I hail from the city of Amravati in Maharashtra. Born and brought up in my hometown, I did my engineering at the Government College of Engineering, Amravati. Ardent LinkedIn networking helped me get a front-end consulting role at Draup - Zinnov based out of Bangalore. Owing to brief but meaningful experience in the sphere of management consulting, I converted IIM Bangalore and all other old IIMs, FMS, XLRI etc. My academic credentials : 10th- 95.40% | 12th- 93.38% | B.Tech- 8.23 CGPA. I have work experience of 16 Months at Draup/Zinnov Management Consulting Ltd Bengaluru.
CAT 2021 was my third attempt. Previously I had converted IIM Indore but wasn't able to convert (thanks to my great DILR scores :P) to the holy trinity of management. I decided to write CAT again after converting to IIM Indore as I wanted to get into B-school with decent work experience as well. I started prepping around July end and the only thing causing the nightmares was DILR. I started solving the DILR sets daily and in a few weeks geared up and started giving mocks.
I was scoring single digits in DILR while I was consistently scoring good in VARC and Quant. I was afraid. I was terrified. Even after practising daily and analyzing mocks, I wasn't able to get past 1-1.5 sets in mocks. I used to score around 10-15 marks on average in most of the mocks and 20 on a good day. Out of around 40 mocks that I gave, my highest score in the DILR section was 21 marks. I started panicking.
I was about to give up on DILR but my mentor suggested me to continue putting effort and let it compound. I decided to act accordingly and started putting in efforts irrespective of mock scores. I used to solve around 4-5 sets daily from past year's mocks. It was November, I was still scoring around 15-20 marks in Mocks. I was scared as I already knew that IIM Bangalore (My dream B-School) gives more weightage to DILR. Nonetheless, I was putting in effort irrespective of mock scores.
The D-Day arrived. I had the third slot. VARC seemed like a breeze. I was satisfied with my VARC attempt and was confident to score 35+ (I had made a strategy to score at least 35 marks in each section).
Next was DILR. I was nervous for the first 2 mins. But I knew I had to crack DILR to get into IIM B. Started skimming the sets. Picked first, solved in 8 mins. Picked second, solved in 12 mins. Now I was confident that I am past 24 marks at least. Took a minute break and started solving the third, It was lengthy (Project Management Set) and took around 10-12 mins again. Now I had around 6-7 mins and I picked another one. Was able to solve 2 questions from it. Finally, 14 attempts. I was satisfied. When I came out of exam hall after terrifying Quant, I got to know that third slot DILR was the toughest and the CAT pundits were predicting scaling up in it. I took a breath of a sigh.
After the answer key came, I got to know that I was able to crack 35+ in DILR. I was overjoyed. Also, I had left one set (Javelin Throw) and it turned out to be the most difficult one in the exam and people screwed the whole section due to that. Fast forward, CAT results came. My eyes were stuck on the middle part of the scoresheet where the DILR is supposed to be.
38 marks out of 60. 99.64%le. I made it. I cracked DILR. Given the overall score and profile, I was sure of getting an interview call from IIM B and now am writing this piece from arguably the best campus in India - The place to B!
In a nutshell, what worked for me -
- Practise the basic DILR sets (Venn Diagram/Bar Graphs/Charts/Matrix etc) in the first month of preparation. (July)
- Practising 4-5 sets from previous year's mocks daily (August)
- Practising sectionals and mocks from September till CAT
Conclusively, put in efforts irrespective of the scores you're getting. Practise. Analyze. Repeat. See the magic.
You can reach out to me on LinkedIn!
All the best!
Shivam Nakod
IIM Bangalore PGP'24
Since you have come to the end, here is a small giveaway from Team InsideIIM. You have access to free sectional tests of DILR!
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