CAT Study Plan For Working Professionals By Modit Singla, 99.25 Percentile, IIM Lucknow

Meet Modit, a student from the historically prominent city of Panipat in Haryana. He joined the State Bank of India as Probationary Officer after engineering from DCRUST, Murthal. He was posted in Gujarat and worked there for three years. After introspecting his work culture and his interests, he decided to appear for CAT 2019. It's amazing how he managed to prepare for CAT while working full-time. Let's have a look at Modit's CAT preparation journey!

CAT 2019 was my first attempt and I scored 99.25 percentile. But two things made my life hell at that time. The first was- managing and splitting my time between my job, CAT preparation, and sleep. Reaching the office at 9 in the morning and coming back home at 9 in the evening left little room to study. Plus, I was working six days a week and certain Sundays were also occupied by my work commitments. The second thing that was a major challenge was, of course, the VARC section. I just hated that section. It looked simple but the application was really difficult for me.

How to Prepare for CAT in Just 4 Months!

I started my CAT preparation journey in August, which means I had 4 months to prepare for one of the toughest entrance exams. Plus, I was employed in a public sector bank and was working approximately 70 hours per week. So, time was always a constraint. And as a working individual, taking CAT coaching was out of the question for me, which is why I relied heavily on mock tests and sectional tests.

And it was a good thing too!. My first mock gave me a clear picture of where I stood in my CAT preparation level. Two of the CAT sections- QA and DILR were fine and I just needed to work on fine-tuning my performance here. But my Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension performance was below par. I started with a sectional percentile of 65 in the VARC section and even after working on it for the entire 4 months period, the maximum percentile I could manage was 84. But I did not get bogged down by this and built a solid CAT preparation strategy for myself. One thing I took note of was the sectional cutoffs, and I knew that if I could manage to clear the sectional cutoff in VARC, my other sections, QA and DILR would definitely help my overall percentile. With this thought in mind, I targeted a meager 90 in VARC and 99+ in the other two sections. 

Also read: Reading Comprehension For CAT Exam- Intro, Questions, Tips, Resources, And More!

My Secret Weapons in Scoring 99.25 Percentile

If you are starting from scratch, then it is best if you start with books for CAT preparation by Arun Sharma. Once you have gone through these, you can look for resources that are available online or also various online courses. In my experience, Cat100percentile.com has good content.

One thing that I would like to stress on is that reading is a must for the VARC section. Start reading newspapers, editorials, foreign news websites (like The Guardian), blogs, and anything that provides a variety. The most important part is the mocks and sectional tests. Give a mock every week to check progress. If a particular section is weak, try giving a sectional mock every alternate day. Remember that mocks are make-or-break when it comes to CAT preparation. 

Also read: 8 Best Books For CAT Preparation: Know How You Can Ace CAT 2022

Managing Job and CAT Preparations Simultaneously

Work hard on your strengths but harder on your weaknesses. Here are some of the actions I took to balance my job and CAT preparations:

• I used my travel time to read thirty minutes daily irrespective of genre. 
• I fixed one hour for VARC mocks every night to practice it more. 
• I had a basic understanding of DILR and QA so took seven days off to polish my skills and took it from there. 
• I dedicated Sunday morning to mocks and evenings to DILR.
• I fixed thirty minutes of the QA session every day in the night before I slept. 
• I used to sleep on the problems that took more than ninety seconds to solve to look for shortcuts. 

Despite dedicating Sundays for mocks, I was only able to accommodate 7 mocks with my work schedule, before the final CAT. And guess what? I was diagnosed with dengue one month before the CAT exam date. But I kept on to my belief that one can substitute hard work for smart work and still succeed. But half of the path has still to be carved out by hard work.

The Final Verdict of My CAT Preparations

All this hustle resulted in me scoring the 99.25 percentile in my first attempt. I got calls from IIM Lucknow, IIM Shillong, MDI, IIFT, and S.P. JAIN and finally converted IIM Lucknow, MDI, and IIFT among them. In the end, I decided to embark on my MBA journey at IIM Lucknow.

Always remember, in the end, it is hard work and perseverance. There is no shortcut to success.

You might also be interested in reading the following articles:

1. Preparing For CAT While Working? Check Out These Time Management Tips By Nivedita Barui (IIM Kozhikode)
2. Want To Know How To Score 99+ Percentile In CAT? Here's CAT Preparation Strategy By Aishwarya Nair, 99.82 percentile, IIM Bangalore
3. Definitive Reading List For CAT Preparation
4. Try Out The ABCDE Method To Increase Productivity Levels!
5. From Earning INR 3000 PM To A Salary Package Of INR 75 Lakh, This Hyderabad Boy From IIM-A Is An Inspiration!