For those who scored 99 percentile in CAT, how did you prepare?What was your daily study routine like?

Question

I’ve seen a lot of toppers mention their percentile but not many share the exact routine or strategy they followed.  If you scored 99+ in CAT, can you please share how your day looked during prep?  How many hours did you study? What was your mock strategy? Did you follow a strict plan or go with the flow?
 Would really help to hear some real routines from people who made it to that level

T Ronak · Accepted Answer

Scoring 99+ in CAT is less about the number of study hours and more about how structured and adaptive the prep is. I scored 99.3 in CAT 2022, and here&rsquo;s what my routine looked like.
Weekdays were tight due to college, so I studied 2.5 to 3 hours daily. Mornings were for Quant ,  one hour of concept drilling followed by 30 minutes of mixed question practice. During breaks, I squeezed in one RC or VA drill,  usually 4&ndash;5 questions from past mocks. DILR was kept for evenings when I had uninterrupted time, mostly solving one full set under a timer and reviewing it right after.
Mocks started early,  mid-July. One mock every Sunday with full analysis on Monday. But the game-changer was maintaining a &ldquo;mistake log.&rdquo; I&rsquo;d note down questions I got wrong with reasons ,  silly mistake, time misjudgment, or concept gap. That log became my revision goldmine in the last month.
The plan wasn&rsquo;t fixed, but after every mock, I spent a day reviewing it in detail, noted what went wrong, and adjusted my next week&rsquo;s prep based on those mistakes,  whether it was speed in Quant or set selection in DILR. That weekly reset helped keep things focused.

Shruti T · Answer

Scored 99.6 in CAT 2021, and the biggest shift came when I stopped obsessing over hours and started focusing on mental sharpness and test-day mindset. This was the routine that worked:
&bull; Weekdays: 2 hours before work (7 to 9 am) , rotated Quant and DILR. Nights were for RCs and mock reviews. VA drills (like odd-one-out or para jumbles) happened during commute using mobile PDFs. &bull; Sundays: Full-length mock at the exact CAT slot time (2 to 5 pm). The rest of the day was mock analysis , went deep into question selection patterns and time spent per section. &bull; Every Thursday: Gave a sectional test of the weakest section from the last mock. This kept the weak spots in check. &bull; Had one day every two weeks where I re-solved just the incorrect or skipped questions from 3 previous mocks. Helped a lot with retention and confidence. &bull; Did 5&ndash;10 minute meditation before every mock. Helped stay calm, especially in DILR which was usually my make-or-break section.
No fancy planner. Just repeated the cycle of mock > review > adjust every single week till November.