Ekaans Mohanty Profile

• Graduation College: IIT Roorkee
• Programme: Int. MTech Geophysical Technology
• Year of Graduation: 2023
• CAT Percentile: 99.88

When and why did you think of appearing for CAT?

Ekaans Mohanty: I thought of appearing in CAT before starting my placement preparation, which is in September 2023. As I was sitting in Non Tech profiles (Product Management/Analyst/Consultancy) my placement preparation was highly aligned with the CAT syllabus. Added to this, I wanted to take a shot af uplifting my career as being from an IIT opened up tech profiles for me for my placement with high traction to enter into Finance or Consultancy domains. Being highly interested in Consultancy, CAT seemed like a good opportunity for me to proceed and my placement prep also aligned with the CAT syllabus which was like a cherry on top. Hence the decision to appear for CAT and switch my career field into something I'm more comfortable with. Giving CAT will also open positions in my career for higher management roles which align with my ambitions.

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

Ekaans Mohanty: I did not join any coaching institute for CAT preparation neither took any test series for CAT. Already being in the zone for placement preparation left me with no time for additional efforts such as CAT coaching and I focussed on the resources available on hand, there being plenty on the internet. I felt no need for additional study material/practice papers as CAT past year papers were more than enough to build a structured thinking process and develop the analytical sense required for the exam.

What was your preparation strategy for Verbal?

Ekaans Mohanty: VARC- Bang for your Buck!

I consider VARC to be one of the highest scoring sections of CAT, with moderate preparation and minimal time frame.

Preparation:

Reading is a must and you must stock up on your novels(at least 10+ medium length novels) and build up your reading speed and your interpretation potential. Some sample novels you can read are: A little life, Narrow Road to the Deep North, God of Small Things etc. Give special attention to Booker Prize winners. Newspapers are also a good source of VARC preparation.

➡Brush up your grammar and solve paragraph type questions with special attention to sentence positioning. You can practice this section from online free resources like Prepleaf(both placement preparation amd CAT prep resources)

Strategies:

Allot 6-7 minutes to each paragraph type question with 3 minute reading time and 1 minute each for every question.

Try to read each paragraph in one go and understand the structure of the paragraph. After this, refer back only to the part of the paragraph which the question refers to for each case.

For the rest of the questions, allot 1-1.5 minutes each.

Option elimination is your best friend. At least 2 out of four given options can be eliminated directly in most of the cases.

Effort must be to attempt 90% of VARC with good accuracy.

What was your preparation strategy for DI and LR?

Ekaans Mohanty: DILR????- Enlightenment is your friend!

I consider DILR to be the toughest section of CAT. High level preparation and structure building sense are needed to ace this section.

Preparation:

Practice all the previous year DILR questions of CAT, with special attention to diagram structuring and constraint accounting.

Placement resources are quite helpful for this section as they highly align with the thought process required. You can check out Prepleaf by Masai resources(free). You must also solve other DILR resources available on the internet for Placement Preparation.

Try to solve a good number of questions for each type of DILR questions- Positioning, Allotment, Management etc.

On screen calculator is never a good idea, practice hard calculations on pen and paper as all dustractions must be avoided during the paper.

Special Mention to blockers I faced personally were with diagram formation with all the information and constraints given. It took high practice and looking back at mistakes I commited for previous year questions to understand where and how I went wrong.

Strategies:

Time Management and Accuracy are the only two things to be concerned about in this section. Allot 5-8 minutes for diagram formation and structuring. Next allot 1-1.5 minutes each per question.

NEVER ASSUME values that are not directly derived from the paragraph.Yes I did this for a paragraph:'). Those -4 marks really hurt.

Decide within the first 5 minutes whether to continue with the current paragraph or to move ahead. Effort should be to attempt 2-3 paragraphs with 90%+ accuracy.

What was your preparation strategy for Quant?

Ekaans Mohanty: QUANT - Practise and Preach!

For me this was a moderately easy section and I've been really good at quant right from the beginning. Quantitative aptitude by rs aggarwal and prepleaf resources will boost up your speed and accuracy. Practice is the key to quant. My suggestion will be to focus on basic concepts and focus on speed and accuracy improvement instead of moving to memorize complex formulas and advanced topics. Repeatedly practice the same category of question if you know you're not good at it. For me this was pipes and cisterns, it seemed boring and flatlined but I practiced a good number of questions just to get my hand flowing.

Preparation:

 Cover all topics of Quant thoroughly and solve at least 70-80 questions per topic. Familiarize yourself with each topic very well, questions always into 5/6 bucketed categories from each topic.

