Agansa Biswas scored a stellar 99.54%ile in CAT 2021, and is joining the prestigious FMS Delhi Prior to joining FMS, Agansa worked at Cognizant for almost 3 years. She scoredy 86% in 10th, 81% in 12th and 79% in graduation (Engineering). In this interview, she has detailed out her CAT preparation strategies, and her advice to future CAT takers. Read on!
Q) Please Share Your Score And Percentile With Our Readers.
Overall score: 107.62, Overall percentile: 99.54| Section-wise: VARC, Score: 47.73, Percentile: 99.33, DILR, Score: 27.78, Percentile: 97.26, QA, Score: 32.11, Percentile: 98.30
Q) Please Share Your Journey In Achieving 99.54%ile.
I initially never planned on doing an MBA but I changed my mind when I started working. The job was so monotonous and frustrating that I was willing to do anything except it. So I decided to look into MBA(which my parents pushed me into). I did not get any guidance from any tutor or coaching institute. Just like Eklavya used Dronacharaya's statue as a motivation I have always thought that God is right next to me and as long as I make an honest effort I will do well.
So without any expectations, I just started reading MBA preparation books. The books by Arun Sharma for all the subjects proved to be quite helpful. It had plenty of practice material and well-explained answers to all questions. It was difficult at first to sit in one spot and keep studying so I started with topics that I enjoyed solving(easy ones) then I slowly moved to the intermediate and difficult parts and honestly there are no easy and difficult topics for CAT. When we perceive as something is easy it automatically becomes easy for us so I would often repeat inside my head ' This is easy you can do it!'.
Initially, I would have to look at the answers all the time but I knew that if I wasn't I wouldn't be learning anything. So the more we try and fail and find the solution to be super simple we have to learn a new thing. I was preparing for CAT while working so it was super hectic and at some point, I would often wonder if I could even score 80%tile and what if I messed up all my hard work would go down the drain. Then I remembered something my grandfather used to say 'If you have decided to throw a stone at a river every day then you do it every day even if you have to walk an extra mile to do it.... It may seem useless but do it every day. One day you will find a heap of stones stopping the flow of an entire river. This is called willpower.' So I kept working hard every day without worrying about my result.
I had been preparing(throwing stones at this huge river) for almost 9 months now and there were only 3 months left till the exam and I couldn't find myself doing any better than on my first day of preparation. I was disappointed in myself. During 4th CE in India, a man discovered circular engravings on a hard rock which were made by brittle clay pots. As women used to place their pots on these rocks for years while filling them with water. This is the power of repetition invisible to the eye but extremely powerful as written by Kalidasa. So repetition was what I did.
Solve the questions again and again.1 month before the exam and I was nowhere near giving any mock papers because I was busy clearing my concepts. I bought some 20 mock papers at an online site which included some of last year's papers. I solved the first mock and I scored a 91 percentile I was happy with my result. Then the second paper I scored 60 percentile. For the next 18 papers, I never scored above the 85 percentile. I had given up. One week before the exam I was just going through my revision notes and had absolutely zero expectations.
When the result came I was shocked. I thought there was a mistake and a correction mail would follow but nothing like that happened. Then I gave Xat and scored around 98 something percentile. I was happy. Then a correction mail came from XLRI and my final xat percentile was adjusted to 99.2!
Q) Please Share Your Month-Wise Preparation Insights For Upcoming Aspirants.
I started preparing for CAT exactly 12 months before the exam. I would solve questions from books and keep another notebook where I would jot down some important pointers or formulas or an entire sum if required. Also, I would mark the important questions. It took around 6 months of time just to complete QA which I had planned to complete within 3 months. Another 3 months were spent on DILR and another 2 on VARC. The last month was spent revising from the formula book and solving some mocks.
Q) Please Share The Section-Wise Strategies Followed By You During Preparation.
So with VARC, I practised plenty of essays (around 50). Initially, I would get everything wrong but slowly I started understanding the questions and understanding the difference between the options. It's important that we read the question carefully even if it costs a couple of minutes.
VARC is all about reading carefully rather than reading fast. For DILR I would often start with a question (after reading the entire question paper) that seems easier than the others and I would have a workflow planned for it before starting. For QA it was all practice and keeping a formula or important concept/questions notebook that did the trick. I didn't have to spend much time thinking or strategizing on questions.
Also as it is the last section we did not have much energy and patience to think twice so it was all practice that brought the result.
Q) Please Talk About The Role Of Mock Tests While Preparing.
I wouldn't say that mocks are the most important part of the preparation for the CAT but it's definitely useful. It gave me an idea of how I should be focusing my time and what type of questions should be approached first. I gave my first mock only 1 month before CAT 2022 and in total, I have just given 20 mocks before my paper. I have scored only 60-85%tile in them so my personal opinion would be that mocks are important because it practices our mind to think and practice with a time constraint. So do take the practice seriously but not the mock percentile.