CAT 2024 Topper Interview: Swaraj's Inspiring Journey to a 99.95 Percentile Without Coaching

CAT 2024 topper, Swaraj Pal Kesari bagges 99.95 percentile in the CAT exam—Know Swaraj's CAT success story and how he made it from Oracle to CAT 2024 topper. Swaraj, shares his preparation strategy, CAT exam day strategy, and more. Read full interview here.

CAT Topper 2024: Swaraj Pal Kesari

CAT 2024 topper, Swaraj Pal Kesari hailing from Bihar and brought up in Hyderabad secured 99.95 percentile in the CAT exam.  Swaraj pursued his engineering studies at NIT Silchar before securing a technical job at Oracle. However, his passion for business and entrepreneurship made him pursue an MBA dream. In his second attempt at the CAT exam, Swaraj soared from a modest 93 percentile to an outstanding 99.95 percentile. In this exclusive interview with Shiksha, Swaraj shares his section-wise preparation strategies, favourite resources, CAT mock test experiences, and exam-day insights. Read CAT topper 2024, Swaraj Pal Kesari’s full interview here.

Shiksha: Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Swaraj: I hail from Bihar but was brought up completely in Hyderabad. My dad is a businessman and my mom is a homemaker. I completed my engineering at NIT Silchar from ECE and landed a job at Oracle. Though I got into a technical job, an MBA has been a passion that I wanted to pursue, business and entrepreneurship have always excited me. I attempted a business in my second year and the thrill still feels so nostalgic, that is the kind of work I would want to do in my life ahead. Apart from all this, I love writing, hitting the gym and learning about the stock market.

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Shiksha: Was this your first attempt at the CAT exam?

Swaraj: No, I had attempted one last year to get the gist of the exam. I had scored close to a condemning 93 percentile last year. It didn’t disappoint me much because I didn’t prepare, but maths in slot 3 taught me the fact that preparation ahead would need determination.

CAT 2024 Score

• Overall Score: 130.65 (99.95 percentile)
• Sectional Scores:
  • DILR: 58.49 (99.98 percentile)
  • VA: 28.16 (93.79 percentile)
  • QA: 44.01 (99.88 percentile)

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Shiksha: When did you start preparing for the CAT exam?

Swaraj: I had started my preparation in mid-February this year. Being a GEM, the cut-offs will always be high so basically had to make sure no topic is left out breadthwise, and have enough time to practice all of them so that I’m familiar with everything which is a key in time-based exams.

Shiksha: Can you walk us through your section-wise strategy?

Swaraj:

VARC: As my VARC was weak, I knew I had to work hard on this. I read articles every day from February for three months where my focus was comprehension even if it took a lot of time because though the passages in the actual CAT got shorter, it got harder for me to read. I used to solve RCs every day with VA when I was not doing RCs. This helped me understand the rules of the game. I had started giving sectional mocks of VARC, but I was scoring very poorly (single digit sometimes), but the hack here was to understand the paper setter’s framework and not bring your own bias while solving RCs. For VA, I knew accuracy could never be 100 per cent for me, so I focused on fixing my mistakes after every mock. Finally, whenever I attempted VARC, I always told myself to stick to the passage and go with 3 RC and all VA strategies.

LRDI: I watched Ravi Prakash sir’s entire playlist to know all the formats of sets that are asked in CAT. Post which, my only aim was to practice as many diverse sets as I could to be prepared for the worst, coaching institute's mocks helped me prepare for the worst. My strategy while attempting LRDI was always to hold my nerves, identify when you’re panicking, and tell myself I had to crack 2 sets.

QA: I consider this as my strong zone being an engineer, The only setback here for me was my excitement leading to silly mistakes, which cost me a few marks in the actual CAT. Even for this, I watched Ravi Prakash sir’s playlist to revise all the concepts which is comprehensive and practised as much as I can to touch every type of problem. Finally, whenever I attempted QA, I told myself no silly mistakes and I must not let your ego waste your  time on problems that take time though it’s your  strength.

Shiksha: Which books did you refer to for CAT preparation?

Swaraj: Though I had used Arun Sharma sir’s books initially which is good for the LOD 1 or 2 questions, looking at the 2023 paper, the next paper could also be a surprise, so I used them as only to get my concepts clear. Apart from this, I followed Amit Rohra Sir’s playlist for VARC, and Ravi Sir for LRDI and QA. Finally, Sumit sir for motivation.

Shiksha: Did you join any coaching institute?

Swaraj: I hadn’t joined any coaching institute for preparation, but I had taken mocks of Coaching institute and iQuanta. Coaching institute's mocks were really challenging where my satisfaction depended on seeing a three-digit number at the end of the test, though it really helped me prepare for the worst. iQuanta had good tests based on the pattern of previous years and a good number of students subscribed to it, for you to know where you stand, their analysis is good too.

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Shiksha: How many mock tests did you attempt during your preparation?

Swaraj: I have attempted close to 35-40 full-length CAT mock tests as I remember, and 25 sectionals for each of the sections at least.

I’d say it’s half the game; mocks are the battles you need to win to fight the war. Mocks give you exposure close to how it’d be in the exam, it’s in the mocks that you’ll figure out what strategy is not working, where are your emotions not under your control. You try every strategy to finally boil down to the one working for you. Analysis plays a huge role in improving your mock performance. Moreover, there’s no magic number on the number of mocks, the day you feel you’ve got your strategy clear to get close to the number of marks you’re aiming at and feel confident of that, you’ll be on cruise control next.

Shiksha: What was your exam day strategy?

Swaraj: I remember I was happy going to the exam, yes nerves were there because the exam meant a lot, but I was utterly grateful to god for the past year where this is the first thing in my life where from point 0 to 100, difficult of the exam and cut-offs around it didn’t scare me, never did I doubt myself, my goal didn’t change according to my capabilities. I kept telling myself all these and while nerves hit me in VARC because of the chattering of invigilators and pattern change, I somehow went into cruise control for the other two sections.

Shiksha: Who is your role model?

Swaraj: My role model is Virat Kohli. His words helped me a lot during my preparation, never lessen your ambition and always believe that you’re the winner. I cannot stress enough how important this visualization gets.

Shiksha: Do you have any tips for future CAT aspirants?

Swaraj: I’d say never lessen your ambition; CAT isn’t an intricate exam where too much of intelligence is required. It’s a game of who attempts the right ones but also who leaves the right ones, and of course emotion and time management. That’ll happen when you practice, give and analyze enough mocks till you feel ready.

Shiksha: Which IIMs/Institutes are you targeting for your MBA?

Swaraj: I aspire to be at IIM Ahmedabad or IIM Bangalore for my MBA, purely because of the exposure and culture there. Hopefully, I make it through the interviews.

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