Here’s the Interview of Nayana Nair who cleared the CAT exam with 99.8%ile and converted IIM Ahmedabad along with a full time job.
Q: Congratulations Nayana on clearing the CAT exam and converting IIM Ahmedabad. How are you feeling?
NAYANA: It feels good, I was in shock when I got to know about the results that I have cleared the CAT exam and converted IIM Ahmedabad. I have received calls from other Top B-Schools as well so I am waiting for their results as well.
Q: Apart from IIM Ahmedabad, what all other interviews did you give? And which interview did you find was the most brilliant?
NAYANA: I had applied only to 6 old IIMs and also FMS. I gave the Interviews for IIM Bangalore, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, IIM Calcutta and IIM Kozhikode. I was about to give the interview for FMS but then I got the result of IIM Ahmedabad interview a day before the FMS interview so then I did not appear for it.
I would not say that the interviews were brilliant, they were mostly profile based and related to my work experience. I found the Bangalore Interview to be the most challenging one because I was very nervous. There were three panels in that interview, one was an economics professor and one was from finance and as my background was mathematics and finance related so they straight away started asking modeling questions. I was not able to answer some of those questions so I was panicking and went blank throughout the whole interview and could not perform at all even though they asked me very simple questions. So, this interview was the worst among all of them.
Q: Out of all the interviews, what one question according to you was the most difficult to answer?
NAYANA: There were a lot of questions around my background. When I said that I belong to finance and economics then they had a lot of expectations around what that involves. My background revolves around liquidity management so when I said that I work in liquidity then they thought that I must be familiar with all kinds of financial models or reporting so they asked me questions related to that only. So, what I think is that you need to have a complete knowledge about your background when you are appearing for these interviews. There were other questions as well which were not related to my domain so for that I tried but then I just simply said that I do not know the answer and let’s just move forward with another one so that I don’t waste the time of the interviewer. I feel that you should be able to drive the interview according to yourself so that the interview goes well and you are not getting stuck at any point.
Q: Was there any specific strategy for the GDPI?
NAYANA: For the GDPI, there is no syllabus like the CAT exam. It depends from person to person and their academics and the work profile they have. The interviews are basically based on your background and what you know about it. There are some other questions as well like what impact does your firm have on yourself, what does it do and how do they generate revenue and all that. There were some questions around current affairs too so for that I think someone has to start reading newspapers 2-3 months before the interviews and the CAT exam as well. Overall I would say that you need to have a knowledge about what you are doing and what all is happening around you and of course the mock interviews as well. The mock interviews really helped me a lot in understanding the areas in which I really need to work on and also what are the things on which I don’t have to work on. And one last thing that I would like to add here is that you need to read about the history of the B-Schools as well for which you are appearing.
Q: As you are a BSE graduate in Mathematics, please elaborate a bit more on your profile and also let us know what were your sectional percentiles in the CAT exam.
NAYANA: I did my bachelors in Mathematics from Lady Shriram college and completed the graduation in the year 2021. During that time I had an Internship in an asset management company and got a full time offer from there and since then I am working there as a full time employee.
Talking about my scores In 10th standard, I scored 95% in CBSE board, 97.6% in 12th standard and 9.7 CGPA in my undergraduation and I have a work experience of 2.5 years. In the CAT exam, my sectional percentiles were like this – VARC it was 99.95%ile, in LRDI it was 90.2%ile and 98.6%ile in QA.
Watch Nayana’s full interview here:
Q: How and when did you decide to do an MBA and When exactly did you come across iQuanta?
NAYANA: I always wanted to go for masters but I wanted to do it after some work experience because as I belong from mathematics background, you need to know in what field you have to go. You can go into harcore research, finance or maybe something different as well. So, I had to decide what field my masters should be. While I was working I felt that I had gained some technical skills and from there I wanted to learn more in subjects like HR, finance and so on so that later on in my career when I want to have a managerial profile, I would have gained a good knowledge and experience about all these things. So, from there I thought that MBA would be a really great idea and started researching about it and looked for online coachings and from there In June 2023, I got to know about iQuanta and then finally, I decided to prepare for CAT and try for MBA.
I had actually given the CAT exam earlier also in 2021 as I was giving many competitive exams at that point of time and without any preparation I got 95% ile because what I observed was that I was already strong in VARC and of course mathematics. So, all these things motivated me to finally think about MBA and prepare for the CAT exam.
Q: How difficult was it to prepare for CAT along with a full time Job?
NAYANA: Initially, it was very challenging because I did not know how to manage time between my work and the studies and I had not studied anything properly for a significant amount of time since my college. So, it was very important for me to come up with a schedule and prepare seriously. I was not able to attend the live classes but somehow I managed to attend the application classes of iQuanta and watched the recorded videos of the live classes. I had maintained an excel sheet to see how much I have completed and what all is left for me to do. So, I had an overview of what all is happening in my preparation and how it should be. I used to set a daily target of what I have to do and how many recordings I have to go through.
