CAT 2025 Toppers Interview: Psychology Student Aishiki Sen Aced Her First CAT Attempt With 99.18 Percentile

CAT 2025 Topper Interview: 2.58 students appeared this year in CAT 2025 which is regarded as the most prominent management entrance examination in India. And one of them, Aishiki Sen, the girl from Kolkata, West Bengal, never in her wildest dreams thought of the feat she has achieved on her first CAT 2025 attempt. Juggling the CAT 2025 preparation with her graduation studies, Aishiki, the final year student of Psychology in BHU, fought the end semesters preparation and the computer glitches on the CAT exam day to score 99.18 percentile in CAT 2025. This CAT 2025 topper, Aishiki Sen , turned her hobby of reading to her CAT 2025 success matra, scoring 98.91 percentile in VARC and 99.30 in DILR section. In this CAT 2025 toppers interview with Careers360, Aishiki shared her CAT 2025 preparation journey, how she managed her time for the CAT 2025 preparation along with her graduation studies, how her hobbies turned into the strength, which top MBA colleges are her dream b-school and why she is interested in the MBA-HR courses.

Careers 360: Congratulations on being one of the CAT 2025 toppers! What was your reaction? Were you expecting this?

Aishiki Sen : Thank you so much. Honestly, I was elated to see the CAT 2025 results. I was not expecting to be one of the toppers because I was not fully sure of the nature of scaling of scores and how accurate the percentile predictors were. One of the predictors had very closely predicted my percentile but you can’t be sure until you actually see the official results. So no, I largely did not want to expect anything in fear of being disappointed.

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Careers 360 : Can you tell us a little about your educational and personal background?

Aishiki Sen: I am originally from Kolkata, but throughout my childhood I have moved around quite a lot, due to my father’s job. Growing up, this meant constantly having to adapt myself based on environmental demands, which perhaps explains my curiosity about human behaviour. My father is a Chief Operating officer, having also done an MBA and my mother is currently a homemaker who is a postgraduate in economics. Alongside academics, both my parents sang and performed regularly, and I grew up immersed in music. I followed their footsteps through much of my childhood and continue to sing and perform occasionally even today. I am a full-time reader and a part time writer, having published short stories and poems. Right now, I have a blog which I update routinely. Apart from this, I would say swimming is my dormant hobby – something I enjoyed a lot throughout my childhood but stopped in my late teens.

I have been a high performing student throughout my life, scoring consistently good marks. In class 8, I was a class topper. I realised early on that science was not my focus, so I made an active choice of taking humanities in class 11. It was one of the best decisions. That’s when I started studying psychology and fell in love with the subject. I decided to pursue it for higher studies. In class 12 I was one of the toppers in my school, making it among the top 5 with a 97.4%, and full marks in political science. I chose to pursue graduation from Banaras Hindu University in psychology, which I am currently in the final year of.

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Careers 360: What got you interested in the management domain and this examination?

Aishiki Sen: Early on in my graduation I decided I wanted to go into HR and believed industrial psychology to be the way to go, following which I would do an MBA. I had a misconception that CAT was not open to freshers like me. When I actually researched during my second year of graduation, I realised that it was possible to give CAT 2025 as a fresher and thus let go of the long-winded path and decided to do an MBA immediately after my graduation. And now, here I am.

Careers 360: How long have you been preparing for the CAT 2025? Was it your first attempt?

Aishiki Sen: I started my CAT 2025 preparation in August 2024, by enrolling in Iquanta’s 2025 start early batch. My goal was to clear the CAT 2025. And yes, I am elated to clear the CAT 2025 in the very first attempt.

Careers 360: How was your exam day experience? Which slot did you appear in?

Aishiki Sen: My CAT 2025 exam day experience is difficult to describe in one word. I was in CAT 2025 Slot 1 and I am not a morning person so I was a little nervous about how well my mind would function early on. I had tried to acclimatise my body to the morning routine for 2 weeks prior by waking up early but I still had a bit of fear. On CAT 2025 exam day, I woke up at 6 A.M., not having slept really well and went to the center with my father, which was 15 mins away. Once inside it was just nerves, waiting till the CAT 2025 exam began. I actually faced a small glitch. Right before the exam started my computer went blank and the screen went dark. So that added to my stress. Thankfully it was all back to normal in a minute.

