CAT 2024 Topper Interview Sanjiv Kumar: IIT Madras Student Tops CAT With 99.99 Percentile in First Attempt

CAT 2024 Topper Interview - In a remarkable first attempt, Sanjiv Kumar, a final-year dual-degree student (BTech + MTech) at IIT Madras, has emerged as one of the toppers of CAT 2024, securing an impressive 99.99 percentile. His stellar performance in all three sections speaks volumes about his aptitude and preparation, with sectional percentiles of 99.94 in Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), 99.91 in Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation (LRDI), and 99.79 in Quantitative Ability (QA). Sanjiv’s journey to this outstanding achievement reflects his dedication and academic excellence, setting a benchmark for future CAT aspirants.

Careers360: Congratulations on being one of the CAT 2024 toppers! What was your reaction? Were you expecting this?

Sanjiv: I am happy with my performance. But I was expecting it as I was able to consistently get a score that would’ve put me in the 99.90+ percentile range when I had given the previous year papers for mocks. But to replicate the same in the actual test was indeed special.

Careers360: Tell us something about your background.

Sanjiv: I am from Chennai and was born and raised here. I studied in a CBSE school and eventually cracked the JEE and got into IIT Madras. I have had an informal experience with trading and finance, which I did almost exclusively during my first 2 years of college. Eventually I engaged in biotech research for a while before stepping into the venture capital space.

Careers360: How was your exam day experience? Which slot did you appear in?

Sanjiv: I took up the exam in Slot 1. Initially I thought I got a bad deal with the earliest slot as I work mostly during the nights. But I also felt that the “surprise factor”, which is usually a feature of Slot 1, can play into my hands if I kept my composure and executed my strategy perfectly. The jumbled up VARC questions caught me off-guard, and I wasted a good 3-4 minutes there and almost panicked. But then I quickly adapted my strategy to the new pattern and ended up attending all of questions in the section. LRDI in my slot was quant-heavy and relatively easy compared to other slots. Since all the sets were solvable, I didn’t have an issue with set selection and solved the four sets to which I could easily figure out a structure. QA was straightforward given my engineering background. It was moderately difficult, but much easier compared to CAT 2023.

Careers360: What was your last-minute preparation strategy for CAT?

Sanjiv: I tried to expose myself to as many question types as possible. I gave mocks almost every day. I put myself through multiple stress tests by doing 200-300 QA questions or 30-40 LRDI sets a day in this phase. Occasionally I gave 2-3 mocks a day to improve my mental stamina.

Careers360: What according to you were the toughest and easiest sections?

Sanjiv: In slot 1, VARC was the toughest as I felt that for many questions, there were atleast two options which could have been the right answer and eliminating one amongst them was very difficult. LRDI was the easiest section. Most of the questions were straightforward and needed minimal structuring to arrive at the solutions.

Careers360: How did you tackle your strong and weak areas?

Sanjiv: I adopted a phase-wise preparation strategy. In Phase 1, I established my baseline score and identified my weaker sections through mocks. I worked on mastering my strengths to increase my exposure to different question types and minimize mistakes. I did so by solving a few hundred questions on every topic. In Phase 2, I focussed on LRDI since I found it quite challenging in my mocks. I worked on it by solving Arun Sharma’s LR book completely and also gave more than 50 sectional tests for LRDI. In Phase 3, I worked on my VARC strategy. I don’t have a reading habit, so I focused on purely on strategy. I experimented with various strategies to attempt the section and eventually decided to attend every question.

Careers360: What was your time management strategy for preparation and exam day?

Sanjiv: Since I was working on my research project alongside, I could never have a fixed schedule and hence I kept my prep timings as dynamic. I set targets to complete the syllabus in parts which spanned over multiple days to account for any time-sensitive work that can come up without notice. But I always pushed myself to hit my targets as soon as possible.

I had a different strategy for each section.

1. VARC: If any VA question took more than 1.5m, I’d use 10-15s to identify the best option and mark it for review. I set a hard limit of 7.5m per RC regardless of the difficulty. I was ok with not comprehending a few elements if I could find a decent response.

2. LRDI: I’d skip any set to which I can't figure a structure to attempt in less than 3mins. I chose sets with minimal data points and skipped questions with extensive data (10+ data points) like many Games and Tournament sets, and Routes and Network sets.

3. QA: I’d have a glance at all the questions and solve the easy ones in the first pass, whilst marking the medium ones for review and solve them in the end. I never solved the harder questions and rather spent the time verifying my answers if I had more than 15 attempts in the section.

Careers360: Did you take coaching? How helpful was your coaching institute for you? Is it possible to succeed through self-study?

Sanjiv: I did enrol for coaching, but I never really had the time to watch the video lectures. I mostly studied by myself. I did take the mocks and sectional tests of multiple coaching institutions, which were immensely helpful as each one of them had different styles of framing a test. Trying multiple test series ensured that I was not accustomed to one particular style.

Careers360: What are the factors behind your success?

Sanjiv: I focused on perfecting my strategy as I was limited by time and couldn’t practice extensively with my other commitments. I believe in a test like CAT, having the right strategy is extremely important. I see many having no structure to their prep and test strategy, which is where I found my edge. The JEE preparation I did in high school also helped me extensively, especially in the QA section. Being limited by prep time actually helped me keep my motivation levels intact and build momentum gradually throughout the preparation.

Careers360: Have you started preparing for GD/PI/WAT?

Sanjiv: Yes. I have taken up personalized coaching from reputed institutions and I am following their prep strategy now.

Careers360: Which other MBA entrance exam have you appeared/appearing for?

Sanjiv: I am appearing only for the XAT.

Careers360: Which is your dream B-School? From which colleges are you expecting a call?

Sanjiv: I look forward to joining IIM A or C as I look forward to pursuing a career in finance. I am expecting a call from all the IIMs.

Careers360: What are your hobbies?

Sanjiv: I go out for racing. I watch F1 and listen to old-school English hip-hop/rap music for entertainment. I also hit the gym regularly.

Careers360: What were the relaxation and recreation methods you followed amidst CAT preparation?

Sanjiv: I like myself a good resistance-training workout as it gets me energized and keeps me fit. I also go on long drives with my favourite music on.

Careers360: What is your message for next year's CAT takers?

Sanjiv: CAT is a test to identify the best managers. You must work on managing your resources in the most effective way possible.