TSICET 2017 topper Raag Khandelwal is passionate about Data Science

Raag Khandelwal

Hyderabad’s Raag Khandelwal, who had scored 99.99 percentile in CAT 2016, attempted Telangana State Integrated Common Entrance Test or TSICET 2017 on the basis of CAT prep and emerged as the topper in the state level exam by bagging Rank 2 with 156/200 marks.

A BITS-Pilani student, Raag is passionate about Data Science and has done numerous courses online. An all-rounder, Raag has won medals in Volleyball, Table Tennis and Chess. He also plays the guitar as a hobby and has completed 4 grades with a distinction in each grade from the London School of Music Examinations.

Raag has already cracked IIM Ahmedabad admission and will be joining the prestigious institute very soon. Shiksha caught up with him on his prep strategy and future plans. Here are the excerpts.

I felt that I needed to take some steps towards building my profile and CV which would help me getting a good summer internship and eventually a better placement. Scoring 99.99 in CAT gave me the confidence that I could get a decent rank in the TSICET exam since most of the syllabus was common and hence decided to appear for it.

Yes this was my first TSICET attempt. It was entirely my CAT experience that helped me score well since most of the syllabus was common.

I received calls from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Indore and IIM Lucknow. I will be joining IIM Ahmedabad.

I am really passionate about Data Science and have done numerous courses online and also have done 3 internships in the field at Ernst and Young as a Data Analyst for 2 months, ISB as a Data Science Research Intern for 2 months and at Busigence as a Data Science Associate and 6 months.

I am an outdoor person and love playing all kinds of sports and have won medals in Volleyball, Table Tennis and Chess. I also play the Guitar as a hobby and have completed 4 grades with a distinction in each grade from the London School of Music Examinations.

My dream college for MBA is the one I have got admission in i.e. IIM Ahmedabad.

My preparation strategy consisted of 2 parts.

The first part was to attend each and every class that was conducted by TIME, my coaching institute to get all my basics clear. I feel that attending classes is a must including those one feels confident about. I myself was surprised about what I learnt in the classes of those subjects which I felt were my forte.

After attending all the classes and having all the concepts through the next part was to give Mock CATs which serve 3 purposes. The first purpose is to keep you in touch with all the chapters. The second purpose is to give you a sense of how much more preparation is required, and the third and most important one is to identify your weak areas and address those in between these weekly AIMCATs. Analysing mock CATs gives you a clear idea of which chapters are the ones in which you get the most incorrect answers. I chose the TIME’s AIMCAT series because it gives a percentile from a field of over twenty thousand people and also has extensive solutions and analysis.

The minimum time frame according to me will depends on the individual’s aptitude and capability, but generally speaking 4-5 months of preparation is must to score really well.

The most important part is to first identify the weak areas which I did by analysing mock CATs over a certain period and then solving questions from the TIME material.

It really depends from person to person, but in my case joining TIME has really helped me achieve a good score.

My parents have constantly encouraged and motivated me to do well and I would say have been integral in my success.

I would like to suggest aspirants to read the newspapers regularly to both increase their reading speed and vocabulary and also be abreast with what’s going on in the world since it is a key part of the interviews for all MBA colleges which happen post CAT.

Also for those who are not very fluent at English, I would suggest them to start talking to their friends and family members in English so that they can gain confidence and not stammer in the interview.

I plan to join IIM Ahmedabad and hope to perform really well there and bag a decent job.

Also read: TSICET 2017 Topper profiles