Pandemic Cannot Prevent You From Cracking CAT 2020

Entry to the MBA world requires the candidates to appear for Entrance Exams of which the most popular is CAT or Common Admission Test. The CAT Score allows the candidate to be eligible for most of the best B-Schools i.e. ISB, FMS, SPJIMR, JBIMS, TISS in India including the IIMs which hold the CAT Exam. Examinations have always been stressful be it at any level; school, graduation, or competition. But when the examination decides your career and its trajectory, it becomes even more stressful. Most of the time stress is a major factor that affects motivation. Start working slowly and steadily on every aspect of the exam. This will not just make you less stressful, but also ensure that you improve every day. And not to mention, your motivation will also stay put. I am, here, sharing my knowledge and experience through this article how I cracked CAT 2019 and got admission in IIM, Ranchi : If you look at the supposed syllabus for CAT exam, it is not a tough nut to crack but what most students lack at is time management and strategy. Solving mock tests would help you develop your own strategy and help you manage time. To succeed in the exam one needs to pick and solve questions strategically and this where solving mocks would help.

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CAT 2020: Combat COVID 19 with preparation Most of the time, it is seen that those who are preparing for the exam are juggling between different things. Either they are working or are in the final year of their college wherein they have to balance their studies with CAT preparation. However, owing to COVID 19, people are being discouraged to move out of their house and are being advised to stay at home. Hence, there lies a golden opportunity for them to prepare for CAT 2020 without much stress. Just like you order food, clothes and even flowers and cakes online, you actually can go online and educate yourself, even for a trick entrance exam like the CAT exam there are various online courses i.e. CL, T.I.M.E, IMS, Handa Ka Funda, Career Anna etc which possess updated and curriculum compliant preparatory content to crack the upcoming CAT 2019 exam.

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Strategy for the last 60 days of CAT preparation

• Solve and analyse at least 2 mock tests in a week which means you would be solving at least 16 mocks before the exam.
• Solve at least one sectional paper every day.
• Read newspapers and editorials every day. This will help you in comprehension section and subsequently during Writing Ability Test and Personal interview.
• Last but not the least, make a schedule and stick to it. Do not skip even an hour worth of preparation as it can make a huge difference too.

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Strategy for the last 30 days of CAT preparation

• Time to focus on your strengths. Look at the overall syllabus, all topics can be divided into three areas for any student:

1. Strong areas/topics
2. Indeterminate areas/topics (neither strong nor weak)
3. Weak areas/topics

• Topic-wise preparation Schedule
• At times, doing more does not lead to great results.

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Strategies I Used I would like to be very honest about my experience and strategies that I followed to crack CAT 2019. It was my second attempt in 2019. Just after the CAT 2018 examination, I came to know in which part I lacked my preparation. Then only these 3 things I followed for my CAT 2019 preparation

• Did a thorough analysis of my strengths & weaknesses and what went wrong in the previous attempt
• The strategy was to first solidify the basics for all the three sections and then deep-dive into each one of them. I went for an exhaustive numerical practice and individual topic tests for each section.
• Took more mocks and started taking them earlier. I knew what this exam is about and also understood that mocks matter.

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How To Prepare For The Different Sections Of CAT

• Preparation for Quantitative Aptitude:

Quant section carries the major chunk of CAT preparation. With a very vast syllabus ranging from percentages to algebra, CAT always keeps testing your fundamentals. Sound knowledge of the basics is very much needed to handle questions in all of these topics. You should definitely have ownership over your preparation plan. Treat the following image as a broad framework.

• Preparation for Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

The Reading Comprehension section in CAT tries to test if the student has a good reading habit or not. So, the only sound strategy to prepare for the reading comprehension section for CAT is the practice of habitual reading.

• Preparation for DI LR

Although CAT does not stick with template questions in the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section, it really helps to be comfortable with a bunch of standard templates to start off your preparation for the Data Interpretation and Logical reasoning section for CAT. You can refer to InsideIIM's CAT 2020 Weekly Tests for strengthening your preparation. I hope you found this article informative. I would like to hear back your thoughts and inputs on the same. Hoping all the aspirants make full use of this lock down period and convert this opportunity by getting into a premier B-school. Some last suggestions for the Aspirants of CAT 2020:

• Start reading about things that you like! Like if you like cricket start off with reading on cricket
• Discuss with your friends how are they preparing for this CAT, what strategies are they using and try out new ways to prepare
• Read about B-schools you are targeting; their placement reports, about their campus, about what all goes on inside
• Solve puzzles, brainteasers, sudokus etc. – get the thrill going for you
• Watch 3 idiots and Two states to get a feel of the amazing campuses

ALL THE BEST

To help you prepare for CAT 2020, we at InsideIIM have started our CAT 2020 Weekly Tests, which are free of cost. Take the following two tests and let us know what you think of them.