CAT 2021 test taker Palash Kashyap was a working professional when he started his preparation. With a strategic preparation plan to crack the exam, he scored 99.34 percentile. He said that he had focused on solving mock tests and CAT previous year question papers to understand the concepts and to improve the speed of answering the questions. His advice to CAT 2022 aspiring candidates is that they should focus on daily preparations. For VARC, students can study editorial pages of the newspapers and solve around 8-10 questions daily for DILR preparation.

Palash Kashyap has scored 95.78, 99.72, and 97.71 percentile in VARC, DILR and Qa sections. To know more about his subject wise CAT preparation plan you can go through the article below.

Interview of Palash Kashyap: Scored 99.34 Percentile in CAT 2021

Ques: Please tell us about your CAT 2021 overall and sectional scores?

Ans: My overall score in CAT 2021 exam was 99.34 percentile and the sectional percentile is mentioned below:

• VA - 95.78 Percentile
• DILR - 99.72 Percentile
• QA - 97.71

Palash Kashyap CAT 2021 Scorecard

Ques: You already had an experience of 1 year in TCS so please let us know that how difficult was to prepare for CAT being a working professional?

Ans: I followed the below approach as my daily CAT preparation.

• VARC - Read as much as possible from Aeon essays, editorial pages of newspapers
  • Ask questions why, how, reason, try forming an opinion about everything that you come across.
  • This way you will be better able to connect to what the author is trying to say.
  • Aeon essays you can actually read from different genres, it will help surely.
• DILR - I solved at least 8 to 18 different types of sets every day and write down shortcuts and tricks and strategies that you want to go ahead with. It surely helps in picking the right sets in mocks and the actual exam as well.
• QA - Try not to use a pen, try solving things in mind, it will save time as well as increase attempts.

• Write down all the formulas for all topics algebra, geometry, arithmetic.
• I enrolled for Times mocks only as my basics were already cleared.

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

Ans: I always wanted to be in a decision-making position which led to my interest towards MBA.

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

Ans: I enrolled for Times mock series only. To prepare for CAT syllabus, I had studied after working hours.

Ques: What was your preparation strategy for CAT Verbal?

Ans: I followed the below-mentioned approach:

• Read as much as possible from Aeon essays
• Read editorial pages, and ask questions why, how, reason, try forming an opinion about everything that you come across, that way u will be better able to connect to what the author is trying to say

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

Ans: I followed the below mentioned approach:

• Solve atleast 8 to 18 different types of sets every day.
• Write down shortcuts and tricks and strategies that you want to go ahead with.
• This will surely help in picking right sets in CAT exam.

Ques: What was your preparation strategy for Quant?

Ans: I followed the below-mentioned approach:

• I had tried solving the problems in mind to save time.
• Appeared for regular mock tests to increase attempts.
• Write down all the formulas for all topics algebra, geometry, arithmetic
• Go through the study notes or formulas written every time before starting the preparation.

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

Ans: Last few days are a bit stressful as the whole years hardwork was depending on one test, but i managed and did not stress myself and focused on the exam day.

Ques: Which mocks helped you crack CAT ?

Ans: Times mocks tests had helped me a lot while preparing for the exam.

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

Ans: Not much, I am pretty satisfied with the result and did not feel like that I had made any mistake during the preparation time or exam time.

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

Ans: When I saw my cat result I was literally in tears and undoubtedly it was the best day of my life so far as I secured 99.34%tile in CAT 2021. Felt that all those sleepless nights, avoiding parties, sacrificing social life, avoiding travelling, having no friends to hang out was finally worth it and that finally, I am just 1 step away from my dream of studying in top B-school.

Ques: What next? Which colleges are you targeting based on your profile and percentile?

Ans: Some of the college preferences are FMS, IIM LIK, NITIE.

Ques: Which other exams did you appear for?

Ans. I did not appear for any other competitive exam apart from cat

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

Ans: I want to get into investment banking, top b schools like FMS will provide me right opportunities

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

Ans: I had followed the same strategy that is mentioned above. Candidates planning to appear for the upcoming exam can also follow the same strategy.

Quick Links:

• CAT 2021 Score vs Percentile

• CAT 2021 Cut off & Selection Process for IITs

• CAT 2021 IIMs Selection Process 2021