We have all been a part of the Indian education system. We have all learned the same technique of mugging up a chapter and answering questions at the back of the chapter. For years and years, we have developed a tendency. Even in college, we mug up the entire chapter so as to answer a subjective question, writing lengths and lengths in order to get marks.
So now, we prepare to appear for CAT. Bound by the obvious habit, we start on that path again.
”Let me finish the entire curriculum first, then I will start with the mocks".
Remember this statement? It keeps passing through your mind every now and then; probably when you don’t score well in a few mocks that you have given till now. “Maybe once I complete the entire course, then I will score better”, another thought that passes your mind. But more often then not, we find that this thought, however great it may sound, does not work.
We have to be objective about everything. So let me jot down that why this strategy doesn’t work. CAT is basically an exam of basics and objectives. When we tend to learn something in bulk we tend to learn a lot of things in one go, taking an ample amount of time. CAT is an exam to basically test a student on step 1. What are they testing? Well MBA is more about an incremental approach, learning by our mistakes and our correct decisions.CAT makers test that in order to filter the crowd.
Incremental learning is a learning where we learn as we perform. We learn from our mistakes and log them so that we don’t do them in the coming future. Now if we apply this to our preparation, we are halfway there. CAT is all about handling pressure and good decision making along with the knowledge bank you accumulate when you study for it. So if we decide to study all the chapters first in the hope that we will start with the test solving and conditioning after we are through with the chapters, then that is not going to happen (the general human tendency of laziness). We will never be ready and our preparation time will keep on sliding through our hands like sand.
So what do we do?
We apply the incremental concept here,i.e. learn as we go. Take mock tests and see where we need to improve. Maintain a document where you log all those questions that went wrong(and write a small note as to why they went wrong-will help you while you revisit it). I cannot stress enough on the number of mocks you take. Take and ANALYSE as many as you can. I caps-locked ANALYSE in order to lay stress on that fact that you should not blindly take mocks and let them be. See what went wrong and why it went wrong. Go through the error doc each time before you give the mock; it will remind you of what mistakes you made.
Despite this, we will make the same mistakes again. So, in this case, we don’t need to panic, because we will learn it the third time or fourth or definitely the fifth. peaking of incremental learning, learn at least 10-15 new words every day and keep on revising the previous ones (You don’t even know what wonders it does).
So Concluding I would like to stress on this process of learning this concept of incremental learning, by unlearning the traditional bulk method.