CAT 2021 Prep Tips By Mohanee Dammu, IIM B'23

Mohanee completed her Engineering in Computer Science from IIEST Shibpur. Being a fresher, she secured a seat in IIM Bangalore securing 94.77% in CAT 2020 (SC Category). Let's hear more about her journey.

When did you start preparation?
I started my preparations in the month of April 2020.

How did you start preparing?
I started my preparations by solving 3-4 sets of LRDI daily, 1-2 RC,s and topic-wise concepts in QA. I also started attempting mock tests from the mid of September.

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Which was the most challenging section for you? How did you deal with it?
Initially, I used to find QA most challenging because of my low speed in calculations. But I overcame that by practising and focusing more on accuracy rather than the number of questions. LRDI was also an Achilles heel for me because I used to make many silly mistakes while solving the practise sets. For VARC, I was weak in CR questions in RC. The consistent practice helped me increase my accuracy in these sections.

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Resources you would recommend to CAT aspirants (Books, Mock tests, anything else)
I haven't used any books, but I used to attend free/special classes in Unacademy or Youtube. I used to attempt Mock Tests from IMS & Career Launcher. There are many free sources available online for daily practice like Cracku, ExamBazaar EQAD - these helped me maintain a balance. For example, if I missed solving questions from any of the 3 sections, I used to solve a set of practice questions from these sources. Thus, I was able to solve questions from all 3 sections every day.

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One piece of advice for future aspirants
The most important tip I have for the aspirants: Be consistent with your preparations. Don't take a break of more than 3 days. When I took a break of more than three days, my preparation got hampered. The biggest mistake I made during my preparation was that I was very inconsistent in the months of August to October. So I lost hold of most of the LRDI & CR concepts. Even if there are only a few questions, try to touch all the sections every day. You can also solve daily practice tests to get hands-on practice for all three sections every day. Don't get disheartened by low mock scores. The way you analyze the mocks also matters a lot, rather than re-solving the paper, I'd suggest focus on the questions you spent more time on.

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You can connect with Mohanee on LinkedIn for more questions regarding her preparation and journey to IIM Bangalore. I hope this blog was helpful for you. All the Best for your CAT Preparation!