Having called herself a "changemaker-in-progress" oftentimes, Sanjana has often looked for opportunities where she could bring some tangible impact on field. She pursued her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce. During her undergraduation, she worked with various non-profit organisations and also expanded two such organizations, called Project FUEL and CrossBow Miles, to Delhi. Sanjana did her pre-final year internship with Duff & Phelps where she designed the Social Impact Value Framework for them. Post that, she worked with the Public Sector Practice (within Strategy and Operations) of Deloitte India for about a year. She has a very deep interest in Public Policy and Economics, and would like to combine her managerial skill sets with these interest areas.
In this detailed interview, Sanjana shares with us how she prepared for CAT and got into IIM Ahmedabad in complete details!
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Q1. How did you build your basics in each of the sections?
My first goal right after starting my core preparation was to focus on striking a balance between my sectional percentiles. A lot of MBA aspirants lose out on their targeted overall percentile just because of one weak section. My strategy for the sectional preparation was as follows:
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
There are little to no concepts involved in mastering this section. It usually depends on a certain “flair” that you develop after a lot of focussed practice over a period of time, and after continuous unlearning of patterns that your mind is previously conditioned to. Some of the steps that I followed while building the basics of this section:
1. Thorough awareness of the different question types that conventionally pop up in this section (the pattern usually stays the same over the years)
2. Strategized upon how to address these different types of questions depending on my strengths and weaknesses to ensure maximum utilisation of the time available
3. Strategized upon the time windows to be allocated to VA and RC separately (I usually allocated the first 40-45 minutes to RC, and the last 15-20 minutes to VA).
This allocation would vary person to person and paper to paper. It would usually be more productive to do the relatively easier section first. And with time, one gets a hang of how to judge the difficulty level just by doing an overview in the first 5 minutes.
(Some people also choose to start off with RC and do VA questions as a breather in the middle of 2 RC sets- this ensures that one’s mind stays active throughout and doesn’t get saturated too early)
4. A thorough study of all the concepts related to Critical Reasoning (these come in handy for both VA and RC question sets)
5. Assessed my strengths and weaknesses within the sub-sections of these 2 broad sections
6. Booklets hardly ever helped me in this section. Sectional Tests and Mocks helped a lot. Right from the Beginner stage of my prep till the last few days before CAT, I have always resorted to 1 Hour Sectional Tests (Advanced Level) available in the Test Series. Only when I knew that I knew that there was a specific weakness that was to be addressed (say, Para Jumble Questions or Para Summary Questions) did I resort to Topic Based Tests (Beginner/ Intermediate) available in the Test Series.
7. Usually a Reverse Engineering Process followed by a Pyramid Principle approach works the best for this section- assess the broad areas first and then go narrow. Assess your overall performance in this section and try to assess patterns in the first stage of preparation, before targeting specific question types.
8. As per the “unlearning of patterns that your mind is previously conditioned to” goes, there will usually be 2 options in RC questions that are very very close and probably there’s some intuition in our head that sometimes makes us go for the wrong one. I approached it in two phases-
a. Know where you went wrong- there’s usually a missing link that we’re unable to spot in the first go, but the seasoned expert who wrote the solutions to your mocks is able to spot seamlessly. So keep and open eye and learn from mistakes.
b. What was so “right” about the other option- Here’s another missing link that the author is able to spot. Note it down somewhere. So that the next time there’s a similar confusion, this learning would come in handy.
Major Takeaway- Being an avid reader helps A LOT in this section. Just being genuinely interested in the kind of topics that pop us in RCs also make you so much more focussed while solving. Thereafter, you not only solve because you’d like to score a targeted score, but you also start liking the whole process that you’re sometimes are interested in finding those solutions for your own intellectual curiosity.
I would suggest a regular reading habit of Editorial articles (The Hindu and Indian Express worked best for me), and developing an intellectually curious mind that likes eclectic reading in general.
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)
I certainly felt a sense of familiarity with this section when I started off because I’d been solving puzzles since very early on in high school. But for someone who’s starting out from scratch, I would suggest a daily habit of solving some logical puzzle or the other. This would add a lot of fun to the whole preparation process, and you’d be willing to put in much more effort just to arrive at the solution. Some of the steps that I followed while preparing for this section are:
1. Topic-wise basics from the booklet- Read up the basic theory about different kinds of LR and DI sets that appear in this section. And solved a few examples for each question type. Beyond this, I did not invest much effort in booklet-related preparation as the puzzles in this section are hardly ever conventional these days. These are usually a mix of 3-4 puzzle types combined together. Moreover, you can’t club them under either LR or DI completely- usually a mix of both in the same puzzle.
2. Solved Advanced 1-hour sectional tests available in the test series, and questions from solved mocks/ past year mock papers/ past year CAT papers. There are very few good resources out there with questions similar to the ones that appear in the actual CAT exam, and the two aforementioned are very close to those. While following this one, it is important to note that sticking to one puzzle is not feasible beyond a point, so letting go is important too. In the actual CAT too, you would never be required to solve all the sets. Solving 4-5 of the 8 sets available (with a good accuracy of about 80-100%) would also fetch you a very good percentile.
3. Deployed various time management strategies to know which one works the best for me. There’s really no sub-section here, so time management is all about spotting the “right” sets in the first round. Here the word “right” has multiple dimensions- something that you’re familiar with, something you’re good at, something you’ve never encountered before but you think will be a good start as it seems easy to crack.
4. There are usually 5-6 minutes left in the end where taking up another set doesn’t seem feasible anymore (as a set would typically take 8-15 minutes to crack even for a very well-prepared candidate). So, one should ideally aim to attempt 4-5 sets with a very high accuracy rate (my accuracy rate was usually 100% in mocks as I was very selective while attempting). And in these 5-6 minutes, it’s all Brownie points to bag. This is the time where you look for sitters in the sets that were left earlier. I tried solving at least 2 stand-alone questions in these few minutes during my mocks.
Major Takeaway- Helps a lot if you try to spot how a seasoned expert would solve the same puzzle. What is the first thing that strikes someone when they solve it with a motive to crack it in the least time possible. For this purpose, video solutions given by CAT Faculty help a lot. TIME Mocks usually have very good video solutions. For all the mocks I sat for, I ensured that I looked at every video solution of DILR. Some people have a deep interest in DI while some have the same in LR (I had mine in LR)- identifying this interest helps in picking the “right” sets too. Even though nearly all the puzzles would be a mix of both, one of these would be predominant. And hence you get to pick.
Quantitative Aptitude (QA)
Coming from a non-engineering background, this section wasn’t particularly a strength area when I started off. I had much more command over VARC and DILR than I had over QA. This meant much more time and effort were invested in this particular section than in the other two during the initial stages of preparation. Once there was a balance in the sectional percentiles being scored, the time and effort became somewhat equally distributed all across. This section can be divided into 4 sub-sections:
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Arithmetic- Simple Equations, Ratio-Proportion-Variation, Percentages-Profit & Loss-Partnerships, Simple Interest-Compound Interest, Time and Distance, Time and Work, Averages-Mixtures-Alligations
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Algebra- Special Equations, Quadratic Equations, Inequalities and Modulus, Sequences and Series, Functions and Graphs, Indices and Surds, Logarithms
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Advanced Mathematics- Permutations and Combinations, Probability, Numbers and Number Systems, Operator Based Questions, Statistics
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Geometry- Geometry and Mensuration, Coordinate Geometry, Trigonometry, Coordinate Geometry
Some of the steps that I followed while preparing for this section are:
1. Basic Theory- Prepared thoroughly the concepts related to all the topics in the first round of my preparation. Did the theory part and the solved examples given for each chapter in the beginning of each chapter. Post this, I moved to sectional tests.
2. Advanced Tests- I started with the advanced 1-hour sectional tests. Since most of these concepts are very basic and we’ve done most of it in high school, the challenging part of QA preparation is the vastness of syllabus coupled with paucity of time during the examination. Advanced Tests helped me diagnose my strengths and weaknesses ( Arithmetic was my strongest area, while Algebra was the weakest).
3. Intermediate and Beginner Level Tests- Once I had diagnosed my strengths and weaknesses, I used Intermediate and Beginner Tests coupled with Booklet questions to work on my weak areas. I resorted to Mocks and Advanced Level Sectionals to keep brushing up my strengths alongside.
Major Takeaway- Since the syllabus for this section is quite vast, there is absolutely no necessity to cover it all. Selective studying helps. Being excellent at whatever you’ve covered goes a long way in acing this section. Many aspirants spend a lot of time solving booklets and eventually are left with very little time to work on their speed. One should ensure devoting sufficient time to time-bound tests so that time management and speed enhancement are being worked upon alongside.
Q2. Did you join any coaching? When did you start preparing for CAT?
I joined the Classroom programme provided by T.I.M.E. which began around March 2019. I had started side preparation alongside work in January 2019, while core preparation began by August mid.
Q3. Was it your first attempt? What did you do better in your second attempt?
No, it wasn’t my first attempt. My first attempt was in 2017. Back then, I was invested in too many engagements around the same time. This hampered my CAT preparation a lot, and I clearly knew that it was nowhere close to my best performance. I hadn’t done justice to my calibre.
In my second attempt, I knew how to burn the bridges and how to solely focus on CAT preparation. I left my job around August beginning, and also left a Master’s Admit from DSE to sit for CAT.
Q4. How did you manage preparation alongside your job? How many hours did you use to study on weekdays?
I couldn’t manage to prepare much along with my job. Whatsoever little I prepared, I prepared on weekends and in the early morning hours on weekdays. I utilised my 4-hour long metro commute every day to prepare for VARC. I used to give Foundation and Intermediate Sectional Tests of VARC in these 4 hours (since VARC prep usually doesn’t require a pen and paper). So for anybody who’s finding it difficult to find time for prep, I would suggest utilising the commute time for VARC preparation.
Q5. What resources did you follow to prepare for CAT?
I used 2 Test Series- TIME and CL, and used the TIME Booklets for conceptual references. My preparation was mostly from the Test Series for VARC and DILR. Used the booklets whenever I was stuck with QA concepts related to a particular topic.
I would recommend TIME Test Series as I found those to be closer to the actual exam pattern, and the User Interface was better. All AIMCATs (TIME Mocks) have video solutions so those help a lot whenever one is stuck and unable to understand the text solution.
Q6. What approach did you follow while taking mocks?
I usually attempted the RC section first, followed by VA. DILR attempts were mostly guided by the gut, in an attempt to gauge the questions I thought I’d be more comfortable with. In DILR, it’s important not to get stuck with any set and to let go of the difficult ones as and when the realisation strikes. While attempting QA, I attempted the relatively easier ones in the first round, followed by the moderate ones in the second round. I usually made an effort to skim the VARC and DILR question papers in the first few minutes before attempting any questions from these two sections.
Q7. What approach did you follow while analysing your mocks?
I started the analysis by having a look at the unattempted questions and solving them without any time limit. Once this was done, I tried assessing my selection parameters. I assessed scenarios to gauge whether a change in the attempt pattern would have fetched me a better scrore, or if there were relatively easier questions in the unattempted ones that could’ve helped me boost my score. Post this, I had a look at the ones that I had attempted wrong. Learning from mistakes is very important while analysing mocks. Try maintaining a repository of bookmarked questions from mocks. Last, I had a look at the questions that I had attempted right. I tried to ascertain if there was a way I could’ve solved these questions faster.
Q8. What tips would you like to give to future aspirants?
Please start early and stay focused, there will be many distractions along the way. Getting it right in the first attempt will surely save you a few years of your life and might as well be the best-case scenario, but it’s okay if you don’t. Your effort will materialise some fruit in the future if you prepare well. And, a lot of us neglect our physical and mental health in this process so please ensure you take good care of your health.
Thank you Sanjana for such a detailed interview! We are sure it will be useful to all the CAT aspirants. We wish you all the best for your future endeavours!
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