Strategies to Score 99+ Percentile in CAT 2021 - Expert Take

Since day 1, be clear that your aim is scoring 99 percentile in CAT 2021. Make up your mind of not settling even 0.1 percentile less than 99 percentile.

By Sumit Singh Gandhi

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a national level examination conducted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM). It is a mandatory exam for seeking admission into IIM or other prestigious business schools like Faculty of Management Studies (Delhi), Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (Mumbai), SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (Mumbai) and many more. The exam is conducted annually in the last week of November. CAT exam will be conducted on November 28, 2021.

Almost two lakh candidates appear for CAT exam every year and less than 2000 aspirants score 99+ percentile. This means that your preparation needs to be different to be among those 2000 candidates who score 99+ percentile.

Strategies to Score 99+ Percentile in CAT 2021

Over the years, it is observed that the people who follow the following strategies end up scoring 99+ percentile:

Be firm about your aim

Since day 1, be clear that your aim is scoring 99 percentile. Make up your mind of not settling even 0.1 percentile less than 99 percentile. Be firm and confident about yourself and just be optimistic that you can achieve it. Decide the IIM you want to get into and work towards scoring the percentile needed to get into that IIM.

Push your limits

Work hard from the very beginning. Go all out and study with all your heart. Solve a minimum of 3-4 mocks each day. While solving every mock, solve it like it is the actual CAT exam. After every mock check for the wrong answers and practice in order to not make the same mistakes. Push your limits and work as hard as you can. Work harder on the topics that you find tough. Keep practicing all the topics even the ones you are already good at. Be careful while solving each question and concentrate completely on it.

Make strategies to reach your aim

Study the exam pattern at first. Know how many questions you need to get right in each section in order to score 99 percentile. Try those strategies while practicing mocks. This will tell you which strategy is more accurate. Use the most tried and trusted strategy in the actual exam. Allot of much time you will give to the section and how much maximum time you will spend on one question.

Evaluate your performances each time

After you practice, every time evaluate what you have done. Make a note of your mistakes. This will help you know which sections you are good at and which sections need more practice. Accordingly, try planning upon the questions you will prefer attempting. This way you won’t lose marks unnecessarily. Don’t be overconfident about your strengths and don’t be ignorant of your weaknesses. Strive hard to convert your weaknesses into strengths.

Do not succumb to pressure

One thing that sets the 99 percentile scorers apart from the less percentile scorer is how they deal with pressure. No matter what the situation is during the exam you cannot lose your calm. You need to deal with the situation with patience. Often, there are questions that the candidate is unable to solve in the first attempt. In such situations, leave the question and move ahead to solving the rest of the paper. This way you won’t lose your time. If you panic and stick to solving that question then you probably won’t be able to complete your paper ahead. Go with a good state of mind and have confidence in yourself.

Time management

Be quick with solving the problems. Don’t waste much time on a particular question. If you are not sure about an answer, keep the question for later and solve it if you have time in the end. But while solving with speed, you cannot afford to make silly mistakes. Silly mistakes are a major reason for low percentile. You need to be careful and alert with every question. Understand the question correctly.

Practice and analyze

Solve as many questions you can. Keep practicing regularly. Work harder on the topics that you find tough. Keep practicing all the topics even the ones you are already good at. Be careful while solving each question and concentrate completely on it.

About the Author:

Sumit Singh Gandhi is the CEO of a premier MBA Coaching institute of Maharashtra. He completed his MBA from SPJIMR and is a Master of Information Technology from Virginia Tech. He has also pursued SPNM from Harvard Business School. Among numerous awards, he's been honoured with Digital Indian of the Year 2016 and Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2015.

Read More:

CAT preparation: Tips and strategies

Best books for CAT exam preparation

CAT question papers of previous years

CAT mock tests for practice