CAT preparation strategies, IIM Ahmedabad student life, and MBA career guidance from IIM Ahmedabad student and author

Yugantar Gupta, an IIM Ahmedabad student and author of Study Smart, addressed a wide range of questions on CAT preparation, IIM A student life, and MBA career value. Here's what emerged from that conversation, along with our own perspective where it's useful.

On CAT preparation strategy, the core framing he offered is worth holding on to: hardwork is the one controllable variable in an aptitude-based exam. Luck and natural aptitude sit outside your control — effort doesn't. That's not a motivational platitude; it's a practical way to orient your preparation.

For Quantitative Ability, the insight that came through clearly is that timing and set selection matter more than raw solving ability. Being able to identify which questions to attempt within the time limit is the actual skill being tested — not whether you can solve every problem given unlimited time.

For VARC, which shows notably high score volatility, the recommendation was to benchmark your performance against previous year papers rather than relying solely on mock scores from various providers. Mock platforms vary significantly in difficulty calibration, and VARC scores in particular can be misleading without that anchor.

On mock score ranges, this is reassuring for anyone currently sitting in the 40–60 percentile band in mocks: it's common to jump to 70–85+ percentile in the actual exam. In fact, many IIM A students started with 60–70 percentile mocks and achieved 99+ in the actual CAT. We've seen this pattern reflected consistently across student conversations on our platform — mock scores, especially early in preparation, are a diagnostic tool, not a prediction.

On work experience and MBA timing, those with 3–4 years of experience can still pursue an MBA effectively, provided they're under 28 and targeting top 5–10 institutes. Beyond 3 years of experience, placements can become slightly more challenging, which makes the quality of preparation — and institute choice — more critical, not less.

On IIM Ahmedabad's culture, the picture that emerges is notably different from the cutthroat reputation the institute sometimes carries externally. The environment is described as largely collaborative, with most students helping each other both academically and during placements. Toxic behavior exists — that acknowledgment was explicit — but it isn't the daily norm. Long-term relationship preservation is naturally incentivized in a tight-knit cohort, which shapes how people actually behave.

On MBA relevance in 2025, the position is direct: for anyone targeting 30L+ CTC at 2–3 years post-MBA, a top-tier MBA remains the most reliable pathway. The important caveat is that this assumes the candidate isn't already in a FAANG-type role. From what we've tracked, professionals already in high-paying tech roles tend to gain comparatively less from an MBA — the opportunity cost calculus shifts significantly in those cases.

On age and placements at IIM A, candidates who are 27–28 years old make up approximately 10–15% of IIM A batches and do get placed. They may face fewer shortlists in certain domains, but the cohort is not small, and placement outcomes exist across profiles. Freshers without internships or prior work experience can also secure strong shortlists across marketing, finance, and general management — the outcome depends heavily on other CV elements.

Finally, there was some pointed skepticism raised about influencer-driven course-selling models in the MBA education space — the concern being around attention-seeking and commercial exploitation of aspirant anxiety. The counterposition, which we think is worth weighing fairly, is that content creation by current IIM students genuinely democratizes access to information that was previously gated. Both things can be true simultaneously: the incentive structures deserve scrutiny, and the access being created has real value.