How to Prepare for CMI Entrance ~ Saptarshi Sadhukhan

Learn from the Achiever - Saptarshi Sadhukhan (CMI, 2021)

Saptarshi Sadhukhan - CMI Entrance Success Story

Saptarshi Sadhukhan has made it to the CMI Entrance 2021 Merit List.

He shared with us how he prepared for the CMI Entrance in an interview with Cheenta. This interview will take you through the preparation journey of Saptarshi for CMI Entrance 2021 and can help you with some insights that you can utilize for your CMI preparation.

Here are some of the questions, that he answered in the interview. You may find more insights in the video provided below.

Tell us about yourself.

I am Saptarshi Sadhukhan, Class 12th Passout. I cleared RMO in 10th standard and recently made it to the Chennai Mathematical Institute, CMI, 2021.

The logic and reasoning involved in maths are absolutely flawless and this makes it more appealing than any other subject. Massive problems can be solved in minutes using elementary techniques. This is the reason I love this subject.

Besides math, I am interested in football, music, and web series.

How did you prepare for the ISI and CMI Entrance?

I appeared in ISI and CMI 2020, but could not clear. So this year, I became a lot more focused and organized, especially in the last few months, which is the most crucial time. I used a timer every time I solved any sort of mock paper, objective or subjective. I tried my best to cover all sorts of problems from every topic, and I was absolutely thorough with the past year's questions. Also, I worked on my exam trauma and anxiety.

Can you suggest some books or other resources that had helped you in your preparation?

Books

1. Test of Mathematics at 10+2 level

2. Challenges and Thrills of Pre-College Mathematics

3. An excursion in mathematics

4. Mathematical Olympiad challenges

5. Mathematical Olympiad Treasures,

6. Problem-solving Strategies

7. Introduction to Real Analysis (Bartle),

8. Complex Numbers from A to Z (Titu Andreescu),

9. Elementary number theory (D M Burton).

Youtube channels

I used youtube mostly for motivation, so Ted-ed, Numberphile, and 3 Blue 1 Brown helped.

Websites

Cheenta's website helped a lot while solving previous year's question papers (hints and solutions are given), apart from that AOPS and Brilliant helped a lot.

What are you planning next?

I have not thought very deep into my future yet, but I will definitely join CMI, and all I am focused on now is doing Mathematics.

How Cheenta helped you in your ISI - CMI preparation?

The one-on-one classes helped me a lot, it helped me realize and pinpoint my strengths and weaknesses, also the mock tests helped me a lot in evaluating myself. The teachers there are former or current students from ISI and CMI, so their preparation experience was much insightful.

The success stories about previous students in Cheenta helped a lot in maintaining the motivation after last years failure. Overall Cheenta helped a lot.