By this time, it would be pretty clear among the aspirants which college they can possibly get. Many aspirants, who are unable to secure the percentile to get into their dream college, might be in dilemma of either to get into the college they are getting or to give another shot this year, i.e, CAT 2018. My suggestion would be to decide according to their aspirations after getting MBA. Students who are in their final year of college or are planning to crack the CAT in their first attempt may have queries regarding various coaching institutes, test series or strategy to prepare for it. Here, I'm going to answer everything you need to know for CAT 2018 and what if you are unable to get the desired percentile.
Is it worth giving another year to CAT?
My answer to this question would in affirmation. Yes, it is. But it is not preferable for those who want to be in Marketing. But if CAT 2017 was your first attempt and you are not happy at all with your percentile and you are confident enough, then I'll suggest you give CAT 2018 a shot. The reason behind this is that there is a huge difference in the placements and the reputation after getting MBA from top institutes and tier 2 institutes. To play it safe, one must get some job experience or something in between so that there should be no gap in your career path.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
In order to crack CAT 2018, this would be the nice opportunity to kickstart your preparation early to get some edge over others. What I have experienced is that the journey to secure a decent percentile in CAT is a marathon, not a sprint! By the time you end up reading this post, you should start your preparation. You should make your own strategy according to your own weakness and strengths.
Verbal/RC Section - Strategy
In my opinion, this is the most important and most neglect section. If you are good at this section, you can score a very high percentile relatively easily because it is the section which makes a huge difference to the overall score. One can attempt all the questions in a given time as per latest trend of the paper. Many engineers suffer in this section a lot. If you don't have a habit of reading, I'm afraid to say you can't score in this section. This section requires a lot of reading and any aspirant who doesn't have the habit of reading can suffer. Even coaching institutes can't make you learn this, and you cannot develop the habit in a month. Don't worry, the solution to this problem is very simple: "
Read Anything". Start from reading the newspaper daily, along with novels (anything you like), and this will enhance your vocabulary as well. You can also go through different articles daily for 30 mins from
aeon.co. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. Another step would be to practice as many questions as you can from different books and materials. The more you practice, the more you increase your chances to get a question right on D-Day.
LR/DI -Strategy
Since the last three years, Sets coming in this section are from moderate to difficult level. It's the hardest among all to score in this section, and clearing sectional cutoffs in this section is the most difficult, as per the pattern of the exam which is coming nowadays. This section stresses out the brain, so start exercising your brain cells to boost your IQ. Solve sudoku and puzzles. Most of the books in LR/DI do not match the level of CAT which is coming nowadays. TIME material is the best among all as far as LR/DI is concerned. The more you practice, the more efficient you will become. Practice and Practice.
Quantitative Ability
Most of the engineers' favourite section is this one. If you are not good at it, you can easily be good at it by doing practice. You can sharpen your basics by solving NCERT books before solving the materials of coaching institutes like CL, TIME , IMS etc. CL, TIME and IMS's quant material are the best. According to the latest examination pattern, the level nowadays is easy to moderate and doable. This makes it second the most scoring section.
Bottom line is: The more you practice, the more you will get end up closer to your desired percentile. There is no substitute for practice in CAT. Test Series which are prevalent among the students are TIME's-AIMCAT , CL and IMS. AIMCAT is relatively on the tougher side , CL and IMS mocks are the closest to CAT, and IMS has better analysis report than others. CAT is very unpredictable so I prefer AIMCAT.
I suggest analysing at least 6 hours to every 3 hours test you give. If you don't analyse the test properly, then there is no point of giving the test. Test Series prepares you for the D-Day. Percentiles and score in test series are a mirror and they show you the reflection of your on-going preparations.
Best of Luck!