Restrict your attempts to 75% of the total questions. attempting all questions will lead to disaster.
Hiteshchawla
Sir for the next thirty days, should my focus be balanced between test-taking/analysis of tests and brushing up of new concepts.....or should I focus only on test-taking/analysis? Is it too late to brush up on concepts? How should I prepare in the last 10 days?
Hemang Panchmatia
@Hitesh: new concepts can be done over the next 4-5 days. After that, focus on test taking. 3-4 Full length tests + 3-4 sectional tests a week. No Mocks in the last 2 days. Revise all mocks, concepts in the last 2 days. write 2-3 Mocks before that.
Deepakram
Sir how do you approach the CAT paper. What are your strengths and weaknesses (relatively). and how do you time and pace yourself in Quant and VA?
Hemang Panchmatia
@Deepakram : rule#1 : start with your strength. give it 75 mins. In section 2, devote 25-30 mins to Logic. Devote about 85 mins to the other section. last 10 mins can be used as buffer to increase scores. Use around 3-4 Mocks to practice this. Time management is the core of test-taking strategy
Shishir Agarwal
What type of RCs should we attempt? At times there are more of philosophical type of RCs which are beyond understanding. What to do in this type of condition?
Hemang Panchmatia
@Shishir: I expect 3-4 RCs in CAT. go through the questions of all 4 and select the 2 easiest RCs. Philosophy RCs can be difficult to comprehend and should not be your first choice.
Jana JD Janardhan
Good Morning Sir. Being a Law Student, I want to get benefit out of academic diversity. As per Admission criteria document rolled out by IIM A, I will fall under the academic diversity category. Can you tell me what percentile I should target to be an Exceptional Performer on Top 50 Category? I am a OBC student, Have 4+ years of working experience in IT as a software engineer in Tech Mahindra
Hemang Panchmatia
@Jana : target 98 percentile. You will stand a fair chance. As a OBC candidate, you should be targetting 90 percentile. believe me, with your profile, you can make it to the Top 3 IIMs.
Suresh
Sir will the level of Quant questions in CAT be easier this year? Should I start trying to maximize my attempts and worry less about accuracy? Also sir, I have almost given up on permutations and combinations and probability. Should I atleast practice the easiest sums in these areas?
Hemang Panchmatia
@Suresh: It is expected that Quant will be a little easy than last year. Attempt of 27-30 attempts in Section 1 should be fine. Practice the easy questions of P &C. Thankfully, P&C is not a high priority area for CAT.
Nikita Gautam
i have been scoring in the range of85-95 percentile in verbal section.(IMS Mocks) .But facing difficulty in quant. I belong to SC category, female, commerce background. What should be the plan for maintaining the same consistency in verbal and improving in quant?
Hemang Panchmatia
@Nikita : Please focus on Quant. Focus on the following modules : Algebra, Geometry & High Math. followed by Number System. First focus should be to clear sectional cut-offs.
Dipu Raj
Sir, I am scoring aroumd 80 in quants section of AIMCAT by TIME but just around 40 in VALR section. In which areas should I improve myself to get good score in VA LR.
Hemang Panchmatia
@Dipu : 80 in Section 1 is a very good score. For section 2, I would say devote 30 mins to Logic and try getting 7-8 attempts in Logic ( most ppl who are good at Quant are good at Logic). For the next 50 mins of Verbal , try attempting 1 RC ( 12 mins), another 10-12 questions from Verbal.
Mayank Saxena
How should I prepare to clear the sectional cutoff in VA section. My accuracy has been horrible in this season's mocks. Also, I feel I'm not comfortable with RCs, so I do not attempt any most of the times
Team InsideIIM
@Mayank - We'd like to point out that it's not a great idea to forget RCs altogether.....RCs are very important and in every CAT they will have a high weightage.....and once you become a manager, your RCs skill will always be tested....so being good at RCs is a necessary condition for becoming a good manager.
Hemang Panchmatia
@Mayank : 30 mins to Logic ( 8 attempts). 12 mins for 1 RC ( it is difficult to clear cut-off with no RC attempted). Another 40 mins to attempts 12 questions from Grammar, Parajumbles etc.
Mayank Saxena
Thanks Sir... Can you pls also advise the no of attempts required in each section which ensures calls from the old IIMs.
Hemang Panchmatia
@Mayank: 25-28 attempts in Section 1. 27-30 in Section 2. Total of 55 attempts with 85% accuracy should get you 95 percentile+.
Charul Kakkar
Sir my vocab is not so good..i am concentrating towards parajumbles error correction summary based and RC..also close type questions(not much)..is this sufficient to score good in verbal??
Hemang Panchmatia
@Charul: No real point in focusing on Vocab . I would agree with your current strategy.
Charul Kakkar
Ok..and sir one more thing..What’s an effective strategy for NMAT??
Hemang Panchmatia
NMAT is very Vocab intensive. To really succeed in NMAT, you need to do the 800 GRE High Frequency Words
Shashi
Sir. I am losing marks in the vocab and grammar part of VA. Am doing fine in RC. What can I do in the last 30 days? I know that knowledge of grammar etc cannot be cultivated speedily.
Hemang Panchmatia
@Shashi : at this point of time, you should know your weaknesses and reduce your attempts there. CAT is about maximizing your strengths
Gururaj
Sir - what should be my approach in DI. It is a bit of a problem area for me. I am able to handle quant and VA.
Hemang Panchmatia
@Gururaj: If DI is a problem, devote not more than 20 mins to DI. Attempt 2 sets. Practice 4 Sets daily. Make sure you have solved all DI sets that have appeared in CAT ( 1996-2013)
Deepakram
Sir I did my BE from Mumbai University (73%) and have 3 yrs work-ex in IT. What percentile should I target for IIM A, B, C, L.
Hemang Panchmatia
@Deepakram: 99+ for ABC. 98+ for next 3 IIMs.
Shishir Agarwal
What should be a minimum number of attempts in each section I should make in order to clear the cut off for the Top 4 IIMs? Also the overall number? Can you please tell.
Hemang Panchmatia
55+ overall is a must, Shishir
Charul Kakkar
Sir may be I won’t be able to go for that vocab words because time is less. Will my current strategy for CAT would be effective enough to score good in NMAT too??
Hemang Panchmatia
Not really. Out of 32 Verbal Questions in NMAT, 6 are direct Vocab questions. 2-3 Fill in the Blanks. 2 more Analogy questions
Sunny Rohit Reddy
I have been consistently scoring above 90%le in QA and LRs I am able to do with above 90% accuracy, but I’m not up to the mark with VA and RC. Please suggest me what to do in this last month to boost up my VA and RC.
Hemang Panchmatia
@Sunny: take a lot of Verbal Sectional Tests. It is easiest to master Parajumbles. Make sure you practise it will and can achieve 100% accuracy there. Sectional tests will have RCs too. Ideally you should complete 1 RC in 12 mins with 75-80% accuracy.
Sunny Rohit Reddy
Ok Sir, thank you..will do that...how many attempts in Sec 2 will be sufficient in a moderate paper?
Hemang Panchmatia
@Sunny: 25.
Team InsideIIM would like to thank Hemang Sir for sparing his valuable time to clear the doubts of aspirants on our platform. You can get in touch with Hemang Sir on idealcredence.com or call them on 9022980010 / 14256. Use this guide for the top B schools in India to get an idea of which B schools to target -http://idealcredence.com/smart_CAT.php.
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