CAT 2019 Topper Interview: 99.86%iler Srishti Banzal Shares Her Key To Success!

Cracking 99.86%ile Srishti Banzal made it to the club of toppers list in CAT 2019. Check here, what strategies she adopted to make it to this high bracket score.

CAT 2019 overall percentile: 99.86

VARC : 99.70

DILR : 99.55

QA : 98.81

Srishti Banzal hailing from New Delhi is one of the very few female candidates who scored 99+ percentile in CAT 2019 exam. She has been performing well throughout her academic side and this time too, her focus and dedication helped her score 99.86%ile. Currently, she is pursuing B.E. in Computer Science along with MSc in Economics (integrated program) from BITS Pilani. 

A creative person too, Srishti loves painting, sketching, singing, reading and playing football. She has already bagged a job offer from Goldman Sachs (Risk Engineering). While speaking with Shiksha, Shrishti shared some valuable insight on how she prepared for CAT 2019 besides mentioning self-study and practice of CAT 2019 mock test as a strategy to crack the test. Read on.

Also Read: Check the List of CAT 2019 Toppers Here!

Q: Congratulations! Are you satisfied with your CAT result? How much score were you expecting?

A: Thank you very much! I am satisfied with my result. I had scored 192 (scaled to 191.05) which was just about what I expected overall based on my performance in mock exams. I think if I had managed my time better in the Quant section, I would have certainly breached the sectional 99-percentile mark. VARC and DILR were up to my expectations.

Also Read: CAT 2019 Syllabus

Q: Was this your first CAT attempt?

A:Yes, this was my first attempt.

Q: When did you start preparing for CAT exam? What was your overall prep strategy?

A: I joined coaching classes in Pilani (I am a BITS Pilani student) in August 2018. However, due to my very hectic academic schedule, internship and other commitments, I was unable to devote any time for CAT preparation at all until August 2019. I actually started preparing earnestly quite late, in September 2019. I had been working on my undergrad thesis and decided to use my spare time for CAT preparation. I had to amplify my efforts in October and November to make up for the lost time.

For the preparation, I relied on self-study, with the help of TIME study material and mock tests.

I first took a couple of mock exams to ascertain my strengths and weaknesses and worked on that. I found the material provided by TIME to be very comprehensive and the sectional mock tests greatly helped me to identify areas to work on. I took continuous feedback from my performance and strengthened my basic concepts. Finishing the medium and difficult questions from the modules and tests paid off a lot.

The key step in mental prep for the exam was certainly to recognize that it is all doable and there is nothing to fear as I had studied all the concepts in previous years in some form or the other so there is nothing new to be afraid of something.

Also Read: CAT 2019 Analysis

Q: Please share with us your section-wise strategy.

A: VARC- I am an avid reader and read a few articles on a daily basis, so I did not feel uncomfortable with the reading comprehension (RC) part. Therefore, for RC prep I just increased my daily reading. For the VA part, practice from TIME material and mock tests helped.

During the exam, I surveyed the entire paper in 5 minutes to determine which passages to attempt and in which order. I decided to attempt all RC passages but one and moved on to VA questions. I dedicated 30 minutes to RC and 20 minutes to VA. In the remaining time, I skimmed the remaining RC passage to answer an easy question.

Making a plan of which passage to leave and deciding the order in which to attempt other RC passages and which type of VA questions to tackle first helped me a lot.

DILR- I have struggled with DILR a bit during prep and felt that I did not have adequate time to cover all the concepts of LR and DI. Therefore, I read the analysis of previous CAT papers and attempted AIMCATs and sectional mock tests to understand which type of questions are more likely to appear and did dedicated practice accordingly from TIME modules and sectional tests.

I was pleasantly surprised at how doable DILR section seemed to me in the paper vis-a-vis what I had attempted in mock tests earlier. That confidence boost along with proper planning of which sets to attempt helped me attempt the section with relative ease.

I would advise aspirants to start prepping earlier and focus adequately on LR and improve speed for DI calculations. At the beginning of the section, go through all the sets, estimate their complexity, and decide the order of attempt accordingly.

Quant: I was relatively comfortable with QA during prep and a refresher on important formulae and concepts helped me a lot. Apart from that, I focused my practice on my weak areas like Geometry to cover the basics and worked on improving my accuracy in other areas. The TIME sectional mock tests were helpful to identify my blind spots and I worked on them accordingly.

During the exam, I did not plan my attempt properly and focused on doing every question in the given order. I tried to focus on my accuracy but ended up taking more time than necessary. I should have planned my attempt better and be speedier but I cannot really complain about the result. 

Also Read: CAT 2019 Cut Off

Q: Which books did you refer to for CAT preparation?

A: I just referred to the TIME material for my preparation. I discovered a Youtube channel too late but their videos on revision were very useful.

Also Read: CAT Preparation Strategy

Q: Did you join any coaching institute? How does coaching institute help in CAT preparation?  

A: I joined TIME coaching but was unable to attend most classes due to academic and other commitments. However, their online resources and mock tests are very helpful. The analyses provided after AIMCATs were quite beneficial.

Coaching institutes are useful for CAT preparation because of their study material, test series, doubt clearing sessions and of course classes which can help a person have discipline in his/her prep, have healthy competition with peers and get good feedback. If a person is confident that he/she can do self-study diligently, just mock tests and study materials are adequate. Else, joining a coaching is highly advisable.

Q: How many mock tests did you attempt and how important is a mock test series?

A: I attempted about 9-10 full- length tests (owing to paucity of time) and 20-25 sectional tests. (All from TIME)

The importance of mock tests cannot be overstated. They give a continuous feedback of one's performance, provide insightful analyses and give you an idea of where you stand vis-a-vis other exam takers to help boost your confidence and/or motivation. 

In my experience, the mock tests helped me identify my weak spots in VARC; a section I thought was my strong point. Inference based questions, Para jumbles and even out of context, questions were hurting my score obtained from other RC questions. I took several topic wise tests for these concepts to gain confidence. Similarly, the analysis of mock exams helped me identify my grave shortcomings in LR and provided good practice material after I exhausted my TIME modules.