CAT 2015 topper Sabyasachi Mishra emphasizes the importance of taking mock tests

CAT 2015 topper Sabyasachi Mishra

Cracking CAT exam with 100 percentile is not an easy task. For some candidates, it is like a dream, but some turn this dream into a reality for themselves. One such CAT 2015 aspirant is Sabyasachi Mishra. Once CAT 2015 results were out, an extremely elated Sabyasachi could not believe that he had scored a perfect 100 in the exam. 

Sabyasachi belongs to Odisha and is currently pursuing his final year in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. Also, he is a member of Entrepreneurship Cell at IIT Kharagpur.

Sabyasachi's scorecard read:

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Shiksha exclusively spoke to Sabyasachi about his preparation strategy for CAT 2015 exam. This is what he had to say: 

Q. Congratulations

A. Thank you very much. 

Q. How did you feel on seeing your result?

A. I was definitely expecting 95.5+ percentile, but getting a 100 was a total shocker to me. When I got to know my scores, I thought someone was playing a prank at me or trying to make fun of me. I took me sometime to realise that I had actually scored 100 in CAT 2015 exams. 

Q. Tell us something about yourself.

A. I did my High School from Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun. I dropped a year and then I joined IIT Kharagpur in Mechanical Engineering. Currently, I am in my final year of B.Tech.  

Q. What is your area of specialization?

A. I am not exactly sure of which specialization I would be choosing, I would be talking to a lot of experts before I take my final decision, but I am inclined towards finance or strategy. 

Q. Was this your first CAT attempt?

A. Yes, this was my first CAT attempt.

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Q. Tell us about your preparation strategy.

A. I started off by giving mocks tests. I was already scoring 95.8 to 100 percentile in Maths and Logical Reasoning, so I did not stress a lot of time on those two sections. Instead, I invested time in preparing thoroughly for English section and prepared English dedicatedly for around two months. I would always focus on mocks tests, and I made sure that I revised my mock tests too. So when I was about to start a fresh mock test, first I used to make a note of the mistakes I had committed in my previous mock test. So by the end of 12 mock tests, I had learnt from the mistakes that I had made in the last 11 mock tests.

Q. What is the minimum time frame needed to prepare for CAT?

A. I think firstly it is important to understand what are your strengths and weakness, so that one can prepare accordingly. There is no single or fixed strategy that needs to be followed. Moreover, faculty and coaching institutes guide people on how much time they should put in according to their weak areas respectively. 

Q. How early did you start preparing for the exam?

A. I started preparing in July-August. I prepared for two months. Then I was busy with the placements, so I couldn’t prepare much in the last month. But yes, I put in two months of dedicated study.

Q. What did you do to improve your weak areas?

A. I was weak in English, and what I did was I did segments from the GMAT preparation material. That really helped me because GMAT is a little tough in English prep, so if you do that then attempting English in CAT exam becomes a little easy. 

Q. Is it important to join a coaching institute?

A. According to me, for a first time CAT aspirant, I think it is better to join a coaching institute. But, if it is not the first attempt, you probably know yourself better than the institutes, so you can always prepare with the existing material of previous years. Here I would like to emphasize the importance of enrolling in a mock test, any mock test series for that matter, and not miss them. One thing that I did was that I joined online classes, and I would say that they certainly gave me focus. In fact they too were focused as they are a start-up and they were interested in me because even I was showing promising results. So I guess aspirants can opt for online classes too – they are beneficial, at least for me they were. 

Q. What’s your dream institute?

A. I think any of A, B, C would be my dream institute (laughs). 

Q. Any placement offers?

A. I have been placed in EXL Analytics through campus placements. 

Q. Tell us about your family.

A. My dad is an engineer and my mother is a teacher. My brother is studying in IIT Delhi. 

Q. What plans do you have now? Would you be joining an institute or will you continue with your job?

A. Well, I will be able to answer this question better once I clear the interviews. But, I am already in a discussion with some of my seniors who are already studying in IIM-A, because I would like to opt for the policy of deferred admission. Otherwise I might join IIM-C or IIM-B if I get a call from there. 

Q. Tell us about your hobbies.

A. I love playing squash and I like watching movies.

Q. Any tips for future CAT aspirants?

A. Just don’t miss your mock tests and along with giving the tests, keep analyzing them too.

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CAT 2015 results are out! CAT scores are used for admission to 19 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and various other top B-Schools. Are you eligible for the IIMs? To know more, click on the image beside.