7 Facts on How to Crack CAT Exam

Millions of MBA aspirants appear for MBA entrance exams every year with a dream to get admission in top B-school. Among all such entrance exams CAT (Common Admission Test) is the most crucial and most attempted one test. Although Syllabus of CAT is aimed for students seeking admission in IIMs, its result is accepted by 150 other Indian B-schools. You may think that cracking CAT is most difficult task that needs lots of hardwork, but here smart work is needed. Ideally CAT is getting held every year in the month of October-November. Entire test pattern is divided into 2 sections: Qualitative Aptitude and Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning. Before starting to prepare for CAT you should have detailed information about it. It is a 2 hours 20 minutes exam and its application is filled online. Every year in the month of July the advertisement for its application is released and the registration closes by September end.

Eligibility Criteria: Eligibility to appear for CAT is candidate must have graduate degree from a government recognized university with minimum of 50% marks. Results are declared in the month of January.

Here are some sure-shot and practical tips to crack CAT Exam:

1. Read More : Cultivate the habit of reading and continue it till your last day of exam. Locate the areas where you lack behind or have short knowledge. Concentrate reading in those areas. It would be a helpful tool to prepare for CAT. This would also be useful for comprehension reading, theme based questions and paragraph formation questions. Make your grammar strong. Your focus should be to strengthen your vocabulary. As an added tip you can always carry a small dictionary with you.

2. Making Mathematics Strong : As a syllabus of CAT, make your mathematics stronger. Take every opportunity to do calculations with numbers and multiplication. For the Quantitative part the focus should be on Number systems and Geometry. Work to make the mental mathematics skills stronger. Teach yourself to do calculations mentally and remember the standardized formulas.

3. Last 7 Days : Utilize the last 7 days before exam to take maximum benefit from the hard work that you have put in.

4. Time Management : Abide strictly to the time schedule. If you are appearing for a 2 hour test, then make it a point to complete it in 2 hours. During practice session of CAT, strictly follow the time and refrain from every disturbance.

5. Preparing for CAT Mentally : Study hard to prepare for CAT is important, but take out at least an hour or half for yourself. Practice yoga, meditation or exercise to keep your body and mind fit. Breathing exercises or pranayam are helpful to relieve stress. Eat good and right while exam preparation. Intake more of fresh fruits and vegetables and limit intake of fried and fatty food items.

6. Mock CAT Tests : Attempt the mock CAT tests as much as you can, at least 30-40 mocks in 3 months is an ideal count.

7. Self Analysis : Keep a track record of the accuracy and speed of all sections separately. Try to achieve a stable figure. If you notice sudden change in those figures, identify the reasons and carry out steps to make it stable.

These were simple yet effective tips to crack CAT entrance exams, you can refer to past CAT toppers experience and stories to take referred tips on this subject.

Smart Tips to Crack CAT Exam in 2 Months

Some people plan to prepare for the CAT exam years ahead of taking it. They enroll themselves in CAT preparation courses through face to face coaching or online. So, you may be asking if, with all the pressures of managing day to day life, including perhaps a full time work load, it be possible to prepare for the CAT exam in two months?

In the last two months you need to focus on two things topic wise revision and Mock tests. With planning, preparation, and the right strategy, you can crack the CAT exam in two months.

Preparation process is to sit down and with a focused and methodical approach, start with an honest analysis of yourself first. What are your strengths? Where are you good at? What are your areas of improvement? Where do you need more time to practice? This analysis can be done by taking up a CAT mock test. Take the test as though you were answering the real one. Take it seriously. And then, when you are done, see the patterns of your results. What key points come up? Are you weak in vocabulary? Do you take more time in reading comprehension? Do you have mastery of quantitative fundamentals? Are you able to complete the mock test by the required time? Do you blank out and get nervous?

Knowing where you stand is a great ground work to knowing how to prepare and be ready in two months. So, you have two months, where do you begin?

You begin with the knowledge that you have on your strong points and weak area. Chart out your performance in each section, into four main quadrants:

1. Good Speed, Good Accuracy. Strategy: Lesser focus. You are already good.
2. Good Speed, Bad Accuracy. Strategy: Look at your practice answers. Where is the mistake happening? Is there a pattern? Assess and improve.
3. Bad Speed, Bad Accuracy. Strategy: Put in the most focus into this section. Work by researching on easy tips and techniques to improve the speed and accuracy for these types of questions.
4. Bad Speed, Good Accuracy. Strategy: Practice. Practice hard. Practice more. Practice will improve speed. Get easy strategies on improving and keeping the momentum that are available online.

Be prepared for anything and everything

The uncertainty of pattern is weaking havoc among CAT aspirants. But look at it this way, you are all in the same boat. So rather than preparing based on pattern, prepare for topics. There could be an imbalance in number of questions being divided among sections. But as long as you are equally good in all, it will not make a differnce.

Divide your time among the two major sections and four sub sections wisely. If you are exceptionally good in one, give it a littile lesser time and try to improve the areas you are not so good at. You do not want to lose precious marks in any section.

Go back to the basics

The USp of CAT or any MBA entrance exam is that it does not involve rocket science. The topics are of basic mathematics and aptitude. Aim of any management entrance exam is to test a candidate's aptitude and problem solving ability.

Preparing for basic English questions in CAT

To justly increase number of questions and to let students solve them in lesser time, there could be rise in questions on basic English. This could include more speech, tense, word formations, phrasal verbs.

Speed and accuracy  - That is all you need to get the perfect score in CAT !

·         Solve questions quickly and correctly.

·         Rather than trying to learn concepts, you can start doing questions from the beginning.

·         Do not spend a long time in just knowing a concept. start practicing its approach in questions.

·         Two months before appearing for CAT exam, you must know which are your weak and strong areas.

·         If you are yet unable to understand the weak topics, do not spend a very long time on them.

·         Start further strengthening your strong areas. Try to solve those questions in lesser time.