It’s October now, you would probably be marking the number of days left for your CAT exam on a calendar right now. You have entered the final lap of your CAT prep, and what is most important now, is taking mocks. Here are some tips and tricks from my own experience, and gathered experience of other people who aced CAT and are now my batchmates at IIM Calcutta.
1. Start getting your body ready for the exam.
If you have your admit card in your hand right now, you know the timings of your exam. It is essential to bring your body and mind to be at peak performance during the given exam hours. This might sound like advice from Kung-fu-Panda, but mind you, there are a record number of 3.3 lakh CAT aspirants, a single question may make a difference in your admission to any said institute.
Set a routine, it is most advisable that you take mocks in the given exam hours. If it is not possible to do so due to academic or work commitments, give mocks in the exam hours on the weekends. Whereas on the weekdays, try to spend these hours doing intellectually stimulating work, and no matter what happens, do not sleep at these exam hours, all the way till your CAT Day.
For example, if you have a mid-day timing of 12 noon to 2 pm. You must not, in any circumstance, be asleep in these hours starting today, all the way to your CAT Day. Time your meals such that you don’t feel hungry during these hours. It would be advisable to have a late, heavy breakfast if such a time slot is allotted to you.
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2. Keep track of your mock scores.
You should not be giving mocks to rake-up numbers. It is categorically USELESS to give a mock if you will not be analyzing it thoroughly. Make an excel sheet/ keep notes in a book/ write the scores on a white/blackboard to keep track.
Your analyses of a mock would broadly contain of two parts now. One is where you slacked/aced technically. And another is where you slacked/aced strategically. After each mock, analyze what was the result of a question attempting strategy.
For example, I had a strategy of spending 5 minutes in the start of the RC section, to skim through all 4 given passages, and choose 3 to attempt. I realized as I was nearing CAT that my reading speed had improved significantly, and I could now attempt all 4 passages whilst still having time to attempt all VA questions. I made this strategy change in the month of October itself. In the actual CAT exam, I finished the entire VARC section with a minute to spare (99.44 %ile btw).
The other part is rather obvious, your CAT mock provider probably gives you a detailed analysis of the sections/topics you are good or bad at, use those reports, the time to use them is now. The most recommended mock exam series are IMS, InsideIIM and Cracku (recommended by me and fellow Jokars).
3. Do not lose hope.
There will be that one odd bad mock exam, there might be 2-3 of them in a row, no matter what happens, don’t give up. Here’s a snapshot of the last 7 ranked mocks which I had given before the CAT.
I could have lost my heart and given up at mock #10. But I did not stop the consistent effort towards the end, that is what makes the difference.
That being said, you need to analyze why that mock went wrong, and what you can do to avoid it from happening again.
Here are some possible angles to think from –
a. Did I sleep enough the previous day?
b. Is my bodily routine normal?
c. Was this mock disproportionately focused on just one topic in a given section?
d. Did I perform poorly in just one section or overall? And so on
After answering these questions, you should be able to list down the possible areas of issue and work on them.
All the best for your CAT! Last few weeks, hang in there! :)