You can maximise scores in few days! Whatever may be the scores and percentiles you have been getting in the Mocks, the last two weeks are going to be crucial to maximizing your scores. It is natural for many students to find their percentiles going down in the Mocks. The real reason could be that the number of students writing the Mocks has reduced and hence the scores that fetched a percentile of 90, now fetches just a percentile of 75!
Don’t despair! Many students have given up on CAT even before the exam and if you are the one still fighting it out, it means you have not just a fighting chance but a real chance to get the top percentile in CAT. The real competition is with just about 50,000 students out of the 2.4 lacs who have applied for the CAT exam. Which means, by just not giving up, you have a good chance of being in the top 25% of the people or get 75%ile or more!
Before giving you a prescription, one important point to note is this: Do not worry about how much OR how many topics you are NOT good at. Only concentrate on those topics and areas that you are good or very good at. Just 50% marks in the CAT exam (150 out of 300), would get one close to a 99 percentile! So, if you can just pick the ones that you can solve correctly, you have a huge chance of getting a very competitive percentile and a B-School Interview call!
Here’s what I believe will help score more in the CAT exam.
Mocks
Write about 3 to 4 mocks in the next 14 days. Make sure that you write this Mock at the same time as your time slot on the actual exam day. A student who has her slot in the forenoon session should be writing the Mocks at 9 AM, while a student with an afternoon slot should write the Mocks at 2:30 PM.
It is fashion for many people to write Mocks everyday. But, it can be counter-productive. I have said this before and once again give the logic here. A Mock will help one to understand two things a) to fine-tune the strategy b) find out one’s strengths and weaknesses.
In addition to writing Mocks, a student should spend time in improving those areas which can increase/improve one’s marks by at least 12 marks in each section. And that will happen, only when one focuses on improving 6 sub-topics (at the least) in the next 12 to 14 days.
Finalize your CAT Day strategy, in your final leg of preparation with 10 CAT mocks and 8 complete videos attempts of the same mocks for Rs 750 by CL Gurus- GP, Gejo & CL expert team.
Original CAT papers
If you have not taken these as Mocks, I would recommend that you take either CAT 2017 or CAT 2018 original papers as full length mocks. The rest of them should be used as a reference for improving the areas one is weak in.
Sectional Tests
I recommend that one writes 5 to 6 sectional tests in these 12 days in that section where one is the best in. This will enhance your strength are and keep you in Rhythm!
Individual Topics
Solve from the drill-down analysis (CL Mocks). Which means, identify the areas you would want to improve in/get better accuracy and solve from these Topic-wise from the mocks that you have already attempted. If you can categorise the same for the original CAT papers, then you can solve from these papers too!
Daily Routine for the next 14 days
Every day should be either a Mock Day or a day where you plan to improve in certain topics.
Also Read: Winning Attitude To Crack CAT 2019 And Other Stories
Recommendation for every day -
VARC (2.5 hours)
- a) Read for 45 minutes from various online sources – aeon.co/essays / smitsonian/guardian/scientific American etc. This will give you rhythm in RC!
- b) Solve 5 each Fact-based, Inference Based, Main Idea based questions from your previous mocks. (45 minutes)
- c) Solve 5 each of Para-summary, Odd Para Jumbles and Para Jumbles every day from the previous Mocks (30 minutes)
- d) Make notes for all words (vocab) that you come across in the above readings and revise. (30 minutes)
LRDI (2.5 hours)
- a) Identify the types of sets you would work on and solve 5 sets of DI from these areas. Solve the same type of sets in a day. For eg., you can choose to do Bar Charts on a given day. Solve 5 sets of Bar charts that are available from the Mocks or CAT original papers. (1 hour)
- b) Similarly, Identify the types of sets that you need to improve and solve 5 sets of LR every day. (1 hour)
Recommended sets
LR: Set Theory (Venn Diagrams), Arrangements (Linear and Circular), Selection, Distribution and Grouping (For Logical Reasoning), Games and Tournaments (Sports-based), Puzzles.
DI: Tables(with and without calculations), Bar Charts, Pie Charts, Caselets with Numbers.
QA (2.5 hours)
- a) Revise all formulae from all areas: Arithmetic, Algebra, Numbers, Geometry, Mensuration, Permutations and Combinations This has to be done daily! (30 minutes).
- b) Solve 50 questions in a day from a single topic/sub-topic. For eg., If you have to work on Arithmetic, then solve 50 questions of ratios on one day. Similarly, you can do 50 questions of percentages, profit and loss, and so on. (2 hours)
Recommended areas
Arithmetic: Percentages, Profit and Loss, Averages and Mixtures, Time and Work, Time, Speed Distance
Algebra: Logarithms, Sequence and Series (Progressions), Functions and Graphs.
Numbers and Geometry, depending on interest and ability!
Final Word
It is the mental strength that gets you into the top schools, not just knowledge. But understanding this, you would stop worrying about results and concentrate on the action.
There is a scope for improving at least 30 marks from your current scores in the last 2 weeks. Do not give up and continue with renewed energy!
All the best!
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