Preparation Tips by a 100 percentile CAT Topper

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The CAT 2017 results that MBA aspirants were anxiously waiting for was announced on 8^th January 2018 by IIM Lucknow. This year 20 candidates scored an overall 100 percentile of which 2 were females and 2 were non- engineering backgrounds.

We at Getmyuni were privileged to get an interview with Chhavi Gupta, one of the two women who scored 100 percentile in 2017 CAT.

Chhavi Gupta, an IIT Delhi graduate, knew she wanted to take up engineering as a kid because she loved science and math, but it was while pursuing her degree where she realized her love for management. IIT Delhi presented many opportunities for Chhavi to showcase her management skills. Volunteering for her college placement committee and heading the international segment of her college annual fest further elevated her interest in management.

For this bright young woman CAT came easy. She attempted CAT for the first time, while in her final year of college and scored 97.7 percentile without preparations. After working for a year and a half in a Noida-based company called Opera Solutions she decided to write her CAT exam for the second time. But this time she bagged the dream of scoring 100 percentile giving her the opportunity to join the top 3 IIMs in India.

Key facts about Chhavi

Although based in Jaipur, Chhavi spent most her life traveling around India, due to the nature of her father’s job. Her father works as a government employee while her mother is a pharmacist. The eldest of three, Chhavi, is a family-oriented person who spends her free time playing with her brother or helping her mother.

She is an Avid- reading and a music enthusiast who enjoys coding. She did most of her schooling in Delhi. She completed her graduation in 2016 with a BTech and MTech dual degree.

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Chhavi’s Journey through CAT preparation

Chhavi started preparing for CAT since March 2017. She joined a coaching centre on weekends to help her through her preparations. She began her preparations by taking frequent mock tests while simultaneously studying the CAT syllabus. She took over 35 mock tests throughout. she attempted each mock On weekdays she spent hardly 1 hour preparing for her exam while on weekends she would spend seven to eight hours studying. She worked on improving her test-taking stamina. Initially, she would get exhausted 2 hours into a mock test but with practice, it became easier.

From the very beginning, she was comfortable with the structure of CAT, however, logical reasoning did not come easy for her. But with consistent focus and practice, she formulated strategies on which sets to attempt in her paper which helped her on her final day

Preparation Tips by Chhavi Gupta

We asked Chhavi to give us advice for the future CAT takers and MBA aspirant and she had some very helpful tips.

She says that the most important thing to be able to do while writing CAT is managing time. For the 1^st section i.e. verbal she spent around 40 minutes in reading comprehension and the rest on verbal ability. On the second section i.e. DILR she would spend the first 7-8 minutes to come up with a sequence to attempt the sets. For quant, she split the one hour into two and solving 17 questions in one half and the other 17 in the other half of the hour.

She strongly suggests leaving a question that cannot be solved in 7 minutes.

She advises everyone to start giving CAT mocks when they start preparing for the exam itself and not leave it for the end. She strongly believes that analyzing mocks are essential in formulating strategies to crack the test. It gives the taker an idea of their weaknesses and strengths for which they can prepare. She says that the CAT is an aptitude test and no one can ever prepare the entire syllabus but by knowing and practicing their weaknesses they can tackle most of the questions on the exam.

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The Day of the Final Test

Chhavi was confident in her preparation this time. Though she did feel like she was under a lot of pressure she remained calm and composed. She was able to comfortably complete her test. Being from a math background, she found the quant section very easy. She had found the reading comprehensions easy to read however the options were very close to each other and she had to leave four answers blank as she couldn’t risk negative marking. She found the verbal ability difficult this time. However, overall she found the test easy which is obvious from her performance.

So future CAT takers gear up for the exam. Its never too early to start preparing.