With CAT 2013 round the corner, students need to remember a few tips that will help them crack the exam. Arun Sharma tells you how to approach the test at every stage from here on
The common admission test (CAT) is said to be the toughest of all the competitive exams in the country because of high degree of competition to get into the management courses of prestigious Indian management institutes. Also most of the B-school in India nowadays has adopted this test and they use CAT scores as the eligibility criteria for admission process.
A month before
In the last one to two months the students need to focus on the following:
Tips & tricks
Make sure one gets a level of understanding each topic and each question type to the level — so that one can reach a point where not only does one know how to solve the question type — but also have a very strong belief about the ability to solve the question type.
This is the most essential aspect because it is all about the pressure of the exam when it is the mind against the question. The only thing that will be available will be the belief about one’s ability to solve and cross the required hurdles in the exam. Students typically miss out on this all important aspect of preparations.
Where to focus
Create an audit of the skill levels. In which skill level is one able to solve only level of difficulty (lOD) 1 questions (such areas will be weak), in which chapters can one handle lOD 1 and lOD 2 questions (such areas will be moderate) and which are the chapters in which one will be able to solve lOD1, lOD 2 and lOD 3 — all levels of questions (these will be the strong areas).
While preparing focus on fortifying the strengths, converting one’s moderate areas into strengths and finally converting one’s weaknesses into moderates.
written examination
While taking the test — keep in mind that one has to see (not necessarily solve) all the 30 questions in each section. Thus, the rate at which one attempts the questions should be such that in the available 70 minutes that one has time for each section — be able to read them and answer them. Otherwise, if one does not see all the 30 questions in each section, one will naturally miss out on some easy questions. Hence, do not create a time imbalance while taking the test.
What to read
The books are:
Online classrooms
The book and the CD with 30 hours of recorded classes is a complete package. The power of online usage is amazing. The perception earlier was that the Internet takes much time because in early days working on the Internet meant wasting a lot of precious time. That was back in 2008. Today, things have changed. Internet is fast and there is plenty of information to help students.
Today, it is possible to link with a fellow alumni sitting in the US. One can get a lot of feedback on how to crack the test, what kind of metal framework to have just before entering the exam centre. Internet is a helpful tools indeed these days. One can talk to other people anywhere in the world. And the training and teaching tools are available on the net so that one doesn’t miss any session.
If I were a student I will opt for online classes. I will not waste two hours in travelling to classes. I personally believe this online training is the future specially for specialised courses. The only difference between virtual classes and online classes is physical appearance. I can write and speak what I want to and students also can write what they want to ask me in the online class sessions.
Online classroom gives one a white board to write and sends questions through private chat windows. We give facility to speak out when the questions are too long. It has a hand raising facility too — name of the person starts flashing on the teacher's screen if someone raises the hand and has any question to ask. The interaction is much more in a virtual class. Face-to-face, sometimes many students feel shy asking questions.
(The writer is founder of Mindworkzz, & author of Tata Mc Graw Hill)