Snapshots

Name: Rikesh Jain
Graduation College : DJ Sanghvi College of Engineering (Mumbai University)
Course: B.E. in Electronics and Telecommunications
Graduation Aggregate: 69.9%
Pursuing/Pursued MBA from: Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon
Corresponding entrance test & score:
Common Admission Test (CAT) – 98.82 percentile

GD/PI calls from:

• Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon
• Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad

GD/PI calls converted:

• Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon
• Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad

Preparation:

I studied for about 3-4 hours every day and a little extra in the last month. I used my classes’ notes and took a test series to compare where I stood at the All-India level. I was quite regular with my homework in the classes which started about a year and half back. The real preparations began in the 3rd year vacations, i.e., June 2010 and I feel 6 months is a good amount of time to prepare for CAT.

By the time I started my preparations in full force I knew my weak area (read Verbal), so I used to give it more time and practice. I felt relatively more comfortable with Quant and DI Sections.

I chose MDI over IMT as all the rankings suggested that it’s a better college. I also spoke to an alumnus of MDI and he told me that his experience at MDI was superb. Somewhere down my mind I knew that I would not get into an IIM even if I took a year off and so MDI seemed to a good option.

Advice to juniors:

Be regular with your work. Try to understand everything that is going on in classes. Do not take too many mock tests. About 2 per week are good. It’s equally important to analyze your performance. Remember that nobody knows your weaknesses and your strengths better than yourself. Do not get discouraged by a bad score. You will have your good and bad days (I once got a 86 percentile in one of the Mocks). And the most important thing, CAT is easier than what you think; just keep calm and stay focused!!