The success story of CAT toppers

Having scored 100 percentile in one of the most difficult entrance exams of India is not an easy task and must be appreciated. Every year more than one lakh students appear for the exam but only a few can make it to the top. Every such candidate getting enlisted in the toppers club has a story of their own that motivates and inspires other candidates to work hard. 

A 21-year-old B.Com final year student, Shreya Singhal, hailing from Haryana had the view to secure 100 percentile in the CAT exam. She started her preparations 7 months prior to the examination. Preparing for an entrance examination is not easy during the final year of college with projects and assignments being a heavy burden. She was however determined to crack the exam and secure good marks. She joined the online coaching platform Percentilers where she was able to get professional and branded coaching from the mentors. The A.I. enabled mock tests helped her to recognize her strengths and weaknesses and work on them. The constant perseverance and mentorship from Percentilers are what helped her secure 100 percentile in the exam.

Candidates like Shreya are examples that inspire other candidates to achieve their dreams. Like Shreya, there are other such people who keep motivating and instill confidence in other aspirants. 

 Rishi Mittal, a Civil Engineering student from NIT Surat, is one of the candidates who scored 100 percentile. It is noteworthy to mention that he was able to crack the exam in his first attempt. He started his preparation while he was in the third year of his engineering course. For the initial months, he focused on conceptual understanding using the materials provided by the classes. One strategy he applied was to realize his strengths and weaknesses and work on those weaknesses. After this was done he started giving mock tests and solving practice papers. He was able to give 40-45 mock tests. “I think a good study material is the secret of a 100 percentile, but clarity and experience of the questions is also important”, says Rishi in his interview with Shiksha. 

 Like Rishi, Somansh Chordia, a mechanical engineering student from Mumbai was able to crack the exam in his first attempt. He started his preparation by giving mocks in order to understand the exam pattern. Later he started to analyze these mocks and recognize his strengths and weaknesses. In the final stage of preparation, he dedicated his time to reform his weaknesses and solved the previous year question papers.CAT experts having years of experience, check out this https://www.percentilers.in/. According to Somansh, coaching classes are helpful during the initial stages of preparation when you are acquainted with the exam pattern and accordingly set your own strategy. He attempted 20-25 CAT mock tests. “It’s good and important to compare your performance with others as essentially it’s a competitive exam but one should not get demoralized or overconfident in the process. So it would be best to keep competing with yourself and periodically comparing with others just to know where your stand and probably learn from others who are performing better or have improved a lot”, says Somansh. He keeps stressing the point that one should believe oneself.

 Somansh’s close friend and mate Rahul Manglik has scored 99.99 percentile in the exam. Together they prepared for the exam and were able to crack the exam in their first attempt. He also focused on solving mocks and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the results.

Rahul Gupta, the IIT Roorkee graduate, and a working professional scored 100 percentile. He engaged himself in self-preparation as being a working professional it is not easy to join coaching institutes and attend classes. He also appeared for XAT and scored 99.99 percentile. He started with strengthening his basics and solving easy and comfortable questions and slowly began moving towards hard and technical questions. Then he started giving mock tests. He made sure to check the progress of his preparation. He analyzed his mock results and accordingly paid attention to the required areas. “Consistency will help in improving the speed and accuracy. Attempting mocks and analyzing them would expose them to a lot of questions and would help identify weaknesses”. Series of mock exams uses Artificial Intelligence to give students personalized feedback about their strengths and weaknesses. check out this link https://www.percentilers.in/

Srishti Banzal a New Delhi resident pursuing B.E. in Computer Science and MSc in Economics scored 99.86 percentile in the CAT exam. Overwhelmingly she cracked the exam in her first attempt. She had enrolled in a coaching institute but was not able to devote her time to CAT preparation because of her academic schedule. Unable to cope with the caching institute she relied on self-study. Initially, she gave mock tests in order to recognize her strengths and weaknesses. She continued to work on her basics and analyzed her mock results to reform the mistakes. “The key step in mental prep for the exam was certainly to recognize that it is all doable and there is nothing to fear as I had studied all concepts in previous years in some form or the other so there is nothing new to be afraid of something”.

 Nitesh Panigrahi who had scored 99.55 percentile in the exam had only 6 months in hand to prepare for his exam according to him, conceptual understanding is important and practice is the key to success. Since his weak area was the VARC, he focused on reading novels and newspapers to brush up on his reading and comprehension skills. Giving mock tests is also important but more than that analyzing the result and reforming the mistakes is more important. 

Rounak Majumdar scored 100 percentile in the CAT 2018 and 99.89 percentile in CAT 2017. He pursued mechanical engineering from IIT Kanpur. Raunak did not attend regular coaching classes rather attempted the mock tests provided by the institute. Even he emphasizes that analyzing mock tests is more important than giving them. 

Jagesh Golwala who has scored 100 percentile in CAT 2018 pursued engineering from IIT Bombay. According to him, mock tests were the key to his success. It helped him to manage time in attempting the questions. He attended coaching from TIME institute. He attended the test series of 3 institutes to strengthen his weakness in VARC. He was successful in attempting 35-40 mock tests that helped him boost confidence while giving the exam.

