Kaushal Dhanuka
Kaushal Dhanuka appeared for CAT 2016 and scored 98.13 percentile. In an attempt to score better than this, he decided to reappear for CAT 2017. Kaushal made sure that he learnt from his past mistakes, and created a preparation strategy, keeping in mind his weaknesses and strengths. This year, he scored 99.55 percentile with sectional scores of 93.12 in VA, 99.93 in LRDI, and 97.93 in QA.
Kaushal is a BCom (Hons) graduate from Calcutta University, and has been a bright student throughout school. He is a food enthusiast and loves to cook. Also, watching cricket, reading and Indian politics excites him.
Shiksha got in touch with him to know his preparation strategy and here’s what he shared:
Q. How did you feel on seeing your result? Were you expecting this score?
I was happy and a little surprised. I did expect this percentile, but was expecting a better score in Verbal Ability. So I was surprised at the overall score, and a little upset at my Verbal Ability score.
Q. Was this your first CAT attempt?
This was my second attempt. I took CAT 2016 where I scored an overall percentile of 98.13
Q. What area of specialisation do you plan to opt for?
I am willing to choose Finance.
Q. Tell us about your preparation strategy.
My preparation strategy involved primarily focusing on my strength and building upon it, and at the same time identifying the weak areas and try and improve it.
VA – Was weak, unable to decide between 2 close answers; usually ended up marking the incorrect one. Started reading articles and newspapers more, attempted RCs and implemented a few improvement techniques as advised by my mentor. It resulted in me identifying which questions to attempt and how to arrive at a logical conclusion.
LRDI – LR being my strong suit, I practiced more and more questions. Worked on identification of data, calculation techniques and approximation techniques in DI.
QA – Took each topic at a time, and solved questions on it.
This was accompanied with regular mock exams and subsequent analysis.
Q. What was your weak area (s) and what did you do to improve the same?
RCs in VA and Geometry in QA were weak areas. I tried to understand the basics of these 2 topics, and subsequently solving more questions.
Q. Is it important to join a coaching institute?
It is important to have a mentor/guide who can help you with your preparation and strategy building. It usually happens that a faculty member of the coaching institute plays the role for you. So, I believe that joining a coaching institute does help in more than one way.
Q. What’s your dream institute?
My dream institute is IIM Calcutta.
Q. Any tips for future CAT aspirants?
1. Be clear in your thought as to where you want to land. Take into consideration every aspect of your educational background so far.
2. Have a mentor. This person will be the Krishna to your Arjuna. Be true to your mentor and be true to yourself.
3. Practice hard for the exam, and practice harder for what’s beyond the exam.
4. Always believe that you are meant to achieve it.
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