B-School Featured3 min read

With Less Than 30 Days To CAT, Focus On Mocks - Shikhar S, 99.35%iler, IIM Shillong, VNIT

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Team InsideIIM
Team InsideIIM

With a B.Tech in Metallurgical & Materials Engineering degree from VNIT Nagpur, Shikhar Srikantiah belongs to the cliched group of General Engineering Males (GEM). But post his graduation in 2017, Shikhar worked as an Assistant Manager (Team Lead) at Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd. After a short stint with BALCO, Shikhar moved to ZS Associates to work as a Business Analyst. He found himself being drawn into the world of management, leadership and strategy and decided to pursue an MBA. On his 2nd CAT attempt in 2018, Shikhar scored 99.35%ile overall and managed to convert a call from IIM Shillong. Now in his 2nd year, Shikhar has just completed an internship with Pidilite Industries in a sales & marketing capacity. In this video, he shares how to tackle this crucial time, with less than a month to go before CAT. If you wish to know some quick hacks and tips on how to bell the CAT & how to spend this high pressure period effectively, watch this video!

 

Summary
In this video, Shikhar takes us through his MBA journey and tells us why he's pursuing an MBA. Further he breaks some myths about juggling work & CAT prep and highlights how CAT prep is all about consistency. Next he tells us his own mindset to CAT with 30 or less days prior to the exam.

Shikhar throws light on how one needs to stop learning new concepts and instead focus on writing an exam in a high pressure scenario. He advises writing mock tests everyday and taking significant amounts of time to analyse your own performance. He shares how one needs to be one's own yardstick and not compare to others during this phase.
Shikhar highlights his own CAT prep strategy and tells us how he prepared for each section. He shares how you need to focus on your wrong answers and understand just why they went wrong. Finally, he shares how on D-Day, one needs to be calm and focus on doing their best. He recommends glancing through the paper and dividing in to section into easy, medium and tough and solving accordingly. If you're planning to write CAT in 2020, this is a must watch for you!

Key Takeaways
- With 30 days or less to CAT it's time to practice applying all your learning during a pressure situation, similar to CAT.
- Don't get emotional about your answers during CAT. You don't need to solve everything!
- Keep yourself as the yardstick & compare your performance to yourself!
- Browse through all the questions and divide them into easy, medium and tough.
- With 30 days or less to CAT, make a list of questions/ concepts you found tough to crack during the mocks and solve them again.

Recommended Reads:
1. How To Score 99+%ile In CAT, Shikhar Sachdeva, IIM A  
2. InsideIIM's AI Based Profile Evaluation Tool: Find out which b-school you're likely to get into! 
3. 4 Articles You Must Read To Ace Quant In 2020 Ft. Amrita Mishra, IIM C

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With Less Than 30 Days To CAT, Focus On Mocks - Shikhar S, 99.35%iler, IIM Shillong, VNIT