Ankan Biswas, a final year electrical engineering student from IIT Kharagpur, has recently become the talk of the town with his remarkable achievement of scoring 99.9 percentile in his first attempt at CAT 2022. Ankan's achievement is a dream come true for many CAT aspirants who work tirelessly to achieve such a score. His hard work and dedication have paid off in the form of a call from the prestigious IIMs.

In an exclusive interview with collegedunia, Ankan shared his overall experience of CAT preparation, his study strategies, and his approach to cracking one of the most competitive management entrance exams in India. He discussed how he balanced his academics with CAT preparation and the challenges he faced during his journey.

Ankan emphasised that CAT preparation requires a strong conceptual understanding of the subjects, along with regular practice and revision. He talked about the importance of mock tests and how they helped him identify his strengths and weaknesses, thereby enabling him to work on them effectively. He also shared his study routine and time management strategies, which he believes were crucial in his success.

Ankan's achievement serves as an inspiration for CAT aspirants across the country. His insights and tips can serve as a valuable guide for those who aspire to achieve excellence in their CAT journey. With his remarkable achievement, Ankan has set a benchmark for future CAT aspirants to strive towards and has proven that hard work and dedication can take one a long way towards achieving their goals.

CAT Topper Ankan Biswas

Interview Questions with Answers:

Collegedunia: Could you provide some information about yourself, such as your profile and academic background?

Ankan: I am originally from Kolkata and completed my secondary and higher secondary education from a CBSE school in the same city. I achieved a perfect 10 CGPA in class 10 and secured 88.8% in class 12. At present, I am in my final year pursuing Electrical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur.

Collegedunia: Was it your First Attempt?

Ankan: Yes

Collegedunia: So, what was your percentage?

Ankan: My overall percentage is 99.99.

Collegedunia: Gettin 99.99 in the first attempt is still a dream for many. So you are basically living a dream.

Ankan: Actually, true.

Collegedunia: Can you share more about your journey, considering that you have consistently been a top performer throughout your academic career and recently scored 99.99 percentile in CAT? I am curious to know how you managed to achieve such impressive results.

Ankan:

  • I found CAT to be quite different from other exams I have taken, and it is an aptitude test that assesses my intelligence, abilities, and academic skills.
  • Compared to JEE, which needs continuous practice for 2-3 years, CAT questions are more predictable and consistent in difficulty level.
  • To prepare, I reviewed previous years' papers and analysed my strengths and weaknesses in the three sections: Quantitative Ability, Logical Reasoning, and VARC.
  • I was comfortable with the Quantitative Ability section, but I needed to practice finance-related questions on profit and loss.
  • I focused on accuracy and attempted only those questions that I was 90% sure about to avoid negative marking.
  • Practice was essential for the English section, which consisted of comprehension-based questions. Students from English medium schools may find this section relatively easy.

Collegedunia: Did you solely rely on reading articles to prepare for VARC or did you use other resources as well?

Ankan: I am fluent in English and find it more comfortable to speak than other languages such as Hindi. I have a habit of reading books for extended periods of time, and I prepared for my exams by taking numerous mock tests and practice exams. I found the topics covered in the exams to be interesting, including subjects such as history and technology, and I supplemented my studies with newspaper reading. In my opinion, practice is the most crucial aspect of exam preparation.

Collegedunia: If I'm not mistaken, you didn't choose to take any coaching classes, right?

Ankan: Yes, that's correct. I prepared for the exam on my own by taking mock tests and using online resources to learn the topics.

Collegedunia: What is the significance of mock tests and how many of them did you take?

Ankan: I paid attention to the areas I identified as my weaknesses and practised more in those areas. Analysis was a crucial aspect of my preparation. By analysing the topics, I was able to develop a better understanding of them. In particular, I found reading comprehension tedious, so I analysed its pattern and learned how to approach it more effectively. This helped me overcome any difficulties I was having with it.

Collegedunia: Many aspirants find LRDI easy but fail to score well. I would like to know what is your strategy to attempt LRDI?

