Arjit, a final year engineering student, took CAT 2021 this year and got the CAP call. As he and we all wait for the final results, some students must have started their prep for CAT 2022. For those students, this is the journey of an engineer who also worked equally hard at Quant
Walk us through why and when did you decide you wanted to pursue an MBA?
In my second year of B.Tech engineering, I decided that I wanted to pursue an MBA because it would open up a plethora of opportunities to help me gain business acumen. It widens the scope and helps you think professionally. Apart from this an MBA simply makes you better as an individual it is a lifestyle if I may say.
How did you prepare?
Initially, I started the preparation myself and started learning and polishing concepts from books by Arun Sharma but soon enough enrolled with T.I.M.E institute in Gwalior.
Tell us about the mocks.
Mocks are the most definite way of cracking the CAT. The more mocks you take and analyse the better you are going to perform. Mocks simply prepare a candidate for not only CAT but also teach you how to tackle every problem by analysing and overcoming that as well. So mocks should be given the utmost importance during the CAT prep.
Walk us through how were the last few weeks before the cat and what was your schedule?
The last four weeks were very hectic. I was panicking a lot. I was really scared thinking about the result, and how will I fare in the exam. Concentrating becomes a tedious task as I had a lot of things rushing through my mind. In the last 10 days before the d-day I simply did not study yeah did revise the concepts and it took about only 3 hours of my day but did that in breaks as I thought it would help.
Any particular activity for breaks?
During the breaks I listened to music I restrained myself from watching the movies and sports because it would make me wonder about the world and sports could excite but it consumes a lot of time. I also used to go to the terrace walk for a few minutes and used to talk to friends about unrelated CAT events to reset my mind.
Your experience on the day of the CAT?
I was very nervous. It was my first attempt and before CAT for half an hour everyone has to sit quietly and do nothing, which triggered negative thoughts, which is also why I feel like I could have done better.
How to prepare for the interview?
I prepared for the interview with the help of my coaching classes and read a lot about current affairs, watching a lot of interview videos on YouTube. But the etiquette of the interview and the pressure of grilling I was prepared for it only by taking and not repeating my mistakes in the mock interviews.
Interview experience
My interview was amazing, the panellists helped me in keeping my calm not that I was nervous but that boosted my confidence. They did not yell at me at any point during the interview, they were friendly and that made me feel comfortable Overall it was a great experience to have. They asked me questions about my domain and static questions like why MBA and what I plan on doing with an MBA degree questions like that.
One not to do advice for students who aspire to be an MBA.
One piece of advice I would like to give to the aspirants and remind myself as well is that do not to be under or overconfident. Do not get nervous I know it is easy to say but I can make a lot of difference and not get nervous, stay in the moment and go with the flow cause thinking about the future and the results were the main reason why I got nervous. You will crack the exam if you have prepared dedicatedly and do not favour any subjects during the prep. Treat all the subjects equally and put an equal number of efforts into all three subjects unless you’re really good at one of the three.