How I scored 99.89%ile in CAT; Ananya Mishra shares tips & tricks
Common Admission Test 2026 ( CAT )
CAT 2026 exam
29 Nov '26
Ananya Mishra
With CAT 2017 likely to be conducted in the month of November/December, it is high time that MBA aspirants start preparing for the exam with utmost dedication. However, only sitting for hours and preparing for the exam does not assure a good percentile. The candidate must ensure that he/she is following the right preparation strategy. Without this, all efforts might go waste. Shiksha spoke to Ananya Mishra, CAT 2016, 99.89%iler about how one should prepare for the exam, and here is what she told us:
Q. Does coaching play an important role in CAT 2017 preparation or is self-study sufficient?
Self- study is a must for the preparation. In addition to that, one might opt for coaching if he/she feels the need of an extra support.
Q. When is the right time to start preparing for CAT 2017?
This is something which depends entirely on the student. For instance, I started seriously preparing roughly 6 months prior to the examination.
Q. What should be the routine study strategy of CAT 2017 aspirants?
Regular practice is something which helps a lot. I would suggest aspirants to practice problems from all three sections regularly. Excessive focus on one often leads to negligence of the other sections which does more harm than good.
Q. Which books/study material should CAT 2017 aspirants use?
There is no such restriction on books. Any book which has content similar to what appears in the examination is good enough. However, aspirants must go through past question papers to get a good overview of the question pattern and difficulty level that is expected.
Q. What should be the sectional preparation strategy?
The key is to identify the section that is bringing down the performance of the student. That section will require special attention. Apart from that, each section will have different topics and the candidate will have to find out which of them needs more practice and allot time accordingly.
Q. When appearing for CAT 2017, how should the aspirants decide which questions to attempt from different sections: Quantitative Ability & DI, Verbal Ability & LR?
This is a highly subjective matter. It depends on the skill of the student. It is for the student to decide which questions fall in his/her comfort zone and which do not.
Q. Time management plays an important role. Any tips for CAT 2017 aspirants on time management?
I would suggest aspirants to monitor the time they are taking for solving the problems and successively try to reduce that.
Q. How can an aspirant judge his/her weak areas, and how should one work towards improving the same?
From my personal experience, appearing for mock tests and analysing the results help a lot in finding out the topics which need improvement.
Q. Should candidates also appear for other management exams? If yes, which exams?
Q. Share some do’s and don’ts that CAT 2017 aspirants might find useful.
Do practice as much as you can. Don’t over exert yourselves. Stay confident.
 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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“Got a question about top MBA exams? Ask students who have already made it to top B-Schools.” |
Also Read:
This CAT preparation strategy is the golden ticket to success
Ajay Kaushik shares his CAT journey: From 70.7%ile to 99.7%ile
CAT 99.87 percentiler's step-by-step guide to crack the exam
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered Yesterday
VGIM Cutoff 2025 is not available yet. However, according to the VGIM MBA/PGDM cutoff 2024, the overall MAT percentile required for admission to PGDM course is 70 for the students belonging to the General AI category
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 days ago
No, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar has not mentioned that it accepts CAT score for MBA admissions on their portals. Candidates are instead required to appear for an in-house entrance exam that is conducted by GNDU itself.
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 days ago
Yes, IBSAT exam is comparatively easier than CAT in terms of syllabus difficulty level and competition. CAT question paper requires high anlaytical solving skills to score well in exam, whereas IBSAT exam assesses candidate's speed and accuracy. The difficulty level of IBSAT exam is moderate.
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Contributor-Level 7
Answered 6 days ago
No, to gain admission to the MBA course at this institute, candidates have to appear for the CAT exam and then for the Group Discussion (GD) and/or Personal Interview (PI) rounds.
Students are only shortlisted for the GD and PI rounds based on their performance in the CAT exam. Students who clear bo
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 6 days ago
Srinivas University - Bangalore Campus accepts national or state-level Management entrance exam scores for admission in MBA. Hence, aspirants can apply via CAT scores. They can also appear for SUAT conducted by the university for admission.
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Guide-Level 15
Answered a week ago
The registrations for the exam generally start from the month of August and continue till September. The admit cards are released by November. Exam is conducted usually by last week of November. Students can download their results by December.
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
Yes, COEP, Pune does accept CAT score to admit candidates for MBA admissions. During CAP rounds, if candidates have a valid score in CAT, they will be chosen based on those scores only. Thus, such candidates are not required to reappear for MAH-CET.
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
No, to gain admission to the MBA course at this university, candidates have to either attempt the CAT or other accepted exams (MAT, SUAT, etc.) and then appear in the Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI) rounds.
Students are shortlisted for the GD and PI rounds based on their performa
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Answered a week ago
IIT Madras CAT cutoff 2025 is generally not released to the public and is instead only visible to students with login credentials.
Based on the previous year's estimated CAT cutoff for the General AI category, the overall CAT percentile was 85.11.
Note: The cutoff data provided is not official. It i
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Contributor-Level 10
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No, you cannot get direct admission to the MBA course based on the CAT score. A valid CAT score only gets you eligible to apply for the management course.
To secure your spot for the course, you have to first attain the accepted CAT cutoff and get shortlisted for the multi-stage selection process, wh
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