Parul Acharya is an engineer with experience in customer experience. He belongs to Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, and has completed his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College (PEC) Chandigarh. He has worked at Hero Motocorp in their customer experience division for 1.5 years. Apart from this, he's passionate about badminton and cricket, and has played district level and captained his college badminton team. His academic background is as follows: 10th - 86.67%(ICSE), 12th - 94%(CBSE), Btech - 7.63/10. In this interview, he shares his CAT preparation strategy, and his advice to CAT 2021 aspirants. Read on!
Please share your score and percentile.
Percentile : 99.80 (LRDI - 99.46 ,Quant - 99.6, VARC - 96.56) Score : 123.03
How did you prepare – Self-study or Coaching? Which one do you think is better?
I took coaching during the 4th year of my BTech from Educorp, Chandigarh. After that I just focused on mocks and question-solving. I personally feel that cat is something that can be mastered with practice. Coaching institutes can only give you a direction. It is you at the end of the day who has to work hard to achieve it. So, before the start of the journey, it always helps to consult someone who has been through the same path. After that, it's just self-study.
According to you, what is the most important aspect of preparation?
The most important aspect of preparation is having an open mind, never give up attitude and consistency.
You'll always come across questions that you won't be able to solve. That time rather than feeling bad and giving yourself a negative self-talk, make a conscious effort to learn the new concept and make it sure that whenever a similar type of question comes, you'll be able to solve it. You should always approach the questions with an open mind.
You should not give up during your cat preparation. Believe me, this is easier said than done. A lot of students after scoring low in 5-6 mocks start to think that this is something that is beyond them.
Consistency is something that has to be there. Even if you give 1-2 hours every day, that is fine.
Which mock series did you enroll for?
I enrolled for IMS and CL. I feel IMS was the better one as the difficulty level of the mocks was quite close to the actual CAT exam. CL also gave good mocks, but quality wise I felt IMS mocks were way better.
How many full-length mock tests did you take?
I gave 50+ mocks during my preparation. I feel there is no fixed number of mocks that you should give, this is very subjective. Focus on quality rather than quantity here.
How many sectional mock tests did you take?
I don't have an exact count of the number of sectionals that I gave. But I used to give 2-3 sectionals every day when I did not give a mock. I used to keep 2-3 days a week for the mocks and the rest of the days for sectionals.
What was your approach while taking mocks?
I actually tried multiple approaches in the mocks. This is a stage where you can test various approaches that come across you through various mentors, websites, etc. Every person has his/her own approach. So, after stumbling through many different approaches I finally followed this strategy:
VARC: Starting with the RCs and trying to do as many questions as possible. Then I moved on to the summary questions, after that odd one out and at last para jumbles if time is left. I feel one should not waste much time in parajumbles as the probability of getting them right is very low.
LRDI: Here for the first 5-7 minutes I used to scan all the sets and mark the sets which I am going to attempt. Then I gave 5 minutes to all those sets. If in the 5 minutes I used to progress well in those sets, only then I went ahead and solved them. Otherwise, I moved on to the next step.
Quants: Here I went directly question to question right from the start. I used to give 2 minutes (max)/ question and marked it for review if I could not solve it in the stipulated time.
How do you think the mock tests helped you in your preparation?
I think mocks played one of the most important roles in my preparation. It served two purposes. One was that it helped me to get accustomed to the pattern & timings of the exam. Second was that it provided me a very good question bank. I made a separate notebook for the questions which I found difficult during the mocks and kept on revising them on a fortnightly or a monthly basis.
Which section were you strong in? Since you were strong in that section, how did you focus on the other sections?
Quantitative aptitude was something that came more naturally to me. I was able to manage it well in most of the mocks as well. But still I was not complacent regarding it. I kept on practicing it on a daily basis. As at the end of the day, your percentile is calculated on your total score, so try to maximize the dividends from your strong section.
Also this gave me the liberty to focus more on VARC and LRDI.
Which section was your Achilles heel? How did you overcome that?
My Achilles heel was VARC as I was someone who didn't read much. But then I made a conscious effort to inculcate the habit of reading through various resources. First I started I started with fiction books. Then slowly moving on to non-fiction and then editorials of various newspapers.
How much time did you devote to preparation on a regular basis?
As I was working, I used to give 2-3 hours during the weekdays and 7-8 hours during the weekends. During the day when I used to find time, I read articles on my phone. The important thing is managing your time efficiently and effectively.
In addition to this, every day give some time to your hobby. Something that you do without having any expectations, just for the fun element involved in it. I used to play badminton daily after office. This helped me to refresh my mind and study with increased concentration.
Tell us about the lowest point in your preparation journey and how did you overcome that?
The lowest point in my CAT preparation journey was last year, when I scored 99.42 percentile but still could not convert the colleges that I wanted to. That time I felt really bad. But that was in the past and I had to focus on what was ahead. Tried to forget what happened and continued to focus on the process of improving my skills. I knew this was the only way I could improve.
What resources would you suggest to 2021 aspirants?
I feel the resources of most of the top coaching institutes are on similar lines. So, first, take one of the resources and build your basics. And simultaneously start giving mocks. Don't wait for the syllabus to be completed because then you'll be too late for the mocks. Focus on the process and the result would automatically take care of itself.
What according to you are the DO's and DON'Ts of CAT preparation?
Do's :
- Focus on quality rather than quantity.
- Stay focused and have faith in yourself
- Always be ready to put in the hard yards
- Every day take some time out for exercise or playing some game. This would help you to have a fresh mind.
Don'ts :
- Don't get over obsessed with it
- Always have a plan B
- Don't worry too much about the percentiles you get in mocks.
- Don't look for shortcuts for everything
Which mock series would you like to suggest to CAT 2021 aspirants? Is one mock series sufficient or do you suggest a combination of 2 different mock series?
I feel 2 mock series gives you enough practice and diversity. You could choose IMS and any one of TIME or CL.
What would be your final advice to CAT 2021 Aspirants?
My final advice would be to just stay strong, have faith in your abilities and trust the process. There would be times when you'll want to give up, but just don't. Just make a conscious effort towards your preparation and you'll surely do well.
All the best!