Here’s the Interview of CAT Topper Mayank, who hails from a small town of Bihar, scored 99.76%ile in the CAT exam and converted IIM Calcutta.
Q: Congratulations Mayank on your huge achievement of clearing the CAT exam with 99.76%ile and converting IIM Calcutta. Please tell us a bit about yourself
MAYANK: Thank you so much for the introduction. So, basically I belong from Samastipur, Bihar. Talking about my schooling, till 10th I studied in Bihar only and then did my plus 2 from Delhi. After that I completed my B.tech from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and then since July 2018 I have been working in Samsung, Bangalore.
Q: What was your overall CAT percentile and your sectional scores?
MAYANK: Overall I scored 99.76%ile. In VARC it was 99.54%ile, in DILR it was 94.89 and 99.67%ile in the QA section
Q: How much time did you take to prepare for this examination?
MAYANK: Basically it was my second CAT attempt where in the First attempt I had scored 98.9%ile. So, this time in my second attempt I scored 99.76%ile. I started my preparation in the month of March and quickly brushed up on the basics. My basics were already clear as I had already given this exam earlier, So after getting done with the basics, I started taking mocks.
Watch Mayank’s full interview here:
Q: According to you, how much time does an average person need to prepare for the CAT exam?
MAYANK: I think 10 -12 months is an ideal time for anyone who wants to appear for the CAT exam. In the first 4-5 months one should work on clearing his basics and then should completely focus on mocks for the rest of the months. While analyzing the mocks, even if your answers are correct, still you should look at the analysis to see if you have some other easy method to solve the particular question.
Q: During this entire preparation journey, what was your challenge?
MAYANK: Yes, there was a situation that was quite tough for me. When the pandemic had occurred and lockdown took place, I was stuck at my flat for 4 months . So, in that particular time I was all alone for 4 months and all I had to do was do my office work, look after myself and do the preparation.
Q: What was your strategy for each section during the preparation and during the exam?
MAYANK: Talking first about the VARC section, In VARC my strategy was to attempt the questions according to the difficulty level. If the passage was easy, then I used to speed up while solving and when the passage was tough then I used to go slow and solve the questions carefully.
In DILR, you have to practice a lot of sets. You can get around 200 sets of DILR questions from the iQuanta portal and I also solved most of the sets from the website itself. During the exam, you have to read all the sets and then decide which set you have to attempt and then go for it.
In Quants, you can divide the time into 3 rounds. In the first round, you should go on to solve the easy questions, in the second round, you have to solve the tougher questions and in the last round you can attempt the leftover questions for which you are not sure whether to attempt or not. One thing that you have to keep in mind for quants is the shortcuts. You have to apply the shortcuts to solve the questions in order to save your time in the section.
Q: The exam pattern was changed this year, So how did it affect your preparation strategy and how did iQuanta help you in this?
MAYANK: The pattern was changed that much, it was the time duration and the number of questions that decreased a little bit. Thanks to iQuanta, they provided me with the mocks which were according to the latest pattern of the CAT exam and iQuanta was the only one that was doing this. So, due to these mocks I was able to practice the questions according to the latest pattern and score well in the exam.
Q: You mentioned that it was your second CAT attempt. So, what were the improvements that you made this time in your preparation that helped you score better this time?
MAYANK: There were some major changes that I made this time in my preparation. In VARC I decided to attempt RCs according to their difficulty level. In Quants, I applied some shortcuts to solve the questions that Indrajeet sir had provided. And apart from that there were some practice series that iQuanta provided in the course – LRDI 70 and QA 250 where plenty of questions and sets were available for practice. So, I would say that iQuanta definitely helped me a lot this time in scoring 99.76%ile in the CAT exam.
Q: There are so many things that you get here at iQuanta for your preparation. So, what was the one thing that motivated you the most in your preparation journey?
MAYANK: During my preparation time, the hardest thing for me to do was to maintain consistency in my preparation as I was a working professional.
But, here at iQuanta, the community remains active all the time as you get notifications at any time of the day that some questions or doubts are posted in the group. So, by looking at this thing I used to get so much motivation by seeing how driven all the aspirants are for the CAT exam.
No matter how hectic my day would go, I was practicing questions each and every day.
Q: How many mocks did you give in total and what was your analysis strategy?
MAYANK: I gave around 67 mocks in total. And talking about the analysis, I used to take around 1-2 hours for analysis where I would not only see what questions went wrong or right but also used to see the methods and approach of the solution so that I would apply it from the next time.
Q: During your preparation what was your weakest and the strongest section?
MAYANK: My strongest section was the QA section and the weakest was DILR and somewhat VARC too. So, for DILR I solved around 150 sets in total for practice and for VARC, my approach was to eliminate the RCs according to their difficulty level.
Q: Now, after clearing CAT the next thing for you is the GDPI. So, what is your strategy going ahead into GDPI?
MAYANK: For GDPI, I would say that you should be well presentable and would be able to sell yourself in a good way. Questions from current affairs and politics do come but at the end it depends on your profile and background too. You have to be confident and ready for every type of question that the interviewers might ask from you.
Q: As a student of iQuanta, please tell us what is iQuanta’s pedagogy?
MAYANK: Talking about the pedagogy, there are plenty of sets available for the practice of DILR. For quants, there are shortcuts that Indrajeet singh provides to bring out the solution and of course the detailed analysis of the mocks. All these things in overall are really helpful for anyone who is enrolling into iQuanta coaching.
Q: What is the one piece of advice that you would like to give to other CAT aspirants?
MAYANK: The advice that I would like to give to all other aspirants is that you have to be consistent and you must have a good strategy for your preparation because at the end of the day consistency and the right approach is something that matters.
