Speed and accuracy matter the most in CAT, says 99.16 percentiler Rohit Garg

Mr Rohit Anand Garg cracked CAT 2012 with an overall 99.16 percentile and secured admission to an IIM. Mr Garg, who worked for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for 34 months after his Engineering degree, says that speed and accuracy matter the most in the CAT examination. He however feels that WAT/PI stage requires even more efforts than the CAT examination itself.

 In this interview with MBAUniverse.com, The IIM Raipur student advises CAT Aspirants to ‘practice’ as much as possible. Mr Garg also shares his success strategies, weekly study plans, D-day strategy and also speaks on how he handled his difficult areas during CAT preparation. 

What was the toughest & easiest section for you in CAT?

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension was the toughest section for me in CAT. During mocks, I was usually able to attempt a good number of questions in this section, but was low on accuracy. On the other hand, the Quant & DI section was relatively easier than VA & RC. It involved applications of basic quant fundamentals and was my area of interest as well. My speed and accuracy in this section helped me to maximize the score. 

How did you handle the difficult part during your preparation and CAT test date?

I identified my strong and weak areas for VA. A cursory glance at the section helped me to have a fair idea of the complexity level of the questions. I attempted the easier and less time consuming questions first. This increased the accuracy and saved time which I could utilize for logical reasoning section. This strategy was practiced thoroughly in the mocks before I implemented it in on the D-day.

How did you manage your weekly study schedule?

I was a working professional while preparing for CAT. In order to balance my work commitments and CAT preparation, I designed a schedule to devote minimum 30 hours per week to my preparation assigning appropriate weightage to all the sections. I devoted 2-3 hours daily after work and 7-8 hours on weekends to meet my targets. I believe an average of 4-6 hours a day of serious efforts would surely help a student to bell the CAT.

Which is the one preparation area which influenced your selection to this Top B-school heavily?

The WAT/PI stage of the admission process checks your mettle. I knew that the WAT/PI stage requires even more efforts than the CAT examination itself. My extensive current affairs knowledge and sound know how of technical and functional areas of my work experience helped me a lot in this. Apart from that, good writing skills are also required in WAT. In the WAT/PI process, my topic revolved around government reforms in India. I was well-versed with the current topics which helped me substantiate my article with facts. 

What was your biggest mistake during selection process beginning with CAT?

Since I was a working professional with more than 30 months of experience, I believed that my interview would be focused more on my work experience and rather than my graduation subjects. So, I didn’t concentrate much on brushing-up my graduation subjects and concentrated more on preparing other areas. This proved to be a huge mistake as I was asked a large number of questions that required thorough knowledge of the graduation subjects. Somehow, I managed to evade those questions in the interview by requesting the interviewers to ask questions on my Work experience.  

Your advice for CAT 2013 Aspirants

I believe that speed and accuracy matter the most in the CAT examination. To improve upon this, the only Mantra is ‘practice’. I would advise to solve a large number of problems with various levels of difficulty. Also giving Mock tests regularly helps in analyzing the performance. Taking mocks will help one to identify weak and strong areas. An important advice will be to work hard on one’s weak areas, while side by side polishing strong areas. As most of the top B-schools in the country have individual sectional cut-offs, it is important to score high in each of the sections.

One unique aspect of IIM Raipur

One unique aspect of the institute is the close proximity of the hostels and academic building which facilitates group studies that help in peer learning.