Here’s the interview of Palak Aneja who cracked CAT exam on her first attempt with 98.86 percentile.
Q: We say that CAT is a playground for Engineers, but we have with us today, a commerce graduate on her first attempt went on to bell the CAT with a stellar score of 8.86%ile. I would like to welcome Palak Aneja. Hi Palak, Can you please tell us a bit about yourself.
PALAK: So, I belong to Delhi and I am from the commerce background as you mentioned, So after school I went on to pursue economic honors and then after college I really had no idea what to do further in life and had no idea even about MBA so I just took the placement and I got a job. So, currently I am working at a digital marketing firm as a product specialist, So I have been working for about 1.5 years now. So yeah, this was my first CAT attempt, and I Scored 98.86%ile and in LRDI I got 99.6% ile and VARC was 96.8%ile and quant was 94%ile.
Q: So you come from a Commerce background and people usually say that engineers have an advantage in CAT. Do you think that you were lagging behind in the race before you started your preparation?
PALAK: Ya definitely. So, once I joined iQuanta and I saw that most of the people who are very good in quant are from the engineering background, so I always felt that I was lagging behind a little so I knew that I have to brush up a lot in my quant skills and that was my focus throughout the preparation and I didn’t really let that affect me because you know it’s not about competing with others, it’s about how you perform
Q: What according to you is the optimum time to prepare for CAT?
PALAK: There is no optimum time as such, it’s subjective for everyone. I think one should start preparing from January or February because it is difficult to manage the preparation along with the working hours. For me, in the initial few months I devoted only 2-3 hours a day, because it was difficult to manage but gradually I increased it to 4-5 hours a day and I managed to take out time for studying while traveling to office and also I had to take some frequent leaves towards the end, that is how I could devote 8-9 hours every day.
Q: So CAT aspirants, future aspirants would be eager to understand what was your preparation strategy, like how did you approach each section while you were preparing for yourself and how did you look at mocks and analysis?
PALAK: My overall Strategy was to first figure out what the syllabus was because there is no fixed syllabus as such, so you just have to take a look at the past papers because I had no idea how this works and I was already a part of the iQuanta public group on facebook so I used to see the sessions that Indrajeet Sir would conduct.
So, that’s how I started gathering information and organizing what I need to work on. So from there I got to know that I need to work a lot on quant so my focus initially was to start brushing up on my basics in quant and gradually I started adding 2 sets of LRDI or 1 RC everyday and that’s what helped me to become regular and maintain my scores in all 3 sections and then I joined iQuanta’s Classes and I would attend those classes everyday and given my work timings, I only got time to practice on weekends, So that is when I utilized that weekend time the most, like maximum hours for quant and a few hours on LRDI and VARC and them the syllabus got over in june or july and after that it was all about mocks and mocks are very important and what is more important is analyzing the mocks and working on your weak areas.
I took iQuanta’s mocks and I started taking some sectionals and there were topic wise tests also so that really helped me in improving my quant section. I went on to one hour sectionals and of course the full mocks and noting down and working on the weak areas separately. So the first thing was to know your strengths, so I was a bit stronger in LRDI, so the only thing that I had to work in it wad to see the variety of questions in LRDI and the best thing to do was to look back at the past year questions and i really had not to go for lot of sources as Indrajeet sir started this initiative called the LRDI 70 where there was questions from all sources and all the past papers which was very helpful and for VARC it was difficult to read the passages and answer the questions. So Indrajeet sir launched a VARC revamp course which was really helpful because what I started doing was like if you are left with 2 options in end, I would note them down while doing the mock and when I would go back to analyze I would see why my answer was right and why the other one was not right and vice versa, so yeah that was all.
Q: How important was the Coaching institute in your preparation and how much would you attribute that to your success?
PALAK: I think I owe it all to iQuanta because i had no idea about the examination and how the system works and I was weak in a lot of areas so I had to take some coaching and given that I was working it was very helpful because most of the time when I would miss the class I would go back and watch the videos and go through the entire class again and I could get my doubts solved even when I’m studying at 3 am at night. And the community that has been built is very healthy and it’s such a great learning environment and students within themselves are ready to help each other which was very nice and it never made me feel that I was lagging behind or I have to compete with them in a negative sense, it was always very positive and healthy, So that’s what I loved about it.
Q: So if you look at CAT 2019 statistics, there have been 10 100%ilers and all of them were male and from an engineering background, what’s your take on that?
PALAK: I think engineers do have an edge in the quant section and that has been proven though i didn’t want to believe that but males I think the proportion of male engineers is much greater than females, but I think there have been female 100%ilers in the past and i would love to see someone there.
Q:You come from a marketing background, So is there a certain inclination towards going to marketing and what excites you about this field?
PALAK: ya, I am certainly very much inclined towards MBA in marketing because right from the school time I would participate in competitions like making an ad or creating a strategy or selling business product and something like that, So I was always interested in this field and then I went on to do an internship and then I am working in a marketing firm. So I love my job right now and i would love to do that further.
Q: So, this journey would not have been simple, like getting 98.86%ile in your first attempt itself. So what were some challenges that you faced during this journey?
PALAK: I think the biggest challenge for me was managing it with my job because my work timings are little messed up and I have to work in 2 shifts, so I would not get time to practice. So there came a time when I sort of felt like I should maybe give up the job or try for CAT the next year but then I convinced myself that this should be your one and only attempt and you have to nail this one. So, I think staying calm throughout and staying motivated throughout is very important and you need to have your priorities set.
Q: So you would not be studying the entire time, there would be an aspect of your day where you would not be studying so, what would you do at that time?
PALAK: I would go for dance classes, I am a dancer and that was what would make me extremely happy to gout for an hour and dance so that would make me feel really refreshed so that I could start studying again with as much efficiency as I can put and it’s very important because you can’t just keep studying because you will come to a saturation point after a certain point and a right mindset is very important throughout the preparation and on the exam day as well.
Q: If you have to give some advice to CAT aspirants, then what are some tips that you would like to give them?
PALAK: I think the major tip would be to first find the right coaching institute for which I would recommend iQuanta of course and the second is to have your priorities right because I don’t want anyone to give the exam without preparing or have your hands full at multiple places and the journey of preparing for CAT should be very healthy and the right mindset is very very important.
