CAT 2021 Topper Interview: Know How Mohit Babu Scored 99.85 Percentile
Common Admission Test 2025 ( CAT )
Mohit Babu, a BTech student, shares his CAT 2021 success mantra with Shiksha. Read the article below to know more.
A BTech student from Ranchi, Mohit Babu, scored 99.85 percentile in CAT 2021 exam. Mohit is pursuing BTech from the National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi. He is a fitness enthusiast and loves to travel to sparsely explored places. He also keeps a keen interest in Finance and loves reading informative novels related to finance and economics. Mohit shared his CAT success journey with Shiksha. Read the article below to know more.
CAT 2021 score:
Overall: 99.85 percentile
Sectional:
VARC: 99.94 percentile
DILR: 96.90 percentile
QA: 98.64 percentile
Q: Congratulations! Are you satisfied with your CAT result? How much score were you expecting?
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A: Thanks. Ever since I started preparing I had the score of 99.7+ percentile in my mind as it would ensure a call from all major B-Schools. So I would say that I am pretty satisfied with this score.
Q: Was this your first CAT attempt?
Qualifying CAT cut off percentiles of Iims for Written Ability Test (What) and Personal Interview PI are listed below. Candidates who MET the qualifying CAT cut off, were eligible for What-PI round. These qualifying CAT cut offs are for General Category. The cut offs for Reserved category students are lower:
- IIM Ahmedabad: 95 percentile
- IIM Bangalore: 85 percentile
- IIM Calcutta: 85 percentile
- IIM Lucknow: 90 percentile
- IIM Kozhikode: 85 percentile
- IIM Indore: 90 percentile
- IIM Udaipur: 93 percentile
- IIM Shillong: 75 percentile
- IIM Trichy: 93 percentile
- IIM Visakhapatnam: 80 percentile
- IIM Rohtak: 95 percentile
- 1IIM Nagpur: 85 percentile
- IIM Jammu: 93 percentile
- IIM Ranchi: 90 percentile
- IIM Sirmaur: 92 percentile
- IIM Bodhgaya: 93 percentile
- IIM Sambalpur: 93 percentile
- IIM Kashipur: 94 percentile
- IIM Raipur: 93 percentile
- IIM Amritsar: 90 percentile
For complete details of IIM selection and admission process read this article: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/iim-shortlist-selection-admission-criteria-blogId-18787.
A: Yes this was my first CAT attempt. However, I had been following CAT since last year so it wasn't a new experience altogether for me.
Q: When did you start preparing for the CAT exam? What was your overall prep strategy?
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A: I started my preparations in April 2021. My strategy mostly involved solving the previous years' mock papers from different coaching institutes. After that, I analysed my weak areas and then focused on improving them.
Q: Please share with us your section-wise strategy.
A: For VARC I started reading articles from Finshots and Aeon and then transcribing them in my own words. This improved my comprehension skills and helped me with parajumbles too.
CAT cutoffs are usually not announced with the CAT result. The CAT cutoffs are also not released to the public.
They are published after a few days of the result announcement when the IIMs and other colleges start their shortlisting process. The IIMs opens their shortlisting window based on the CAT cut-offs two to three days after the result announcement. The CAT percentile of candidates shortlisted for the Written Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussion (GD), and Personal Interview (PI) can be considered the cut-off for that IIM. For example, if a candidate with a CAT percentile of 99 belonging to the General category is selected for the WAT/GD-PI of IIM Calcutta, then the CAT cut-off for IIM Calcutta is 99 percentile. Only those candidates who make it to the WAT/GD-PI round of IIMs will get to know the cut-offs.
You can't prepare specifically for DILR. However, there are some topics such as Venn Diagrams and Arrangements that are in almost every set. So I focused on them and started solving as many DILR sets as I could.
In Quant, I attempted past mock series and marked the areas I lacked in. Then I referred to Sarvesh Verma's Quantitative Aptitude book and cleared my basics from there.
Q: Which books did you refer to for CAT preparation?
A: I referred to Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT and Verbal Aptitude by Sarvesh Verma and also the ETS GRE Big Book.
Q: Did you join any coaching institute? How does the coaching institute help in CAT preparation?
A: If you are dedicated, self-motivated and can stick to sincere practice then you don't need any coaching. But coachings will definitely give you a competitive edge because they will be sharing their years of experience which you can't have on your own. Also, they will keep you regular in your studies and you'll get to know the competition pool you'll be facing.
I too joined a coaching institute in my hometown solely for mentorship and competitive purposes.
Q: How many mock tests did you attempt and how important is a mock test series?
A: I attempted all 16 SimCAT mocks and more than 30 Take Home Mocks. Mock test series are definitely important as they help you face the time constraints beforehand and plan a strategy for the actual exam.
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Q: What was your exam day strategy?
A: On exam day I made sure to not let any question get to my ego. I planned to spend only two minutes on any question and then come back to it later only if I believed I knew how to solve it. I also tried to avoid any questions that involved time taking calculations.
Q: Any tips for future CAT aspirants?
A: My only tip would be to start giving mocks as early as possible and analyse them in detail. It is okay if you feel that you don't know anything in the beginning, you'll improve with time. But analysing your mocks will train you in taking the CAT exam.
Saumya Jain is an English Literature graduate from the University of Delhi. She has over 8 years of editorial and content writing experience. At Shiksha.com, she has spent more than six years creating research, stud
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Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 4 days ago
Yes, CAT is a compulsory entrance exam for all candidates who are a resident of India to qualify for PGPM admissions at IIM Shillong. For NRI candidates, the GMAT is the mandatory entrance exam to qualify for IIM Shillong PGPM admissions. Candidates also need to fulfill the eligibilty criteria for P
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The CAT cutoff for IIM Shillong PGPM admissions 2026 ranges from 50 - 75%. The general and EWS category candidates are required to score at least 75% in CAT exam to qualify for the PI round for IIM Shillong admissions.
The SC category is required to score 60% while the remaining categories are only r
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Yes, students can get into IIM Ahmedabad without appearing for CAT. However, this is applicable for courses other than flagship PGP/ MBA programme. Students seeking to join programmes, such as the BPGP or executive programmes. For those courses, students need valid scores of other accepted exams.
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N.L. Dalmia offers scholarships based on entrance exam scores of the candidates. Below is the criteria for scholarship based on CAT scores:
| Category | Scholarship |
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| >90 percentile | INR 6.50 lakh |
| 85 to 89.99 percentile | INR 4.06 lakh |
| 80 to 84.99 percentile | INR 3.25 lakh |
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Sectional cut-off in the CAT exam refers to the section-wise percentiles required by the candidate to make it to the Personal Interview round of the IIMs or other top MBA colleges. The sectional cut-offs are lower than the overall cut-offs of any institute. To understand better, check the table below for sectional CAT cut-offs for IIM Ahmedabad:
Category
VARC percentile
DILR percentile
QA percentile
Overall percentile
General
70
70
70
80
NC-OBC-Transgender
65
65
65
75
SC
60
60
60
70
ST
50
50
50
60
PwD (General, NC-OBC-cum-transgender, SC)
60
60
60
70
PwD (ST)
50
50
50
60
For sectional cut-offs of all IIMs, check this article – IIM shortlist and selection criteria