CAT 2019 Topper Interview: Karan Goyal Who Scored 99.95 Percentile Shares His Success Journey

Karan Goyal scored 99.95 percentile in CAT 2019. Know about his CAT exam strategy and success mantra in the article below.

Karan Goyal

Shiksha got to talking with Karan Goyal, a mechanical engineer from IIT Kanpur. Karan is in his final year of graduation. Karan secured an impressive percentile of 99.95 in CAT 2019 exam with a total scaled score of 209.12. He wishes to get an admission call from FMS, Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta. Read the article below to know his success mantra.

CAT overall percentile: 99.95

VARC percentile: 95.05

DILR percentile: 99.99

Quant percentile: 99.85 

Q. Congratulations, Karan! Are you satisfied with your score? How much score were you expecting?

A. Yes, I am very happy with my performance. During my mock tests (AIMCATs), I was scoring in the range of 140-160 and so considering the difference in difficulty level of mocks and the final CAT exam, I was expecting around 170-180 marks but eventually scoring 209 marks is a dream come true.

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 preparation strategy?

A. I started my preparation for CAT exam in April. My overall strategy was to understand the basics of every section and identify my strengths and weaknesses. Then I focused my attention on working on my weak areas and improving my performance.

Q. Please share your section-wise preparation strategy.

A. While giving mocks, I found I was scoring very less in VARC. But from the very beginning, my score in QA was 60+ which was good enough to fetch me a decent percentile.

VARC: Since this section consists of 24 reading comprehension questions and 10 verbal ability questions, I focused on improving my score in RC section. For me, time was never an issue in attempting this section but my accuracy was very poor. So I practiced and solved around 50 to 60 passages other than the mocks and analysed them properly and tried to avoid making the same mistake repeatedly. Other than that mock tests were very helpful as they introduced me to many new and different types of questions.

DILR: I think this section can give a huge boost to a person's percentile and can help a 95 percentiler to jump up to 99. My strategy for this section was to learn the basics of all different types of questions and then attempt questions from different sources like AIMCATs, TIME booklet and other online sources. Another important aspect was to analyse each and every set carefully and try to solve the tricky questions which were there in that particular topic. 

Quant: Since I was consistently scoring good in Quant, as mentioned above, I was never worried about it. While preparing for QA, I used to skim through TIME study material, going through the steps of how I could solve a question in my mind, without having to write it down. But whenever I used to come across a difficult or tricky question I would try to find the least time-consuming way to solve it. I also made sure that I memorised each and every formula because there is always a chance that a formula based question might be asked in the CAT exam.

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

A. I referred to the study material provided by TIME and the class notes. Since the information is so readily available nowadays, whenever I was stuck at something or wanted to understand a new concept, I would just google it and read about it online. 

Also Read: Best Books for CAT preparation 2020

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

A. Yes, I joined TIME Kanpur for my CAT preparations. For someone who is appearing for CAT for the first time, joining a coaching institute can make a huge difference in his score as it exposes the person to competition with other aspirants and keeps them motivated. 

Q. How many mock tests did you attempt? How important is mock test series?

A. I attempted around 12-15 AIMCATs (TIME mock test series). I think CAT mock tests play a crucial role part in improving one's score. I read about the importance of mocks while researching CAT and I started giving mock tests earlier than my fellow peers and I think it helped me a lot. I would say a proper analysis of mock is very important as much as attempting mocks.

Q. Did you make any exam day strategies?

A. My main focus was to keep my calm and not panic even if I am not able to solve seemingly easy questions. My strategy for VARC was to attempt as many Reading Comprehension (RC) questions as possible as it was my stronger area. For the DILR section, I aimed to solve at least five sets, i.e. 20 questions. But this year, the section was easier than the previous years because of which I was able to solve seven sets which helped improve my total score a lot. After solving DILR, I started with the QA section, relatively relaxed. I knew if I attempted all the questions smartly then I could achieve a good score of 75+ in the QA section. I was able to solve 32 questions but made some silly mistakes which reduced my score to 78. 

Q. Any tips for future CAT aspirants?

A. My suggestion would be giving a couple of mock tests to understand your strengths and weaknesses and then work on them accordingly. It would be best if you formulate your own strategy to crack CAT as everyone is different.

Q. What are the IIMs/institutes that you are targeting?

A. I am targeting FMS, Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta.

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