Ankan:

  • LRDI was the section I was most concerned about during my preparation for CAT.
  • LRDI has two subparts: Logical Reasoning (LR) and Data Interpretation (DI).
  • DI is the easier part because it's more about data visualisation and interpretation.
  • LR is more challenging with questions like game situations, seating arrangements, and puzzles.
  • CAT is starting to put more weightage on LR and DI sections.
  • For DI, my strategy was to focus on getting one question fully correct.
  • Getting 36 out of 60 is useful to reach the 99.99 percentile.
  • Attempting 2 out of the 4 sets correctly is enough to get to 99%.
  • Focused on 2 sets that were based on light representation.
  • Preparation focused on common topics like seating arrangements, game-based tournaments, and directions.
  • Ideal target is important to focus on during preparation.

Collegedunia: Now then, might I know how much the difference that normalised marks and your actual marks had, if you know that number?

Ankan: I don't remember the exact ones, but my QA number decreased by some 0.5 because I got 45 and it was 44 points. For LRDI, it increased by say 2 or 3 marks. And English was the major differential that increased by around 12 or 30.

Collegedunia: Can you give us some tips on how to improve upon the weakness, be it maths or LRDI in terms of preparation for CAT?

Ankan:

  • Giving mocks and single analysis helped me a lot during my preparation.
  • I focused on common types of questions like sitting arrangements and game-based tournaments.
  • Concentration is key in LRDI.
  • I would note down the information based on the questions and make links between them.
  • It's important to glance through all the questions in a set to find additional information.
  • LRDI can be enjoyable and almost predictable with practice.
  • Focusing on the common topics in the LRDI syllabus is important rather than trying to cover everything
  • Understanding simple statistics and concepts of graphs, scatter plots, and pie charts makes DI easier.

Collegedunia: Can you share some tips on how you revised and what did you do in the last 10 days or maybe 15 days of CAT?

Ankan:

  • I made notes of important formulas beforehand so that I can revise them easily.
  • I followed a general approach for different sections of the exam.
  • For the English section, I read the passage thoroughly and then analysed each option in the RC section.
  • While analysing options, I focused on eliminating the ones that contained something opposite to what was being said in the passage or contained additional information that could not be assumed.
  • I also observed common tricks and patterns in LRDI questions.
  • On the exam day, I tried to remain calm and composed.

Collegedunia: Can you share with us some experiences about the personal interview that you attended at IIM Ahmedabad? What type of questions that they asked and something that you learned there?

Ankan:

  • The interview had 2 male professors and lasted around 30-35 minutes.
  • They didn't ask the typical questions like introducing myself or why I want to do it.
  • The interview was more general awareness-based with discussions on certain issues and random questions in between.
  • There were some discussions on my hobbies like playing football and the culture at IITs.
  • The interview was not stressful as both the panellists were friendly and not intimidating at all.
  • When I got stuck or confused, I expressed my thought process to show that I was on the correct track.
  • Overall, it was a pleasant experience.

Collegedunia: So again, as you said, your preparation for placement in IIT Kharagpur really helped in your Ahmedabad interview. So can you share some more tips that help you prepare for the interview better?

Ankan:

  • MBA and IIMs interviews consist of 2-3 interviews, including one on technical stuff and another on HR.
  • The HR interview is most similar to a job interview, with questions based on personality, skills, and positions held.
  • In the interviews, questions related to personality will come up even when discussing academics.
  • General knowledge and current affairs knowledge are crucial, including knowledge on socioeconomic factors, financial topics, and political scenarios.
  • During my interview, I was asked about naming states, their capital, and the most talked about languages in India.
  • I focused on key concepts to prepare for the interview since I hadn't studied a lot in college.
  • The budget is an important topic to be aware of during the interview season.

Collegedunia: That's great. So amazing insights Ankan and thank you. All the best for your future endeavours and all the best for all the converts that you will get for MBA and future jobs.

Ankan: Thank you.