"DILR Was Toughest" - Ayush Tiwari, IIM A'23, CAT 2020 DI-LR 100%iler

By Amrita Mishra

Ayush Tiwari is an engineering fresher (GEM) from NIT Raipur who scored 99.99%ile in CAT 2020, with 96.77%ile in VARC, 100%ile in DILR, and 99.93%ile in the Quant section. He will join IIM Ahemdabad this year. Here's more about his preparation journey:

When did you start preparation?
I started taking classes in 2019, but religiously gave mocks from April 2020.
How did you start preparing?
I cleared my concepts in Quant before getting into mocks. Then I started taking mocks in regular intervals. Upon taking mocks I changed my strategies and then I started reading daily and solving some DILR sets daily. This went on for a better part of my preparation.
Which was the most challenging section for you? How did you deal with it?
When I started the mock season, I was very afraid of DILR. I got really scared of the entire experience and my scores in DILR were constantly low. Then I started solving some fixed number of sets daily. I made it a habit. With time I started understanding the sets better and it gave me a lot of confidence. I also had to tweak my strategy a lot of times to make the best out of the section. I worked on DILR constantly and ended up with a 100 in it.
Resources you would recommend to CAT aspirants
Some sources that helped me were:

i) VARC: (For reading) Newspapers, Aeon Essays, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, Psyche. Past year VARC papers are also great.ii) DILR: YouTube channels namely ElitesGrid, Anastasis Shankar, Rodha.
Apart from these mocks will suffice. Past year mocks especially after 2016 would be great as well.
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iii) Quant: Youtube channels Takshzila and Rodha for concepts and any textbooks like Arun Sharma, Sarvesh Verma would do.

iv) Mocks: I would suggest taking at least 2 mock series if you are a serious aspirant. It should give you a mixed bag of questions and a good competition base. IMS, TIME, Testfunda, CL all have their own plus points and can be relied upon.

One piece of advice for future aspirants
It's not entirely about the result, the journey is also important. The hard work you do throughout your prep phase will pay off in the actual exam. Take mocks diligently, be honest with yourself. Work on your weak areas and try to get the best out of the strong areas and it is only when you know yourself good, that you'll be able to judge this. Treat mocks as a practice exercise and don't get too affected by mock scores, the only score that matters is the final one.

You can connect with Ayush on LinkedIn. I hope this blog was helpful for you. All the Best for your CAT Preparation!