CAT 2019 Toppers: How Karal Maheshwari scored 99.03 percentile

Karal Maheshwari, who scored 99 percentile in CAT 2019 shares his journey and preparation strategy with Shiksha. Know more in the article below.

Karal Maheshwari

Karal Maheshwari, a B.Tech graduate from Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology touched the 99 percentile mark in CAT 2019 exam. Though it was his third CAT attempt, but he made it a point to achieve what he dreamt of. Shiksha got to talking with Karal to know his CAT preparation strategy. Read the article below to know more.

Overall Percentile: 99.03

VARC: 95.64

LRDI: 98.68

Quant: 98.51

Q. Are you satisfied with your CAT result? How much score were you expecting?

A. I expected around 99.5 - 99.6 but due to some silly mistakes, I ended up getting 99.03. But now you cannot do anything about it except accepting the score and moving on to the next stage.

Q. Was this your first CAT attempt?

A. No, I first appeared for CAT 2017, when I was in my final year of Engineering. I scored 83 percentile. Then I got placed in Auto ancillary. During my job, I didn't get the time to prepare for CAT exam due to a very busy schedule and nature of my job. I then tried again for CAT 2018 with very little preparation and secured 91.80 percentile. So I decided to give my final shot at CAT 2019 and secured a pretty good result.

Q. When did you start preparing for CAT exam? What was your overall preparation strategy?

A. I left my job after getting 12 months of work experience and started preparing in July 2019. The overall preparation strategy was to first brush up all the basic concepts and then targeting my weak areas one by one.

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

A. VARC - The most important thing to crack this section is the habit of reading. So I started reading one article every day for a month and attempting three Reading Comprehension passages daily which helped me in increasing my capacity to understand the type of questions and set the temperament to ace this section. Then I moved on to mocks and sectional test and tried various strategies that helped me improve my scores.

DILR - I started with practicing standard sets and puzzles that came in previous CAT question papers. Logic is something you need to develop and practice is the key for it. I analyzed the sets closely to catch up on the language of the set and to identify its difficulty level so that I could form the strategy to attempt the questions in the exam. 

Quant - I started with brushing up my concepts and solving a few questions. Then I attempted a few mock test series to analyse my weaker areas so that I can work upon them. Also I jotted down important formulae or any new concept that I came across during mocks which I could use the next time. While solving mocks, I used to solve the questions serial-wise without wasting my time looking for the easy ones as you always have the option of skipping a question which you are not sure of.

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

A. I rarely referred to any books because one can get all the required material online and I preferred to study on a digital platform to increase my on-screen comprehension and reading ability. But I would suggest referring to Arun Sharma for concept building.

Q6. Did you join any coaching institute? How does coaching institute help in CAT preparation?

A. Yes, I joined an online coaching platform, IQUANTA. It helped me in increasing my solving speed. Also, concept explanation videos were always present on the iQuanta platform which were really helpful.

Q. How important is mock test series?

A. Mocks test series is the most important thing for any CAT aspirant. I would suggest to take at least 2 and at most 3 Test series. Give the mocks regularly and the most important thing while attempting mock tests is to analyze them. You invest 3 hours in giving mocks and then you need to invest 3-4 hours analyzing it. Just giving mocks will not help you increase your score. You need to identify your mistakes and try not to repeat them in the next mock. So to continuously improve your score in the mocks you need to analyze it sincerely and learn from the mistakes you made in the mocks.

Q. What was your CAT exam day strategy? 

A. I stopped giving mocks three days before the final CAT exam and started with my revision. On D-day my strategy was to remain calm, concentrated and focused on maximizing my marks in all the three sections in any way possible.

Q. Any tips for future CAT aspirants?

A. My tips for the future aspirants is to analyze your weak areas in all the three sections and work on them. You need to ace at least two sections to touch the 99 percentile mark. Do not compare your preparation, your marks with anyone. Try to learn from every mock you give and improve your scores in the next mock. Keep reading, keep hustling till you get what you want.

Q. Which IIMs/institutes are you targeting?

A. I am targetting the top 10 IIMs.

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