My daily schedule was like I used to wake up early in the morning and go to the office at around 9am and from 9am to 12pm I used to study in my office only, then do my office work from 12 to 5pm, take meeting till 9pm and from 9pm onwards I would start studying again till I go to sleep. But this schedule was not fixed as it used to change according to my projects and work. There was a time when I had absolutely no time to study and then I had to take some breaks from my work to study and then I used to study more in those breaks that I had taken.
Q: In iQuanta CAT classes, we have a rigorous curriculum as we have live classes, application classes, practice sessions and also conceptual videos. So, were you able to cover all of them or just some parts of it?
NAYANA: There was a lot of study material of course but I just focused on the live classes, Application classes and the mocks. In the starting I watched some conceptual videos which were there on the dashboard but later on I was not able to complete. At the end of my preparation, I gave so much importance to the mock tests and that really helped me. I used to make notes of all the important points and would keep on revising that.
Q: How much time did you exactly take to prepare for CAT and being a Non-engineer, how difficult was it?
NAYANA: I cannot tell how much time I exactly took for my preparation as it varied according to my work and schedule but I started in the month of june and till november I was completely focused on it. Whenever and whatever time I got, I just dedicated it to my studies.
Being a non-engineer I was scared of LRDI as I had heard from many people that if you don’t pick the right set, it can totally go wrong for you so for me this section was the most difficult one and also the QA section was the second most difficult. In terms of LRDI, I struggled in it on the exam day as well as I had chosen one wrong set which made me score only 90%ile in the LRDI section. In terms of QA, there might be a lot to cover even when you are good in mathematics you still have to do a lot of practice.
Q: How many mocks did you give during the preparation and what was the strategy that you took while analyzing the mocks?
NAYANA: I gave only 10 -12 full mocks but I practiced a lot of sectional mocks as I was good in VARC but had to do lots of practice in LRDI and QA. So that’s what helped me to improve my QA and prepare well for LRDI and was able to see the improvements later on.
While giving the mocks I used to make a lot of silly mistakes in QA, so when I used to analyze the mocks I used to mark those mistakes as silly mistakes and rest I would analyze the areas where I was strong and the areas where I had to work on. In LRDI, I used to see what are the types of questions that I have to attempt and what not within a set. I think practice is what makes you perfect. Initially it might be difficult to score good in mocks but later on you will be scoring good. In VARC, the scores were good from the start itself but I had to maintain it so that I did a lot of reading and also kept on reading different topics. There are some RCs which are difficult so for that you must have some good reading and understanding skills as well.
Q: What were the doubts that you used to have during your preparation and how would you solve them?
NAYANA: In the Application classes, whenever I used to have any doubts I just used to put that in the comment section and then within seconds only it would get solved. So, the iQuanta community was really helpful for me in clearing the doubts. Also, the solutions in the mock tests were also in detail so Innever felt that I needed something else rather than that.
Q: Were there any kind of distractions? If yes, then how did you deal with them?
NAYANA: I think some distractions are good to have. You just need to take it in a healthy way because during the preparation we get so much absorbed in it so you need to have some kind of distractions as well. You have to be in touch with other things as well and also need to spend some time with family and friends. Sometimes you feel tired and so for that you have to reach out to your friends and spend some time with them or do some activity that can lift up your mood. Apart from that you need to have self discipline while preparing for such an important thing because this is something that needs a lot of dedication and practice. So, I think I tried my best to do that and maintain a good balance between the things.
Q: What was the one thing that you liked about the iQuanta mocks?
NAYANA: I think the mocks were a good preview of how the actual exam would look like and the detailed AI analysis that it had was really helpful for me to find out my strong areas as well as the areas where I needed to work on. Things got more clear when I gave the mocks and I got to know where I was standing.
Q: What according to you are the 3 most important things that a CAT aspirant should keep in mind?
NAYANA: From my experience, the first thing that I would want to say is that you must know about your strengths and weaknesses and make sure you improve the weak areas before the exam day.
The second thing that I would like to say is that you have to be very calm during the exam and in the preparation too. You have to believe in yourself and be motivated towards what you are doing and what you have to do.
Third thing is to just trust the process because everything takes time. You can not become perfect in just a few days, you have to be patient and keep on practicing. Don’t expect results immediately because it takes time. Trust the process, trust the coaching you are into and trust the faculty, everything will fall into the right place.
Q: One last question, how was your IIM Ahmedabad Interview?
NAYANA: It’s quite an interesting story to tell. The interview was on sunday and 2 days prior to it, on friday I got sick and was admitted to the hospital. So, somehow I managed to appear for the interview by taking medicines and resting. I had not done any extra preparation, I just read about the college and went for the interview. I had that drip kind of thing still attached on my hand as I had taken a leave from the hospital for a few hours to go to the interview and the interviewers so that I was unwell. Luckily I was the first one there so the interview started quickly and I did not have to wait. The questions that were asked from me were from mathematics and related to my field. There were some questions for which I didn’t know the answers but still I kept the conversation going. I was shocked that I was selected because the interview was just fine, maybe because they saw that I was not well that day but overall it was a good experience.
