CAT Is Not As Important As We Perceive It To Be | Debdoot Das IIM C'22

When going through any MBA related website in India, we see a lot of articles like "How to ACE the CAT," "Crack the CAT in 60 days," and so on. Along with the MBA prep centers, these make it seem like CAT is the final hurdle, overcoming which you can get into your dream B-School for an MBA. The newspapers also don't help much. 1st or 2nd-page articles highlighting the number of 100 percentilers from the city/state are published just after the CAT results are declared. And, most aspirants reading them think just like other entrance exams, cracking CAT will get them into their dream institute(in this case, a B-School).

Nothing can be further from the truth. CAT is just one of the hurdles in the way to getting into a B-School. It's at best an elimination round before the final fight. Yes, I'm talking about WAT-PI here. The WAT-PI round ultimately decides whether one gets into their dream B-School or not, not CAT. An exception was this year's FMS admissions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but rest assured, CAT is becoming less and less critical for the final rounds of most B-Schools. Here is a table showing the final weightage of CAT compared to the WAT-PI scores in the top 6 IIMs for selection to their flagship 2 year PG Programs.

As it is evident, for the final selection, the personal interview has the highest weight. Let's take the case of IIM Calcutta. Suppose the lowest percentiler has an absolute score of 230. This gets him/her 23 out of 30. Compared to that, a person with 180(~99.76%ile) will get an 18 out of 30. So, the second person needs to get just 6 marks more out of 48 in the interview(or 2 from each interviewer) to do better than the 100 percentiler. But, due to the precedence of these assessments, CAT is usually allocated a lot more time for preparation by the aspirants.

In my opinion, the WAT-PI rounds need more focus. CAT preparation should not be neglected, but more time should be allocated to the WAT-PI rounds. Coming to CAT preparation, one underrated part of CAT is the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension section. This is what makes or breaks the game for most candidates. VARC gives more points in FMS shortlisting too. Let's take my case as an example. I scored 26 out of 96 in the LRDI section, which translated to an 82%ile, just above the 80%ile cutoff IIM Calcutta has set for an interview call. VARC and Quants pushed me to my overall 99.76%ile, with VARC doing most of the heavy lifting.

I achieved this, starting preparation only three days before CAT! However, I smugly overlooked the fact that we have been preparing for VARC throughout our life. Every novel we read, every article we peruse, is one step towards a better VARC score. Reading informative articles not only improves one's VARC scores, but it also increases their knowledge about a variety of topics. I've realized that if someone develops a habit of regularly reading articles from various newspapers or say, insights of consulting companies, within a few weeks, their communication skills shoot up. In my opinion, this might be due to two main reasons. First, it increases their knowledge about the different topics and helps them comprehend how things fit in the bigger picture. Also, this increased knowledge boosts their confidence, which also appears to improve communication skills. My suggestion would be to read articles from various sources, like The Economist, The Ken, and other similar media houses. Also, insight reports on various issues/strategies are available on many consulting firms' websites, like McKinsey, Accenture, etc. And finally, newspapers' editorials help in looking at things from a different perspective. All these not only prepare one for VARC, but they also prepare him or her for WAT-PI and life in general. This also develops skills in analyzing different events, which helps during company GD's for placements. So, one should read whatever informational article he or she can get their hands on. If any of them require a subscription, they can try the "Netflix? I know a friend" thing. LRDI/QA can be improved just by practicing for a few weeks, in my honest opinion.

So, in a nutshell, I would say that one should focus on WAT-PI more, instead of giving all to CAT, and in case of CAT, VARC preparation should not be neglected.
The next part I would like to talk about is WAT-PI. Reading the interview experiences about other candidates on different websites might be intimidating, but one should always remember that people mainly recall extreme memories. Thus, these experiences might have a positive or negative bias in how they are narrated, and therefore they might not be as good or as bad as the narration seems to make them appear. One should try to have a normal conversation with the interviewers, instead of thinking it to be a question-answer session. A person with a broad knowledge across a variety of topics should not have any problem having an exciting conversation. Also, the confidence which comes from that knowledge helps a lot. Similarly, the knowledge helps in acing the WAT(GD for FMS). Writing blogs/articles is another way of improving one's WAT skills.

Finally, the most crucial element which most people skip, is having a backup plan. I needed to return to Kolkata for the next couple of years for urgent reasons, and thus, I had already taken up a job, in case I did not get into IIM Calcutta. It helped me maintain my composure during CAT as well as during my interview, while acting as a safety net in case I did not convert IIM Calcutta.
So, one should read a lot, focus on WAT-PI, and not burn their boats. Finally, it should always be remembered that an MBA is not the end; it is just a means to an end.