CAT 2021 Topper Rishu Raj has scored 99.96 percentile along with 99+ percentile in each section. In the course of sharing his success story, he discussed the importance of realizing one’s goal and slowly but steadily working towards it. While he depended on both studying and solving practice questions, he also urged CAT 2022 aspirants to have faith in themselves and work towards their goals. 

For the preparation of VARC, the key to success is reading and for DILR the success key is solving as many sets of questions as possible. Rishu Raj had also shared various other CAT preparation tips which had worked for him to score high marks in the marks. Students can read the article to know more about his success story. 

Interview of Rishu Raj: Scored 99.96 Percentile

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

Ans: My CAT 2021 overall score was 99.96 percentile and the sectional score was:

• VARC - 99.42 percentile
• DILR - 99.75 percentile
• QA - 99.85 percentile

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

Ans. I had always been interested in Business Management and that's why I chose IPM from IIM Indore after Class 12. In order to move to a better institution, I took the CAT with the dream of getting into IIM A. So I had always thought of appearing for CAT right from my 2nd year of college, but I started preparation only around August 2021. 

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. Since I was already familiar with some of the concepts and I had a very busy schedule at college, it did not make sense for me to go for structured coaching for CAT because I did not require to learn every topic asked in CAT. Coaching is good for someone just starting out but did not fit my goals. So I rather opted for self-preparation so that I can work on my shortcomings and optimize the time I had. 

Ques: What was your preparation strategy for Verbal?

Ans. Verbal is greatly influenced by how much you read, it could be anything from novels to business newspapers. For me, I had subscribed to some email newsletters through my institute library, from Economic Times, Financial Times, Finshots, and the Ken. These had very good daily or weekly articles which not only helped me with my Verbal but also helped to develop my knowledge and build my interest further in finance. 

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

Ans. For DILR, I relied completely on mocks. I think reading speed and question identification is of utmost importance in DILR. So I spent the most time analyzing each and every question set after a mock test. It helped me identify which question sets are easier to solve and which sets are slightly more difficult. And I further realized that once you get the first question set right, it builds your confidence to attempt the consequent question sets in a better way. 

Ques: What was your preparation strategy for Quantitative Aptitude?

Ans. Being interested in maths, I was always good at QA. However, I knew that I had to compete against engineers and the fact that I had lost touch with topics like geometry was visible during my preparation. I ensured that I solved and understood every question from every quant mock properly and practiced it well enough to develop my own method for solving the question, and that helped me. 

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

Ans. During the mocks, I had written down every formula that I encountered or used in quants. Those formula sheets helped a lot for revision during the last few days.

• Moreover, during the last few days I did not plan on learning anything new but just focusing on getting what I know right.
• Since I was living in the hostel, I spent the last few days with my juniors because all of my batchmates were also preparing for CAT and hence, they themselves were very stressed.
• To relieve the stress you need someone who understands your situation but is not himself/herself stressed, and having good relations with some juniors helped a lot during this phase. I also used to play badminton or watch football matches to get some steam off. 

CAT 2021 Scorecard of Rishu Raj

Ques: Which mocks helped you crack CAT ?

Ans. I took CL mocks. Before choosing a mock, I went through a detailed comparison of all mocks and found out that CL was the closest to the actual paper, with TIME being too difficult and IMS digressing from the syllabus. So I relied on the comparison and chose CL out of the three. I'm completely satisfied with my choice as the test seemed to be familiar. For analysing the mocks, I went through each and every question that I did wrongly or couldn't do and read its solution along with the explanation. It helped me learn from my mistakes and improve my score over time. 

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

Ans. During the preparation phase, I used to take QA questions too seriously and was reluctant to leave a question, sometimes even taking up to 5 mins for a single question. This was very detrimental to my performance as there were other easier questions that I could not solve because of a lack of time later. Hence, during the actual exam, I kept in mind not to make that mistake and did not give more than 2.5 mins for any question. 

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

Ans. I was at home when I first saw the result. I was taking an afternoon nap since our term break was going on. I woke up around 5:20 and saw a message from one of my friends asking about my CAT percentile. I called him up and asked if the results were out and he said yes. Then I checked the result and in my nervousness did not enter the password correctly twice. I got it right the third time and I downloaded my scorecard. I opened it up and it showed 99.96. I was elated beyond words and texted my roommate first and some of my closest friends that 99.96 it is. Even though I was expecting a 99.5+ percentile because I knew that I had scored well in the exam (after checking with the answer key), I never expected it to be this high. 

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. I'm targeting IIM A, IIM B, IIM C, and FMS. In order to clear the GD-PI, I'm focusing on reading as much as I can about the topics in recent news and brushing up on my past academics, especially Economics and Statistics. 

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

Ans. In the long term, I want to be a consultant as I love solving problems. Also, the diversity of work in consulting attracts me as I do not want work that is monotonous. Since both IIM A and IIM B provide one of the best opportunities for consulting with 30% of the batch getting these roles, and hence I think getting into one of these will definitely help me achieve those goals. 

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

Ans. The ideal 6 months strategy to prepare for CAT would be to sequentially identify what you know and what you don't know and keep practicing and attempting mocks. Keep working on your areas of weakness and use the mock analytics to identify what you do best. Confidence is important and knowing your strength helps to build confidence as well. Moreover, do not limit your learning to only one coaching institute or one website. Try out a host of different websites, youtube channels, and other online resources. Every resource will have some important information that you can use.

Quick Links:

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