Devika Chakrabarty, a student of the final year at Rajasthan College of Agriculture, has achieved the maximum. She has been selected at IIM Ahmedabad.

Devika, a sportsman by spirit, has been a National level Tennis player in both her school days as well as in College. She is a student of Rajasthan College of Agriculture and has appeared for her final year BSc examinations.

A selection into the IIMs is glory in itself and getting a final offer from IIM Ahmedabad is icing on the cake. However, what makes this achievement worth noting is that she has been a non-Mathematics student through her senior school as well as in under graduation. The Common Admission Test (CAT) is heavy on Mathematics and needs extremely good Math skills both for the Quantitative Aptitude as well as Logical Reasoning sections.

On speaking to Devika, she made a statement, which highlights the spirit in the girl – that of approach and focus. Devika said that she had been apprehensive on appearing for the CAT, as Math was not one of her subjects. However, encouragement from parents and family coupled with the correct mentoring while coaching for her examinations got her over the fear of Maths and helped her achieve the requisite marks needed to get calls from the IIMs. She had appeared for the IIM Lucknow and IMI Delhi interviews as well, but a call from IIM-A sealed her aspirations.

Devika took to coaching under ProTalent Udaipur, where the Math coach, Vineet Baya channelised focussed mentoring and rigorous training to ensure that Math becomes one of her strong points.

For non-Maths students considering appearing in competitive examinations post 12th or for management entrance examinations post college, she has this to say.

“The Math in competitive examinations is more about analytics, problem solving and logical reasoning. One needs drive and a good mentor to train in the above and then Math is easy.”

Devika’s father is Assistant Professor (Plant Pathology) in RCA and her mother is a housewife. Her brother teaches Chemical Engineering at Rajasthan Vidyapeeth.

Being a Biology student, with an inherent fear of Maths Devika has announced to the world that getting through Math heavy competitive examinations is not an impossible task, and that IIM is not the realm of engineers.