CAT 2025 Topper Interview: Aishiki’s Journey from Psychology to 99.18 Percentile in CAT

CAT 2025 result has been announced. Humanities student, Aishiki scored 99.18 percentile in CAT 2025. Aishiki says CAT mock test has helped her score well in exam. Know more about her inspiration journey and preparation strategy here.

CAT Topper 2025

Preparing for the CAT exam can be overwhelming, especially for students from humanities stream, non-math backgrounds or those appearing for exam for the first time. In this CAT 2025 topper Interview, check the journey of Aishiki Sen, a BA (Hons) Psychology student from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), who scored an impressive 99.18 percentile in CAT exam. From managing college exams and burnout to building strong section-wise strategies, CAT topper 2025, Aishiki shares her preparation strategy, benefits of mock tes, and exam-day mindset. Read this exclusive interview by Shiksha here.

CAT 2025 Student Profile

• ⁠Name: Aishiki Sen
• Academics: Third year of graduation, pursuing BA Hons. Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Benaras Hindu University.
• CAT 2025 Score:
  • Overall CAT Score: 87.21 (99.18 percentile)
  • Sectional Scores:
  • DILR: 31.66 (99.30 percentile)
  • VARC: 42.76 (98.91 percentile)
  • QA: 12.80 (87.04 percentile)

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CAT 2025 Topper Interview: Aishiki Sen

Shiksha: Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Aishiki: I am originally from Kolkata, but throughout my childhood, I have moved around quite a lot, due to my father’s job. Growing up, this meant constantly having to adapt myself based on environmental demands, which perhaps explains my curiosity about human behaviour. My father is a Chief Operating officer, having also done an MBA and my mother is currently a homemaker who is a postgraduate in economics. Alongside academics, both my parents sang and performed regularly, and I grew up immersed in music. I followed their footsteps through much of my childhood and continue to sing and perform occasionally even today. I am currently in my 3^rd year of graduation, in BA Hons. Psychology from Banaras Hindu University. MBA was the next step that I had always envisioned for myself because I aspire to join HR, owing to my background in psychology. I am a full time reader and a part-time writer, having published short stories and poems. Right now I have a blog which I update routinely. Apart from this, I would say swimming is my dormant hobby, something I enjoyed a lot throughout my childhood but stopped in my late teens.

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

Aishiki: Yes, this was my first CAT attempt. I started CAT preparation during August 2024, in my 2^nd year of graduation, with CAT 2025 as my aim. It has been one and a half years of consistent hard work and it feels good to see that it paid off. During November, I had almost lost hope and mentally decided that 2025 was not going to be for me and I would have to aim for 2026 because my college end semester exams were announced 24^th November onwards. But somehow, I persevered by fighting burnout and managing my precious time. That added pressure reoriented something inside me, and relaxed me partially. On the D-day, all the small things in this journey paid off.

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

Aishiki: I started in August 2024 in early batch because I come from a humanities background and had not studied Maths since class 10. I knew I needed some extra time for brushing up my maths.

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

Aishiki: VARC was my strongest section so I always attempted almost all the questions. First I did the RCs then the VA. In rcs, I always read the questions first to get an idea of what information I should focus on during my reading of the passage. Then I moved on to VAs with about 10-15 minutes left. My main concern there was para summary followed by odd one out. I always did parajumbles in the end because they are very hit and miss.

In LRDI, I always spent the first 2-3 mins scanning all the sets and mentally creating a hierarchy of easy to difficult sets which decided my attempt order. Always started with the easiest set, slowly moving on to more difficult ones. My aim was always to attempt at least two sets. This allowed me to attempt 2.5 sets in CAT.

Quant is my weakest section. I followed the round robin technique here, where in my first round I skipped any question that looked time-consuming and only solved the easy sitter ones In round 2 I did moderate level questions where I solved those which would take more time but were on the easier side.

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

Aishiki: I used Arun Sharma books for the first few months for quant, then moved on to Iquanta books.

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Shiksha: Did you join any coaching institute?

Aishiki: Yes, I was an enrolled student at Iquanta from August 2024, in their start early batch for CAT 2025. I also bought the mock test of coaching institute.

Shiksha: How did the coaching institute help in your preparation?

Aishiki: I owe this score to my coaching. They were a huge help and I don’t think this score would have been possible without their classes and their faculty members. They provided so much material and practice questions, and their teachers were amazing.

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

Aishiki: I attempted around 25 mock tests during my prep, from coaching institutes and 2 from Arun Sharma.
Personally I believe mock tests are the single most crucial thing during the entire preparation. They really show you where you stand and allow you to adjust your strategy accordingly. Mocks are how you find out where you are lacking. Only then can you target those gaps and study accordingly. At the end of the day, CAT is a time bound test. It does not require you to solve everything; it is all about solving the maximum possible questions correctly within that time limit. Only through mocks one can decide their own attempt strategy based on one’ strengths and weaknesses.

Shiksha: ⁠What was your exam day strategy?
Aishiki: When I started the exam, I was a little taken aback by how dense and lengthy the passages were. But the questions were relatively easier, so I attempted 18 questions total. Skipped para completion because they felt slightly ambiguous.
During the first 5mins of LRDI, I felt slightly lost because all of the sets felt hard in the first reading. I decided to go with the set that had lesser number of ambiguous questions and solved that in 15mins. After that it was a struggle to find the 2^nd doable set. Managed to somehow attempt all of the 2^nd set and moved on to a third set which I could only manage to do halfway when the timer ran out. I still regret not being able to solve that set completely which I could have managed with just 5 more minutes.
In quant I found the questions pretty lengthy and calculation intensive. I could not do as many questions as I wanted to. I could have done a better job there.

Shiksha: Who is your role model?

Aishiki: I do not have any role models as such. My parents would be the closest to being role models. They taught me and showed me to never give up, no matter the circumstances and to always have hope whilst giving your best because 1% is always out of your control, so to believe for the best.

Shiksha: Do you have any tips for future CAT aspirants?
Aishiki: I would suggest start attempting CAT mock tests as soon as mock season starts because that is honestly the best preparation. Attempt at least 20mocks in your journey because every mock teaches you something. I would also suggest to read regularly because a good reading speed genuinely gives a much needed boost during the exam.

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

Aishiki: Any of the BLACKIs would be ideal. But among them, I would say I am partial towards IIM Indore because I want to pursue HR, and they are the only one offering a specialised HR program among the top 6 IIIMs. Other than that, FMS and TISS are also at the top of my list, along with XLRI for which I will be giving the XAT exam on 4^th January.

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