Hii everyone my name is Akash, and I have completed my BBA from DAVV university Indore. I would like to share my preparation strategy and interview experience, I hope this will be helpful for the future CAT aspirants.
CAT prep:
So I was in my fourth semester when I started preparing for CAT 2019. At the beginning itself, I realized that I was good with the basics of quant and DILR, but verbal was a challenge. So I decided that I will focus more on the verbal part. I started by getting familiar with as many words as possible by trying out many apps. Merriam-webster was one of them and was a very useful app. Then I started reading books as RCs cover most of the VARC section. I read many books like animal farm, The lost symbol, sapiens and the Shiva trilogy by Amish etc.
In retrospect, I am glad that I read those books because they helped me to widen my horizon and think from a different perspective. And It ultimately helped me during my CAT exam. When there were three to four months left for CAT, I started giving mocks. I think giving mocks is the most important part of CAT preparation and OfCourse analyzing them is equally important. By giving mocks and analyzing, we not only realize and minimize our mistakes but also get familiar with the Setup and interface that is going to be there in the actual exam. By giving mocks only I realized that I needed to practice DILR and quant questions by putting a timer because I was not able to attempt required no. of questions in a given time. And thankfully I did and improved my speed which ultimately helped me in the actual exam. Overall it was a transformative one year for me, and I learnt a lot in this period.
The Interview:
Coming to the interview part, I am a fresher, so most of my interview questions were related to academics. In most of the interviews, they asked me about my favourite subjects and asked me questions related to it. IIM Calcutta was no exception. They also asked me questions related to general awareness and OfCourse questions related to COVID-19. My IIM Calcutta interview was in online mode, and there were two panellists. It was my first interview in online mode, and I was pretty nervous before and during the interview. They asked me my favourite subject, which is supply chain management and asked questions related to it and then asked me some questions about Kerala govt. Steps to flatten the curve of corona. I gave decent answers to these questions and thankfully converted IIM Calcutta. During this entire period, there was this Idea that helped me a lot. It was that whichever college I will get, it will make my life better from what it is now, so why not put some extra effort and make it even better. This Idea helped me to get back from the vicious cycle of guilt, where we worry a lot about our mistakes of the past about how we wasted time and waste even more time.
So, this is it from my side. I hope these experiences will be helpful for some of you who are reading this article. Thank you for reading this, and I wish you all the best for your MBA entrance exams.
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