CHANDIGARH: Pramod Beri, 21, a final-year BCom student of GGDSD College, Sector 32, Chandigarh, has scored 100 percentile in the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2017, landing in the top list of 20 candidates across the country to achieve the feat.
The results of the CAT that enables more than 199,000 candidates seek admission in the country's top business schools, including the IIMs, were declared on Monday.
Last year's record of all males and all engineers to score 100 percentile was broken by two females and three non-engineering students, with Beri being one of them.
"It is a myth commerce students cannot score well in the CAT. Since the pattern of the test has changed from last two years, you can crack the test even if you are a commerce student," he said.
"Earlier, technical questions would appear in the Quantitative Ability section, but now questions are easy. You have to be good with the basics. You should focus more on your reading skills, less on grammar. For the logical part, you should solve puzzles, Beri suggested.
Originally from Phagwara in Punjab, Beri said the number of study hours do not matter; what matters is what you study. The CAT aspirants should filter out the study material and focus only on the relevant parts and quality rather than quantity. "Reading newspapers every day and playing Sudoku helped me a lot in the Verbal Ability (VA) and Data Interpretation (DI) and Logical Reasoning (LR) sections. The aspirants should appear for at least 40 mock tests," said Beri, who appeared for around 60 mock tests.
Fascinated by finance and technology, Beri said his long-term plan is to start his own business.
He started preparing for CAT in June 2016 and focused on study material provided by a private coaching centre in Chandigarh while being in college. It was in January that he started appearing for mock tests. On the day of the mock test, Beri would only take the test and not study further. The next day, he would analyse the test spending around five hours a day. "You should not overburden yourself. Taking the mock tests and then analysing them properly is the key. Analysis makes you identify the key areas you need to work upon," said Beri, who is aiming at IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and
IIM Calcutta.
A week before the CAT exam in November last year, Beri said he suddenly he started scoring very low in all the sections. "I could sense that it was exam fear. But then I started focusing on English in the last few days. My Quantative Ability has always been strong but when my score started dipping, I again resumed to reading papers daily and worked on it," said Beri, adding the best way to overcome fear is to do hard work. His sister had done an executive MBA course from IIM Calcutta, so, he said, the inspiration came from her as well.
Pramod Beri
