Know how Lalit Prusty scored 98.42%ile in CAT 2016

Lalit Kumar Prusty

Lalit Kumar Prusty scored 98.42 percentile in CAT 2016. This 19 year old lad is in his final year of graduation and is the only son of his parents. He thinks that there is no right time to start preparing for CAT as it majorly depends on an individual’s general aptitude level. His sectional cut-offs are VARC- 90.56, DILR- 98.87, QA- 97.56. 

Shiksha spoke to him about his preparation strategy, and this is what he had to say: 

Q. Was this your first CAT attempt?

Answer: Yes, it was my first attempt. 

Q. How satisfied are you with your score?

Answer: A little more effort in the Verbal section would have been ideal, but nevertheless, I’m satisfied with my percentile. 

Q. Tell us something about yourself.

Answer: I’m 19 years old and currently in the final year of graduation. I’m doing B.A. Honours in Economics from Ravenshaw University, Cuttack. 

Q. What area of specialization you intend you choose?

Answer: My first preference would be Consulting, and then maybe Finance. 

Q. Tell us about your preparation strategy.

Answer: It depends on the individual’s general aptitude level. The most important section according to me is VARC which needs special attention from any CAT taker. A person with average proficiency in English language will have to develop a reading habit and stick to it over a period of 7-8 months.

For DILR, there’s no hard and fast rule to get better. Good reasoning skills along with consistent practice would be sufficient, but it shouldn’t take more than 2 months to get better at it. If it does, then there’s something wrong with your strategy and you have to re-strategise. This is the make-or-break section as the IIMs are constantly experimenting with this section.

For Quant, take a month or two to brush up your basics. Don’t skip anything while going through the concepts. Practice around 20 questions every day and keep separate notebooks for different areas like Algebra, Arithmetic, Numbers, Geometry and Higher Maths. It is important to stay in the test-taking zone after June-July till CAT happens. This is the ideal time to leave everything and just focus on mock tests. Whenever I felt I was lacking in one particular area in mocks, I went back to the basics and this is where keeping separate notebooks helped me. 

Q. What is the minimum time frame needed to prepare for CAT, and when did you start off with your preparations?

Answer: If you are starting from scratch, preparations should begin as early as in January or February. I had started around the same time and that gave me enough time to try different strategies and find which one works best for me. For an average student like me, it’s important to devote a full year to try and decipher this exam. 

Q. What did you do to improve your weak areas?

Answer: My weak areas were Reading Comprehension and Geometry. I wasn’t a reader by any stretch of imagination, so I had to start reading to improve my reading speed. For Geometry, I watched a lot of YouTube videos to get a decent grasp on it. Improvement happened gradually and it was visible in the mocks. 

Q. Is it important to join a coaching institute?

Answer: If one can find a mentor online or offline, then he/she doesn’t need to join coaching institutes. But do make sure that you have at least one Test series of any good coaching institute because without a test series, it will take multiple attempts to just understand what CAT is all about. 

Q. What’s your dream institute?

Answer: My dream institute is IIM Calcutta and it’ll take another attempt to get there, so I’m probably settling for a lower ranked college. 

Q. Tell us about your hobbies.

Answer: I do a lot of poetry and I sketch or paint once in a while. Apart from that, movies are what I live for. 

Q. Any tips for future CAT aspirants?

Answer: Just keep control over your performance – focus on accuracy and speed. Everything else will eventually fall in place.

CAT scores are used for admission to 19 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.