Aditya Singh Profile

• Graduation College: St. Xavier's College, Kolkata
• Course: BSc - Computer Science 
• Year of Graduation: 2020
• CAT Percentile: 99.9
• Work experience: 1.6 Years
• Company: Deloitte USI 
• Profile: Coding

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

Aditya Singh: Slightly difficult but definitely not something that stops you from getting into your dream score and college. It's all about prioritizing important stuff over the less productive ones.How I managed CAT preparation with a job? On weekdays I used to study for 2-3 hours in the morning before starting office work. On weekends and holidays I gave 6-8 hours. WFH was a blessing in disguise for me.

When and why did you think of appearing for CAT?

Aditya Singh: In my second year of undergraduation I got to know what an MBA was, the opportunities, the field of work I would get into etc. I felt that management is something that I can excel at and my goal is to become an investment banker.

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

Aditya Singh: I have 3 attempts. First in 2020, where I was enrolled with CL because it had a decent brand name in the edtech sphere and was 50m away from my college. I managed to get 94.5 percentile and went on to convert a few CAP IIMs. Wasn't satisfied with my performance so reappeared. Second attempt in 2021, I did not enroll with any institute, just bought the test series and PDP planned from CL. Messed up DILR and ended up with a 95.75 percentile. It was very disheartening. But I managed to pick myself up and appear for IIFT and XAT, managed to clear IIFT cutoffs and get admission offer from IIFT K and again some CAP IIMs. Everyone suggested me to take IIFT K as it is also good college but I was absolutely not able to make peace with myself as I felt that I can do much much better than this. Finally, I was able to convince my parents who then gave me immense confidence to proceed. Next attempt in 2022, I enrolled with CL and IMS online program as I wanted a little variety in my preparation and I was ready to go the extra mile this time. I hardly attend a few live classes, most of my preparation was from the practice questions, sectionals, mocks and past year papers. Kept my cool during the exam, managed to get 4 correct questions in DILR in the last 5 minutes, ended up getting an overall 99.9 percentile.

What was your preparation strategy for Verbal?

Aditya Singh: I was not much of reader so I heavily focused on practice. I made it a habit to solve 2-4 RCs + 4-5 VA questions daily and analyse my mistakes. I used to challenge myself with tough looking RCs on diverse topics. I might not get the questions right but what I developed was familiarity with different topics. As a result I was not intimidated by a tough RC and always believed that I can work my way through the same. For choosing the right answer option, my approach was to eliminate wrong answer choices on BANET principle where B-Broad(in relation to the question/passage), A-Alien(to the topic/passage), N-Narrow(in relation to the question/passage), E-Extreme(in relation to the author's position/passage), T-True, but(true in the passage's context but not applicable to the question). And almost always I would arrive at an answer which was correct. As Sherlock Holmes said, "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"

What was your preparation strategy for DI and LR?

Aditya Singh: According to me, there is no pattern or set guidlines for DILR preparation. So you just practice, practice and practice again. I used to solve and analyse 2-4 sets daily. Only thing here to pay attention to is that you don't practice just for the sake of it. You should be able to make mental processes around how you approach a particular set. CAT has never repeated a set in DILR so it's highly unlikely that you will get a familiar set. So what's important is to develop a knack of solving DILR questions so that you work your way through an unknown set which might be the easiest set of the paper. Set selection is of utmost importance as 1-2 right set and you end up with a very high percentile and one wrong set and your paper is done. You will get an idea of set selection once you have practiced a good number of sectional tests.

What was your preparation strategy for Quant?

Aditya Singh: This is the only section in CAT which has a knowledge component to it. Follow any coaching institute materials or famous book, just cover the basics of all the topics and start practicing. Slowly and steadily you will see your scores improving in this section. According to me this is the only section where one can be certain of getting a set number of questions correct almost every time.

How were the last few days before the exam?

Aditya Singh: This was my third appearance in CAT, so I was pretty chill this time. Didn't study at all last week. Was on leave from work, spent quality time with friends and family. Enjoyed cricket, tv shows and music. Eat healthy food, a little bit of exercise daily. BTW I ended up having a fever just the night before CAT but I had set myself up with such a hard mindset that I was not ready to let any obstacles interfere in my performance and it worked. The adrenaline in the exam day helped me get through, though I was really struggling by the time I reached the last 15 mins of QA.

Which mocks helped you crack CAT?

Aditya Singh: Mocks are a little subjective, I know people who have given less than 5 mocks and have scored 99+ %tile and people who have given 30 mocks still hardly getting a 90%tile. So, think of mocks as a tool and not as a resource to be exhausted. Learn from the mistakes you committed in previous mocks and try to avoid them in future mocks. Mocks will help you build a strategy of how you want to approach and time the paper in order to maximize your score.

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

Aditya Singh: During the preparation - I neglected my strength (QA) a bit and as a consequence I heavily underperformed in that section.

During the exam - I deviated from my existing strategy in DILR and wasted 10 minutes straight in a difficult looking set( Very same mistake I committed in my previous CAT attempt)

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

Aditya Singh: First of all, most of the coaching institutes released their percentile predictors based on CAT response sheets. They predicted 99.76 to 99.8 percentile so I knew that the actual score will be similar to that. Was surprised to see a 99.9 overall and a 99 in QA, wasn't expecting that percentile at all. I wasn't very anxious. I shared it first with the family and then friends, it was an emotional moment for all of us.

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

Aditya Singh: I am targeting IIM ABC, FMS, XLRI. For clearing GDPI, I am preparing with both CL and IMS. Focus is on HR questions, academic questions, current affairs and hobbies.

Which other exams did you appear for ?

Aditya Singh: XAT, IIFT

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

Aditya Singh: In the long term I aspire to become an investment banker and my dream college will give me the required education and environment to achieve my goal.

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

Aditya Singh: I have written all the steps in this Google doc, please refer to this. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-rdqf_u9PBG5l_24N21ZwJwLCBvEUPLOA88Dlyjw-IY/edit?usp=drivesdk