Q: What was your overall preparation strategy for CAT?
Truly speaking, I just went with the flow and did not exclusively prepare for CAT. In fact, I did not refer to some specific books, although I took a few mocks.
Q: Did you take any other exam apart from CAT?
Apart from CAT, I did not appear in any other exam.
Q: What was your strategy to prepare for different sections - VARC, DILR, QA?
For VARC, I reviewed a couple of older VARC papers and tried to gauge the level of questions asked in CAT Exam. For DILR, I solved a couple of previous year papers to see what the bottleneck was that affected the performance. For Quant section too, I went through a couple of previous year papers. I am extremely comfortable with LRDI and Quant naturally, so did not prepare for it explicitly.
Q: Was there any particular section/area that you were weak at? How did you overcome this challenge?
Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) was my weak area. To overcome it, I tried to read different articles and analysed them critically in short. This helped me not to recur the mistake. As a result, I scored a percentile of 96.80 in VARC
Q: What role did Mocks play in your success?
I took Unacademy free mock questions for all the 3 sections. The CAT Mocks were extremely insightful to understand the pattern of questions and for proper time management
Q: Did you self-prepare for CAT?
Yes, I preferred Self preparation which can be taken as almost no specific preparation.
Q: What were your exam day strategies?
I did not go for any last minute preparation and had a good night’s sleep with proper food and hydration. As I knew that my strengths were LRDI and Quant, so I was prepared for managing my time efficiently. For VARC I tried to do the less time consuming questions first then came back to the longer ones. In my view identifying such questions is the key.
Q: Which all B-schools shortlisted you for personal interview round? How did you prepare for it?
I was shortlisted by all the IIMs except IIM Indore. To prepare for PI round, I followed current affairs, applied for the CATKing programme and did self-introspection.
Q: Which B-schools you finally converted?
I was targeting the top 6 IIMs and I converted IIM Kozhikode
Q: According to you, overall, how can B-schools make their MBA admission process less cumbersome for MBA applicants.
I think it is pretty streamlined now. Maybe they can collect the data which is repetitive from the initial CAP registration process.
Q: Finally, your message and tips for candidates preparing for CAT 2023
My message for CAT 2023 aspirants is to keep your head down, be aware of what an MBA can bring to the table. Do a lot of self-reflection and a lot of reading - keeping up with what’s going around you and how does it affect you and society in a larger picture that you are a part of, to be able to articulate your thoughts during GDs and PI. Team MBAUniverse.com hopes that this interview was truly inspiring for you! Don't miss out on the opportunity to explore more motivational stories from students who have made their mark at IIMs, IIFT, MDI, XLRI, and beyond. Let their journeys ignite the fire within you…Success awaits you!
