Picture this.
You finish a CAT mock.
You think...
"Not bad."
You even smile.
Then someone drops this message in the WhatsApp group.
"Guys, how much did you score? I got 98.7 percentile. Silly mistakes yaar 😂."
There it is.
The most dangerous sentence in CAT preparation.
Suddenly, your respectable 82 percentile feels like you've accidentally submitted your Class 8 maths paper.
Five minutes later, another person joins.
"I attempted 23 questions."
Another.
"Quant was so easy today."
Easy?
Were we writing the same mock?
By the end of the conversation, you're convinced everyone is secretly a Nobel Prize winner pretending to prepare for CAT.
Here's the plot twist.
They're not.
Welcome to the internet.
Where people post their best mocks.
Their best scores.
Their best attempts.
Nobody proudly announces,
"Guys, I spent six minutes calculating 18% of 250."
Nobody posts,
Key Insight / Strategy
"Accidentally skipped an entire RC because I was busy existentially staring at the timer."
Social media is a highlight reel.
CAT preparation is behind-the-scenes footage.
And behind the scenes?
Everyone has bad mocks.
Everyone has silly mistakes.
Everyone has looked at an LRDI set and thought,
"This looks less like Data Interpretation and more like ancient Sanskrit."
The only score that actually matters is this:
Are you better than the version of yourself from last month?
Did your accuracy improve?
Are you spending less time on trap questions?
Are you making fewer careless mistakes?
That's progress.
Comparing yourself to random strangers on Telegram is like comparing your first gym session to Cristiano Ronaldo's training routine.
Technically possible.
Practically useless.
So the next time someone says,
"Bro, I got 99.4."
Smile.
Say, "Nice."
And go back to analyzing your mock.
Because CAT doesn't rank you against the loudest person in the WhatsApp group.
It rewards the student who quietly improves every single week.
And trust us...
Half the people saying "paper was easy" are currently trying to remember whether Profit & Loss comes before or after Time & Work in the syllabus.
Stay in your lane.
Your percentile will thank you.
