Common traits that set CAT topper apart from others

The toppers in CAT are not always the ones who are the most talented. They are the ones who know what their limitations are and how to work around them or with them.

By Vivek Sankaran

Once the CAT results are out we usually hear the success stories of students who cracked 99.xx percentile, are college toppers or state toppers, etc. They are all shown as powerful, flawless and almost like robots going about dissecting the paper.

I have had the fortune of interacting with students preparing for Common Aptitude Test (CAT) and other Masters in Business Administration (MBA) entrance exams, and I could see certain traits that set the toppers apart. Let me take you through my experience I had with two of my former students, both alumni of IIM Ahmedabad - Indian Institute of Management (IIMA). Let’s call them X and Y, and understand how they dealt with their fears, anxieties and a quality that made them different from others.

Priorities: Knowledge of what you want to get and the effort involved saves one a lot of heartache later. Life is full of choices and getting your priorities right is an often overlooked aspect in preparation. I have seen gifted students drift away because of other priorities. The toppers do not live the life of a hermit. But, they will also not be out partying every weekend or watching every web series or every sports game. They sure love the sport, the series and their friends, but they know that if one wants to realize one’s dreams, sacrifices are needed. 

Talking about priorities, in this case X used to work in a high-paying job after graduation. He was living on his own, his job was very comfortable. He was earning more than most MBAs except those from the top 10 colleges. But, he wanted more out of his life. So instead of going to town partying every day, which he could, he decided to set aside one day a week for socializing and partying with friends and the rest of the week for CAT preparation. He did not leave his job – a mistake a lot of CAT aspirants make. He made a workable schedule and stuck to it.

Habit: Do you have to make special time for brushing your teeth every day? Of course not. For successful aspirants, preparation becomes a habit. You do not have to make special time for it. It comes naturally. They enjoy the preparation process. Have you ever seen a top footballer say, “I hate the practice”. Because no matter how talented you are, without practice, your talent is wasted. The number one reason your CAT preparation plans fail is because students treat it like a bitter medicine. You take a pill in the morning and one in the evening, you will be alright. They start hating the pill after a point of time. You cannot clear an exam if you hate it. You do not need to fall in love with Math or Data Interpretation, but do not fear it or hate it.

Similarly, Y had completed graduation and he was awaiting his joining in an IT company. He could have lazed around the house taking it easy. Instead, he decided to get out of the house the first thing in the morning. He joined the earliest possible batch – an 8 am batch – for his CAT coaching. I would see him arrive for the class by 7:50 am each day with almost clockwork precision. He had turned CAT preparation into a habit. 

Accuracy: CAT requires you to be at the top of your game for three hours back to back. You have a lapse in concentration for five to ten minutes, your exam is over. People are obsessed with speed of calculations, reading speeds, shortcuts etc. However, when I see toppers attempting a paper, the first thing that I notice is their accuracy. They hate it when they make an error. Take a look at games between top tennis stars – the number of points played and the number of unforced errors committed. It is pointless to attempt 20 questions and get about eight wrong. It is worse than attempting 15 questions and getting all correct. Sometimes the errors do creep in because of tiredness, but by and large, at the end of the game, the one with fewer errors wins.

From my personal experience, when I attempted CAT in 2010, I knew that every question that I attempted was right, with maybe one incorrect in the Verbal Ability (VA) section. 

Self-awareness: Everyone, even the serial 100 percentile scorers are caught unawares by CAT every year. They all, however, take solace in self-confidence. If you score around 50-60 per cent in this paper, you rank 99 percentile or above overall. CAT difficulty levels have remained largely stable with a minor change here and there. You can leave almost half the paper and still beat 99 per cent of your competition. This is similar to what you get with Virat Kohli’s innings. You will see plenty of balls which he lets go or takes a single from. The rest of the balls are then hit for fours or sixes. And, the ball that Kohli lets go might be a ball that Rohit Sharma might have hit for a four or a six. Similarly, CAT toppers know which questions they can go for and which ones they have to leave. 

X, in such a scenario, knew that he can score highly in VA and Quantitative Ability (QA) sections. Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation (LRDI) was his pain area. He knew that if he answered around three sets completely, he would be through easily. In the previous CAT he had gotten only one set correct. So when the LRDI section started, he took 10 minutes to go through all the sets. He then shortlisted a set which he took 15 minutes to solve. But at the end of 25 minutes he knew he had already done better than the previous CAT attempt. Armed with this confidence, he ended up attempting four sets overall.

When all these factors work in harmony, you get the feeling of what the sports stars call – being in the zone. Every shot that you hit comes off. You suddenly seem to have gained an extra yard of pace. You don’t have to double-check your calculations. You breeze through passages, not worrying if you have done it right or not. All this is because you have the supreme confidence in your abilities and you have gone through that same sequence in practice a hundred times. It is muscle memory. 

The toppers in CAT are not always the ones who are the most talented. They are the ones who know what their limitations are and how to work around them or with them. They are not bothered by profiles, quotas, placement reports, short cuts, tricks, etc. They simply shut out all the outrage, put their head down and enjoy their journey. 

About the Author:

Vivek is the co-founder of TOPMYTEST (www.topmytest.com) – an online test prep website specialising in training students for CAT and other MBA entrance exams. Vivek was also the founding director of T.I.M.E Goa Center from 2009 to 2016. He cracked IIM-A (PGP) when he appeared for CAT 2010 but declined to join. Prior to working in the test prep industry, he worked in GE Capital (now GENPACT) and HSBC Bank Middle East in various roles – Product Management, Financial Planning and Analysis, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing.