Ravish Chhabra gives aspirants tips to crack the exam slated to take place on December 4
Speed, accuracy and time if you can manage all three with aplomb, you are done. It’s a tried, tested and trusted success mantra for any competitive exam. Most importantly, preparation is the key, as they say, more you sweat in peace, and less you bleed in war. At present, the students going the whole hog for the December 4 exam which will enable their entry into coveted Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
There are two types of aspirants for CAT — those who start early and others who start late or barely have a plan to begin preparation. The ones who have started their preparation early must be aware about the CAT pattern and can hope to get test-ready in time. They have presumably gone through the syllabus and covered all the basics by now.
The rest need to follow a different smart path to crack CAT. It is within their reach to equip themselves and reasonably perform well within stipulated four months, with subtle tact, effort and discipline. However, the strategies remain the same, with different weight- age for each step. Importantly, combining classroom study with online testing would be a smart act at this stage. Here are some tips.
Focus on fundamentals: It would be vital for early starters to go through all the fundamentals of concepts that they have already studied. For those who have started late, at the outset focusing on the fundamentals is very important. This will help them tackle even the hardest problems that they may come across in CAT paper. This will also help them familiarize with the vast syllabus for the exam.
Make it section-wise: With sectional cut-off affecting one’s chances to get into IIMs, it has now become all the more important to focus more on different sections. Aspirants, who assumed scoring high on the single topic, now have to target high scores in all the three sections — Quantative Ability, Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, and Data Interpretation and logical Reasoning. With high focus on the reading part in Verbal section, now aspirants need to reorient their focus on Reading Comprehension. They must be good at reading to score higher in this section. Similarly, target areas need to be identified in all the sections. Thus, the need for a section-wise study plan.
Take ample mock tests: This is the most important part of the candidates’ preparation for the time left. You need to take mocks after every 10 days and make sure you run an analysis of your performance. This will help you identify your weak and strong areas and improve accordingly. Also, try different approaches in mocks to be more efficient in managing exam time. This will help you strategise effectively.
Focus on percentage: With CAT percentile determining the final outcome, aspirants tend to focus on getting higher percentile whereas the target should be to score a higher percentage of marks. Based on the analysis of previous CAT results, final percentile varies as per the number of test-takers but the score will be generally the same year on year. Therefore, while giving mock tests, try to score as higher as possible.
Know your strengths and weaknesses: You should be aware of your strengths and weaknesses so that you prepare within your boundaries. Such an awareness may help you to plan how to combat the fear or stress of the exam environment, and be at a par or better than the others. Therefore, you will have to make a strategy for the exam based on this criterion.
Gain speed and accuracy: Speed and accuracy are must-have skills to crack the exam. Try to improve upon your speed by identifying the time-savers and time-takers. Shortcut formulas and tricks may come in handy when it comes to improving one’s accuracy. Gaining experience of the simulation of the exact pattern of the exam will help you to acquire these skills.
Stay motivated: Not getting somewhere or not scoring good marks in mocks can demoralise you. Hence, remaining focused can be a bit hard. Giving up on preparation may look easy at a certain point but if you continue working hard, the end result will be sweeter and rewarding. Develop ways which will keep you going. Never give up.
(The writer is a CAT expert with TCYonline)