1- It is usually perceived that the preparation is more or less the same for all MBA entrance exams. What do you have to say about the CAT Exams? What makes it different?
Before applying and preparing for different MBA exams like CAT, XAT, CMAT, IIFT or others, candidates need to know the difference between CAT and other MBA Entrance Exams. There are many similarities between CAT and other exams.
So, the primary point to be discussed according to CAT are-
- It is conducted by IIMs and is the MBA entrance test for 20 IIMs, FMS, IITs’ MBA, MDI, SPJIMR, IMI, IMT and 3000 other MBA colleges.
- CAT is the mandatory entrance test for admission to IIMs
- One of the key differences between CAT and other MBA entrance exams is the syllabus, the varying topics and sections. CAT does not have Decision Making and GK section, but XAT, CMAT, TISSNET, IIFT etc., exams have DM and GK as separate sections.
Likewise, These are some most important factors which make CAT different from other MBA exams.
2- How to not get demotivated if one scores less in them?
CAT scores can be seriously demotivating. Some students get severe anxiety attacks, unsure of what to do next after a low score. So how do you recover from these unpredictable blows of uncertainty and anxiety that CAT scores lay on you?
- During this tumultuous stage of your preparation, there are bound to be ups and downs. One must remember to stay focused despite the ups and motivated through the downs. That is the mark of a true champion.
- A common law through the preparation phase is a Bad Mock. It leaves the aspirant highly demotivated, and the aspirant starts asking questions like ‘Am I ever going to make it?’, ‘What if all this preparation is for nothing?’
3– Last month’s revision strategy on the CAT exam, which area of section to focus on?
Concentrate on what can be done rather than on what cannot be!
The acing of CAT requires two distinctive parallel approaches. One aims to ensure the utilisation of 2 hours thoroughly in the exam, the other aims to provide the maximum returns for the hours invested before the exam (read preparation).
The primary purpose of strategy is to ensure the following
- Read all questions in a section/set
- Identify and solve the easy and medium level difficulty questions first
- Identify and avoid difficulty OR lengthy questions
- Have a cutoff time (stop loss) for every question/every set
- Maximise attempts
- Get emotion out of the window while attempting the exam
- Being systematic and clinical in approach
Each student may have to hit upon a different idea/plan/strategy for attempting the exam to achieve the above.
FINAL STRATEGY FOR THE EXAM
- Decide on the time limits you would give within each section.
- Stick to the game plan
- The possible break-up of QA – Do it two rounds (25 min and 15 min)Or six questions in 10 min, DI – 20 min (7.5 min for each set)LA – 20 min (7.5 min for each set), RC –25 min (7 min for each passage)VA – 15 min
- In every section, sticking to the time limits is sacrosanct.
- Within each set of Say DI/LR or RC – doing all questions is NOT the objective. Reading and trying to attempt is!
Plan for Mocks
Take 5 to 8 tests in the remaining 40 days. Once a week is also more than sufficient. However, your friends and seniors will tell you that you need to write more mocks. No harm in that, except there, is only so much time to do anything. Writing Mocks alone won’t improve your marks. Hence, use the time judiciously.
Final Word
- 30 days can make a massive difference to your score
- You can add a minimum of 30 marks more than what you are currently getting.
- That could mean jumping about 15 to 20 percentile in the final analysis.
- With this approach, if you are getting 80 percentile now, you can hope to touch 90-95 percentile.
A CAT topper said, “To build confidence in VA, Rahul Sir’s verbal Wednesday’s were the best, and he has helped a lot in verbal as oral was my weakest section being an engineer and thank you to Anisha Ma’am for all the help and guidance during GDPI. Also, I bought a couple of books online from Amazon. I referred to Arun Sharma’s book on VARC, which is detailed and includes many questions, which is enough for practice. This helped me get a good hold on VARC.
I hope it Helps.
Have a happy learning.