This interview was conducted with Komal Haswani (IIM A 2025-27), who discussed her CAT journey and shared valuable insights for the current CAT aspirants.
Profile: 98/95.5/93.24, 19 months of work experience, CAT score: 99.98 percentile
1. Brief Introduction about yourself
I completed my schooling at City Montessori School, Lucknow. I went on to pursue BCom from SRCC in 2020. It was a big shift, but I was excited to make the best out of my college day. During the 3 years of BCom, I actively participated in community drives as part of NSS, advocated for LGBTQ+ rights, and headed the Debating Society as a Joint Secretary. Post that, I started as a management consulting associate at Accenture Strategy & Consulting. During my tenure, I worked with pharma and supply chain functions, understanding their data and presenting and implementing solutions to achieve optimisation. It was a very dynamic role; every project, every problem statement looked different.
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2. Brief about your CAT prep strategy
As this was my 1st attempt, I went in with a mindset that CAT isn’t a high-stakes exam for me. I had a great job that I thoroughly enjoyed, and if things don’t work out this year, I can always give it another attempt. This thought process kept me calm during my preparation. I largely prepared through taking sectionals and mock tests on weekends when I had more time and analysing them over weekdays after coming back from work. I didn’t do anything specific for VARC, as I was able to sail easily through the section due to the reading and comprehension skills I had developed in my college debating days. As for the other two sections, I practised through these free resources:
- Quant: Rodha YouTube videos
- LRDI: PYQs and 2022-23 year mock tests
I believe having good study material plays an important role in preparation. When I started solving LRDI sets, I used to struggle to solve more than one set in mock tests. Even with consistent practice, I struggled to see any progress. Then I realised that the coaching materials I was referring to had an extremely different pattern in comparison to the PYQs. After that, I switched to practicing PYQs and previous year mock tests conducted by various CAT coaching institutes. It gave me a better idea of what type of questions to expect in the exam, and I was able to solve all 4/5 sets in the actual exam.
3. How did you manage CAT prep with a job?
I knew balancing CAT preparation with a full-time job would prove to be a challenge, but it helped me become more disciplined and resilient. I started my preparation quite early, beginning in April with 2 mocks a month. I increased the frequency of mocks to 1 mock a week and 2 mocks a week in the following months. I would take the mocks on weekends and analyse them during the weekdays. This approach was very helpful as I could analyse my incorrect answers and weaker improvement areas and work on them during the week. So, by the time it was the weekend again, I was less likely to repeat those same mistakes.
I was also very mindful and played to my strengths in my preparation and exam strategy. Through giving a lot of mocks, I found out my stronger areas and tried to maximise my score through them. In VARC, I was good at RCs, but not so much in the VA section, so my exam strategy was solving all RCs with 100% accuracy and then only marking the VA answers if I was sure about them. Overall, my attempt was 20/24 questions in VARC. Similarly, in quant, I focused on only building my competency in arithmetic and algebra. I knew these topics had the highest weightage of questions every year, and I had more concept clarity in them even before I started preparing for CAT than the rest of the topics.
4. How were you feeling on D-Day? Were you nervous?
No, not at all. In a strange turn of events, I was hospitalized 2 days before the exam. When I was discharged, I left with a feeling that health is the most important thing in life. Life is much more than an exam. Whatever the outcome might be, I won’t overwhelm myself.
On D-Day, I was confident in my efforts and preparation. I had prepared for all kinds of situations. I had given some mocks in cafes, places with loud music playing in the background, and sometimes at night after working for 12 hours. All in an attempt to keep my brain alert and not be distracted, and lethargic. So, during the test that day, I stayed calm and attempted the paper without thinking much about the result.
5. What B schools have you converted?
I gave interviews for IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, and FMS and was able to convert all the colleges.
6. How was your interview experience at IIM A?
While I had prepared well, to say that I was a bit nervous was an understatement. My interview started with the panelists asking basic HR questions about why I want to pursue an MBA and in-depth questions related to my work experience. Followed up with questions related to statistics and opinion-based current affairs, testing my ability to withstand this grilling part of the interview and to understand how well I can steer the interview towards my areas of strength without giving in to pressure.
7. What are some must-haves, according to you, if someone wants to get into IIM ABC?
- Being quick on your feet and focusing on your strengths goes a long way, both for CAT and the MBA interviews. While CAT is a very unpredictable exam, the interviews still manage to take it up a notch. So, it’s important to remind yourself that making it to the interviews is itself an achievement. The panel will try to ask grilling questions and put you in a corner. You have to think quickly and steer the conversation towards your strengths. Towards areas that focus more on your ideas, achievements, and impact.
- Focus on getting involved in things that you like instead of blindly doing certifications and internships in the name of profile building. That way, you are more likely to stick to it and even create an impact in those sectors. I joined NSS in college because I wanted to give back to the community and gain a better understanding of the ground reality. Having that perspective led me to build a more empathetic personality and provide nuanced solutions to business obstacles as a consultant.
8. Any advice for current CAT aspirants?
My final words to current aspirants would be to do as much practice as possible. Be consistent in giving mocks and doing analysis. There will be hard days, and some mock scores will make you consider giving up. In those moments, it’s important to remember that CAT isn’t a sprint but a marathon. Make sure you are well-rested and taking regular breaks, and staying consistent in your preparation.
This interview was conducted with author Ishita Mishra.
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