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CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma: How a Working Professional Cracked CAT with a Smart, Realistic Plan

Author : Lalita Vishwakarma

December 25, 2025

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Overview: In this interview, CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma shares how she juggled a full-time job, handled her fear of LRDI, managed a tricky VARC section on D-day, and still came out with an excellent CAT 98.15 %ile  .

If you’re a working aspirant or someone scared of LRDI and time management, Rashmi’s journey with Supergrads by Toprankers is a very real, no-nonsense roadmap.

Discover how Rashmi Sharma features in the CAT 2025 toppers list after cracking the CAT 2025 MBA entrance exam with a focused approach.

CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma 98.15%iler: Snapshot

  • Name: Rashmi Sharma
  • Exam: CAT 2025
  • Tagline: Working professional who turned weekends + smart planning into a CAT 2025 success story
  • Biggest fear: Not clearing the DILR sectional
  • Sections she did well in:
    • DILR (after consistent daily practice)
    • QA (through timed, written practice)
  • Section that felt below potential: VARC (she felt she could have attempted more questions)
  • Signature habits:
    • At least 1 LRDI set a day, even on the most hectic days
    • Mocks only on weekends, with proper 2–4 hours of analysis
    • Weekdays focused on concept building when energy was low

Mixed Emotions After Results: “I Could Have Done More”

When the CAT 2025 results came out, Rashmi’s first reaction wasn’t just joy — it was a mix of happiness and that classic topper thought:

“Maybe if I had attempted a few more questions, I could have done even better.”

Especially in VARC, CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma felt she didn’t maximise her potential on the number of attempts, even though the overall score was very strong.

That mindset – happy but still hungry to improve – is something every serious CAT 2026 aspirant can learn from.

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Exam-Day Mindset of CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma

According to CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma, your exam day is not the day to stay mentally glued to your books or revision notes.

Her key exam-day principles were:

✅Disconnect from prep on D-day

  • Go in with a fresh mind, not a tired one.

✅Treat each section as a separate mini-exam

  • No matter how the previous section went, the next 40 minutes are a clean slate.

✅Main goal on that day

  • “Your score is to score.”
  • It doesn’t matter how many books you read — what matters is how many questions you get right in those 2 hours.

✅Be flexible with methods

  • If eliminating options works for you, do that.
  • If plugging values or approximations helps, use them.
  • The focus should be on maximising marks, not showing off methods.

For CAT 2026 aspirants, CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma’s biggest reminder is simple:

👉 On exam day, performance > preparation guilt. Forget what you could have done. Focus on what you can do in those 2 hours.

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VARC Strategy: Increase Attempts (But Respect Accuracy)

In VARC, CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma realised one big thing:
If you already have a decent command of English, your score is often limited by the number of attempts, not just by accuracy.

Her approach to VARC:

  • If your English is reasonably strong:
    • Work on increasing the number of attempts.
    • More attempts = more scoring chances, as long as accuracy doesn’t collapse.
  • But if your accuracy is already low:

For aspirants with okay-to-good English, the Rashmi rule for VARC is:

“Once accuracy is under control, push your attempt count up — that’s where the extra marks are hiding.”

DILR Strategy: From “Scariest Section” to Stronger Area

For CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma, DILR was the scariest part of CAT.

  • She was genuinely worried about not clearing the sectional cut-off.
  • In her previous attempt, she had gone almost “blind” to the LRDI paper with barely any practice — and she paid for it.

This year, she flipped the script with one simple mindset:

“LRDI only works with regular, continuous practice.”

Her DILR approach:

Aspect

Approach of CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma

Frequency

Every single day

Minimum Target

At least 1 LRDI set (even on the most hectic days)

Ideal Target

1–2 good sets on regular days

Objective

Train the brain to think in puzzles daily

Outcome

Higher confidence & better performance on D-Day

For CAT 2026, if DILR scares you like it did CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma, start small:

1–2 good sets every single day will beat 10 sets done once a week.

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Quant Strategy: Time-Bound Written Practice Over Passive Revision

In Quant, CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma did not stop at revising formulas or watching concept lectures.

Her key realisations:

  • Concept learning is just step 1.
  • You never feel prepared in Quant if you’re only revising theory.

So she focused on:

✅Writing questions by hand

  • Solving on paper, not just in your head.

✅Time-bound practice

  • Doing questions in a sectional test format to build speed + stamina.

✅Timed sections over casual solving

  • Simulated the pressure of CAT so that the real test doesn’t feel shocking.

Takeaway from CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma for QA:

Don’t measure Quant prep by “chapters completed”; measure it by how many timed questions you’ve actually solved.

Practice vs Concepts vs Revision: Rashmi’s 40–40–20 Rule for CAT 2025

One of the most actionable parts of CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma’s strategy is her rough ratio for preparation:

Component

Percentage

Role in Preparation

Practice

40%

Solving new questions, sectionals, and sets

Revision

40%

Re-solving previous questions, revisiting mistakes, patterns

Concepts

20%

Watching/learning new topics, theory, and notes

Why this makes sense:

  • Concepts keep getting refined as you practice more questions.
  • But without repetition and revision, whatever you learned will fade.

According to her:

  • Practice + revision is where the real improvement happens.
  • Repetition is not “boring extra work”; it is the work that converts knowledge into marks.

So if you’re preparing for CAT 2026, audit your schedule once:

Are you stuck at 60–70% “concept watching”?
Try shifting closer to the 40–40–20 structure of CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma.

