So planning for such an unpredictable exam also throws up surprises. And three toppers inform us how different their strategy was. For Vidit Aggarwal, it was his third attempt at CAT.
Two self-study attempts did not yield the desired result, so the 24-year old took no chances for the final. He joined a coaching centre in a bid to get professional guidance.
Deepak Mehta, a student of BITS, Goa on the other hand cracked the exam with 100 percentile in the first attempt. As for Shashank Samant, he took CAT in 2008, then worked for two years and scored 100 percentile in 2010. “CAT doesn’t require much preparation,” he says. We scope out some useful pointers from our interviews with the three toppers.
Coaching
CAT coaching is a multi-crore industry. From established players like CareerLauncher, T.I.M.E. and IMS to one-room operators in small towns, it is a thriving industry (read our story “Does CAT coaching help?” in the February 2010 issue). According to Vidit, coaching does help because it enabled him to study regularly and systematically. To him the biggest advantage of coaching is that it helps one assess and measure ones preparation levels vis-à-vis others, a view seconded by Deepak. However, Shashank does not think highly of coaching. He says, “I joined coaching but didn’t attend any classes.I scored over 99 percentile in the very first mock I took. Thereafter I just kept on giving mocks.”
Mock Test Series
The most popular preparation tool, Vidit joined two test series. “One is good too, but personally, I needed to gauge my preparation,” he says. He took one from CareerLauncher but his friends suggested that the one from T.I.M.E. was better. So, he took that too. According to him, the results helped him understand his weak areas. Shashank seconds this. According to him, even though he joined a coaching class, all he really did was take a series of mock tests. According to Deepak a mock test helps one in assessing one’s speed, which is very vital in CAT. So in mock tests he focused on attempting a minimum of 18 questions from each section and getting to solve all 54 of them.
Approach to the exam
Getting just one question right can make all the difference between success and failure in CAT. The right way to attempt questions is the most vital component to get it right, suggests Ullhas Vairagkar, T.I.M.E Delhi centre Chief. Vidit says he began by attempting all easy questions first, to ensure a sureshot score and garner the confidence to tackle the more difficult ones. For him, English took the least time, and he spent 45 minutes on the Data Interpretation section.
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