Careers 360:What was your last-minute preparation strategy for CAT?

Aishiki Sen: I actually could not study much during the last week because my end semester examinations began on 24th November, and I had exams on 26th and 28th November after that. So, it was a hassle trying to manage both the CAT 2025 preparation and the Graduation examination. For the last minute CAT 2025 preparation, I just revised and practised a little every day, trying not to burn myself out.

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Careers 360: What according to you were the toughest and easiest sections?

Aishiki Sen: For me, VARC always tends to be the easiest because I am a reader. Give me anything to read and I will have a good time. QA is my weak area so I would say quant was the toughest.

Careers 360: How did you approach your strong and weak areas during preparation?

Aishiki Sen: I tried to allot more time to my weak area which was QA, sometimes even forcing myself to sit and solve questions because I really did not like it much. I focused more on strengthening concepts and regularly attended the classes that were held in Iquanta. For VARC, which I consider my strongest, I continued reading a lot from diverse sources and practising varieties of RCs. Daily I tried to do at least 2. Ironically though, the scores reflect the highest score in LRDI, which was honestly a lot of fun to me. I liked solving LRDI sets, because they were like puzzles.

Careers 360: What was your time management strategy for preparation?

Aishiki Sen: During my CAT 2025 preparation I always tried to allocate equal time to all the sections.

Careers 360: Did you take coaching? How helpful was your coaching institute for you? Is it possible to succeed through self-study?

Aishiki Sen: I took Iquanta as my CAT 2025 coaching. I would say they were very helpful to me. Their classes helped me strengthen my basics in quant, and their regular practice sessions and materials were very beneficial for LRDI, which requires a lot of consistent practice. VARC would not have been fun and easy if it was not for ma’am’s teachings and techniques.

I personally cannot say if it is possible to succeed through self-study, but I personally would not have managed without coaching because that gave me structure and routine, on what to do and how to approach each section.

Careers 360: What are the factors behind your success?

Aishiki Sen: I would say consistency and hard work would be one of the main pillars for my CAT 2025 success, along with constant support from my parents. I do not easily give up once I set my sights on something, and try to put in as much effort as I can to achieve it.

Aishiki Sen: Not yet. I am preparing for XAT 2026 now. Once that is over, I will start preparing for the IIM GD/PI rounds 2026.

Careers 360: Which other MBA entrance exam have you appeared/appearing for?

Aishiki Sen: Apart from CAT 2025, I am appearing only for XAT 2026 as XLRI is on my list of B-Schools. Nothing else.

Careers 360: Which is your dream B-School? From which colleges are you expecting a call?

Aishiki Sen: My dream B-school would be any of the BLACKI IIMs, closely followed by XLRI, TISS and FMS. I expect a call from at least a few of them.

Careers 360: What are your hobbies? Did they play any part in your CAT preparations?

Aishiki Sen: I have been an avid reader since I was a little kid. I do think it helped me in my preparation. I did not have to push myself to do some daily reading, it was my little moment of relaxation and joy. I do think having read so many books since my childhood, I have a relatively high reading speed, which definitely gave me an edge in the VARC section, especially since this year there were both lengthy passages and questions.

Careers 360 : What were the relaxation and recreation methods you followed amidst CAT preparation?

Aishiki Sen: I binge tv shows a lot. So, my relaxation strategies revolved around watching my old favourite tv shows again, for some comfort amidst the chaos. Along with that I listened to music and went on small walks while listening to music, sometimes paired with golgappas (phuchkas in my native language). I also have some great friends, who used to be there for me, if I needed to talk or for some small spontaneous outings. Those helped me relax and reorient myself allowing me to return back to studies with a fresh mind after small breaks.

Careers 360: What is your message for next year's CAT 2026 takers?

Aishiki Sen: Be sure that this is what you want to do, because the journey takes a toll on you and it is very important for you to know why you are doing what you are. There will be moments where you will feel very low and hopeless. Don’t give up. There is a brighter day just around the corner.

Bio: I am a psychology undergraduate interested in Human Resources, with a strong focus on people, communication, and the human side of business. My academic training and love for literature shape an empathetic, reflective approach to building meaningful connections and promoting well-being at work. I aim to pursue an MBA in HR, applying psychological insight to organizational practice.