My Journey To IIM Lucknow | Akash Chandani, 99.15 %iler, IIM L 2020-22

So, it was May 2019 when I decided to start my preparations for CAT and hence joined an online coaching institute Elitesgrid to be well prepared. Fast forward and it was mid-August until the classes ended. By this time, I had barely started self-studying and all that I focused on was the lectures I attended and a few mocks that I had appeared for. Also, during this time I had a major release Lined up for delivering a new Line of Business for our Bank and found it difficult to cope up with the schedule. Fast forward September end after completing a major chunk of Syllabus I went all guns blazing for the sectionals and mocks although I was writing mocks weekly from the last 3 months.

During that period, I realized that VARC was my weakness and although I was an engineer, Quant just wouldn’t be a cake walk. While nearing the end of July, I made up my mind and decided to structure my preparation schedule. I prepared for the CAT meticulously for about 4 months working on my weaknesses and honing my strengths. I spent equal time understanding the concepts for each of the three sections. I would mark a few questions for Quant and a few sets in DILR which I could come back to during the last lap of the preparation. I never got comfortable with VARC and always struggled to score well in the section during my mocks. So, it became important to devise a strategy for the same. Not being an avid reader, RCs were the tougher part; hence, I needed to devote more time to prepare for RCs and started reading a few articles daily but I was unable to achieve it so I just wrote VARC section with accuracy and no rush. This helped me up my scores in Mocks and my comprehension skills started developing.

Mocks play a vital role in preparation. That doesn’t mean you end up taking 100 mocks. The analysis of the mocks after taking them completes the process and serves the purpose of taking the mock. I took around 30-40 mocks and made sure I analyzed every possible question and noted down my silly mistakes which were always there. Critically analyze your mocks, understand your mistakes and work towards rectifying them.

Advice to the Future Leaders

As an aspirant, you need to understand to work on your pain points. You need to hone all the three sections; it is very important to be consistent across each section.
Staying motivated throughout the journey is the most important thing.
Take mocks seriously, take each of it as it is the Final Paper of CAT.

Coming to the day of the CAT. The D-day wasn’t an ideal one for me. I was in the second slot and heard all the wrong things about the verbal section and I felt I will mess up my VARC section but somehow I gathered my composure and tried to make selective attempts. Moving on from VARC, I knew DILR was my strength and that was one section that could have saved me despite a miserable first section. So, I made sure that I didn’t feel exhausted and calmed myself in the first minute and then started to work with sets. My quant didn’t go as per planned as my nerves caught hold of me and I ended up solving less questions. Eventually I managed to get a 99.15 percentile and ended up getting calls from the IIMs that I hoped for – B, L and the CAP mostly because of my workex. Other calls being FMS, MDI, IIFT, NITIE, TISS and the IITs. An important takeaway from my experience of the D-day is that, if you are calm and composed then despite the difficulty level of the exam, you will fare well. “The harder you have worked the luckier you will be on the D-day”

Interview Experience

My L, IIFT, MDI and CAP interviews were all scheduled from the first till last week of February. So, within a span of a week, I ended up giving 3 interviews. First up was my IIFT interview and it was on 2nd of Feb and being the first interview of the season it leads to anxiety. This was my first big interview and people around were way too calm, sophisticated and had things figured out (at least that’s how they pretended to be) and here I was with so much stress. We went for the GD and WAT and then the interviews started right after. I was pretty nervous even after entering the interview room. Somehow, I managed to cope up with the stress and nailed the interview as the percentile was not so great which needed to be compensated. This acted as an experience on which I could build upon and started for the other interviews. In a week’s time, I had to travel to Bangalore for my CAP interviews and the next week was supposed to be HelL after travelling back again I had MDI and IIML lined up where I was grilled enough but I sailed through. Now March was supposed to happen where I was supposed to travel thrice to Mumbai for my interviews of SJMSOM, NITIE and TISS but the only one happened offline was SJMSOM and the rest were made online due to the coronavirus outbreak. Tiss interview is still to be conducted.

Results

I have converted IIML, NITIE, IIFT, CAP, waitlist #16 in FMS and awaiting other results.

Takeaways from my interview experiences:

1. You don’t know if you have had a good or a bad interview and you’ll never know until the results are out as the subjectivity is too High.

2. Staying calm and composed throughout the interview not only presents you well but also helps you think faster as in my case I was told to go for an executive MBA by the Profs but me being me quoted about “average age of US individuals opting for MBA being 27” created a nice impression I felt.

3. Critical introspection. Know everything about yourself. Be aware of what is happening around. Develop interests which will help you drive the interview. Like for me most of them were directed towards Stock Markets and Cricket.

MOTIVATION(GYAN)

Looking back at my journey, I would regard it as one that “toiling hard for what you want to achieve in Life will never go waste” and will make you stronger both physically and mentally. It is definitely a tough one to crack but worthy enough to go after.

I’ll quote something I heard while preparing and I disagree with it because I rarely managed to get a 99+ in mocks:

“There is only one difference between a 99 percentile and a non 99 percentiler. A 99 percentiler knows he’ll get a 99 while a non 99 percentiler wants to get a 99.”

Remember the golden words which should ring like war bells “Mock scores are important but you can score much above those on the D-day”

Best of Luck to all aspirants of CAT 2020 and be ready for one heck of a Journey!