CAT 98.32%iler shares his success story

Himanshu Singla

Cracking CAT, one of the toughest management exams requires knowing the right formulas and concepts, attempting mock tests, and dividing time equally for all the sections. Test takers must make sure that they analyse their strengths and weaknesses as a part of their exam preparation strategy, and improve their weak areas.

Himanshu Singla appeared for CAT 2016 and scored 98.32 percentile by following an effective preparation strategy.

Here is how he prepared for the exam:

According to me self-study is sufficient for scoring well in CAT. If you can maintain a disciplined and focused approach, go for self-study else one can go for coaching.

June is the good time to start preparing as you can be done with the basic concepts by the end of July and then you can focus on mock tests and strengthening you weak areas.

Give at least 3 hours daily for preparation. Focus on all the sections and divide your time equally for each section.

Any coaching material will be sufficient for learning basic concepts of Quant. For Verbal, try reading newspapers daily, practice RC's from past years’ mocks or CAT papers and you may read word power made easy by Norman Lewis for improving vocabulary. In DI, practice is the key, solve past years’ CAT papers, coaching materials, past mocks.

For Quant, first clear the basic concepts and then keep on practicing. For Verbal, make a habit of reading daily and solving 2-3 sets of RC's daily. And in DI, practice 4-6 sets daily.

While attempting CAT, do not spend a lot of time on a particular question as you may find a less time consuming question later. If you get time in the end, you can revisit that question. Try to maintain high accuracy level and just don't try to solve each and every question. In DI, go through the whole paper in the initial 3-4 minutes and identify which sets you can solve easily and go for them first, and then to other sets if time permits. 

Do not spend a lot of time on a particular question as you may miss out on easier questions. First attempt the question you thing you can solve easily and then go for the difficult questions.

Mocks are the best way to identify your weaknesses and strengths. One must thoroughly analyse the mocks and observe the topics is which one is scoring low. Make a plan to strengthen those topics by revising the concepts, practicing more questions from those topics and you will see your mock performances getting better.

Yes, one can appear for IIFT, XAT exams.

Do's: follow a fixed schedule for preparation sincerely, attempt mocks regularly, give time for mock analysis, identify your weaknesses and work on them.

Don’ts: Don’t get demotivated by your mock scores. Do not think too much about the changes in CAT pattern (if it changes) – it will happen for all the aspirants.

CAT scores are used for admission to 20 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and various other top B-Schools. Are you eligible for the IIMs? To know more, click on the image beside.

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• How I scored 99.89%ile in CAT; Ananya Mishra shares tips & tricks