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Padaki Sagar Shrinivas, a 24-year old aspirant from Mumbai has secured the second rank in February 2013 Common Management Admission Test (CMAT). Extremely happy with his score, Sagar said that a single minded approach and a well-placed strategy keeping in mind the structure of the CMAT paper is what helped him achieve his goal.

Inclined towards starting a business of his own, Sagar feels that an MBA degree will be his first step towards achieving his aim. Sagar has appeared for all top management tests in the country, including Common Management Test (CAT) Score – 92 percentile, Xaviers Admission Test (XAT) Score – 89.15 percentile, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Score – 67 in written test and Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) Score – 99.98.

Sagar’s scorecard for CMAT Feb 2013

Sagar had also appeared for the September 2012 CMAT test. However, at that time he had secured rank 580 with a total score of 253. According to him, during the September test his primary focus had been towards CAT, which attributed to his low rank that time. “Every exam requires a different approach. During my last attempt at CMAT, the test was overriden by CAT, a mistake which I corrected in my Feb test. The results are for everyone to see,” he said.

What was the difficulty level of CMAT as compared to the other tests? To this, Sagar said that General Knowledge (GK) is the only section which makes the paper slightly tricky. GK was also his weakest point, he added. In order to prepare for this section, Sagar relied on the pattern of the previous year papers of IIFT and Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP), which also have a GK section. He also paid special attention to the GK tips given at the IMS learning centre in Mumbai where he took coaching.

“I made pointers of some of the general topics covered in these sections and prepared them,” he said. History, Civics, Science and Geography were some of the topics to which he paid extra attention.

According to him, all other sections in the test were a notch easier than CAT. Although the basic structure of the Quant section is the same, the level of application of formulae varies in the two tests. According to him, the English section was at par in both the papers.

Sagar completed his B.Sc (IT) from Mumbai University in 2012. He then worked with a travel company as a customer care executive for six months before he quit his job and joined an IMS Learning Centre in Mumbai to prepare for his impending management tests. He has already got a call from IRMA and is waiting for his final result for IIFT. However, given the option this young achiever would like to join Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), Mumbai.

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Mikin Mayurbhai Shah

Feb 2013 Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) topper Mikin Mayurbhai Shah is not your regular aspirant. Having already found his calling, this 32-year old banker turned academician is the co-founder of Foresight School, a coaching institute which trains students of Gujarat for MBA entrance exams and some other financial courses. Having taken this exam with the objective of keeping himself updated with the question format, he is elated with his performance.

However, this feeling is not alien to him. He had topped the Gujarat Common Entrance Test (GCET) in 2004, 2009 and 2010. His strategy for CMAT was simple, attempt a high number of questions with maximum accuracy. According to Mikin, accuracy is more important than speed in CMAT.

Mikin’s score card

As an academician, Mikin is also very happy about the May CMAT and thinks that the exam will help the students of Gujarat. He says, “It is actually necessary for a state like Gujarat. GCET has been scrapped and it is a period of transition for the students. Also, GCET was conducted in June and the aspirants in Gujarat were used to giving the exam at that time of the year. As a teacher, I have also noticed that awareness about CMAT is not up to the mark in Gujarat. This will give students more time to prepare for the exam and possibly save a year.”

Currently pursuing his CFA level III, his focus is on the growth of his institute.