How to score 99+ percentile in CAT -By Srishti Jain, 99.9 percentile, IIM Ahmedabad

This was my first attempt and I scored 99.90 percentile in CAT. Here I am sharing my experience with all the aspiring MBA aspirants on how to score 99+ percentile in CAT.

I started taking weekend classroom classes in  February, so I essentially dedicated 9 months to CAT. But, I was working alongside and had a 12-hour job, including travel. So I used to wake up early to study for an hour or two before going to the office. I took a sabbatical during the last 1.5 months.

Also, I took coaching to get that extra external push that motivated me to study. Coaching personally helped me a lot as my concepts and foundation became much stronger studying offline. It also imbibed a competitive spirit in me in comparison to my peers. It became my go-to place for studying. Faculty interaction helped me set my strategy for CAT and beyond and in that sense, the coaching was very useful.

The roadblocks and their quick fixes

Like most of the non-engineers, initially, I struggled the most in mathematics aka quantitative aptitude. Mathematics has always been my strong suit since school but here I realized no matter how hard I try, engineering definitely helped you better prepare for this subject. Also, it was primarily because I had forgotten the concepts taught in school so, now I had to revise and practice them.

Students often scratch their heads and think about how to score 99+ percentile in CAT. But it’s not hard. First, identify your strengths and weaknesses. For me, the VA section was the strength and the QA section was the weakness. Within sections, there were sub-topics that were strengths and weaknesses. I think the first step was to recognize my strengths and weaknesses with data. I prepared an excel sheet where I keyed in my topic-wise score and it gave me a section-wise SWOT analysis so that I had a bird's eye view of the topics I needed to work on. 

Additionally, I maintained a register with all the questions I got wrong or wasted time due to the wrong strategy and revised them periodically until they were on my fingertips. This helped me in my overall practice and revision as well.

Resources that one can abide by

Here are some of the resources that aided me in my journey and might also help you to score 99+ percentile in CAT:

• Tony Xavier's IMS blog and GP ka funda are two blogs that helped me set my strategy for exam taking and analysis. Tony Xavier's blog was also helpful for solving tricky questions.
• Iquanta FB group also proved beneficial. 
• I also purchased the test series of TIME, IMS and CL although I later realized that taking just two out of the three was enough.
• The book Face 2 Face CAT by Arihant publications helped me revise all the past year papers in a topic-wise format.

A well thought out strategy to score 99+ percentile in CAT

I decided beforehand how many hours to study each week and which topic(s) to cover in each week. June onwards, I started giving one mock test a week even when all my topics were not done to get into the test-taking mode. September onwards, I started giving 2 mock tests a week. More than giving the test, it was important to analyze it. 

I maintained a separate excel sheet for my SWOT analysis and a separate register for time and questions analysis. In my opinion, along with SWOT being decided as per the accuracy of the answer, it was also important to analyze the time spent on each question and the way it was spent. For example, if I am spending a lot of time to get just one answer correct, that is still a weakness and needs to be worked upon. Both of these analyses together help me decide the topics to work upon each week.

In essence, my strategy was primarily tied up to test-taking and the outcome for the same with the essential implication that my efforts made every subsequent test I took comparatively better than the previous one. If this did not happen, I had to revisit and tweak my strategy until the time I was on an upward sloping curve again.

Verdict: I got calls from SPJIMR, IIFT, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Indore, IIM Shillong and I converted all of them. I am essentially a BLACKI convert. I am slated to join IIM Ahmedabad this August. I am excited about the same!

Final words

CAT is NOT a difficult exam in the technical sense. It is an exam which essentially tests your mental discipline. It is just the time constrain that makes the exam difficult. Anyone with enough practice can score 99+ percentile in CAT. So, keep at it and do not lose hope!