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CAT 2019 Topper Interview: Know How Lakshya Kumar Scored 99.99 percentile
Common Admission Test 2025 ( CAT )
Admit Card - 5 Nov '25 - 30 Nov '25
Lakshya Kumar scored 99.99 percentile in CAT 2019 in his first attempt. Getting admission into the top IIMs is one of his dreams. Read the article below to know about his success mantra and CAT preparation strategy.
Lakshya Kumar
CAT 2019 Overall Percentile: 99.99
VARC: 99.98
DILR: 99.98
QA: 99.59
Lakshya Kumar is a final year graduation student at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies. He said that CAT mock tests were of great help during his preparations for the CAT exam. Read the article below to know Lakshya's CAT preparation strategy and the tips to crack the CAT exam.
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Q. Congratulations Lakshya! Are you satisfied with your CAT result? How much were you expecting?
A. You never aim for 99.99 for sure, but during the mocks and in the preparation phase, I was expecting something above 99.5 but securing a 99.99 percentile is a dream come true. So, when the CAT result was announced, I was very happy and delighted to get this score in the CAT exam.
Q: How can I get admission to IIM Bangalore?
Q: What is the average number of CAT 100 percentilers every year?
A:
On an average, about 10-15 CAT aspirants score 100 percentile. Given below is the data of CAT 100 percentilers of last 3 years:
Exam year | CAT 100 percentilers | State wise numbers |
|---|---|---|
CAT 2024 | 14 | 1- Andhra Pradesh |
CAT 2023 | 14 | 1 – Andhra Pradesh |
CAT 2022 | 11 | 2 - Delhi 1 - Gujarat 1 - Haryana 1 - Kerala 1 - Madhya Pradesh 2 - Maharashtra 2 - Telangana 1 - Uttar Pradesh |
Q: How can I prepare for admission to IIM Bangalore?
A:
CAT is a highly competitive exam which is a must-have for admission to IIMs and other top Management colleges. A well-planned strategy along with a correct approach is essential for admission to MBA courses in India, especially in the top MBA colleges in India. A prep strategy that will help you ace the CAT exam for admission to IIM Bangalore is as follows:
- Check the CAT syllabus and exam pattern
- Read books, editorials, newspapers, and journals to improve your vocabulary and reading skills. Check VARC questions with answers.
- Choose the right reference book
- Solve as many CAT Mock Tests as possible. Download for FREE!
- Solve previous year's CAT question papers for thorough revision to reduce the scope of mistakes
Read more about the CAT preparation strategy.
Q. Was this your first CAT attempt?
A. Yes, this was my first CAT attempt.
Q. When did you start preparing for CAT exam? What was your overall CAT preparation strategy?
A. I started preparing for CAT exam in the month of February 2019, which is about 8-9 months before the exam, and I think that's the right time to start the preparations if anyone is planning to appear for the CAT exam. My strategy was that as soon as I started with the preparations I started attempting mock tests to know what my strengths and weaknesses are. I wanted to figure out that in which section I am doing good and in which section I am not doing very well at the beginning stage itself. Then I started analysing my mock tests, and when I analysed my first mock I realised I was good at the Verbal section and I need to work more on the Quant and DILR sections. So I started studying from the foundation booklets provided by my coaching institute for these two sections. I made sure that every week I attempted at least one mock test so that I could track my progress. So I figured out if I am improving on my weaknesses or not. One mock test every week was a must for me.
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Q. Please share your section-wise preparation strategy with us.
A. VARC: To crack this section it is important to have a good reading speed. I started reading the newspaper every day. I started reading The Hindu and Indian Express. At night, I used to read a novel for at least one hour. The reason why I started reading the newspaper was that in the newspaper there is a variety of passages, this the case in the final exam too. Passages in the exam are not restricted to one domain. Which is why newspapers are good references for practice.
DILR: Reasoning section has always been volatile in CAT. The questions are not subjective to any particular domain. They can come from anywhere or any topic that you can think of. So I referred to previous year question papers for this section so that I can figure out the type of questions that are asked in the exam. This familiarised me with the kind of questions that might be asked in the exam and I think that is how you crack the reasoning section. You should look out for all the varieties of questions and knowing them helps a lot. There is no particular book for it.
Q: What is the CAT cut off for IIM Lucknow?
