Here’s the Interview of CAT Topper Souradeep Banerjee who cleared the CAT exam with 99.95% in his first attempt.
Q: Congratulations Souradeep on clearing the CAT exam with such a huge score. As you have just landed in Delhi from your IIM Ahmedabad interview, please tell us how was your interview experience?
SOURADEEP: To be honest, it was pretty tense because I hoped that it would be a smooth conversational interview but it was not what I expected. But, overall it was a good experience as I gave a lot of good answers and it was. So, let’s see what happens.
Q: What are the interviews you are done with and what are the interviews that are lined up and what were the questions that you felt were difficult to answer?
SOURADEEP: So far I am done with IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta Interviews and in this month I have some other interviews as well. IIM lucknow interview is on 17th and IIM bangalore on 20th and in the next month I have to appear for IIM Kozhikode interview.
Talking about the questions that were tough according to me, so far I have given these two interviews – IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta. Out of these two interviews IIM Ahmedabad was the most grilling one and the kind of questions in which I was getting stuck was based on general knowledge and from my own background. They asked me some questions related to my undergraduation and where do I belong from, what is the culture there and things like that. But, I handled it well, whenever I was answering any question they would come up with another question related to that but I stood calm and took my stand on what I was answering.
Q: Were there any common questions asked in both of these interviews?
SOURADEEP: Yes, there were some questions like “Why MBA?” and “What are your goals?”. So these were some of the basic And common questions asked and I believe this will be asked in other upcoming interviews as well and I am ready for it.
Q: Where did the idea of doing an MBA come from?
SOURADEEP: Coming from an Engineering background I always knew that I have to do an MBA for growth and better career opportunities. I believe the options as well as the success rate increases for an Engineer after doing an MBA. In the third year of my graduation, I got an internship program which was an eye opener for me. There I got to know about the business side of things that were happening in the organization like the leadership things and the business related decisions that the management would make. So, this was something that attracted me more towards MBA and then finally I decided to go for an MBA and prepare for the CAT exam.
Q: Being a fresher, people have a misconception that they will not get calls from top IIMs if they don’t have any experience. But you on the other hand are getting calls from these top IIMs for the interviews. So, what are your thoughts on this?
SOURADEEP: See, I understand that work experience does matter but it also depends on the profile that you have. Talking about myself, I am a general engineering male (GEM) and from the school time only I was good in academics and have a good academic record till date. So, I knew that I don’t have work experience but I have a good profile so possibilities are there that I can get a call. So, you need to have a belief in yourself while preparing for the CAT exam and should concentrate on getting a high percentile. So, what I believe is that a high CAT percentile and a good academic profile Can get you calls from these top IIMs even if you don;t have any experience.
Q: How much time did you take in preparing for the CAT exam and what was your preparation strategy for all 3 sections?
SOURADEEP: I started from the month of april but it was not in a proper way. So, In full fledged, the preparation started from the month of June. In the starting I took some books and used to solve questions from that and then I came across iQuanta’s IIM ABC batch. From the books, I was not able to solve questions from all the sections on a daily basis, but the iQuanta IIM ABC batch gave me that liberty. In that batch, I got questions from all the 3 sections on a daily basis and that was something unique. I was getting to prepare all the 3 sections simultaneously so this was something which I thought was much better from any other coaching or crash course. Apart from this, there was that 24/7 doubt solving thing in the iQuanta batch that really helped me a lot because whenever there was any doubt or question posted in the group, I would get it solved in a few minutes only. Because of this feature I was not only able to learn from my mistakes but was able to learn from other’s mistakes as well. From the month of june till last the CAT exam I religiously dedicated my time into giving more and more mock tests and iQuanta mocks were the only mocks that I gave. The IIM ABC batch and the iCAT mocks were the two things that I concentrated on.
In Quant, my strategy was that I will prepare for algebra and arithmetic first and then later in the last months I will prepare modern mathematics and geometry but the IIM ABC batch of iQuanta give me more geometry questions in the middle months and that really helped me because In the CAT exam I was able to solve some tough geometry questions with ease.
Talking about the LRDI section, I was strong in Arrangements but not that strong in the Venn diagram. So, I did not focus much on the DI part and decided to give more focus on the LR and luckily in the CAT exam, there were mostly the LR questions only. There waa a DILR 70 series that helped me a lot and in the Quant section also, there was QA 250 series that helped a lot in getting a variety of questions to prepare.
As far as VARC goes, I was always strong in the RC part because I come from an I.C.S.E board school but in the VA part I faced some issues in the parajumbles part and in the CAT exam also I did not perform well in parajumbles. But, I kept on practicing as In the ABC batch only I used to get many parajumbles questions. Here, I would like to give a lot of credit to the ABC batch of iQuanta because for every section, there was a variety of questions which would give me challenges each and every day but it was into my benefit only as because of it I was able to prepare very well for the CAT exam.
Watch Souradeep’s full interview here:
Q: As you are doing your graduation from NIT Goa, what were the distractions that you faced during the preparation and how did you tackle them?
