Hitesh Tejwani completed his Engineering and started working with SAIL (Bokaro Steel Plant) in Jharkhand after graduation. Being a married and responsible guy, he balanced his job, family and CAT preparations together and went on to score 98.4 Percentile. He aims to work in Operations Department after completing MBA.
The motto behind his success is – If you want to reach somewhere, you need to take some pain, as there is no shortcut to success.
Hitesh Tejwani shares his achievement story with Aglasem correspondent Pranjali Rastogi and gives preparation tips for aspiring candidates.
| Name | Hitesh Tejwani | College of Graduation | Medicaps Institute Of Technology and Management, Indore (B.Tech) |
| CAT Percentile | 98.4 percentile | Target B-Schools | SPJIMR, NITIE, IITB, IITD, IIM (Trichy Ranchi, Udaipur, Raipur) |
Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 – Hitesh Tejwani’s Scores
| Subject | Scaled score | Percentile |
| VARC | 97.8 | |
| DILR | 98.7 | |
| QA | 91.06 | |
| Overall | 170.37 | 98.4 |
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your family?
I am Hitesh Tejwani basically from Indore (M.P). I completed engineering in Electrical and Electronics branch from RGPV University (Bhopal) in 2012 . I am married and I have a son who is 3 months old. I am working at SAIL (Bokaro Steel Plant) in Jharkhand from the last 30 months.
My family has always supported me from my schooling days in whatever decisions I have taken about my career. Giving CAT for MBA was my decision and this time also they were with me in my decision.
What was your favorite section?
My favourite section is DI-LR.
Share your feelings after cracking the CAT 2015 Exam with such a good rank.
I am happy because with my job I never really was giving my 100% effort. But I was confident about my ability.
What are your plans after MBA?
Well first I need to get admission in a top college and then try to learn a lot of new things. After MBA I would like to be in SCM in operations management department of a reputed firm.
When did you start preparing for Exam? According to you What is the best time to start CAT Preparation?
According to me you can prepare for Quants and DI-LR. It needs a lot of practice so that u can solve as many questions in least time with highest possible accuracy. For Verbal you need to read a lot. Newspapers, Novels, Magazines or anything. The more u read the quicker you can solve RCs.
There was no fixed timeline for my CAT prep.
With the new exam pattern, what should the preparation strategy be for CAT exam?
Every candidate has to work hard in the sections they are weak in. You cannot score high if you are dependent on a particular section. No topics should be taken lightly.
Did you join any coaching class? In your opinion should students take coaching for preparation?
No, I didn’t take any coaching as I had no time for it. I took online mock test series.
One can give some free mocks available on different sites and then see where he is weak. Try to read about those topics, build concepts and solve many questions.
Still sometimes students are not able to apply the concepts, in that case coaching is important. One more reason can be if you are not enough self motivated then coaching might help you.
But mock tests are a must. Especially in the last 30-40 days before exam one should be writing a mock tests regularly to improve speed and to gauge their preparation.
How did you balance your daily routine?
Well I was working in a PSU, and to be frank I did get some time free.
But even if you are working under pressure and not getting much time, still weekends are free. You need to study hard on weekends and take your mock tests on weekends too.
If you want to reach somewhere, you need to take some pain, as they say that there is no shortcut to success.
What are the most important topics for CAT preparation that you think a CAT aspirant should focus on?
Well, this year the most famous topic of quants section “Numbers System” was almost absent, and it was a shock for everyone. Hence every topic needs to be done well, because CAT always comes with surprises, hence you cannot take any chances. But still some things like RCs, Jumbled sentences, Geometry etc. should be prepared well.
Which books/ study material you referred for CAT preparation?
I studied Quants from Sarvesh Verma. For verbal I referred to Youtube Verbal. DI was done through only mocks and some practicing.
But I have heard if you can get some material from TIME etc. you can solve them too.
So, if you are preparing with a lot of time in hand, then you should solve materials of famous coaching institutes, and previous CAT questions.
What is your preparation strategy for the upcoming GD PI session?
Well for GD one needs to be aware of a current topics , hence newspapers reading is must. And whatever you write in your form be prepared to answer anything from that in PI. I am planning to join some weekend classes for better preparation and for GD practice.
What is your success mantra?
Don’t be afraid of failures, you only fail when you stop trying and give up. So, try until you succeed.
As an advice to future CAT takers, how many questions should one attempt to score well?
Well, this strategy is wrong, having a mindset of no. of attempts can prove very costly for your score.
For example, this year RC-VA section was very easy but still I know some students because of their mindset didn’t attempt full, because generally a 50+ score in verbal gives you good percentile, this time 59+ gave you 90%ile .
So people attempting only 65-70 marks thinking a 50 is good enough failed badly.
And on the contrary, DI-LR was one of the toughest in recent years and hence an attempt of 40-45 marks with good accuracy was enough for 90+.
You need to judge the paper level and then try to maximise your attempts.
Any tips/ advice to aspiring CAT Aspirants?
Well one important thing I want to say is CAT is a relative examination. So, if you have prepared well and you have honestly worked hard on every topic you will do good!
Then on exam day if a question is difficult for you then be assured that it is difficult for every other candidate as well. So, there is nothing to panic about, if you can’t get a question go to next try that, you have limited time, you need to decide smartly which questions to attempt and give time to. Mock practice helps here.
Similarly if a section is easy and you can solve it easily then a lot of candidates will be finding it easy, hence you need to maximise your attempts in that case.
On the exam day, what was your experience like?
Well I was relaxed and reached the venue before time to avoid last minute hassles. A student should try to relax in last few days, try to play some sport if you like, watch movies, TV or listen to music, if you have a hobby do that, sing, dance, do whatever makes you happy.
Try to visit the venue a day before so you don’t mess up at last moment.
Don’t talk about your exam preparation with friends and on social platforms, try to avoid those things, it will put unnecessary pressure.
Have a good breakfast in morning, eat fruits. Just believe in yourself and your hard work, be confident that you will do well today, this is your day.
More Success Stories
- He scored 100 percentile in CAT without coaching – Prateek Bajpai
- What is the secret to scoring 100%ile in CAT? Know it from CAT Topper Sanuj Mittal
- CAT 99.92 Percentile Scorer, Nikhar Mattu shares tips for acing the CAT exam
- Gursimran Ahuja who scored 99.83 Percentile in CAT tells how she found the key to success
- CAT 99.66 Percentiler Adwait Deshpande Tells How He Prepared for CAT
- CAT 98.4 Percentiler Hitesh Tejwani says Try until you succeed!
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