A:
The CAT cut offs for IIM Lucknow is usually around 97-99 percentile. The two courses - PGP Agri-Business Management (ABM) and PGP Sustainable Management (some) are extremely popular among MBA aspirants who wish to make a career in these areas. The institute also offers PGP programme. The qualifying CAT cut off for IIM Lucknow's Written Ability test (What) and Personal Interview PI is 90 percentile for General category students, whereas for SC candidates, it is 70 percentile. For ST and PwD candidates, it is 60 percentile. Given below are the sectional and overall qualifying CAT cut offs for IIM Lucknow PGP course. General category: 85 VARC 85 DILR 85 Quantitative Aptitude 90 (Overall)
NC-OBC category: 77 VARC 77 DILR 77 Quantitative Aptitude 82 (Overall)
EWS category: 77 VARC 77 DILR 77 Quantitative Aptitude 82 (Overall)
SC category: 55 VARC 55 DILR 55 Quantitative Aptitude 70 (Overall)
ST category: 50 VARC 50 DILR 50 Quantitative Aptitude 60 (Overall)
PwD category: 50 VARC 50 DILR 50 Quantitative Aptitude 60 (Overall)
Click here for detailed IIM Lucknow admission and selection criteria: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/iim-lucknow-shortlist-admission-criteria-blogId-18509.
Q: How can I get admission in IIM, Calcutta to pursue MBA?
A:
Candidates seeking admission to the MBA course need to visit the official website of the Common Admission Test (CAT) to apply online. Before applying, the aspirants must check the course-specific eligibility criteria. Candidates are shortlisted based on their CAT score and several stages of selection. Further, the final selection is done on the basis of CAT score, WAT-PI, academic performance, work experience, and gender diversity. Find below the steps involved in the IIM Calcutta MBA admission process:
- CAT registration
- Shortlisting candidates based on CAT score and invitation emails
- Shortlisted candidates replying for admission
- Selection rounds - WAT + PI
- Final admission list
- Fee payment for admission confirmation
Q: Can an average student get into an IIM?
A:
The answer to this question of whether an average student can get into IIM can be both yes and no depending on the definition of an average student.
- Based on Academics (Class 10/ Class 12/ Graduation): While a student with average scores in Class 10, Class 12 and graduation with a good CAT score certainly has good chances of getting a call from IIM-A, chances are less for someone with an average CAT score.
- Based on student category (General or Reserved): While it is tough for a General category average student to grab a seat at IIM due to high score requirements, a reserved category student can get admission being at average scores as well.
- Based on past work experience, diversity and other factors: Gender and academic diversity is also a factor on which students are shortlisted at IIM. IIMs judge the past academic category based on the degree obtained by the students before MBA and then a weightage is allotted based on that. For Engineers, the percentage for scoring the highest marks is higher as compared with other streams
- Performance in selection rounds: Once you make it to the final selection rounds, i.e., AWT/PI process, it can be considered a fresh start. At this stage, students can forget their past average-ness but definitely require good grasp over the past subjects as academics-related questions are asked in the interview.
Based on the above factors, it can be considered that while getting into top Management institutes, such as IIM is extremely tough, the past performance, CAT performance, student category and a lot of factors can be the reasons for a student to receive that final call.
Quant: I believe that in this section it is very essential that you practice a lot. I started with the basics. Basic topics such as profit and loss, geometry, percentages, etc. generally form the Quant section of CAT exam. So to ace this section it is important to increase your speed in such questions. Practicing as many questions as possible from this section is the key here, and I think it is the only way to secure good marks in CAT for this section. I referred to the foundation booklets provided by my coaching institute and there is a lot of study material available online as well.
Apart from this, I would also say there is a fourth subject which is Time Management. Regular mock practice helps you figure out how much time is to be devoted to each question. There is a sectional limit in the CAT exam which is one hour for each section, but it is also important to know how that one hour should be distributed and this can only be figured out by giving regular mock tests.
Also Read:
Q. Which books did you refer to for your CAT preparation? Also, which books would you suggest for reference?
A. For Verbal section, I would suggest to go with Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis as for this section it is important to have a good vocabulary which in turn helps to understand the question properly. For DILR section refer to CAT previous year question papers and for Quant section refer to the foundation books of the coaching institutes.
