My CAT Preparation Journey❤️

Summary

Drishya Dinesh, an MBA student at IIT Delhi, shares how she prepared for CAT over seven months and offers practical advice for each section. She says she scored a 98.98 percentile. Her account is based on her own experience, and she emphasizes that results and preparation timelines vary from person to person.

Preparation background and approach

• She began preparing in April 2023 after working for about 2.5 years. She devoted most of her time to studying during the preparation period and set aside social events.
• Her profile included a 9.8 in Class 10, 95.33% in Class 12, and a 6.85 graduation CGPA.
• She completed most of the syllabus in roughly the first three to three-and-a-half months, then continued practicing and taking mocks.
• She initially attended an offline coaching institute but later stopped and studied independently. She felt that large classes, limited time for concepts, and high fees made that format poor value for her.
• She recommends self-paced online study or, for students who want more guidance, a course with one-on-one mentoring. These are her personal views, not a claim that coaching is unsuitable for everyone.

Section-by-section advice

VARC (Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension)

• VARC was initially her weakest section: her early mock scores were very low, sometimes even negative.
• She says a VARC course by Jijo Srinivasan, associated in the subtitles with Career Launcher, helped her understand how to reason through questions and identify the best answer.
• Her main lesson is that improvement comes from sustained practice and learning to judge the reasoning behind answer choices.

DILR (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning)

• She describes DILR as highly practice-dependent. Working through many different sets helps students recognize which ones are manageable and how much time they may require.
• She recommends practicing sets from an online video playlist and from Arun Sharma’s book, which she says was her main book resource for DILR.
• The subtitles mention a very large set playlist, but the stated number appears garbled, so no exact count is reliable.

Quantitative Aptitude

• She used study materials from the coaching institute she had joined, alongside online resources.
• She recommends solving many questions across different types until unfamiliar questions feel less startling.
• She mentions Rodha and MBA Pathshala for explanations and problem-solving approaches, as well as other free YouTube resources whose names may have been mis-captioned.
• She cautions against assuming that a strong subject will necessarily go well on exam day: Quant was a section she felt confident about, but the actual exam did not go as she expected.

Mocks, practice, and motivation

• Start taking mocks early. Do not wait until the syllabus is complete; early tests help you get used to timing and moving between sections.
• She estimates that she took around 70–75 mocks. She recommends taking mocks regularly and practicing previous CAT papers.
• Do not let low mock scores derail preparation. Her scores varied widely, and she says mock performance cannot guarantee what will happen in the actual exam.
• Rotate subjects when concentration fades—for example, switch from Quant to a couple of DILR sets—and take breaks when needed.
• Preparing with a friend pursuing the same goal helped her share stress and stay motivated.
• She advises learning the basics of topics rather than automatically trying to memorize every formula or master every topic in equal depth. She herself left some areas she disliked, while still trying to build a basic understanding where useful.

Final preparation and expectations

• In the last five days, she recommends resting and avoiding intensive study, while occasionally reviewing a formula notebook.
• She stresses that CAT is unpredictable: candidates should prepare seriously but accept that the exam may not unfold as expected.
• Interview preparation also matters, she says, but she does not explain it in this video and says she plans to cover it separately.

Speakers and sources mentioned

Speaker

• Drishya Dinesh — the sole speaker in the subtitles; she identifies herself as an MBA student at IIT Delhi.

Books, courses, channels, and other resources

• Career Launcher VARC course, taught by Jijo Srinivasan
• Arun Sharma’s books, especially for DILR
• Anaesthesia Academy — named in the subtitles as a YouTube source for DILR; the captioned name may be inaccurate
• Rodha
• MBA Pathshala
• “Woodjasgo” and “Analysis Shankar” — names as captioned; they may contain transcription errors
• B Schooler — an online CAT preparation provider discussed by the speaker
• Mock-test packages from coaching institutes and previous CAT question papers, mentioned generically without naming a provider