The story of preparing for CAT and aspiring for a good B-School -By Nitesh Singh from IIFT Kolkata

Meet Nitesh Singh, who knew that he shall find the light at the end of the tunnel and never stopped believing in himself. Read his story to know how preparing for CAT and actually taking the exam were two different things for him.

A twist of fate

Let us turn back the pages of the Roman calendar back to April 9th, 2019, the results of XLRI final admits were out, I could not make it to the BM program and was waitlisted in the HR program. With the results out, all my hopes of getting into a top-tier B school had turned into a far-cry dream, for the batch of 2019-2021.

“Why don’t you try again?”, said one of my project partners! I was in the final year of my engineering then. Preparing for CAT is not that hard. “Get some work experience and try again next year. Your grades, your age, everything is in your favor!” he added.

Very soon, after I had talked to a number of seniors, peers, teachers, family members; I had decided that I will be giving another shot to CAT19 and some other top MBA entrances. Preparing for CAT does not mean that you sit only for this particular examination. Never underestimate the non-CAT exams because every year, they turn out to be life-savers for a number of candidates.

Preparing for CAT in full swing

Fast forward to the month of June 2019, I had begun preparing for CAT in full swing along with a full-time job. The goal was crystal clear this time, prepare equally well for both the written exams as well as for the interviews. I made up my mind to clear CAT19 and leave no stone unturned and fill in every possible loophole in terms of preparation.

Because this was my second attempt, I knew that I had to majorly work on my test-taking abilities this time, i.e. on the number of mocks, or more correctly, the number of quality mocks. I enrolled myself in two major test series - SIMCAT and CL; and borrowed some tests of the third giant  AIMCAT  from one of my friends. I wrote about 40+ full-length mock tests, but the quantity does not matter much when it comes to writing the full-length mocks, especially if you are a fresher or someone who is preparing for CAT for the very first time.

While preparing for CAT, my typical day included 1-2 odd hours of study in the morning and then a maximum of 3 hours of study at night. The lazy morning hours were reserved for my verbal preparation, while the night owl hours were reserved for my LRDI/QA and GK preparation. Working upon your GK is an integral part of preparing for CAT and I would suggest everyone to never ignore it. TIP  For people who do not find collecting GK facts from newspapers very interesting, there are numerous GK capsules available in the market, give them a try, they turned out to be helpful, at least for me!

The major chunk of the preparation was covered during the weekends and holidays. My typical routine for those days looked like writing 2 mocks along with their analysis and some revision in the remaining hours.

Hoping against hope

Without a doubt, Verbal Ability was my strength. But at the same time, I was a bit emotionally connected to the VARC section. Every time my attempts in this section saw a low, my whole test used to reflect a low score. Little did I know that my strength would turn into my Achilles’ heel, on the D-day!

Fast-forwarding to the judgment day, like the innumerable other aspirants, I was anxious about my performance. I wondered whether it would turn out to be as fantastic as my mock scores or things will go haywire! And as apprehended by my premonition sensor, the C-exam on the D-day did not go as I had expected. My attempts in the CAT examination saw an all-time low, and its repercussions were quite visible in my performance in the other two sections.

I still remember, soon after returning from the examination centre, I was gazing at my hand-crafted collage of the top B-schools of the country, with eyes devoid of any hope! I knew that all my toil had gone in-vain and I will not be able to make it to any of the top B-Schools of the country this academic year.

Making the best of It

But little did I know that there was still a silver lining amidst those dark clouds of rejections and failures! Fast forward to January 4, 2020, the CAT- result day, I had scored a mere 94.38 percentile, little extra from what the different predictors had predicted, but certainly, it was not the percentile I had predicted! 

I knew that it was a decent percentile to convince oneself to prepare for CAT again and take it next year, but certainly not a decent percentile that would good fetch me an IIM call! But very soon, in the second week of January, the news came wherein the CAP call percentile for 2019 dropped down to 94. I knew that it was difficult, but at the same time, I was thankful for the omnipotent to have given me the opportunity to triumph in a lost battle. 

Talking about some other results and calls:

• NMAT: 214/360 (97 percentile)
• IIFT: 141.5/300 (95.45 percentile)
• SNAP: 98.95 percentile
• XAT:  93.5 percentile

Also, from my own experience, I can comment on the fact that things will not always roll out in the way one expects them too, but with one’s persistence, dedication and hard work, one can always turntable.

Finally, I will be joining one of the most prestigious B schools of the country, the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, the batch of 2020-22.

Verdict - I received calls from new and baby IIMs, SIBM Pune, SCMHRD, SPJIMR, IIFT and IIT VGSoM. Out of these, SPJIMR was the only call I could not convert. Also, as one can clearly see, all these calls were at borderline percentile, but still, I managed to convert all but one.

To read more success stories of people who cracked CAT, you can also see - 

• How to prepare for CAT in one month or less? -By Praneeth Allada, 99.78 percentile, IIM Calcutta
  
• Understanding what exactly is the key to success?
  
• CAT 2020: Prepare for LRDI section with these smart strategies
  
• The magic potion that will help you manage CAT preparation stress
  
• Everything you need to know about the CAT 2020 syllabus and pattern
  
• What was your height of dedication for CAT preparation?