CAT topper Pranjul Gupta shares his success strategy

We finally caught up with the very busy Pranjul Gupta, one of the 16 toppers of CAT 2014 exam.

CAT 2014 results were declared on December 27.

A total of 16 candidates have scored 100 percentile.

Pranjul is a final-year student at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Kanpur, Electrical Engineering stream. He has scored 99.99 in Section-1 and 99.97 in Section-2.

“This is my first CAT 2014 attempt. I started preparing for CAT in summers'14. Kept taking mock tests at regular intervals till CAT,” he told Shiksha.com

Pranjul is aiming for IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta. He also has a placement offer from Snapdeal.

CAT 2014 exam was held on November 16 and 22. Know more about CAT exam

Understand the shortlisting criteria of IIMs.

Q: Is this your first CAT attempt?

A: Yeah, this is my first attempt.

Q: What is the minimum time-frame needed to prepare well for CAT? How long did you prepare for it?

A: I started preparing for CAT in summer 2014. Kept giving a few mocks at regular intervals till CAT exam. Analysed their solutions afterwards, and that’s it.

Q: What did you do to improve your weak areas?

A: I don’t think I had any specific weak areas as such. I was consistent in both the sections and focused on improving them regularly.

Q: Did you join any coaching institute? Is it necessary to join a coaching institute?

A: I did coaching classes with Career Launcher. I don’t think it is necessary to join coaching institutes. I personally know a lot of people who didn’t join any coaching institute but have got over 99 percentile. Studying in the coaching institutes would help though!

Q: Tell us about your family.

A: My father owns a medical store and my mother is a housewife.

Q: Which institute are you aiming for?

A: Right now, I am aiming for IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Lucknow.

Q: Do you have a placement offer in hand?

A: I have an offer from Snapdeal.com right now.

Q: What are your hobbies?

A: Hobbies? Well, I solving the rubik's cubes and have recently started reading novels. My favorite would be A Song of Ice and Fire series.

In my free time, I also play online games counterstrike.

Q: Any tips for future aspirants?

A: Have confidence in yourselves, give mock tests, analyse them and all is well!

Take a look at the MBA colleges accepting CAT 2014 scores in the following cities:

Read CAT 2014 Topper's (100 percentilers) preparation strategy:

Neha Manglik, Harshveer Jain, Vishesh Patni, Anurag Reddy, Aashish Chiller, Rajesh Balasubramanian, Vibhu Gupta, M. Maheedhar