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The Routine I followed to get into IIM Ahmedabad
Updated: May 3, 2020
I graduated from IIM Ahmedabad in 2020. My CAT score was 99.09 percentile and I pursued B Com (H) from Kirori Mal College. My CAT routine varied a lot depending on how much time was left for CAT.
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1.5 years before CAT, I was self-preparing. I used to go to my college and whenever I got time, I solved 30 questions of QA, solved 1–2 DILR sets and maybe solved 1–2 passages of VARC from the books I had. This schedule was not very regular for me. I tried to stick to it but often decided to skip it when I didn’t feel like studying.
10 months before CAT, I joined a coaching center. By now, I had covered the basics of all sections but still had LOD 2 and 3 left out for most of them. And, this got coupled with the material I got from the coaching center. I used to have classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. My college mostly got over around 2:30–3:30 and I had the coaching class from 3–5 pm (if I remember correctly).
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6 months before CAT, summer vacation kicked in. This time was crucial because of two reasons. One, I didn't have to devote time to academics in that semester and two, there was a break of 2 months so I could go home and study harder for CAT. I also decided to take up an internship at my hometown that demanded 4–5 hours of my time daily. So, the rest of the time I spent solving questions from both the coaching material and self-prep books.
At this time, I totally bypassed the schedule set by the coaching center to cover the syllabus. I took control of it and started covering it on my own. This really helped. By the end of my vacation, I was done with the basics from the material as well as the LOD 2 of self-prep books for all the sections.
3 months before CAT, mocks had become a norm. The syllabus was all done and now it was just testing different strategies to see where I lacked. I attempted almost 2 mocks a week at this time. The time during the day was spent in analyzing the mock and then solving more questions from the advanced material of the weaker sections. I also spent hours giving sectional tests to work on specific topics.
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1 month before CAT, I was at home. Attendance was not that big an issue at my college so I prepared for CAT at home. Every day, I used to give one mock. This increased to two mocks a day towards the last 15 days. I spent 2 hours on analyzing the mocks and the rest in deciding which strategy to follow in the next mock. At this point, more time was spent on revision than on practicing the questions. The formula book came to rescue at this time.
Hope this gives an idea.
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