 Get your number game up and get those calculations right. Leave no scope for calculative errors.

 Formulas and practice are your best friends.

Strategies:

 Allot 2 minutes to each question, allow 1 attempt/question fall back only if there's time. 2 minutes is the maximum you should allow for a question. You must practice to get the questions cracked within a minute so that 2 minutes are sufficient in the actual exam

 Effort must be to attempt 80% with good accuracy.

How were the last few days before the exam?

Ekaans Mohanty: The last few days before CAT were extremely hectic for me specially involving days with no sleep, high velocity placement preparation and 2 mocks per day of CAT. Revision of shortcuts you derived yourself while practicing mocks are a must. A student knows the area he/she is weak in and must go through those concepts at least 1/2 days before the exam once/twice. The best confidence booster is to attempt a mock of the paper and score high in the section you're good at. It's really reassuring to see your efforts perform in a mock of previous years CAT papers. To calm yourself down, relax before the exam, know that you can always reappear for it, and stress will prove only derogatory to your marks. The key point to remember is never cloud your judgment during the exam because VARC and DILR are quite judgment based. If you find you are unable to solve say a paragraph/2-3 questions serially, no need to panic, its perfectly normal. Start from the bottom of the section instead/move to the next paragraph. Once you've solved 40% of the section you can move back to the questions hindering you with more confidence.

Which mocks helped you crack CAT?

Ekaans Mohanty: The major mistake every student should avoid during exams is over attemption and wrong attemption. CAT is roughly 180 marks and 90+ will get you into the 99 percentile category. You need to get half the paper correct. Never assume values/structures/work on intuition in CAT. I used my intuition and value putting to get answers of a paragraph in the DILR section and as always, I got all 4 questions wrong:'). Straight -4. Mistakes during the preparation phase are a lack of daily efforts. Cat is not something you can attempt without staying regularly in the mindset and zone of the exam pattern. Give mocks daily for the last month before CAT, get your day revolving around the sections and make analyzing your mistakes a part of your daily prep routine

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

Ekaans Mohanty: I had come home for a short while before going on a trip with my friends. I remember we were going out to have dinner. A quick recap of my situation at home, my family was quite happy as I had cracked a day 1 job in these times of recession, and it was a good ending to my college life, we were in the mindzone of making plans for moving to bangalore and how my life would be after starting my job and so on. My dad comes over and tells me to check the CAT result just before we're going out. I remember feeling not too positive as the exam had gone moderately, I told him that I'll check later but my curiosity got the better of me. I remember looking at the figures on my scorecard and feeling bewildered. My plan to not tell the score to my parents vanished and I showed the results immediately to my parents. Both of them were equally happy and surprised as I had told them the exam had gone not too good. Slowly the realization set in and Dad went crazy, from ordering a cake to having a full blown house party:'). The first person I called was one of my friends who had told me I'd get 99.5+ anyday. He was like, I told you so. To this date I'm weighing my options of choosing between IIMs and my job, which hopefully I will soon get a conclusion to.

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

Ekaans Mohanty: I'm targeting a very short list of colleges IIM A/B/C and hoping to ace one of them in my GD/PI. I am already prepared for this as I was doing the same for my Placement. For my PI I'm getting the answers ready to the standard questions of why this IIM and why not a job etc for each IIM individually looking at the scope after graduation from that particular IIM and the culture of that IIM. For example IIMB has a startup culture and my answers are more startup oriented for that interview. For the GD the best preparation is to watch Youtube videos for hot topics and familiarize yourself with current world scenarios. Think School is a good youtube channel for upskilling oneself on these topics. The thing to keep in mind is to portray a clear goal and clear opinions with straight acceptance to not knowing the answer to a question if you actually don't know.

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

Ekaans Mohanty: Being an entrepreneur( Ihave founded 2 startups till date) 10 years down the line I see myself leading my own startup or else at the directorial board of a fortune 500 company. Having s degree from a leading IIM will boost my career and help me get into Consultancy and Corporate Finance profiles which I've been long fascinated my but didn't have the opportunity to enter due to belonging from an engineering college. Getting into an IIM will also help boost my networking as half the folks are from corporate background with work ex.

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

Ekaans Mohanty: The ideal strategy for CAT should be 4 months of preparation to build your base and topic mastery followed by 2 months of rigorous mocks and mistake analysis. Practice is the key, there is no other option. In the first 4 months get your English(both lingual and oratory skills) upto mark, habituate yourself to birds eye view of thinking for DILR, and mathematical flow for quant for each sub topic. Follow that up by 2 months of mocks with minute analysis of your mistakes, your attempt percentage, your section prowess, your accuracy and other factors.