIMs. But I did not lose patience & managed to get 98.09 percentile in CAT 2014.
MBAUniverse.com: Thank you Parina for sharing such a valuable guidance for CAT 2015 aspirants

Parina Kolhe CAT topper: Thank you MBAUniverse.com for starting such an innovative idea to help CAT 2015 aspirants.