CAT 2017: Meet Agarwal, the non-engineer who scored 100 percentile

Meet Agarwal

Meet Agarwal from Surat is one of the three non-engineers who scored 100 percentile in CAT 2017. He achieved this feat with the help of sheer hard work and complete dedication. This movie lover spent 16 hours studying in the last three months to excel in CAT 2017. No wonder, he has got interview calls from all the top three IIMs, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta. Meet likes to play Chess and Table Tennis in free time and enjoys reading business magazines and watching TED Talks. In an interview with Shiksha, Meet shared his preparation strategy and future plans.

Overall score: 100 percentile

VARC: 99.93 percentile, Scaled score: 86.83

DILR: 100.00 percentile, Scaled score: 73.87

QA: 99.74 percentile, Scaled score: 99.74

As the official answer key was released this year, I could verify my answers. So I expected 99.9 plus at least. But yes 100 was always the target, and I was really glad to see those 3 digits on the scorecard.

Yes, this was my first attempt at CAT. I am in my final year of BCom at SDJ International College, Surat.

I have received a call from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta. These are the target colleges. All three are esteemed colleges and known for different things. At present, I am open to all possibilities. I am also preparing for GMAT. So I am aiming for foreign MBA colleges, too.

I guess the specialisation choice has been removed from the IIMs now. So mostly I will be selecting subjects from varied backgrounds.

For CAT preparation I attempted over 80 mock tests. I had joined Endeavor Careers in Surat for coaching which helped me in certain ways. Initially, I didn't devote all the time to CAT as my CA is also going on alongside, but in the last 3 months I prepared rigorously for CAT and studied for about 16 hours daily.

I was comfortable with CAT from the beginning, as I had scored more than 99 percentile in the 1st mock I took in May. But yes there were several things to work upon. Improving the reading speed, selection of questions etc. were few areas that needed to be worked upon.

I feel taking mock tests and analysing them well are the most important steps in the preparation. If the basic concepts of the aspirant are weak, or if they need guidance for advanced questions, then they may join a coaching class. The overall support from the class plays an important role. But if you are comfortable with the test and just need to fine tune your concepts, then there shouldn't be any need for the tuition.

Support from my family was great. Few of my friends prepared for CAT together with me. So we discussed all mocks well and it was quite fun doing that. Taking the mocks with complete focus was stressful at times. So I watched movies and TV series to lift the fatigue. I also played TT at times.

Like my father, even I plan to go for a business. I am interested in Startups and will be managing my family business too.

For Verbal Ability section, read the content for extracting meaning out of it. Don't just rush through the passage. If the meaning is clear, at least 95% accuracy shouldn't be a problem. For DILR, selection of sets is the most important. You should be able to recognise the easy ones. It develops with practice and conscious thought.

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