She Made It To 6 Top MBA Colleges | CAT Tips From 99+ %iler

“My CAT journey was a challenging, arduous, and beautiful period of my life. It forced me to learn so much about myself, led me to expand my intellectual potential, and become more and more resilient each day.”

With a stellar 99.48 percentile and a tumultuous journey, Neha Sood made it to the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta. Like many other aspirants, it was her dream to get that acceptance letter after rigorous CAT preparation and proper guidance from her seniors.

“During this time, guidance and insight from my seniors who cracked CAT before me made all the difference! Today, I’m going to attempt to be that person for my juniors, by sharing in detail every one of my feats and failures, in the hope that it brings you 1 step closer to that elusive 99th percentile.”

Here she is, sharing her story of CAT preparation and journey to IIM Calcutta.

Where to begin for CAT?

Start with taking a mock without any preparation. See which sections you are naturally better comfortable with. This gives you some idea about your abilities right from the beginning and allows you to plan your schedule at the nascent stages.

Is CAT coaching necessary?

When I attempted CAT in 2019, I had taken coaching classes from TIME. In my experience, it did not add the value I was looking for to my prep. So, for CAT 2020, I focused on self-study. I have found that each aspirant needs to take a very personalized approach towards the CAT exam, and should tailor their prep to fit their strengths and weaknesses. Self-study allows you to manage your time efficiently, and gauge how much effort should be devoted to each section.

Recommended resources for CAT

Here is a list of the resources I personally found helpful-

• Quant- TIME booklets or Arun Sharma’s book along with Unacademy tutorials by Amit Surana
• DILR- Arun Sharma’s books
• VARC- VARC 1000 with by Gejo (Career Launcher)

CAT sectional preparation

The most important aspect of preparation is consistency. I recommend all aspirants to read the self-help book 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear. He beautifully explains in that book how getting 1% better each day is all you need for explosive growth in the long term.

For CAT preparation, staying in touch with the material and solving questions every day is crucial, even if for a short duration. It helps concepts stay fresh in your mind, and keeps your confidence high. I also recommend aspirants follow the practice of "Spaced Repetition", which entails revising already done concepts at equal intervals of time. This process of spaced recall will boost your percentile a great deal. I used the apps Notion and Trello to auto-schedule my revisions, and this helped me stay organized.

1. Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)

The more you read, the better you get at Reading Comprehension. Read opinion pieces in the newspaper, magazine articles, a book by your favorite author, or just anything that works for you. This helps you improve your reading speed, and makes you more comfortable with processing large pieces of text.

For Verbal Ability, try to identify which type of question you mess up repeatedly. Then take tons of topic tests on that type, and try to get to at least 70% accuracy there.

2. Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)

Make a list of the common types of questions in this section, and try to do an easy, medium, and difficult set from each. Gauge your natural strengths and weaknesses. Once you realize which types you struggle with, watch YouTube tutorials/walk-throughs of those sets and try and build your acumen there. Do not neglect any type of set completely, it is extremely important to know the basic frameworks of each.

3. Quantitative Aptitude (QA)

The QA section was my Achilles’ Heel. There came a time when QA sectionals started giving me anxiety because I genuinely started fearing this section.

My friend and IIM Calcutta senior Prabal Gupta helped me immensely with this because he is a QA expert. A short summary of his advice was-

• Basics over everything else- 70% of the questions in the final exam can be answered using just the basic concepts, applied in various ways. Therefore, make sure you revise your basics over and over, instead of jumping onto High Order Thinking questions etc.
• Trace the problem back to the root- Whenever you are stuck on a particular problem, break it down into its components, i.e., the concepts used, and trace the steps back. For some problems, I even had to go back and revise some 6th-grade math concepts, because you never know where the gap in your knowledge lies. This approach helps you get to the root of the flaw in your understanding.

Everything is about mocks!

Mocks are the most helpful tool for understanding your strengths and weaknesses. Solving questions under time pressure is a skill that mocks helps you develop. All serious aspirants should aim to take a sectional daily and a full-length mock weekly.

My approach for sectionals was to utilize them to update my strengths and weakness database daily. I was working during my prep, and therefore I had to make the best use of my limited time. I used to take a sectional test every single day during my lunch hour. I wanted to utilize these daily sectionals to pinpoint specific chapters/topics I needed to work on. I would then spend time after work post 9 pm working on the topic I identified during lunch.

For full-length mocks, my approach was to work on my test-taking stamina. I found that by the time I got to the third section, my brain would be exhausted, and I struggled with performing at my best. So, I aimed to take more and more mocks to increase mental stamina and ensure peak performance. Talking about each section specifically, I used the following strategies:

• VARC- I used to quickly scan the RCs and identify which ones seem doable and which looked tricky. My strategy was to do all 4 out of 5 RCs first, then do the entire VA section, and in the end, try my hand at the trickiest RC. This helped me not waste time stressing over hard questions and maximize my attempts in the first go.
• DILR- For DILR, the most critical aspect is scanning and set selection, and that has its own learning curve. My approach used to be to read all the sets in the first 5 minutes and take notes categorizing the sets into three classes: Easy and quick, Doable but time-consuming, and must avoid at all costs. This helped me map out the next 1 hour accordingly. I recommend that while analyzing your mocks, critique your set selection. See which low-hanging fruit you missed out on. Then, take mental notes on how to assess sets better.
• QA- For QA, I used the approach called "3 Times Over." This strategy basically was to go through the entire section 3 times: Solve only the easiest and quickest questions in the first pass, go for the doable but time-consuming in the second, and reserve the third go for the challenging questions.

Final DOs and DONTs

Word of advice

CAT prep is a test of your mental stamina and emotional strength. There will be bad mocks, unproductive days, and you will feel frustrated with yourself from time to time. Try to be kinder to yourself on those days, take a break, and pick yourself back up to take on the challenge. Try to enjoy your prep and this journey of self-discovery you are on because being on the other side I can tell you, it goes by in a jiffy!

Suggested reads:

1. How To Prepare For Quantitative Aptitude For CAT Exam? A Complete Guide
2. CAT Preparation Guide: 5 Podcasts For Every MBA Aspirant (Ft. CAT Toppers)
3. Here Is How To Prepare For CAT 2022 In 4 Months!
4. Did not make it to IIMs? Don’t worry, it is not the end!
5. MBA Entrance Exams In India- CAT Exam Alternatives To Get Into Top B-Schools