In this article, I bring to you The 100-Day CAT Preparation Strategy. I am currently a PGP student at IIM Ahmedabad, and had secured a 99.9 %ile on my CAT attempt in 2022.
Prerequisites:
- Put at least 6 hrs daily, 2 for each section.
- Get any standard book(Arun Sharma etc.) or coaching institute materials for concepts and practice problems.
- Source CAT papers from 1990-2008 and 2015-2022. Solve from only these papers in the last 50 days.
- Enroll in a leading mock series such as CL, IMS or TIME, etc.
I have broken the 100 days for individual sections and an overall mock timeline.
100 Days Of QA
First 50 days - Covering the concepts:
(1-20 days) Arithmetic - Percentages, Profit, Loss and Discount, SI&CI, Averages, TSD, Mixtures, Time & Work.
(21-35 days) Algebra - Linear & Quadratic Equations, Logarithms, Inequalities, Sequence & Series(AP and GP specially), Functions and Maxima-Minima.
(36-50 days) Geometry - All properties of Triangles, Quadrilaterals, and Circles. Lastly, Mensuration.
# - I have left out modern maths and number systems due to time constraints. You're free to pick them up if you have time.
Next 50 days - Practice and Improve:
- Solve at least 30 questions daily.
- Maintain an error and formula notebook, and keep writing all the formulas/concepts you encounter and mistakes you make.
- Keep revisiting this notebook.
100 Days Of VARC
(1-10 days) Familiarize - Solve 1 recent CAT VARC sectional and practice easy RCs and VAs from the materials you have.
(11-100 days) Practice, Practice, and More Practice:
- Focus on genres of RCs such as Philosophy, Psychology, History, Politics, Science, etc. Solve at least 5 RCs daily.
- Pay attention to VA; solve 10-12 of them daily.
- Bookmark all the questions you found difficult, analyze and return to them in a few days to check if you have made any improvements.
- You can ignore reading articles and building vocabulary for now. Both of these can be done while reading an RC set.
100 Days of DILR
(1-10 days) Familiarize - Solve 1 recent CAT DILR sectional and practice easy sets from the materials you have.
(11-100 days) Practice, Practice, and More Practice:
- Solve various types of sets, some of which could be Arrangements, Counting, Grouping, LR-based DI, Mathematical puzzles, Games, and tournaments.
- Work on and improve your Set selection. Solve 4-6 sets daily.
- Bookmark all the sets you found difficult, analyze and return to them in a few days to check if you have made any improvements.
- Don't just solve sets; build processes around decoding a set and keep on refining it.
100 Days of Mocks
Overall Tips
- Avoid getting stuck on a question for too long.
- Analyze mistakes.
- Acknowledge you don't know everything and try to optimize scores with what you know.
- Improve your weaknesses and become almost perfect in your strengths. Give sufficient time and effort to each section.
- Take regular breaks and engage in activities that help you relax. Don't burn yourself out before the exam.
- Expect the most difficult CAT paper ever.
- Check comments for more detailed strategies.
Thank you for reading. Please share with friends and fellow aspirants.
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