With just 5 months to go for CAT 2018 exam, the crunch-time for all the CAT aspirants has already begun.
It’s high time for a person who has decided to pursue MBA and started preparing for this highly competitive exam.
Preparation for CAT requires a person to set targets, perform certain tasks and then approach the final stage with utmost precision and punctuality.
During this period, a lot of questions usually hover over the mindset of a person including devotion to a set timetable, particular areas to focus on, mind make-up each passing second etc. etc.
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Thus, to erase the clouds of doubt and ambiguity, we present you the snippets of a small talk with Yogesh Taneja, a 100%iler from CAT 2017:
- Congratulations on your worthy achievement. Could you tell us something about yourself?
My name is Yogesh. I’ve been brought up in a small town called Kaithal (in Haryana). As a kid, I had always been interested in the Academic-oriented course and my parents have always been supportive. I chose Commerce in my 11th Standard and got admitted to BCom(Hons.) course in SRCC. Currently, I am a PGP student at IIM-C. During my graduation, Accountancy had been one of my favourite subjects, so I decided to do the intermediate course of Chartered Accountancy as well.
What do you do in your pastime?
One of my key-leisure activities is to solve ‘Rubik’s Cube’. For the past 3-4 years, I have been doing the same. Other than that, I like to watch Spanish football and play the same as much as I can.
2. What was your Success Mantra for CAT 2017? Please share your sectional preparation strategy for Quant, VA, LR-DI.
I wouldn’t really call it a Success Mantra as that could be misleading. The moment you call it so, it becomes like a single equation that would act as the solution to every problem. In CAT, there is no direct way of putting all your inputs and getting exactly the same output. For me, CAT wasn’t just a source to get through the B-School call initially, though that was at the back of my head. In fact, to a better part of it, I was enjoying the course not looking at the consequences directly. I wanted to give my best in CAT, and one thing that I would like to suggest to the readers is that CAT requires a long-term commitment, so one really needs to ensure that one doesn’t leave the confidence throughout. There is no Success Mantra thing as such.
#VA-RC: I won’t recommend this sectional preparation strategy as a one-stop solution as everyone needs to figure it out on his own. But one thing that worked out for me as far as VA-RC is concerned is that I used to practice RC from my practice tests by keeping an account of my requisite time to maintain the accuracy. I used to read random articles like that on botany, psychology, etc. online. For VA, I didn’t possess a very strong vocabulary, but I used to try to comprehend the meaning of the words while practising it.
#Quant: Coming to Quant, it requires a lot of time and practice. One needs to make sure that one reviews one’s basics and takes online tests, from time and again. I would like to advise that one doesn’t need to do everything in Quant on an average basis, rather one should tick a couple of chapters that could be drilled in-depth, one doesn’t need to attempt all the questions. In quant, what matters is the accuracy. Always, try to get the questions right as much as possible; even I also left a few chapters that I wasn’t very much confidence at.
#DI-LR: Coming to DI-LR, this section brings a lot of surprise elements with it. I used to practice a lot for this section through various sources, be those printed ones or online. One needs to build up the intuition for the same while choosing the sets from this section. This is the section where one can actually mess up a lot with time. I would suggest that at least for now, one should focus on one’s accuracy while practicing the same rather than that on time, at least until the end of July, and thereafter keep increasing the number of questions being practised keeping the time into consideration.
3. How can a CAT candidate use mock tests? What is your piece of advice?
For me, mocks played a crucial role. These tests give a real-time simulated experience just like one will face on the day of the exam as far as the proctored mocks are concerned. For now, one could write four mocks a month, but keep on increasing the same towards the end of it. I used to write mocks daily when CAT became imminent. But, the key to remember is that “ANALYSIS OF THE MOCKS IS INTEGRAL”, don’t ever consider to compromise it. Unless the analysis is completed, the mock remains fruitless.
4. What was your overall time-management strategy?
CAT was my priority during my prep time, also there wasn’t much pressure of college during the third year as well. I used to set weekly targets for myself and then analyze the same. I would suggest that one could prepare a plan and start off with certain tasks and then keep on accelerating the same. Five months are a lot to hit a big target in CAT.
5. Was there any particular section that you were weak at? How did you overcome this challenge?
I can’t really say that I was weak at a particular section. In CAT, one can’t really bank upon a single section, a balance needs to be maintained throughout to get a good percentile. I would advise balancing and focussing on all the sections, and if one feels that a particular section is lagging behind, then one could work upon the same keeping the other two aside for a while, but always try to follow a balanced approach in all the sections as far as possible.
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The road to IIMs is through CAT for all the Indian students. Getting a B-School call and then converting the same requires a lot of perseverance and determination. One needs to be persistent in one’s efforts.
That’s all from our side as of now, have any doubts? Let us know in the comments section!
Be positive and give your 100%! With this, we wish all the CAT aspirants best of luck!
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Wikipedia, Quora +more
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