CAT 2021 Topper Interview: Know How Rounak Das Made it to the 99 Percentilers Club
Common Admission Test 2025 ( CAT )
Admit Card - 12 Nov '25
Read about CAT 2021 topper Rounak Das in his latest interview with Shiksha. Know all about his preparation and exam day strategy.
Rounak Das, a software engineer of Kalyani Government Engineering Colleges, scored 99.56 percentile in CAT 2021 exam. He hails from Kolkata and likes playing football. He is a travel buff and also likes watching movies and going on treks. He believes that consistency is important for CAT preparation. Shiksha got to talking to Rounak and he shared his CAT 2021 success mantra. Read the article below to know more.
CAT 2021 overall percentile: 99.56
VARC percentile: 96.53
DILR percentile: 98.99
QA percentile: 99.31
Q: Congratulations! Are you satisfied with your CAT result? How much score were you expecting?
A: Thank you, I am quite satisfied apart from a few d-day blunders I made. In this paper, I was expecting a score of about 120.
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Q: Was this your first CAT attempt?
A: Yes, this was my first CAT attempt.
Q: When did you start preparing for the CAT exam? What was your overall prep strategy?
A: I started my preparations in February 2021. I didn't follow any strict schedule but I used to do daily classes according to my time and practice in whatever time remained after my job. Since it's almost a one-year process, I used to take breaks from studying when I didn't feel like it.
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.
Q: Please share with us your section-wise strategy.
A: For VARC, I started with the RCs, and then slowly built up expertise in Verbal Ability.
For DILR, I practiced different varieties of sets as you will rarely get anything common in the exam. The main aim should be to get an idea of how to attack different problems with the clues provided.
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For Quant, I cleared the basics first and tried not to leave out entire chapters. I gave extra time to chapters that took time to master. Focus on the quality of questions during preparations rather than quantity.
Q: Which books did you refer to for CAT preparation?
A: None. I bought Sarvesh Verma's Quantitative Aptitude book initially but hardly used it. I practiced from the materials provided by iQuanta and tried to do all the practice questions shared by them. I felt books have too many questions and being a working professional, this wouldn't have worked out for me. Instead, I practiced a variety of quality questions from the sectional mocks and other practice sessions set up by iQuanta
CAT cut-offs are not announced along with the CAT result. The cut-offs are also not released publicly. They are known after a few days of the result announcement when the IIMs and other colleges start their shortlisting process. The IIMs will open the shortlist 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.
Q: Did you join any coaching institute? How does coaching institute help in CAT preparation?
A: I joined iQuanta. For me, it helped me to maintain discipline throughout the year and provided a well-defined structure to the preparation apart from clearing doubts.
Q: How many mock tests did you attempt and how important is a mock test series?
A: I attempted approximately 25-30 mock tests. Taking and analysing mock tests is very important as it helps to identify the areas where one requires to work upon more.
Also Read:
- 13 things to do to crack GDPI
- PI Preparation
- Top GD topics for MBA
- How to Crack GD-PI/WAT Rounds of Top B-schools
Q: What was your exam day strategy?
A: The only exam day strategy was that I tried to be as calm as possible on D-day and perform to the best of my ability.
Q: Any tips for future CAT aspirants?
A: Try to be consistent throughout the year and don't get burnt out during prep. It is better to study two to three hours every day rather than studying 9-10 hours a day on an irregular basis. Take breaks when you are not up to it.
Q: Which IIMs /Institutes are you targeting?
A: I am targeting IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow and IIM Indore along with FMS, MDI, National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur and IIT Kharagpur.
Read More:
- IIM shortlist process 2022 to begin soon; check details
- CAT 2021 topper interview: Know how Chirag Gupta scored 100 percentile in CAT 2021
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- CAT 2021 topper interview: Know how Vishal Gowda made it to the 99 percentilers club
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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