Who said only engineers can be the CAT toppers? -By Abhilasha Balakrishnan, 99.86 percentile, CAT 2020

CAT 2020 threw up some major surprises this year which left many candidates baffled. However with the change in the number of slots, reduction in the duration of the exam, and alteration in the pattern of the exam, still a handful of students marked their victory against all considerable odds. One such student among as many as 2,27,835 registered candidates is Abhilasha Balakrishnan, who scored 99.86 percentile in CAT 2020. Dive in to read her success story, which will definitely bring the myth to an end that only engineers can become the CAT toppers!

Achieving 99+ percentile is an uphill task but not impossible to score. With sheer dedication and perseverance, I devoted around 60 days to CAT preparation. Not to forget that alongside my preparation, I worked full-time and scored 99.86 percentile in the first attempt. First things first, my CAT 2020 scores cleared 2 strong myths:

1. Working and CAT preparations cannot go hand-in-hand
2. CAT is not the cup of tea for non-engineers!

With this, let’s get down to the brass tacks and learn how everything was made possible.

Taming the challenges

To keep things in line, I first decided to enroll in coaching as I had limited time for preparation. Since CAT is an aptitude test, it is possible to prepare without coaching but coaching helps in learning in a limited time and clarifying concepts faster. I am not sponsoring any particular institute, but in my case, I preferred taking coaching from TIME Bangalore.

The coaching was really helpful because QA was always my Achilles heel and I struggled to understand the concepts. Since I am from a non-engineering background, I did not want to take any chances to score low in CAT 2020 because of QA. I was good at LRDI and above average in VARC, so that was never an issue. 

I dedicated considerable time in QA but also revisited the other sections regularly so I did not lose the edge I possessed. There is a lot of online material available which is highly useful. However, in my opinion, the additional focus must be given to mock tests as they help in strategizing and overcoming the novelty factor in the actual exam.

A strategy that gave 99+ percentile

While I took mocks, my percentile was constantly low but I took a deep breath and decided to keep my confidence intact. I am so glad that this helped me to succeed eventually in the first attempt.

The strategy that worked for me was my flexibility. Since there was a lot of uncertainty in CAT 2020 with respect to the number of questions and level of difficulty, I was open to new strategies during the exam. This helped me profusely in the exam, especially in the LRDI section. The exam rolled out on a tougher note, but my focus on accuracy worked in my favor. Also, I realized that I commit more silly mistakes when I am afraid of time constraint and hence made a mental note to not check the timer before completing Round 1 of questions. This helped me to maintain my calm during the exam.

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