Aditya Mishra Profile

Scopify AI/0/Marketing

• Graduation College: Shivaji Colleges
• Course: BBE
• Year of Graduation: 2022
• CAT Percentile: 99.61
• Work experience: Current
• Company: Deloitte Scopify
• Profile: Marketing

How difficult is it to prepare for CAT being a working professional?

Aditya Mishra: My working hours were from 1 PM to 10 PM. So before that I was getting time and I used it. I used to plan weekly tasks and then dissected it down to what I had to do every day. I knew from the beginning that online preparation is at par with offline preparation. I was persistent throughout the journey.

When and why did you think of appearing for CAT?

Aditya Mishra: I was inclined towards marketing. I was very impressed with the decision-making authority that managers had with them to influence customers at the company level. Furthermore, I was looking for a platform that could provide me with a launchpad. A good b-school will definitely do that job. This was the inspiration behind my preparation.

Did you join any coaching institute ? If yes, which one and why ? If not - Why did you go for self preparation?

Aditya Mishra: I took coaching from TIME Lucknow. The material provided was commendable. And it helped me build the basics. Rest: I started taking mocks and made sure I was improving. The mocks were of the same level as the actual CAT.

What was your preparation strategy for Verbal?

Aditya Mishra: Initially, I was not good at VARC. This is because I have always had a kind of fear of CAT while doing this section. It was having a negative effect. So I worked on how I could focus on the reading part. I forgot about CAT. And just got immersed in reading. I used to read The Economist cover to cover on matters relating to international relations and politics; Aeon Essays on arts and culture and science articles on Scientific American

I didn't do much RC practice. Just kept reading consistently.

What was your preparation strategy for DI and LR?

Aditya Mishra: DILR is a game of familiarity. More familiarity will come up when you solve more sets. Keeping it in mind, I was solving 2-3 sets per day from the previous mocks.

DILR was a tough nut to crack for me so I had decided to play safe. My target was to solve 2-3 sets in the section. Although I got stuck at one set during the CAT but I finally left it to solve some questions from the remaining set.

What was your preparation strategy for Quant?

Aditya Mishra: QA was my strongest section. I was very sure that I will perform well in this section. My basics were strong. Speed was something I had to work on. I tried to read and understand question at one go so that I can decide whether I want to solve this question or not.

I have solved 15 ques out of which 14 were correct.

How were the last few days before the exam?

Aditya Mishra: I have the skills like RC, reasoning and quants which are required to ace. My only worry was not to get anxious during the paper. So I was working on how to perform even when I had a panic attack.

Which mocks helped you crack CAT?

Aditya Mishra: I took mocks from IMS and TIME. This year CAT was very similar to the mock level of TIME. IMS was on a tougher side.

I used to take mocks and then resolve the questions again. And then practice the exercises according to the need. My strategy was to practice and brush up concepts in which I had committed mistakes during the test.

One mistake which you think you should not have made (During the exam or during the preparation phase)?

Aditya Mishra: In the DILR section, I solved the first set within 10 minutes. And then I got stuck on a set, finally I left it to move to another set in which I managed to crack some questions within the last 7 minutes.

Please recreate the moment for us when you first saw your result?

Aditya Mishra: I have seen the percentile predictor by various coachings. They were predicting from 99.2 to 99.5.I was not expecting to cross 99.5. It was a surprising and great moment for me.

Everyone in my family and friends are celebrating my result.

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

Aditya Mishra: I am expecting calls from FMS, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, SPJIMR, MDI, IIT Delhi, new and baby IIMs.

I will take coaching for GD PI WAT.

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

Aditya Mishra: I want to get into Brand Management post-MBA.

I firmly believe marketing influences the perception of society. So in the long run I would like to use marketing as a positive force for society.

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

Aditya Mishra: 1. Spent 3-4 months in understanding of basic concepts.

2. In the remaining time, focus on testing and learning phase and it will go till the CAT-day.