CAT 2016 topper having scored 99.99 percentile has said that he focused more on understanding the basic concepts instead of solving them. According to him, coaching institutes play an important role in one’s preparation since the teachers can give proper guidance and tips for the exam. one has the scope to personally clear doubts and queries. He says, “Even 2 months are not less to score 99 percentile”. 

 Analyzing the responses given by the toppers here are some tips they have given for the aspirants: 

Clearing the basics

 is important to be thorough with the fundamentals of each topic. If the basics are not strong one will not be able to solve the complex questions. Therefore clearing the basics is important in order to score well in the exam.

Regular Practice and Mock Tests

“Practice makes a man perfect”- a self-satisfactory quote suggested and followed by all toppers. This saying has a material value in real life and not only in books and articles. In order to score well in CAT, one has to practice daily. CAT 2016 topper Akshay Mehndiratta says that CAT is more about aptitude than knowledge therefore abundant practice is required. It is also important to test the progress of preparation. This can be done by giving mocks. Analyzing the mock test results will give the scope to point out the mistakes and strive for improvement. Meet Agarwal, who scored 100 percentile in CAT 2017 says “the best way to prepare for CAT is attempting mock test papers and analyzing them well to ensure you are moving forward”. Giving mock tests can help in managing sectional timings that will help during the exam. previous year question papers can help in understanding the pattern and getting acquainted with the conduct of the exam. 

Section-wise preparation

 Each section has a heavy weightage and therefore equal attention is to be paid to each section. Different strategies can be adopted for different sections. CAT 2016 topper Mukesh Goyal suggests not wasting too much time on one section rather giving equal importance to each section. 

Avoiding wastage of time

Chhavi Gupta who scored 100 percentile in CAT 2017 was a working professional and therefore she had limited time to devote to her preparation. Thereby she made appropriate use of weekends and the extra hours during the day. She recommends the aspirants to avoid procrastination and even outing with friends and family especially during the final stage of preparation for the exam. 

Using social media and people

There have emerged several study groups in social media platforms which helps candidates to study and have discussions with other aspirants. CAT 2016 topper Avidipto Chakraborty suggests finding such platforms and people around oneself to have a discussion or interaction that may help to motivate. Solve Sudoku/crosswords/puzzles section of logical reasoning has no scope for memorization of formulas or grammatical rules rather it requires deduction and analytical skills. Solving puzzles, Sudoku, crosswords, etc. can help strengthen concentration and focus on a problem and the ability to simplify them. Since puzzles and crosswords are not about memorizing, one has the room to think beyond the capability and sharpen reasoning skills. Solving a variety of puzzles on a regular basis will help gather experience and one will be able to solve problems accurately without taking much time during the exam. Swapnil Suman, who scored 100 percentile in CAT 2018, says “I always had a strong penchant for puzzles and I treated solving DILR as solving puzzles. This is considered to be the most difficult section in CAT, but if one practices enough number of problems, most questions would seem repetitive and can easily be tackled.”

 Attempting questions within capabilities 

Every CAT topper suggests other aspirants focus on questions that are within one’s comfort zone and avoid such questions which may result in negative marking. “Having zero mark is better than negative marking”- candidates must have this attitude during their exam. Further wasting too much time on one question can hinder the chances of solving other questions within the time limit.

 Perseverance and hard work 

any amount of study materials or online coaching will help in building the foundation of preparation but the maximum effort is to be given by the candidate himself. One has to have the dedication and perseverance towards scoring 100 percentile in the exam. One has to work hard and have enough confidence to sit for the exam. This confidence can again be instilled by giving a maximum number of mock tests.

 Beyond studies 

It is important to have fresh perspectives while studying and this can be done by engaging in physical and emotional activities that can help reduce stress and anxiety. Nitesh Panigrahi who scored 99.55 percentile in CAT 2019 says, “my key interests are philately, numismatics, and trekking. Beyond the classroom time and CAT preparation, I rejuvenated through these interests. During the CAT preparation, I went trekking at Harishchandragarh in Pune with my friends”. 

Exam day worries

 is evident that nervousness and tensions will pile up on my mind on the exam day. The toppers suggest not taking up any new topics and focusing on revising formulas and theorems. Enough sleep is important before appearing for the exam. Last-minute revision may end up creating confusion that must be avoided. Rounak Majumder who scored 100 percentile in the 2018 CAT exam has said that he stopped taking the mock test a week before the exam and did not have any revision the day before the exam. Reaching the exam center before time can help in reducing pressure and allot considerable time to instill confidence. 

 These are a few tips that the toppers suggest to the aspirants of the following year. However, every individual has a different success story that cannot be compared to another. CAT is one competitive exam that entertains graduates from different fields and not only one. Engineering graduates have an advantage over the quant section while humanities graduates have an advantage over VARC. Therefore one has to frame one’s own strategy to ace the exam. There are however three points that should be followed by all candidates- learn, practice, and test. To learn is to clear the basics of every section so that every kind of question can be solved; practice enough and every kind of question in order to avoid confusion; test the knowledge by giving mock tests and analyzing the results to reform the weaknesses. CAT experts having years of experience, check out this https://www.percentilers.in/s/store/courses/description/Reading-Comprehension--Critical-Reasoning-Workshop check out this link: https://www.percentilers.in/s/store/courses/description/DI-CAT And for the Logical reasoning section

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