CAT 2020 topper interview: This is how Shivam Chandak scored 100 percentile in DILR, 99.98 overall!

CAT is the gateway for lakhs of students into the 20 IIMs and other premier B-Schools in the country. Considered to be one of the toughest exams to crack, CAT 2020, in particular, was different from the rest. It was obvious for aspiring candidates to take on a certain level of stress due to the pandemic, however, some smart students acknowledged this and prepared for CAT with perseverance rather than freaking out. One such story of a CAT 2020 topper is of Shivam Chandak, who attained the 99.98 percentile in the first attempt. Here is an excerpt from his interview on how he made the most of his lockdown and achieved fruitful success!

Like most engineering students, I had a vision of appearing for CAT so I embarked on the journey on time. Some of my decisions and strategies worked wonders for me, however, some taught me a lesson. One thing that carried weight in all the chaos caused by the pandemic was that I did not let stress take a toll on me. It is beyond a shadow of a doubt that CAT 2020 was a bit different as compared to the past because of many reasons but I did not let this deter me or lose my focus. And by God's grace, I joined the league of CAT 2020 toppers.

Here is the breakdown of my CAT 2020 percentile:

Slow and steady wins the race

I started my preparation in August 2019 and gave an hour daily for three months till October 2019. Then from November to February, there was a long halt. I again picked up my preparation during the lockdown. From then I gave around three hours daily with a few breaks during my examinations, final year project, and placement preparation.

To streamline my preparations well, I took the complete package of TIME, mock test series of IMS, and used Unacademy from August 2020, to be precise. All three resources helped me a lot. I used TIME and IMS for practice (taking all India mocks and sectional tests) while Unacademy lectures helped me in improving my VARC section, as I was really weak in it.

If you are a CAT aspirant, take note of this

I only used to give tests and then look at the solutions for the questions I got stuck with. I never did theory for any of the sections. Though this worked for DILR and QA, to a large extent my VA scores did not improve with this strategy. After I saw a few lectures on Unacademy, I understood the importance of knowing some techniques specifically in VARC. It also helped me improve my Geometry, as that was one of my weakest areas in QA. To balance my weaknesses and strengths, I gave considerable time to VARC and meanwhile practiced other sections regularly so that I don't lose my grip and speed in them. 

I wouldn't say I had a perfect strategy but giving a lot of tests (both mocks and sectionals) helped me to strengthen my strong areas. Talking about my weak areas, if I had built a habit of reading, learning techniques, and theories a bit earlier then it would have made the journey of becoming a CAT 2020 topper much smoother!

This article was submitted as an entry to The story of how you belled the CAT.