CAT 2021 has been concluded and with an aim to take admission in the top B-School Maharshi Nagori has scored 99.68 percentile. He had also solved various CAT question papers and mock tests to understand the type of questions asked in the paper. For CAT 2022 aspiring candidates, he had suggested that first find your strengths and then focus on creating strategies to crack the exam. Evaluate the level of performance on a daily basis and remain focused to achieve the goal of high marks.  

Even if cracking the exam was not an easy job for Maharshi who is a working individual, he managed to do so by proper planning, time management, and calculative study methods. Read this article to know in detail how he cracked the exam.

Interview of Maharshi Nagori: Scored 99.68 Percentile in CAT 2021

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 - 99.7 percentile
• DILR - 99.64 percentile
• QA - 94.46 percentile

Ques: Since you are a working professional then how difficult was it for you to prepare for the CAT exam?

Ans. Frankly speaking, it was very difficult for me because of the nature of my job. My job demands a lot of travelling and site visits. So, maintaining a schedule was very hard. I started preparing in April, but soon realised I won't be able to do satisfactory preparation while working full-time. So, I change my strategy and focused on reading to improve my varc scores, when it was a working day. And on weekends I used to do quant and lrdi. As I did not want any sort of regrets in the future, I took a leave from work for 2 months before CAT. And I worked hard in those two months to achieve the score I did. So, if someone asks me, I will recommend working professionals to take at least a month's break, if they are serious about pursuing MBA from good business schools.

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

Ans. I was always clear about doing an MBA after working for some years. And taking CAT in 2021 makes sense to me because I had enough work experience and I am still young enough to enjoy college life. I started my research for B schools in February 2021 and once I made up my mind, I had a target in my mind, which was BLACKI IIMs. My reason for doing MBA is to get exposure, which can help me to work with a bigger organization.

CAT 2021 Scorecard of Maharshi Nagori

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 career launcher Ahmedabad for cat preparation. I joined an on-center offline batch, but due to covid 19, classes were online almost the entire year. So, there was no peer learning and competition as of such. Which I always looked forward to. But I soon understood self-motivation and discipline were the keys. So, I used to attend online lectures whenever I could but always focused on my preparation strategies. Career launcher's aspiration.ai was very helpful in my preparation.

Ques: What was your preparation strategy for Verbal?

Ans. For verbal more than practicing questions, I used to focus on reading. I did not start practicing verbal till October. But I used to read the Indian Express in detail, daily. So, it got me around 1.5 hours of learning daily. And it helped me a lot.

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

Ans. The strategy for LRDI was easiest: solve as many different types of sets as you can.

Ques: What was your preparation strategy for Quantitative Aptitude?

Ans. I was always clear that I did not need to solve all the questions. So, I decided to focus on my strength. I completed only Arithmetic and Geometry and started taking mocks. I learned all other topics while analyzing mocks. So, in a way, I did the questions of other topics which were expected to come in the exam for all other topics. This decreased my workload a lot.

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

Ans. I stopped studying one day before the test. I watched a series and sports highlights because I am a big sports fanatic. On the day of the test, I was supposed to take the 3rd slot, so I slept in till late, got ready, had lunch, and rushed to the exam center. So, in this way, I had no time to stress about the test.

Ques: Which mocks helped you crack CAT?

Ans. I took only Career Launcher's mocks. I took around 15 - 20 mocks. After every mock, I used to do an in-depth analysis of all the questions, which helped me to figure out my strengths and weaknesses. I used to solve all the questions of the test, without looking at solutions, no matter how much time it took. And I made an effort to make sure, if any question similar to previous mocks came, then I needed to solve that.

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

Ans. The Quant section was lengthy and in the course of solving the questions, I deviated from my strategy, which was to give a max of 2 min to a question, and as a result, I was short of time while solving the last question, which I almost solved. Therefore, I lost 3 marks. 

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

Ans. To be frank we all have an idea about the percentile range we can get, on the basis of a response sheet. But knowing the result is always a different feeling. I was at my office, and I saw my result. My teammates knew the result was supposed to come, everyone was very happy when the result came and congratulated me. But I know that this is only half battle won, I need to focus on interviews and I scaled down my celebrations because the goal is IIMs, not CAT 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. XAT, IIFT, SNAP, NMAT

Ques: Which other exams did you appear for?

Ans. My long-term goal is to work as a business consultant. Doing MBA from a reputed b school will provide me with exposure, which will help me to bag a role at an organization that can help me to harness my full potential.

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 goal is to work as a business consultant. Doing MBA from a reputed b school will provide me with exposure, which will help me to bag a role at an organization that can help me to harness my full potential.

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

Ans. First of all, find your strengths. Then focus on creating strategies and techniques to use it to your full benefit. And try to not focus on how people are going on with their preparation, as every individual is unique and what works for one may not work for all.

Quick Links:

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