Overall: 125.94(99.92),
VARC: 52.97(99.77),
DILR: 26.73(96.65),
QA: 46.24(99.84)
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Q) Please Share Your Journey In Achieving The Mentioned Percentile.
Initially, CAT, for me, was just a way I could continue my studies by getting into a good college. I had no interest in the typical jobs I was getting right out of college, and other options (GATE/GRE) were beyond me. But then I got the opportunity to join a startup in the Edtech sector, which focused on management examinations. There I saw grit in people I interacted with through the platform: People who were told they had no chance at all, making it against all odds. People who were gravely affected during the pandemic gave the exam a few days later and acing it. These people inspired me to give my all and see where my efforts would take me. My work was aligned with my preparation, and I had access to a lot of material to prepare. My daily prep was self-paced, but weekends were solely dedicated to taking and analyzing mocks from 2-3 different coaching. There were many days I felt ecstatic about my mock scores. Other days, I was dismayed at them. But I noticed a general trend as I moved forward.
There was no significant improvement in the scores I got on my good mock days (the high end), but there was a significant improvement in my mess-ups. So my worst scores were not that abysmal anymore. I knew that I had to keep this up on the CAT day, that even if the paper did not go my way, I should secure enough percentile to fetch the calls I wanted. And that is exactly what happened. The CAT day came. I had the first slot. The tensions were high and evident on the faces around me at the test center. Somehow, I calmed my nerves and sat in front of my computer, waiting. The test began. I was banking on VARC to be my savior as it had been throughout the mock season, but it felt quite difficult to solve. At the end of 39 minutes, I didn't feel too good about this section, clueless about whether it went well or badly. The disappointment you get from your strong section can destroy your confidence for the rest of the paper. But I decided to keep the following two sections independent of this.
Then came the DILR section. The mocks had taught me how to select easy sets. Fortunately, I chose the easiest set the section had to offer (the trick is to gauge difficulty using the questions and not how big/complex the instructions are). 7 minutes down, 1 set done. (Confidence restored). Then I began attempting a 6 question set. 8-9 minutes down, and I had formed the table completely. I began attempting the questions, and to my horror, my answer to the 3rd/4th question was not even in the options. I realized I had made a silly mistake somewhere. No amount of preparation can prevent those 5-6 minutes of pure anxiety I experienced: switching between sets to see what to attempt, but my mind not processing anything. That's it. I calmed myself down and took deep breaths. I began devising a course of action. I decided to resolve the 6 question set and then apply a technique I had learned during mocks: Partial solving. 16-17 minutes were left, and I began to solve the 6-question set again. After 4-5 minutes, I found my mistake (I had wrongly inferred a data point in the friends/acquaintance set). 9-10 minutes were remaining, and I had completed only two sets. By partial solving the remaining two sets, I was able to solve three more questions, out of which 2 I got correct.
Recuperating an entirely lost section gave me the will to bounce back in the QA section. I used the multiple rounds strategy to cover the easy, medium, and difficult questions in separate rounds. Overhauling in the last section ensured that my highest sectional percentile was in QA, something I would have never expected. Honestly, I had no idea how much I would score after the exam. I talked to a few friends and seniors the rest of the day. After a lot of introspection, I put the exam behind me. I was already looking at the future, and the prospect of having to give the exam one more time excited me instead of putting me down. Fortunately, I did not have to and secured a decent enough percentile to fetch the calls I wanted. A constant help throughout was the peer group I found on PagalGuy and other forums.
One must look for a healthy preparation group to prepare with that not only helps in the analysis of mocks but also helps you get up after a bad mock day. Some hurdles that I faced and how I tried to overcome them:
1. Stagnation in spite of hard work: It is not impossible for us to work hard and not expect the fruit (if you've learned how to do this, please teach me too :) ). The thing that breaks you is when you've been reading articles and practising day in and out only to find your VARC score is the same, or even worse, fell. This is when you approach a mentor who can objectively identify your mistakes. The presence of good mentors in my life is why I could do whatever I did.
