Gaurav Bellal Natesh graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering from BITS Pilani. After his graduation, he worked as a Facilities Engineer at ExxonMobil, one of the world's largest energy companies for about 11 months contributing towards several projects in the low carbon (hydrogen) space. With a stellar 10/9/9 academic profile, he went on to ace the CAT exam with a whopping 99.91%ile, and subsequently made it to IIM Ahmedabad! In this interview, Gaurav details his preparation strategy, his lowest point in the preparation, his interview preparation, and more. Read on!
Hi Gaurav! Congratulations on making it to IIM Ahmedabad! Can you please share your CAT 2022 sectional score and percentile with our readers?
|
Score |
Percentile |
| Overall |
111.06 |
99.91%ile |
| Verbal Ability And Reading Comprehension |
30.38 |
96.20 %ile |
| Data Interpretation And Logical Reasoning |
34.37 |
99.61%ile |
| Quantitative Aptitude |
46.30 |
99.90%ile |
Can you walk us through your preparation strategy?
My preparation started in February 2022. I decided against opting for any coaching platform and instead relying completely on self-preparation as it worked the best for me given I was simultaneously undertaking a consulting internship.
My complete preparation was from the Arun Sharma textbooks which I consider to be an extremely comprehensive resource for CAT preparation. I had set myself a target of completing the entire CAT syllabus by August 2022.
I began by completing the Quant syllabus in 3 months (Concepts + LOD 1&2 from Arun Sharma). Subsequently, I took another 2 months to complete the DILR textbooks with a similar strategy.
For VARC, my strategy was to keep preparing from the onset through a mix of reading articles (newspapers and novels) as well as regularly solving passages from the Arun Sharma Textbook.
By August 2022, I had a considerable amount of confidence in terms of having an overall grasp of the syllabus.
This is when I started the mock tests saga. I began with IMS's test series followed by TIME's series. The period from August to November mainly comprised of taking numerous (35-40) mocks to be aptly prepared for the D-Day.
Mock tests helped me identify the best strategy that worked for me. After every mock, I would go through the detailed analyses provided by the institutes to understand where I was making mistakes and identified weak points in my comprehension which needed further work.
This iterative process was the highlight of the next 3 months followed by a complete revision of the syllabus which I undertook in the 2 weeks before the exam.
According to you, what is the most important aspect of preparation?
The strategy and execution while undertaking mock tests are perhaps the make-or-break for every aspirant. Post every mock test, it is vital to block time to go through the solutions, identity and categorize subject areas on the level of confidence and accuracy and accordingly put in efforts to improve ones understanding of those topics.
While giving mocks are important, the manner in which it's analysis is done becomes more important.
Also, mock tests help you finalize the test strategy one would follow in the actual exam. This could be the order in which questions/sets are attempted in VARC/DILR or whether the overall focus would be on maximizing accuracy or the number of attempts.
Finally, during the last few days, it is important to revisit all the attempted mocks quickly to be doubly sure that you have turned your prior weaknesses into areas of relative comfort.
Which mock series did you enrol for?
IMS and TIMEs Mock Test Series
How many mock tests did you take, and how did they help you prepare for the actual test?
"Around 35-40.
Each mock helped me identify a minimum of 4-5 areas where I was struggling. This helped me structure my preparation where I would try to improve my understanding of those particular areas through various CAT resources such as YouTube videos, books and more.
Mocks also helped me identify which strategy worked best for me. Based on the tests I had given I had realised that in VARC, I should try to attempt as many questions as possible with a reasonable degree of certainty as my accuracy always hovered around 60-70%. Similarly, I was able to customise a strategy for each section.
Finally, attempting numerous mocks helped me feel more comfortable with the exam format and helped increase my speed of solving significantly as well.
Which section was your Achilles heel? How did you overcome that?
I would describe DILR as my achilles heel. My situation could be described as being so close yet so far. Every question seemed more or less doable and I was almost always able to solve 70-80% of the question, but just struggled to solve and arrive at the answer at the end.
Despite giving numerous mocks, I was struggling with the DILR questions as I was just not able to get many questions right.
I was able to overcome and be somewhat at ease with DILR only through the preparation I did in the last month. I identified huge question banks and repositories specific to DILR such as Cracku's marathon video series as well as other online material.
These resources attempted to cover almost every type of DILR question that had historically been thrown in this section. I worked hard and devoted a lot of time on understanding and solving each and every question I had gathered.
Eventually, after solving close to 150+ sets, I was able to gain sufficient confidence in DILR, which significantly helped me during the actual CAT exam in combating DILR.
What was your lowest point in your preparation journey?
"My mock scores fluctuated a lot especially during the last month of preparation. Post every mock, I would feel very confident and satisfied by my performance only to realise I had made a plethora of silly mistakes which spoiled my score.
This caused a significant amount of frustration as my silly mistakes were dragging me down a lot and was perhaps the lowest point in my journey which introduced doubts if I could do well on the D-Day.
What helped me during this phase was to just believe in my abilities and not be too bogged down by my silly mistakes. I resolved to take every test and failure as a stepping stone to final exam."
Gaurav, many congratulations on being able to finally ace CAT 2022 on your second attempt! We'd like to know the interview calls that you received.
I had calls from IIM Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode, and Indore.
How did you prepare for the interviews?
My major source of preparation was through InsideIIMs MBA Bootcamp series. Their guidance and mentorship helped me better prepare for the interview in terms of basic domain knowledge, prepare better for the HR questions and more.
To keep myself updated about current affairs, I had subscribed to the Economic Times e-paper which helped me stay abreast with the latest happenings in the business as well as political world, while giving me excellent insights.
For every interview, I always made a checklist comprising of the action items I had to complete in terms of self-study topics such as domain/undergrad material, current affairs, HR questions, college-specific details and more. This was followed by undertaking 1-2 mock interviews conducted by mentors from InsideIIM, seeking feedback and working on the same.
To prepare for WAT, my emphasis laid more towards being better prepared with current affairs and abstract topics as well as having a structure in which I would phrase my answers. ChatGPT was of immense help in this phase, helping me generate ideas and prompts for varied topics.
These strategies helped me prepare well and be more confident for each B-school interview.
Can you describe your institute interview experience?
Almost all of my interviews began with a discussion about my work. Since I had worked on many projects related to the low carbon space such as hydrogen, most conversations were a deep-dive into this domain starting from what I was doing at my company and transitioned into how the overall energy space looked globally and the transition to renewable energy in the future. These points about work experience were a major hook in most of interviews. Another area I was probed on was on my decision to pursue an MBA having worked only for 10 odd months. Since I was aware of this being an area of questioning, I had prepared sufficiently for this. Most interviews had an element of current affairs as well where interviewers try to gauge if you are aware of the happenings around you and your views on the same. The Silicon valley bank collapse was a huge talking point in my IIM C interview. Interviews also may have an unconventional and unpredictable element such as random guesstimates and situational questions. In one interview, I was asked to predict the question asked to a previous candidate based on what they had scribbled on the piece of paper. Thus, thinking on your feet and staying calm is quite important to tackle such questions which are aimed to throw you off.