An Interview with CAT 2015 Topper
CollegeSearch interviewed Darshit Jasani, who scored 99.04 percentile in CAT 2015. Now, he is a proud student of Standford University. Here's what he has to say about his preparation strategies and Tips, and his journey towards this huge benchmark of his life.
Here's the complete interview:
CollegeSearch:You got 99.04 percentile in CAT 2015. Which is a pretty great score. How do you feel about that?
Darshit: At the first glance, I was disappointed to get a score less than 99.6, because that cutoff for IIM A, IIM B and IIM C (Gen Category), which were my target universities. But definitely it was a good score because that percentile shows I was among the top 1700 (approximately) of India.
CollegeSearch:What was your success mantra for the same?
Darshit: I wont go into much detail but its pretty simple:
1) Go systematically
2) Start early
3) Be regular
4) There;s no alternative to hard work
5) You’ll need to balance things in a great way, that will indeed prove your organisational skills
CollegeSearch: Did you take any kind of coaching and what was your preparation schedule?
Darshit: I had signed up for Endeavor coaching, and started my prep 1.5 years before CAT. I had my engineering going side by side, which I had to top (don't know why) (I did top indeed), and hence had to balance it along with CAT prep. But the coaching helped in maintaining regularity.
CollegeSearch:What preparation tips you would like to share with the current CAT aspirants?
Darshit: CAT will need a comprehensive preparation to increase your overall skills, especially for verbal section. So you will need an all round development in Verbal by reading novels, editorials in newspapers, using flashcards, solving exercises in materials etc. I would recommend everyone to develope extensive reading habit because of its several advantages: increase in reading speed (you’ll need it in RCs), increases your comprehensive skills or understanding of text in simple words, usage of words, framing of sentences, learn new words. It will help AWA in interview process as well. So reading is indispensible for success here. I would like to mention that I did not read a single book other than my academic materials before joining CAT prep. But I did develop reading skills at par with those who had been doing it since many years. So, new readers don’t be scared.
For Quant and DI/LR sections, practise is only solution. Also I would say don’t go MUCH (doesn’t mean none) for shortcuts and swift tricks the coachings may teach you because at the time of exam you may not exactly remember the boundary conditions associated with them, and end up applying a trick to a sum where it is not applicable.
CollegeSearch: Which International exams did you appear for (study abroad exams)?
Darshit:I heard some good guy say: “Do it right, MBA is your final degree,” So I wanted to do MBA NOW only if I got into IIM A/B/C. I had Master of Science (or M.Tech for India) as an alternative and would do an MBA down the timeline after proper experience. So I had another path simultaneously paving up – MS in US. So I appeared for GRE and TOEFL. I scored 332 (perfect 170 in Quant and 162 in Verbal) and 110 in TOEFL.
CollegeSearch: What was your strategy to prepare for International Exams?
Darshit: Actually GRE is quite alike CAT and hence I didn’t need much to prepare specially for GRE, since I was already preparing for CAT since a year.
CollegeSearch:How does it feel to be a part of Stanford University?
Darshit:Because of time difference, the mails sent from US are received in early mornings. So I still remember me waking up at 6 am and checking for mail and reading the subject line: Congratulations! You are admitted to Stanford University. I thought I was hallucinating and washed my face for like 5 times and then reading entire mail. I was simply elated!
It’s very special because of the legacy associated with Stanford!:
Birth place for silicon valley: nurturer of disruptive innovations: yahoo, google, snapchat and lot more!
Great alum base including US presidents, US Supreme Court judges, top CEOs, top sports men, and numerous Nobel laureates!
So, I am looking forward to be at the place that is breeding innovation and greatness!
CollegeSearch:In which ways do you think the education system of India is different from that of abroad?
Darshit:There isn’t much wide difference if you get into top school in India but abroad surely give you wider exposure. It’s because of better facilities, more diversity in classroom, more research funding, and big legacies. For legacies, let me put into right perspective: Harvard University was founded in 1636 where at the same time, India had a Taj Mahal being built (as per data from Wikipedia.com). So you can realise that how old their legacies are.
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