While engineers continue to dominate the top positions in the CAT 2021 results announced on Monday, a few non-engineers shone brightly as an exception. Ritik Gupta is one such student who is currently pursuing BBA from a private university in Gurugram.
A native of Faridabad, Haryana, Ritik had qualified the NEET 2019 exam and got admission into the MBBS course at DY Patil Medical College, Pune. However, a fortnight into the course, Ritik realised that this isn’t what he was interested in pursuing as a profession.
“My elder brother is an IIT Delhi alumni and I had observed his struggles with the JEE exam. Hence, engineering never appeared as a probable choice. I wasn’t aware of future prospects after pursuing commerce either. Hence, I opted for medical in class 12 and began preparing for NEET. But as I shifted to Pune after admissions, I didn’t really enjoy studying. Therefore, instead of becoming a bad doctor, I decided to quit medical,” Ritik shared.
Since Ritik had not studied mathematics in class 12 he had limited choices to pursue graduation. Therefore he settled for an average private college and pursued BBA but set his vision to crack CAT exam in order to study at a prestigious university.
Ritik prepared for the CAT 2021 exam with his final year graduation studies. As per the topper, he devoted at least 7 to 8 hours a day to study for CAT.
“I began my preparation 8 months prior to the CAT exam. As colleges were shut due to Covid, I got extra time to prepare for the exam. As I was not in touch with mathematics for last five years, it took me some time to connect with the subject. I largely followed Arun Sharma’s books for preparation apart from following some youtube channels,” the topper shared.
Ritik stresses the importance of solving mock tests for CAT preparation. “Preparing for CAT was easier than NEET preparation since CAT demands greater accuracy and practice for cracking the exam. It is essential to solving as many mock papers and sample questions to understand the paper pattern. This immensely helps on the exam day,” Ritik explained.
Despite studying simultaneously for semester exams and CAT 2021, Ritik was actively present on social media and also played cricket for atleast an hour to loose the monotony. “It is important to keep pursing your hobby as it helps to shed the exam stress. I also read books on stress management to perform better academically,” the topper said.