Also Read: Best books for CAT preparation
Q. Did you join any coaching institute? How did a coaching institute help in CAT preparation?
A. I was enrolled in TIME, Cannaught Place. The best help that I got from this institute was the number of mock tests that were provided to me. They provided about 45-50 mock tests and I essentially utilised all of them in my preparation phase. If any aspirant is planning to join any institute for CAT preparation, then they must make sure that they provide a good amount of CAT mock tests and they should be examined on a regular basis and that is how my coaching institute helped me a lot.
Q. How many mock tests did you give? How important are mock test series?
A. The most important attribute that I can associate with getting 99.99 percentile is the mock test series. I attempted about 50 mock tests out of which I attempted 30 mock tests in the last month of my preparations. I attempted mock tests every day. I was also preparing my body to be active between 2:30 PM to 5:30 as this was the time allotted to me for the final CAT exam. It's not just about attempting mock tests, its also about analysing the mock tests. You must devote an hour or two to analyse the mock test and figure out where did you go wrong and how efficient were you while answering the questions. Hence, analysing the mock tests is also an important aspect of CAT preparation.
Q. Did you make any exam day strategy?
A. My CAT exam day strategy was that for the VARC section, I decided to quickly attempt the RC section, and it was only possible for me because I had good reading speed. So I thought of completing the Reading Comprehension part within 35 minutes and then devoted the rest of the 25 minutes to the Verbal section. This was my speed strategy for Verbal Ability. For DILR, out of the one hour allotted for this section, I gave the initial seven to eight minutes in reading all the questions and then figured out which particular set of sections was the easiest. When it comes to CAT, it is not about how many questions you attempt, it is about attempting one more question than your competitor. Since each question carries the same marks it is important to figure out the easier and lesser time-taking questions. While attempting the Quant section, I solved the questions order-wise. But I decided that if I am not able to figure out the answer or how to proceed in the first 30 seconds, then I would skip that question and mark it for review and then later come back to it. So I made sure I at least looked at all the 30-35 questions given in this section.
For every aspirant, preparation is one aspect and being confident on the exam day is another aspect. People tend to loose marks if they are nervous or not very confident on the exam day. I cut off my communication from social media in the last few days. That helped me to calm my nerves. Also, music was of great help for me. I listened to music for an hour or so before the actual exam. The first phase of the exam was already over and my exam was to be conducted in the second phase. But I did not ask anyone how the exam was because I did not want to stuff my mind with something that would distract me or make me nervous.
Also Read:
Q. Do you have any tips for the future CAT aspirants?
A. Yes. I would say that during the preparation phase, there would come a phase wherein you will feel demotivated in terms of your mock scores. You might be following every rule book, practicing a lot or studying really hard. But even then your mock scores are not improving. And this happens to everyone, be it toppers or others. But if you are still working towards securing a good percentile and keep on studying in that phase, then there is nothing that can stop you from getting good marks.
Q. What are the top IIMs/institutes that you are targeting?
A. I got a call from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta. I am targeting the old IIMs and they are my dream colleges too. Apart from that, I am also targeting FMS, Delhi. I am hoping to get a call from FMS in a month or two.
Read More:
- CAT 2019 Result Declared: Know the Toppers
- IIM Shortlists: Check Dates and Process
- All about CAT exam
| Candidate Names |
Overall CAT 2019 Percentile |
Interviews |
|---|---|---|
| Rishi Mittal |
100 |
|
| Somansh Chordia |
100 |
|
| Rahul Manglik |
99.99 |
|
| Satwik Rao Kollur |
99.99 |
|
| Kislay Jha |
99.96 |
|
| Karan Goyal |
99.95 |
|
| Ahsaas Sharma |
99.93 |
|
| Ankit Desai |
99.91 |
|
| Romik Banerjee |
99.87 |
|
| Srishti Banzal |
99.86 |
|
| Ronit Banerjee |
99.80 |
|
| Avinash Singh |
99.48 |
|
| Nihal Singh |
99.31 |
|
| Karal Maheshwari |
99.03 |
|
| Rishabh Dwivedi |
98.96 |
|
| Palak Aneja |
99 |
Available soon |
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Saumya brings over seven years of editorial experience, with more than five years of wielding pen (and keyboard) at Shiksha. A graduate in English Literature from Delhi University, she is a storyteller at heart.
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