With less than a month for the CAT exam to go, it is that time of the year when the preparation and advice will be at the peak just like the building pressure. But this is the time to go the smart way and keep aside the thick books and focus on giving more mocks and revising concepts rather than learning new.
Since CAT and other MBA entrance exams are a ticket to premiere b-schools of the country, it is important that at this time, aspirants strategise their preparation in a way that allows them to focus on their strengths and not work on their weaknesses. A few points that should be kept in mind are listed below:
Give Mocks:
Mock tests are a good way to see where you stand when compared to other aspirants of the exams from the country. They help analyse your strengths and list down your weaknesses. However, just giving mocks is not sufficient. It is important to analyse the performance and understand the mistakes to improve on them. After the analysis, it is also important to see the solutions to the problems that one went wrong with or could not attempt. Sometimes the solutions only seem to be difficult. These are those problems that leave you with ‘Why didn’t I think of that’ expression. Therefore Mocks are a key to gauging the kind the questions that could appear on the D Day.
Solve Previous Year's Papers:
Previous year’s papers of the entrance exams give a brief idea about the level of difficulty and the kind of questions asked. They set the right pace and familiarise you with the paper patterns helping you strategize your preparation.
Keep The Tricks And Formulae Handy:
With less than a month, learning new concepts and memorising new tricks won’t set the ball rolling. It is important to go through all the important formulae on a regular basis. Therefore having them in one place for the last minute revision is important.
Read Editorials:
Though Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning sections can be practised and worked on with tricks and formulae, we tend to ignore the verbal ability section which is important too. The best way to master VA is read. Reading editorials not only strengthens or vocabulary and improves the reading time but it also keeps us updated with topics that might pop up in the GD-PI rounds.
Have A Clear Exam Strategy:
Know what you know and what you don’t. As per the mock analysis and preparation so far, know what questions to attempt in the set or decided time. Give equal importance to every section as a lot of institutes have sectional cut-offs as for the first parameter of their selection criteria and don’t undermine the importance of any.
Having said that, be calm and patient because no amount of worrying will help you score better. A right input of practice with a cool head on the exam day will definitely help you ace it.
All the best!
For more doubts and queries regarding your preparation strategy in the last 28 days to CAT, please join the
LIVE CHAT on 28th October at 6:30 pm with Prof Srinivas Akkapeddi,
here.
He is a IIT Dhanbad and IIM Indore Alumnus. He has been coaching students for CAT for close to 6 years.