CAT 2013 topper: Abhiram Iyer loves fantasy fiction and wants to write his own series

Abhiram Iyer, this year's CAT 100 percentiler, has a dual degree (BTech+MTech) in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras (2012 pass out). He is working with Ashok Leyland for the last one and half years.

“My family is very happy. They are still taking it in,” says Abhiram. His mother recently retired from State Bank of India while his father is an auditor in the Defence Accounts Department, Govt of India. His elder sister is working as the lead programme manager with Amadeus. Abhiram took IMS coaching classes. His score card reads:
Section 1 (Qualitative Ability and Data Interpretation): 186/225 (99.96 percentile)
Section 2 score (Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning): 167/225 (99.9 percentile)
Total Score: 353 (100 percentile)

Abhiram loves reading, especially fantasy fiction. “I do not read for the philosophy or literature aspect. I read for the story aspect, going through at least one or two books in a week. That is my weakness,” says Abhiram. He is trying to write his own fantasy series called ‘Unjudged’. The storyline will be based on Heaven and Hell!

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Here's an excerpt from the interview.

No, this is my third attempt.

In my first attempt, I scored 99.4 percentile while in the second attempt I scored 98.99 percentile.

In the first attempt, I converted IIM Indore. But the interview panellist advised me to gain some work experience. So I joined this job. Second time, I got a call from IIM Ahmedabad, but couldn’t convert it.

I hope to get calls from IIM-ABC (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta) – my top three targets. Apart from that, IIM Lucknow and FMS is also on my radar.

If you have an engineering background and attempted all those entrances after 12^th standard examination, six months is enough. You have to just revise all the concepts and focus on solving papers as much as you can. If your maths, probability and geometry concepts are not strong, then you have to start earlier—around 10 months before.

I already had a background in concepts, so prepared for six months. I joined a couple of test series and kept working on problems, improving speed and accuracy.

The focus was to solve problems rather than studying theory. I found out my weakness from the previous examinations.  I didn’t know the formulas and definitions well. I would end up directly deriving them from first principles which would cost me time. So I prepared an excel sheet with all the formulas and definitions. During the day, I would complete my work first and then find an hour where I could work on the sheet. Back at home, I would study for another hour memorising it. Once that phase was over, I started solving test papers and did that for three months. Concentration was more on solving part rather than studying part.

The test papers were for two and half hours. After every attempt, I would sit back and revise – looking at problems that I missed or did wrong while looking at the concepts. This process would take an hour. So about two-three hours a day for the last two months.

It depends on an individual’s framework. Some people can’t motivate themselves when they are not in class. They have to join a coaching class because back home, they can’t study properly. But others who are not able to join or are working or busy in final year, if they can put in two-three hours regularly, then there is no need for it. Unlike engineering entrances, CAT doesn’t test in-depth knowledge. It tests how you are able to apply the concepts. So the problems are more important than the background theory.

First and foremost, you have to try to solve as many papers as you can. I solved around 30-40 mocks that included previous years’ papers, online tests, from anywhere I could find. That is a must.

You also need to analyse it properly, find out your weak section and attack that. There is no reason why anyone can’t score fully in CAT.

And just try your best. Do not give up half way because you could not convert it. This is my third attempt and I am happy that I did not settle down and decided not to give up CAT. Just have the fire. It’s enough.

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