SOURADEEP: There were some distractions in the beginning, I used to roam around with my friends and chill in the initial days of my preparation but later on when the exam was approaching I ignored everything as I knew in my mind that I have to be serious towards this exam and this is what I have to do. My friends also understood my situation and never forced me to come with them and also my family was there to support me and pushed me in a good way to achieve my goal.
Q: There is another misconception among people that engineers do have a better hold on quant than VARC. So, what’s your take on this?
SOURADEEP: I would actually agree on this that yes engineers do have a good touch in the Quant section because throughout our academic journey we somehow stay in touch with mathematics but as the level of CAT exam is getting higher year by year, the Quant section is also getting tough. As an engineer who is good in quant, was also able to attempt only 13 out of 22 questions. The thing is that if your basics are good in mathematics then it does not matter which background you are coming from, just clear your basics, do a lot of practice and then definitely you will be able to perform well in this section and same goes with VARC too. Engineers come from everywhere so english is something that is the most common language used but moreover engineers do not pay much attention to english so you need to have a hold on both quants and english as well and your basics should be good.
Q: From when did you start taking mocks, how many mocks did you give and what was your strategy to analyze the mocks?
SOURADEEP: In the starting of my preparation, I gave 1 mock just to see the pattern of the paper and what all things are there in the mocks and then later on in July and August I gave 2-3 mocks along with the preparation from the IIM ABC batch. But then as the preparation came to an end, from late September till november I gave mocks frequently and in the last 14 days I gave 1 mock every day.
Coming to the analysis part, In the initial mocks as the score was not good, I used to sit and see where I went wrong and would work on them and for LRDI, the more mocks you give, more the practice you will have and for that you don’t need any analysis you just have to see the solution and work on it. In VARC, sometimes you think that the answers are correct so you do not need to do anything but after the mocks you have to analyze how the answers came so that you can apply the same approach in the other exam and on the exam day as well.
Q: How did a day in your life look like while you were preparing for the CAT exam?
SOURADEEP: As I was in my final year of graduation and was still a student, the initial days were like this – I would start my day with some breakfast, solve some IIM ABC questions and some DILR questions. Then, I would go to college, do my college work or some assignments that were given. Then in the evening I would spend some time outside with my friends, have dinner and then would come back home and solve some more questions and end my day with that. Then when the time passed by and the exam came near, The schedule changed a little bit. In the morning I would solve some questions and also watch the youtube playlist of DILR and VARC and then go to college. After that, as soon as my lectures would end at 5pm, by 5:30pm I would come home and start taking mock tests till 7:30. From 7:30 to 8:30, I would analyze the mock and then go for dinner and come back by 9:30pm. Then in the end I would do some sectional mocks and would work on them by 11pm and after 11 I would go on to sleep and end my day.
Q: As you were a part of the iQuanta IIM ABC batch, what is your feedback and what do you think about the level and quality of it?
SOURADEEP: There were two things that made me a part of the iQuanta IIM ABC. One was the relevancy of the questions which were up to the mark of the current trends and difficulty because some questions were exactly the same in the exam which I got in the IIM ABC batch. The second thing was the consistency of the questions as every day there were questions given to us and in a way that all the 3 sections could go simultaneously.
Q: How did you maintain consistency in your preparation and what was your daily target?
SOURADEEP: It was the support of my family first, my father and mother supported me a lot. Whenever I used to feel low I would make a phone call to my mom and then she would motivate me. My father used to say that even if you do not get a good percentile, just give your best. Even my friends were also very supportive, they were always there to lift me up and give me motivation whenever I needed it. Apart from that, sometimes I used to go to temples and do some meditation too.
Talking about daily targets, I used to set a number that I have to solve a set number of questions in a day of each section and that too within a set time period so that on the exam day, I would not only give the correct answers to the questions but also attempt more and more questions within the given time.
Q: What are the 3 things that you learned in your 4 years of engineering that you think will help in your MBA too?
SOURADEEP: First thing that I learned here in my graduation is the workload management as there were a lot of things going on here simultaneously. There are fests along with the college lectures and then this CAT preparation of course and I was able to manage it well. So, this is something that will help me in my MBA too.
Second thing that I learned here was team management as we get a lot of projects and we have to do that in a team where we have to help each other and take on challenges together as a team.
Finally the third thing is time management and this is the most important thing that I learned here. You just have to complete your work in the given time no matter what the circumstances are. You have to manage your time well in order to complete the tasks that are given to you.
Q: One last question, what are the 3 pieces of advice that you would like to give to the other aspirants?
SOURADEEP: First, do not get demotivated at all. There will be days where you will feel demotivated when you will get stuck on any question or topic and you will feel like giving up, but you have to keep going because bad days do come in every aspirant’s journey.
Second, be ready to take on the challenges. There will be circumstances where things will become hard and new kinds of problems will arise while solving the questions but you have to be ready for that and take it as a challenge.
Third, you don’t have to hesitate in asking something from others. It is very important to ask and seek advice from others in order to succeed in life.