2. Distractions and FOMO: How ubiquitous are these. Don't you want to go party with your colleagues? Aren't you afraid they'll call you boring because you opted to take a mock instead? To remedy this, just write why you started this journey on a piece of paper, and paste it on your wall, along with the pictures of your dream schools. And don't worry, the best party your friends will ever attend is the one you'll give when you convert to your dream college.
3. Health: I faced deterioration in my physical health and, at times, my mental health too. To remedy the former, eat healthily and take out time for physical activities. To fix the latter, reach out to people and talk to them.
Q) Please Share Your Month-Wise Preparation Insights For Upcoming Aspirants.
I started to study basic concepts in January. My main prep started in June when institutes began to roll out mocks. For someone starting preparation, the most important thing to do is get your basics right. My initial months of preparation included the following things:
1. VARC: Reading anything that was of CAT quality. Besides this, I also solved CR questions from GMAT, but not frequently.
2. DILR: Solving as many conventional sets I could find over the internet.
3. Quants: Solving Arun Sharma's all 3 LODs.
Note that aptitude is not something that can be developed in a short amount of time. The key is consistency. So from the day you start your prep, each day is as essential as the next. Also, the amount one needs depends on various factors and should be gauged by giving a mock in the early days of preparation itself.
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Q) Please Share The Section-Wise Strategies Followed By You During Preparation.
From the beginning, solve QA questions in the manner you need to solve them in the examination. I have seen people using lengthy calculation methods because they are used to them from school time and justify that they would start using more straightforward methods closer to the exam: But this doesn't happen. Use smart methods to arrive at the answer, hit, and trial if necessary. That being said, do get all the concepts straight first from the plethora of materials available over the internet. After that, solve as many questions as possible with as simple calculations as possible. Also, a piece of advice: stay away from rote shortcuts; they do more harm than good. You'll develop your own shortcuts as you solve more and more questions. For DILR, there are three levels of preparation: 1. Conventional puzzles (arrangements, distributions, games&tournaments, etc.). 2. Mock and sectional questions ( mock setters ensure that these are of very high quality) 3. Random puzzles to build a logical mindset ( chess, sudoku, nim, brain teasers, etc.) VARC is a different ballgame. The thing that I believe in is reading and paraphrasing. Read as many articles as possible, and then try explaining what you read to someone orally or by writing. This would go a long way in helping you in CAT and the processes beyond.
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Q) Please Talk About The Role Of Mock Tests While Preparing.
My preparation was primarily based on mocks and their analysis. Mocks should not be viewed as a task that you ought to complete in a specific time period but as a process that will tell you where you are lacking. Each question you get right/wrong tells you something about your attempt strategy and preparation level. To anyone who asks, I recommend taking 2/3 out of IMS, TIME, CL, and Cracku mocks. I took the first two mock series and gave almost every mock within the proctored window. My overall score was mostly consistent, as I had tried to be a 'Jack of all trades. This meant that if one section were quite hard, I would recover the score in another section. However, there came days when my mock score fell despite constant practice, or one of the sections tanked miserably.
At this time, I used to rant to the people from my preparation group, who consoled me and analyzed what went wrong. As the CAT day approached, I felt my health deteriorating for no apparent reason. I took a backseat regarding mocks and took a more relaxed approach. I gave only 2-3 mocks in the last 2-3 weeks to CAT. Also, CAT is an unpredictable exam.
The only way to prepare for uncertainties is to leave all biases outside and attempt the exam with an open mind. That being said, practising mocks with varying numbers of questions did help with the surprising paper pattern we witnessed this year (24/20/22 pattern).
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CAT Notification release is around the corner, Now is the time you take your preparation seriously and go the extra mile. To aid CAT aspirants, we have compiled a few sectional tests as a giveaway. Take them now and see how your accuracy turns out!
| # | Section Name | Test URL |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | VARC Sectional Test | Click here |
| 2 | DILR Sectional Test | Click here |
| 3 | QA Sectional Test | Click here |
Watch: Stagnant VARC Scores? Try This Approach By CAT Topper (CAT 99.92%iler) To Score A 99%ile | CAT 2022
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