How I Increased My CAT Percentile from 80 to 99
- IIMwalaBanda
- Jul 26
- 1 min read
One of the questions I get asked the most is:
"How do I go from 80 to 99 percentile?"
The answer isn't learning hundreds of new concepts.
It's changing how you prepare.
When I started taking CAT seriously, I stopped chasing the syllabus and started chasing better decisions. Instead of solving more questions, I spent more time understanding why I got questions wrong.
Here's what made the biggest difference:
I treated every mock like the actual CAT.
I spent more time analyzing mocks than writing them.
I focused on improving my strongest topics instead of trying to master everything.
I stopped comparing my scores with others and started competing with my previous mock.
I trusted the process even when my scores didn't improve immediately.
One thing most students don't realize is that going from 80 to 90 percentile is very different from going from 90 to 99.
Beyond 80, it's rarely about learning new formulas. It's about better question selection, fewer silly mistakes, stronger accuracy, and staying calm under pressure.
That's exactly what helped me improve my own score from around 80 in mocks to eventually touching 99 in mocks and scoring a 98.3 percentile in CAT.
I've explained my complete 4-month strategy, mock analysis process, and the exact approach I recommend in this video.
Watch it here and see if it helps you build your own roadmap.
Happy learning!
— Palash (IIM Wala Banda)
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