CAT 2021 topper Aakash Chaudhary has scored 92.93 in VARC, 99.72 in DILR, and 99.68 percentile in QA sections with an overall score of 99.68 percentile. While discussing how he managed to succeed, Aakash repeatedly talked about how he nourished the long-term goal of creating his own firm in the tourism sector and has achieved it through hard work, rigorous effort, and strategy. He has further added a lot of tips and tricks that can help the aspirants to achieve their dreams of cracking the exam. 

Interview of Aakash Chaudhary: Scored 99.68 Percentile in CAT 

Ques: What was your CAT overall and section-wise score in the exam?

Ans: My CAT 2021 overall score was 99.68 percentile and the sectional score was:

• VARC - 92.93 percentile
• DILR - 99.72 percentile
• QA - 99.68 percentile

Ques: When and why did you think of appearing for CAT?

Ans. I made my decision to write CAT during the 3rd year of my graduation itself. I gradually developed an interest in marketing and finance while organizing fests and events in the college. I started investing in the market from 1st year itself which also influenced my decision to pursue a role in management, but I understood that I have to acquire those skills that a manager needs to possess while decision making and strategizing. Hence I made my decision to do an MBA which will act as a bridge between my current self and what I aspire to be. My long-term goal is to start my own firm in the tourism sector of India.

Ques: Did you join any coaching institute? If yes then please tell us which one and why? If not - Why did you go for self-preparation?

Ans. Yes, I joined Unacademy in October. Until then, I used to self-study from YouTube and other sources.

• I found out that there were many loopholes and gaps in my preparation which I needed to fill urgently so I joined an institute. I think if you’re not able to arrange study material or if you think your preparation is not moving forward systematically you should join coaching.
• Coaching will make your timetable as well as your preparation in a processed way. You don't need to scroll and search for hours just to get knowledge of a single topic. Moreover, it ensures that you don't miss out on any concept. If you’re able to do all these things on your own, then you’re good to go and don't need any coaching institute.

Ques: What was your preparation strategy for Verbal?

Ans. For VARC - My strategy was simple, to read about a variety of topics.

• Reading increases your speed and also helps in your Vocab. Then the next part of VARC was to read through skimming-it is giving a quick look at the whole passage while noting down important points.
• After that I improved my critical reasoning skills to attempt questions of RC’s as the pattern of VARC in CAT is slowly changing from Fact-based questions to Inference based questions.

Ques: What was your preparation strategy for DI and LR?

Ans. For LRDI - As there is no definite syllabus for LRDI I used to solve at least 3-4 sets of different varieties every day.

• Once I started developing my problem-solving skills and understood how to approach a set, this section became much more interesting.
• I solved about 700-800 sets from different sources. I used to give one sectional per day from October to prepare myself for new types of puzzles.

Ques: What was your preparation strategy for Quantitative Aptitude?

Ans. For quants - I focused more on Arithmetic and Algebra as they constitute about 60-65% of the questions in the exam.

• Once I completed my quant syllabus by the end of July, I gave the whole next month for the practice of these two sections.
• Geometry was my weak part, and I was afraid of it till October, but I studied it for 6-7 days again from the basics, and I was able to solve 2 out of 3 geometry questions in the exam.
• For the other two chapters Numbers and Modern Maths once I completed their basics I used to practice their questions from mocks and sectionals.

Ques: How were the last few days before the exam?

Ans. My exam day strategy started a few days earlier than the actual exam.

• I started preparing myself mentally about all the situations that could occur in the exam hall.
• The exam was scheduled for Nov 28 and the revision started on November 10.
• I kept revising all the formulas and concepts from quants while also solving new questions.
• Made sure I know how to tackle some large puzzles which have a high probability of coming into the exam.
• In the evening before exam day, I stopped talking to everyone and ensured there’s no distraction in my mind.
• I kept my calm throughout the exam and applied the same strategy which I prepared while giving mocks on how to approach each section. 

Ques: Which mocks helped you crack CAT ?

Ans. I gave my first mock test in September after I was confident that a large part of my syllabus was over. I gave around 25-30 mocks. I think the only purpose of mocks is that you can try out different strategies in those mock tests and see which suits you better. Other than that, mocks provide you with new questions especially for LRDI and Quants. I bought Simcat and Aimcat. Along with that, I had access to Unacademy mocks as I joined the institute. 

• I think Simcats were on a tougher side than actual CAT at but it is important because we don't know the level of difficulty of the actual exam. I found unacademy mocks as the most balanced as they had the right proportion of questions from chapters in quants. Moreover, they tried to cover every single concept through their mocks.
• Analysing mocks is the most important aspect of CAT preparation. If you don't know your weakness, your area of strength then how are you going to make a proper strategy for the exam day which suits you best. Mostly I found my mistakes in mocks were due to 2 reasons. Either it was due to a knowledge gap or it was due to silly mistakes. I used to go again and revise that topic if the mistake was due to the former reason. If it was a silly mistake I tried to remain more focused during the next mock.

Ques: One mistake which you think you should not have made either during the exam or during the preparation phase.

Ans. I think I could've started my preparation a little earlier. During the exam I made a silly mistake in quants again just like in mocks - we had to calculate the average and no of terms, the question was asked about what is average and I marked the answer with the option of no. of terms. Everything else went fine.

Ques: Please recreate the moment for us when you first saw your result.

Ans. I was at home and just woke up after an afternoon nap. I opened my group and my peers were already discussing the result. I could only read that marks for slot 2 have been decreased. Mine was the same slot. It made me more anxious. I hurriedly stood up and shouted to my mother that the results were out. Although I knew my percentile range after checking the response sheet, it is still a big moment when you have devoted everything to an exam for 6-8 months. I opened my laptop and checked my result. Although my laptop did hang in between to create more drama. I saw my result with my mother. She was happy to see the fruits of all the hard work I put in. I'm also satisfied with my result. 

Ques: What next? Which colleges are you targeting based on your profile and percentile? And how do you plan to clear the GD-PI?

Ans. From the start of my journey, my aim was to make it in a top 10 b-school of India. We will start getting calls from next week onwards. I'll spare no effort to convert the best out of them. I have joined a course of Unacademy for GDPI. Unacademy has helped me a lot during my preparation hence I place my trust once again in them to help me reach my goal.

Ques: Which other exams did you appear for?

Ans. XAT, IIFT, SNAP, NMAT

Ques: What are your long-term goals and how do you think getting into your dream college will help you achieve that?

Ans. My long term is to start my own firm in the domestic tourism industry but in order to achieve that I should have knowledge of all the important aspects of how an organization functions in every sector be it operations/ sales/ finance/ marketing. Hence I believe a b-school will fill the void of my knowledge which I need and also help me in making connections with a wide diversity of people. It is always fun and motivating when you're surrounded by the best minds of your country.

Ques: What should be an ideal 6 months strategy to prepare for CAT?

Ans. An ideal strategy would be to start with quants and try to cover its syllabus as soon as possible so you feel confident in your mocks. Try to remove all the distractions from your life and maximize your efforts in these 6 months. Along with Quants, Keep practicing LRDI sets as it is very important you get the idea of how to approach a puzzle. The earlier you could improve your problem-solving skills the better it would be for your real exam. Keep reading at least 2 articles a day. You will gain knowledge about different topics, in addition to that, it will improve your comprehension skills. Start your mocks and try to reach a definite strategy that you're going to use in the exam as early as possible. 

Quick Links:

• CAT 2021 Score vs Percentile
• CAT 2021 Cut off & Selection Process for IITs
• CAT 2021 IIMs Selection Process 2021