A top-class performer

Saathwik Kolluru, son of Sudhakara Rao, a senior bank officer and Satya Kolluru has scored 99.99 percentile in CAT and is one of top 20 rankers. In an interview with The Young Hans, the high-ranking achiever shared his route map of success.

Tell us about why you decided in taking up a tough exam like CAT…

When I was studying at IIT, Bombay I explored various courses in non-core fields and also interned at Nomura which laid the foundation for my interest in the field of business management and finance. I even got placed in a consulting firm (Ernst and Young) but didn't want to start job right away with incomplete skillset and half knowledge. So, I decided to do an MBA from the finest of the Institutes in India and hence I chose CAT.

Was it a dream career that you aspired for?

This wasn't only my dream this was even the dream of my parents to educate me in world class institutes such as the IITs and the IIMs and I'm happy that I'm already halfway in achieving that.

How did you prepare and what were your strengths that ultimately helped you score so well?

I prepared for 2 months, I gave 14 mocks in total. I allotted a day each for Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation (Quant) and Logical Reasoning (DILR) and dedicated the rest of my time to Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension ( VARC). During my first few mocks, I was already scoring north of 99 percentile. After scoring 99.9+ in my 3rd mock, I gained confidence and since then I aimed for a 100 percentile. I consistently scored 210+ in the past two year papers and aimed for 230 in cat 2019 but unfortunately Quant score didn't turn out as I expected but nonetheless I am happy with what I have achieved.

Any tips you would like to share with the student community?

Draft a proper schedule for your preparation and modify it in accordance to your performance in the mocks. Prepare individual strategies for each section and stick to them no matter what.