To ace CAT you have to perform well on D-day. To perform well on D-day you have to prepare well. So how do you prepare well? Almost all aspirants have weak sections, for some its VARC for others its QA and DILR, or some other combination. So how do you go about your weak sections? Do you play your game on weaker sections or stronger ones? Do you need to perform exceptionally well on your stronger sections so as to compensate with weaker ones? And finally, the most important question, How do you make your weakest section into your strongest section?
Olá, I am Anubhav, a non-IITian/NITian/BITSian (not that I am not proud of my University....meh whom am I kidding). The first time I saw my CAT result in 2017, which was: 60.70 overall percentile and 2.19 scaled score in DILR, I said to myself “Nah, I am never gonna get any good college let alone any IIM”
But here I am with convert in IIM Lucknow (and other top colleges) and writing an article for future CAT aspirants.
So what did it took to finally get the calls from IIMs and other top B-schools?
What is the secret that I missed out in my previous attempts?
Let's see: So, all it took was strategy, consistency and preparation. And what about the secret? I will tell you that in the end.
Lets first talk about strategy, consistency and preparation.
Strategy is something you need to develop. I can’t help you much in this part because everyone has their own style of writing mocks, and you need to figure out what is your style and what works for you. I will just say that you prepare, give mocks and slowly build your strategy for D-day.
Consistency will be driven by the level of your motivation and how badly you want to make it. As you can see, here also I can’t do much. What I can help you with is Preparation. How do you prepare, what you need to do to excel in any section. So I leave you with the first two assuming you will give mocks and build your strategy and you want to make into top B-school very badly.
Preparation
“Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation”
- Robert H. Schuller
Preparation involves learning concepts and practising them, may it be taking mocks, sectionals or just solving questions from past year papers. Writing mocks and analysing them is must if you want to get decent percentile. I had bought two full mock series and I can’t emphasize more on taking mocks on a regular basis.
Here are some things that will help you in your sectional preparation;
1. QA preparation: I don’t suggest any heavy books in the market (even if you are a non-engineer). Here is what you need. Get chapter wise funda books from any institute (you already have that if you are a classroom student of any coaching) or buy second hand, formulas are not going to change. The good thing about CAT QA is that you don’t have to be a mathematician to get 99+, know this thing as a fact that QA is about aptitude.
So you have your funda books, now go through it once or twice, as needed. Understand concepts and applications well, make notes for revision and start practising questions. Initially, you can take your own time, but when you get the hang of the topic, I suggest you to start practising in time constraint manner. Taking the entire day to solve a question will not help to crack the section.
You do this process for every topic. And keep revising those notes that you are making(you are not making them to get churmure in it, are you?)
Once you are done with 60-70% of the syllabus, start taking full-length sectionals. Don’t worry about low scores, it will improve(The phoenix must burn to emerge).
Bonus tip: Practice calculations once a week for about 2-3 hours. You don’t want to put numbers on the calculator from your mouse when others are doing mental maths. Just pick questions from topics like ratios and percentages and try to do them orally(don’t you dare to touch that pen).
2. DILR preparation: When I started my preparation, I tried to find any good book on DILR, but I failed. There is no such book for this section. More importantly, you don’t need any, all you need to do is find lots of sets from previous year papers, current year mocks/sectionals and old mocks of different coachings (definitely you have to dig a little but eventually you will find it online) and solve them. The calculation practice that we talked about in QA section will also be very helpful here. CAT DILR is more abstract and unpredictable than most of other MBA exams. And that is what makes it beautiful as every set is as new for a repeater as for a fresher.
Bonus tip: The trick to crack this section is to not get trapped in any set. You don’t need to do all the questions of the selected set. You have to be more question oriented rather than (as most people are) set-oriented.
3. VARC preparation: This was my weakest section, I have scored zeros and negatives here. VARC is a nightmare for most of the engineers like me. I was always so sure that
“ye section hi leke doobega mujhe” [this section will ruin my CAT]. But one day, after another zero or so, I had crazy thought(no no, no apple fell on my head) I just thought what if I make VARC my strongest section! what if I can get 99 percentile in VARC! Wouldn’t it be great!!! But is it even possible??? I had my doubts but I thought there is no harm in trying. So, I talked to my teachers, read articles(as you are reading now), watched many interviews of toppers. I found many things but here i am listing down those that worked for me and I am sure it will also do good to you:
* READ: I know you have already heard it millions of time, but believe me, this is the only way. And if you are the one with weakest VARC, take my advice, go and start reading(after READING this article). Read books, articles, newspaper, magazines whatever you get your hands on, READ!!! You will not see any improvement for few days, but don’t stop. Also, reading is a habit that you should inculcate even if it's not for CAT.
*Improve Vocabulary: Vocab questions are not very frequent in CAT(even if they ask, it will mostly be contextual) but it will help you a lot in comprehension. Also try to do jargon of different fields like philosophy, medical science, art and culture etc.
*Practice Verbal Ability: Keep practising VA questions every now and then. Make sure to give VA at least 10 minutes in every mock, as sometimes (like in CAT 2019, slot 2) it can throw few easy questions. I know, para-jumbles of CAT are god level, but you can’t simply skip the practice.
Bonus tip: While reading, make sure you read something that you hate the most.
Read all kinds of topics ranging from history to culture to evolution. Increase your familiarity of each and every topic. It will help you in comprehension as well as in VA part.
Few things you should know:
When writing mock or actual CAT, do not ever try to compensate one section with other. Don’t carry the burden of one section to other else it will ruin both. Whenever you feel that you are not doing well in any section, remind yourself that the same set of questions appeared on screen of every other candidate, means: IT IS DIFFICULT FOR EVERYONE. So, relax or best FORGET about last section. Start fresh and try your best in current section. Whatever is your strongest section, you try your best to do in that but don’t try to achieve some pre-determined targets, as LOD is something you can not predict beforehand.
Working on your weakness:
“Our strength grows out of our weakness”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our tendency is to avoid our weakness and keep focusing on strengths. This can be apt in certain situations, but definitely not here (you have to clear each section). So you need to give more time on your weakness. Figure out what is that makes you sweat in mocks, and practice that concept/questions on daily basis. What I used to do was put 2/3 of my time on VARC and 1/3 of my time on other sections. So, basically you need to work a lot more on your weaker section to make it your stronger section. You need to challenge yourself to maintain the consistency, as it is very easy to give up when you are working on something you are not very good at. Keep yourself motivated, maintain a routine, discuss mocks with your mentors(if any) and relax, things will get better. Just don’t stop if you are not witnessing any sudden improvements, as rightly said “GREAT THINGS TAKE TIME”.
THE SECRET:
Here you go... the secret to succeed in any task is to believe in yourself. Everyone works hard but what is different from winners and losers is that winners have great faith in themselves(I hope the Kung Fu panda picture is relatable now, “There is NO special ingredient, To make something special you just have to believe it’s special!). On days when I was preparing, many of my friends gave up even after scoring decently in mocks while I kept dreaming about IIMs even after getting negatives. The only difference was, I believed in myself, I didn't know how I am going to do it but I was certain about doing it.
I am leaving you with one of my favourite quotes, powerful enough to keep you motivated for days...
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
-Robert F. Kennedy