Two from Maharashtra among 20 national CAT toppers

MUMBAI: Twenty of the 1.95 lakh candidates, who took CAT 2016, have managed to crack it with a perfect score. Male engineers continued to dominate the toppers’ list this year too. The number of 100 percentilers though is the highest in the last six years, not a single woman has bagged the top slot. Last year, one of the 17 toppers was a girl.

“In the sectionals, however, many non-engineers and female candidates have scored 100

percentile

,” said professor Rajendra K Bandi, Convener, CAT 2016, in an official release from

IIM-Bangalore

. The results were announced by the institute on Monday on their website and to individual candidates via SMS. The institute intends to release the details on the candidates’ profile after the interviews. According to results’ data from previous years, there were nine 100 percentilers in 2011, 10 in 2012, right in 2013, 16 in 2014 and 17 in 2015. Among the candidates who registered for the test, 67% were men. The test was conducted on December 24 in 138 cities.

Of the 20 toppers, at least three are from Delhi, two are from Kolkata and one each from Mumbai, Pune and Chennai. Yash Choudhari, originally from Kolhapur, who is currently studying at College of Engineering, Pune, has managed to crack the most competitive test for admissions to the premier IIMs, in his first attempt. “I wrote a mock test almost every day till the exam date. It was difficult, but I have managed to crack it,” he said. “I don’t know which IIM I will get through, because the interviews will be the deciding factor. But my first choice is obviously

IIM-Ahmedabad

, followed by Bengaluru and Kolkata. I am very fond of mathematics, so my aim is to major in finance,” he added.

The candidate from Mumbai, Patrick D’Souza, 40, who managed to get the perfect score, is a CAT trainer and has been appearing for the test for last 12 years. Of the many attempts, he has bagged 100 percentile twice before – once in 2007 and in 2009. “I appear for the test only to understand the changing pattern in CAT and use it to coach my students,” said D’Souza, who is already done his MBA from Mumbai’s Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.

From IIT-Bombay, about six to seven candidates have managed to score above 99 percentile in the 2016 exam. Last year, one topper was from the premier institute in Mumbai and a year before that three belonged to the elite club of 100 percentilers. Ashwin Singh, who is currently in his final year B tech (mechanical engineering) already, has a job offer from finance major. Singh scored 99.96 percentile in CAT, but may not join the MBA programme. Anurag Khetawat and Umang Sangoi, both civil engineering graduates from IIT-Bombay, cleared the test with 99.99 percentile, in their second attempt. Tanmay Srivastava, an aerospace engineering graduate from B Tech 2015 batch from the institute also scored 99.99. Khetawat, who was assisting in his family business for a year after graduating, intends to pursue a major in operations. Sangoi, a Lower Parel resident, plans to major in finance. Sangoi’s father is a doctor and his mother, an educator. He had graduated from IIT-Bombay in 2014 and was working with a construction firm.

(with inputs from Shiladitya Pandit)