Home Entrance Exam Prep My journey of increasing CAT percentile from 90 to 99 -By Siva Charan Sompalli from NITIE Mumbai

Table of content:

It’s a blunder to attempt more questions without accuracy
Managing job and CAT preparation was an utter mayhem
Trying to live up to my expectations of increasing CAT percentile from 90 to 99
The final shot!

My journey of increasing CAT percentile from 90 to 99 -By Siva Charan Sompalli from NITIE Mumbai

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My journey of increasing CAT percentile from 90 to 99 -By Siva Charan Sompalli from NITIE Mumbai

Initially, I thought of not sharing my CAT experience as my story is neither a success nor a failure. But I reconsidered my decision as a major chunk of serious CAT takers will fall within this range. It might be helpful for some in increasing their CAT percentile from 90 to 99.

It all started when I was in my 3rd year of B.Tech at NIT Bhopal when I had to choose between MS, GATE, and CAT. I was not interested in attempting GATE or GRE as I was not technically sound in my stream and was not aspiring for a career in it. So, I decided to take CAT.

I was serious about cracking CAT but I was very poor in verbal. I enrolled in TIME Bhopal for my coaching. That was useful to brush up on my concepts in quant but it didn’t help me improve a lot in my verbal. I started attempting mocks but the first mock was so terrible that I remember the marks I got even now. I scored 79 marks out of 300. I focused on improving my scores but there were huge fluctuations in scores and my percentiles hovered around 80 to 97. It was tough to manage CAT preparation along with the final year and job interviews. I was selected to Capgemini on 2nd October 2016 in my final year and I started to focus on CAT from then and the D-day arrived.

It’s a blunder to attempt more questions without accuracy

CAT 2016 – I was not at all confident about my verbal but I was in a habit of attempting more without accuracy (a huge mistake). It was from this year DILR became challenging in CAT which I didn’t expect. Quant was reasonably better. I was not satisfied with my performance as I knew that I screwed up VARC and DILR. The result reflected the same.

Verdict: I scored 90.15 percentile with 60 percentile in VARC. I was so disappointed as I didn’t get even a single call from any college.

Managing job and CAT preparation was an utter mayhem

CAT 2017 – I joined Capgemini in Hyderabad and I decided to attempt CAT again. I took up the AIMCAT test series and started preparing on my own this time. I thought to improve my verbal scores by reading newspapers and editorials but I didn’t observe a huge improvement in my scores. It became more difficult to manage CAT preparation with a hectic job. All I could do was to attempt mocks at weekends and analyze the previous mocks that I took. In my free time, I used to brush up Quant and DILR. This time, my mock percentiles hovered around 95-99 percentile. Finally, D-day arrived.

My strategy was to clear the verbal cutoff and perform well in the other two sections. I was not extremely happy with my performance but it was better than the previous attempt.

Verdict: I scored 95.93 (87.99 - VARC, 90.58 - DILR, 97.13 - QA) percentile. I knew this percentile won’t be enough for me to get into better colleges. I got calls from MDI and CAP but was waitlisted at numbers that were impossible to convert. I converted IMT this time but didn’t join.

Trying to live up to my expectations of increasing CAT percentile from 90 to 99

CAT 2018 – I decided this should be the last attempt at CAT and started preparing. There was enormous pressure on me as I couldn’t achieve what I wanted for the past 2 years. My parents were hopeful that I convert a better college as I was experienced and I knew my mistakes. I took up AIMCAT test series again and started taking mocks and analyzing them to improve my weak areas. I used my free time in my office to improve my verbal. Mock scores steadily improved and I was confident of increasing my CAT percentile from 90 to 99 percentile mark.

I went home taking a leave for 15 days before CAT to stay away from hectic office work. Then, a major setback happened in my life which I didn’t expect. Three days before D-day, I was affected by Chikungunya. I was devastated and took primary medication in my hometown and traveled to Hyderabad for taking CAT. There was severe headache, body pains and rashes all over my skin. I went to the center before 1 hour and the exam started. I was not able to concentrate due to the disease but I kept on pushing hard as that was my 3rd attempt to CAT. I didn’t know how I performed. My parents were so disappointed as I got infected with the disease in my home.

Verdict: I scored 96.75 (87.61 - VARC, 93.05 - DILR, 98.43 - QA) percentile which I thought was fair enough in the circumstances in which I took the exam. But, the world around you only wants results and they don’t care about your situation. I got calls from CAP, MDI and IIFT. I converted MDI-PGPIM and IIM Kashipur. My parents insisted me to join IIM Kashipur but I was reluctant to join as this attempt was not to my potential. My close relatives who knew about my CAT journey lost their hopes on me as I couldn’t achieve what I wanted even after 3 attempts. But I decided to give it a final shot.

The final shot!

CAT 2019: I didn’t like the work I was doing in Capgemini as that was not at all challenging to me. Even my colleagues insisted me to take a serious CAT attempt to explore more opportunities. I took IMS and TIME test series and started attempting mocks at the weekends and analyzing them after my office work on weekdays.

The pressure was building upon me because of external factors. I was confident enough this time to secure good calls as my mock percentiles hovered around 97-99. Finally, the D-day arrived.

I was shocked to see the VARC section as it was very tough which I didn’t expect. But I kept my cool and attempted the section carefully. I was able to manage the DILR section without any issues. The concentration with which I attempted VARC affected my strongest section-Quant as I was tired. I was not able to attempt Quant to my highest potential. Hence, I was disappointed with this attempt too.

But the percentile which I got was enough to secure good calls. SNAP and IIFT exams also went decent enough to secure calls.

Verdict: CAT – 99 (96.5 - VARC, 99.2 - DILR, QA - 97.5) percentile

SNAP – 99.68 percentile

IIFT – 98.1 percentile

I got calls from IIM Lucknow, IIM Shillong, MDI, NITIE, SIBM, IIFT, CAP, IIT Bombay and Delhi.

I have converted NITIE, SIBM, MDI-PGPIM and some new IIMS. I am waitlisted in IIM Lucknow, IIM Shillong and IIT Bombay and rejected by IIFT. I will finally be joining NITIE Mumbi to pursue my MBA.

So, this is my story of how I increased my CAT percentile from 90 to 99 and hope that it will serve as a motivational dose to many out there. Taking this opportunity, I am thankful to my parents and my closest ones for their constant support and faith in me.

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