The Common Admission Test, also known as the CAT exam, is one of the most challenging entrance tests in the country. Millions of students take this exam every year in hopes of gaining admission to their dream Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). However, not all students reap the fruits of their hard work, as many students have to make several attempts to clear the exam.

But one inspiring and moving story has emerged from Telangana, where five visually impaired students cleared the CAT exam on their first attempt. Meet Rahul Munnur, B Sharath Kumar, Baddam Akash Reddy, Shivani Kottakapu and Daya Praveen, who did not succumb to their challenges but rose above all difficulties. 

This group of five hardworking friends studied together at the Devnar School for the Blind, Hyderabad, and then moved to Chennai for their graduation and got a degree in Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) from Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology.

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Talking to TNM, Akash Reddy shared an incident of Vignesh Srinivasan, the founder of Mockat MBA coaching centre in Chennai, visiting his college. He said, "He told us about CAT preparations and IIM life and we decided to give it a try. We had separate classes at the centre and we were trained to visualise concepts and graphs in a faster way. We also did a lot of mock tests with scribe writers."

“We use applications like NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA), Job Access With Speech (JAWS) while learning. Those are screen readers which will read out everything that is on the screen. Thus we are able to summarise and interpret paragraphs,” said Sharath Kumar, explaining how technology played a major role in helping them prepare for their exam. 

CAT reserves 5% of seats for candidates under the Persons with Disability (PwD) category, and they are also allotted an additional 40 minutes for their exam. 

Rahul, Akash, and Sharath got the seats at some of the top IIMs in India, including IIM Ahmedabad. Shivani and Praveen have also received offers from 18 IIMS and are hopeful of admission to either IIM Lucknow or IIM Calcutta. 

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