My Journey to HEL(L) - CAT Prep Experience - Aditya Singh

 Firstly, my intro or profile as they say in the MBA and CAT lingo, Mechanical engineer working for Reliance Industries Limited at Shahdol (a place hardly anyone would have heard of), Madhya Pradesh with acads being 88/90/82 (10th/12th/Graduation) and a work ex of 32 months.

Now the Journey, so somewhere around February 2016 I decided on pursuing an MBA and thought of preparing for GMAT as was afraid of the “unpredictable nature “ of CAT. A senior who had a shot at GMAT suggested that I should start with CAT material and then move on to GMAT books. Wasn’t really convinced with the idea but then went ahead with it. And hence ordered Career Launcher’s CAT material. Somewhere around in March, I began using those Career Launcher’s capsule books and started enjoying the process and hence kept on with it. Then came the CAT Mock Test Series Season and again with no real plan or intention I went ahead and took my first mock. The result came and was surprised (pleasantly), I had some 98.xx percentile. Discussed it with few people who went through the same conundrum of CAT vs GMAT and came out with a decision. “CAT 2016”. The journey since then has been the best experience of my life. CAT and MBA admission in itself teaches you a lot of things in life. It’s a long and tiring process and requires a lot of patience. First, you have to patiently wait for your mock results then for your CAT results then for GDPI calls and finally for the Final convert Results. But as we all know CAT is more a speed test than a knowledge test and hence practice is what makes you stand out. And now the

Somewhere around in March, I began using those Career Launcher’s capsule books and started enjoying the process and hence kept on with it. Then came the CAT Mock Test Series Season and again with no real plan or intention I went ahead and took my first mock. The result came and was surprised (pleasantly), I had some 98.xx percentile. Discussed it with few people who went through the same conundrum of CAT vs GMAT and came out with a decision. “CAT 2016”. The journey since then has been the best experience of my life. CAT and MBA admission in itself teaches you a lot of things in life. It’s a long and tiring process and requires a lot of patience. First, you have to patiently wait for your mock results then for your CAT results then for GDPI calls and finally for the Final convert Results. But as we all know CAT is more a speed test than a knowledge test and hence practice is what makes you stand out. And now the Gyaan, the best way to practice for CAT is MOCKs. The four letter word “MOCK” is what (according to me) governs your chance of admission to your dream B-School or as they say MOCK is MOKSHA. My advice to all future aspirants will be to give as many mocks as they can and don’t forget to analysis them and improve on them.Three hours of mock and three /four hours for the analysis as a mock without analysis is as good as nothing, believe me.And now about the co-pilot which assisted me to take on this voyage, Career Launcher’s books and Personalised Personality development programme. Working at a remote site, I didn’t have the luxury of joining a classroom prep course. But CL came to the rescue with those small capsule books covering almost each and every topic for CAT. These books are designed to perfection with great explanation and apt questions for practice. Practice through these books religiously and you should be ready for mocks. But as they CAT is just the beginning, WAT/GD/PI is what tests the best in you. Again CL with it Personalised Personality development programme made it a tad bit easier for me. So a journey which started without any real intention ended up providing me with admissions into five top class MBA institute in our country and IIM Lucknow is what I choose (after all the pain, it is I who gets to choose) And the final Gyaan,

Strategy+Smart Work+Mock+Analysis = Dream B –School

Aditya Singh (CAT 2016:98.44)   IIM LUCKNOW 2017-19