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 CAT Online Coaching

How did CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma balance her job & CAT Prep?

Rashmi was a working professional, and, like most working aspirants, she initially aimed for daily engagement, but… reality set in.

Her honest breakdown:

Weekdays (Low Energy, Limited Time)

  • Often, I could spare only ~1 hour before or after work.
  • She prioritised:
    • Concept building (watching/attending classes, revising theory)
    • Lighter mental load — more consumption than intense solving
  • She avoided forcing heavy practice on weekdays when focus was low.

Weekends (High Focus, Longer Hours)

  • Mocks were strictly reserved for weekends.
  • Why? A full mock + analysis needed:
    • ~2 hours for the mock
      • 2–4 hours of detailed analysis
  • This kind of deep work was only realistic on Saturdays/Sundays.

This is a very practical template for working aspirants:

CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma = Weekdays for concepts + light practice, Weekends for mocks + serious analysis.

How She Used Mocks: Weekends = Test + Diagnosis

CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma didn’t treat mocks as casual score-checks.

Her mock strategy:

  • Mocks only on weekends, where she could give:
    • 2 hours → Full mock in exam-like conditions
    • 2+ hours → Proper analysis
  • During analysis, she focused on:
    • Where time was getting wasted
    • Which questions should she have skipped
    • How her strategy worked in each section

This ensured each mock became:

Not just “another test”, but a live feedback loop for her CAT 2025 preparation.

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 CAT Online Coaching

Handling Changing Exam Pattern: 40% Fixed, 60% Dynamic

With CAT patterns evolving, CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma is very clear:

  • Don’t over-depend on a fixed pattern.
  • The number of questions, sets, or even sections can change.

Her philosophy:

  • 40% of your strategy can be fixed
    • Your basic plan: order of sections, target attempts, time break-up.
  • 60% should be dynamic, decided after you actually see the paper.

Her advice for CAT 2026 Aspirants:

  • Expect variations in:
    • Number of LRDI sets
    • Difficulty level of sections
    • Length of Quant questions
  • Focus on strong basics and flexible thinking, not memorising one rigid strategy.

Rashmi’s In-Exam Strategy: How She Approached Each Section

1️⃣VARC (First Section)

For VARC, CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma went in with a clear script:

  • Start with Reading Comprehension passages
  • In between, pick some single (non-RC) questions
  • Try to cover all she could as per her plan

Even if the execution wasn’t perfect, having a pre-decided flow helped avoid panic.

2️⃣LRDI (Section)

Her LRDI strategy on D-day:

  • First, scan for the easiest doable sets
  • Don’t force yourself to complete a full set of one tough exercise. Instead:
    • It’s better to do two sets halfway
    • Then waste 20 minutes getting stuck on one impossible set
  • Strict time cap:
    • Don’t spend more than ~5 minutes stuck on one question

This is classic topper behaviour: cut your losses quickly, move to questions that can actually fetch marks.

3️⃣Quant (Section)

For CAT Quant section, her usual strategy was:

  • Do shorter, easier questions first, then move to lengthier ones.

But in CAT 2025:

  • Most questions were on the lengthier side,
  • So it was harder to identify “quick wins”.

Even then, the lesson from CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma is:

Have a default plan, but be ready to tweak it if the paper doesn’t behave as expected.

Dealing with Pre-Exam Anxiety: Was She Able to Sleep?

Like most serious aspirants, CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma also found it very hard to sleep the night before CAT.

But she consciously tried to:

  • Stay as calm as possible
  • Avoid overthinking marks and cut-offs
  • Prioritise not being sleep-deprived in the exam

Because at the end of the day, a tired brain can’t perform, no matter how good your preparation is.

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Key Takeaways for CAT 2026 from CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma

Here’s a quick recap you can bookmark:

✅Treat Exam Day as a Performance Day

  • Your only job: score as high as possible in each section, independently.

✅If your English is Decent, Push VARC Attempts

  • Once accuracy is stable, increase the number of attempts to unlock higher scores.

✅For DILR, Consistency Beats Talent

  • 1–2 sets a day → more valuable than a random “LRDI marathon” once a week.

✅For Quant, Practice Under Time

  • Solve timed sectionals, not just untimed questions.

✅Follow the 40–40–20 Rule

  • 40% practice, 40% revision, 20% new concepts.

✅Working Professionals

✅Be Pattern-Agnostic

  • Fix only 40% of your strategy; keep 60% flexible depending on the actual paper.

✅Use a Structured Ecosystem

  • Like Toprankers / Supergrads, where mocks, sectionals, and material are all in one place, so your energy goes into solving, not searching.

Conclusion

The journey of CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma shows that you don’t need a perfect schedule or 10 free hours a day to crack CAT.

What you do need is:

  • A realistic plan that fits your life
  • Regular touch with all three sections
  • Smart use of weekends for mocks and analysis
  • And the courage to stay calm and flexible on exam day

If you’re a CAT 2026 aspirant, take inspiration from CAT 2025 Topper Rashmi Sharma:

You can balance a job, manage fear of LRDI, recover from a less-than-perfect section like VARC, and still finish as a CAT 2025 topper — as long as you stay consistent, reflective, and strategic.

Frequently Asked Questions

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About the Author

Faculty
Lalita Vishwakarma

Content Writer

Lalita Vishwakarma is a professional content writer with 3 years of experience, distinguished by her ability to transform raw ideas into polished, high-impact content. She masterfully combines creative storytelling with strategic execution, ensuring that her work not only captures attention but also drives desired outcomes.... more