Common Admission Test 2025 ( CAT )
Exam On - 30 Nov '25
Apurba Das who bagged, 99.24 percentile in CAT 2022 shares his preparation strategy and important tips for aspirants. Check complete details here.
CAT 2022 Topper Interview
CAT 2022 Topper Interview- IIM Bangalore announced the CAT 2022 results on December 21. It was much of a surprise as the result was declared two weeks earlier. CAT 2022 topper Apurba Das scored 99.24 percentile on his third attempt. Nevertheless, Apurba never lost hope and managed to climb the ladder from 97 percentiler to 99 percentiler in CAT exam. Born and brought up in the Jhargram district of West Bengal, Apurba likes playing Ukulele and chess. According to Apurba one has to stay consistent and clear towards their aim to achieve success. With the help of CAT mock tests Apurba was able to analyse his weaknesses to improvise his preparation. In this CAT 2022 topper interview of Apurba Das know his preparation strategy and important tips for CAT preparation.
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Name and College – Apurba Das
CAT 2022 score-
Overall: 87.14 (99.24 percentile)
Sectional score
DILR: 37.85 (99.87 percentile)
VA: 31.65 (96.77 percentile)
QA: 17.64 (90.73 percentile)
Shiksha: Congratulations! Are you satisfied with your CAT result? How much score were you expecting?
Apurba: Thanks! I'm satisfied with my CAT result. I was aiming for 99.5+ percentile but, I messed up the quant section on the D-day. So keeping that in mind, I am happy at my percentile.
Shiksha: Please tell about yourself
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
No, one can't join IIM without CAT. Candidates seeking admission to the IIM Ahmedabad MBA course must appear for CAT and secure 90 percentile. The Institute considers Writing Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI) rounds for final admission to IIM Ahmedabad along with CAT results. Students must meet both, the overall CAT cutoff percentile and the sectional cutoffs.The Institute does not release CAT cutoffs in the public domain and are exclusively accessible only via account login to candidates who have appeared for the exam.
Apurba: I am Apurba Das, 23 years old. I was born and brought up in the Jhargram district of West Bengal. I completed my schooling at Jhargram K.K Institution and later completed my graduation and masters in Chemistry at Vidyasagar University. My interests include playing Chess, Ukulele and watching Football.
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Shiksha: Was this your first CAT attempt?
Apurba: No, it was my 3rd attempt.
Shiksha: When did you start preparing for CAT exam? What was your overall preparation strategy?
Apurba: Last year I scored around 97 percentile at CAT. So my basic understanding of each topic was clear. It was a matter of working on my strengths and weaknesses. I focused mainly on mocks and analyzing them properly. From 97 to 99 percentile, the scope of improvement is less and to find those small faulty areas was important for me. I took mocktests from two different institutes and relied on utilizing them propoerly.
Shiksha: Please share with us your section-wise strategy.
Apurba: VARC : I am not fond of reading books and articles. So, instead of spending my time reading, I used to solve different RCs. It helped me improve my inference skill which is important to ace this section.
The table given below mentions IIM Calcutta sectional and overall cutoff 2024 across all sections and categories:
| Category | Section - 1 (VARC) | Section – II (DILR) | Section – III (QA) | Overall Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OPEN | ≥80 | ≥80 | ≥75 | ≥85 |
| EWS | ≥70 | ≥65 | ≥65 | ≥75 |
| NC-OBC | ≥70 | ≥65 | ≥65 | ≥75 |
| SC | ≥65 | ≥60 | ≥60 | ≥70 |
| ST | ≥55 | ≥55 | ≥55 | ≥65 |
| PwD | ≥45 | ≥45 | ≥45 | ≥55 |
LRDI : The LRDI section is my forte. I am always good at solving puzzles and logical reasoning sets. This section is getting tougher every year in CAT, thus I focused on solving advanced levels of puzzles. Lots of practise is the key here.
Quant : My focus in Quant was mainly on Arithmetic and Algebra. I gave a lot of sectionals and mock tests to get an idea of the different varieties of questions that can be asked.
Shiksha: Which books did you refer to for CAT preparation?
Apurba: I didn’t refer to any books. There are lots of free study materials available on google & social media. I used them only.
Shiksha: Did you join any coaching institute? How does coaching institute help in CAT preparation?
Apurba: Being a repeater, I didn't join any coaching institute. However, for a beginner, it is very much advisable to take coaching to clear your basics. Apart from that, self-determination and consistency are important to ace an exam like CAT.
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Shiksha: How many mock tests did you attempt and how important is a mock test series?
Apurba: I attempted somewhere around 25-30 mock tests. CAT is an exam of selecting the right sets of questions and solving them properly under the limited time. Mock tests helped me to build a strategy on how to select the right questions and how to approach the paper. Analysing the mock test also helped me to understand the areas, where I needed to improve.
Shiksha: What was your exam day strategy?
Apurba: I just wanted to keep myself calm and have a confident state of mind. Not stressing too much about preparation and just have a believe in the process.
Shiksha: Any tips for future CAT aspirants?
Apurba: Perseverance is the key. Stay consistent & keep working hard.
Shiksha: Which IIMs /Institutes are you targeting?
Apurba:
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