Shefali completed her Bachelor of Arts in Tourism Administration from Amity University Noida in June 2018 with a First Division with Distinction. During her college, she was an active student who was involved in cultural activities since she is a trained Kathak dancer. She was also involved throughout in her corporate extracurricular activities wherein she participated in various events related to the Travel & Hospitality industry. Post college, she worked as a Travel Consultant for 9 months in Delhi Tours and Travels. After which she switched to Doordarshan Sports where she is currently working in the Social Media team and is also an anchor for a few shows on different Doordarshan channels.
Shefali, how and why did you decide to pursue an MBA?
Coming from a family with a business background, I always had an inclination towards understanding what goes behind making a business plan successful in a holistic approach and decided during my first year of graduation itself that I want to pursue an MBA but after gaining a little work experience.
How did you go about preparing for CAT? When did you start your preparation?
Ever since I planned to take CAT and dreamed of getting into IIM Ahmedabad, because of the usual mind set of engineers dominating the exam there was a doubt whether I would be able to make a place for myself.
I started my preparation in January 2019 as I had to prepare along with my work. Given the pattern of the exam, any person like me without a background in Mathematics would get discouraged; however I was aware of my weakness and started my preparation with clearing my basics of mathematics. I initially did easy-medium level questions and then after I was sure of the topic, I moved on to tough ones. I kept regularly practising and revising the topics. The thing is the more you practice the better will be you speed and accuracy. Reading diverse topics was how I started for VARC and continuous topic wise practice for LRDI.
How difficult was it for you to prepare without coaching? Do you think it plays a big role in CAT preparation?
It surely wasn’t a cakewalk and did become hectic but I didn’t want to leave my job as I love what I do at Doordarshan and knew if I managed time properly I could still crack CAT. It does not matter which coaching you take, self-study and persistence actually bring in the difference while you prepare yourself for the CAT exam.
How did you manage your preparation along with job? How many hours did you use to study on weekdays?
Since VARC was something I liked, I would spend 1.5 hours before leaving for office every day. Reading the newspaper and diverse topics are the key to making yourself comfortable with any comprehension. I read the editorial from The Hindu, Washington Post and Economic times mainly. After office, I used to cover LRDI and QA topics alternatively for 2-3 hours depending on workload. On Saturday’s I would give 6-8 hours total and Sunday’s were for taking and analysing mocks only.
What resources did you follow to prepare for CAT? Which mock series did you enrol for?
For study material, I referred to TIME study material, free online videos on quant subjects and previous years’ papers
In order to get acquainted with different styles of question papers, I took both TIME and CL mock series.
What approach did you follow while taking mocks for each of the three sections?
Overall I made sure that I solve the questions I found easier first and then move onto difficult ones if time permitted. I only marked answers I was sure of to increase my accuracy.
VA/RC: I tried various different approaches of which questions to attempt first as in this section it’s not easy to identify question’s difficulty level. I finalised on doing VA questions before RC as they don’t have negative marking and then attempted RC depending on the topic. Because of mocks and a lot of reading I understood what topics I like and were easier to solve
Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation: This is the section that is most time consuming but if played according to your strengths can be highly scoring. My tip is to first scan all the sets quickly and then mentally choose which ones you want to do first. Just because you think a topic is your strength, don’t get stuck on a set or a question. The ideal time to spend on any set is 10-12 minutes maximum. I would suggest to master tables from 1 to 20, knowledge of fractions from 1/1 to 1/20, basic addition and subtraction, etc. for faster calculation that will save a lot of your time.
Quantitative Ability: I spent extra time on this throughout my preparation as I knew this was my weakest area. It might sound weird but I started off from 9/10 basics of maths since I didn’t have maths after 10th. I started with Arithmetic initially doing to easy-medium level questions and then after I was sure of the topic moving on to tough ones. My tip is to never leave a topic after it’s done. Once you move on to next topic, take the previous one along with it
Did your mock scores improve steadily? If yes, what strategies did you apply for improving? How did you use to clear your doubts since you didn’t take coaching?
Yes as the syllabus started to get covered, it helped me improve my mock scores but there were also mocks where I scored less than the previous one. This is where analysis of mocks becomes really important; I used to give mocks every two weeks initially. During each mock, I made sure that I analyse which topics and which type of questions were my strong areas. While analysing mocks, just don’t check whether your answer is correct or not but also make sure to understand why your answer is wrong and what actually should be the answer. After a while of giving mocks, you’ll eventually figure out topics which you are most comfortable with. This will help you to pick which topic to do first in exams.
For clearing my doubts, I was lucky enough to have friends and family who would help me out since they were good at mathematics or had previously cleared entrance exams.
What tips would you like to give to future aspirants, especially to those who are preparing for CAT without any guidance?
- Don’t wait for your syllabus to end in order to start taking the mocks.
- After solving each mock test or sample paper, analyse your performance and assess the area of improvement.
- Pick out your strong and weak areas in all three sections. Improve on your weak areas and monitor the improvement regularly.
Shefali, please tell us about your academic profile.
10th: 8.2 CGPA, 12th: 85% Science, Graduation (Bachelor of Arts in Tourism Administration): 88%
Thank you, Shefali! We wish you all the best for your future endeavours!
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