On the basis of observation, most CAT aspirants spend more than half of their time solving the quantitative sums and yet end up scoring dismally in the QA section. It took two consecutive attempts for me to figure out a few mistakes myself which I had committed in my first CAT attempt; helping me to improvise much in my second attempt and achieving 99.93%ile in the Quantitative Aptitude of the CAT exam.
I did not practice a lot of tough questions, rather I chose to stick to the basics and practised questions of the easy-to-moderate level questions. Analysing the exam pattern of the last three years, approximately 24-28 Questions out of 34 in the QA section were easy-to-moderate level based; and candidates solving 21-22 questions correctly could easily fetch above 99 percentile. Being an engineer gave me an extra edge, where I never had difficulties in solving basic math sums. Non-engineers may, however, need to put some extra efforts to get their basics right. Practising very difficult questions and spending the majority of the time in them would be fatal, especially if you find yourself in the position of scarce time. It will be a good practice to just have a look over such problems.
I did not attempt a large number of mocks, rather I spent that time analysing the selective mocks that I took over my months of preparation. I analysed each and every question of the section, be it incorrect, correct or left unattempted. For me, the ratio of time spent in taking mock and analysing it was 1:2. So if I took a three-hour mock, I would spend six hours in analysing it. This, of course, is not a thumb rule. The point is, you must spend sufficient time in analysing the mock tests.
I started scoring more in the mocks as I worked on my silly mistakes. I made sure that if I am solving less number of questions, I would not compromise on my accuracy. I analysed the number of questions I got wrong just because of a silly calculation mistake or because I missed reading a particular part of the question. These types of errors could fetch down your score significantly. So students need to take care of this parameter as well.
I have one final suggestion- keep your mind calm and be patient throughout your journey. Be it the preparation phase, during the exam, getting the calls or sitting for the interviews, your calmness and patience will save you from committing the blunders. In the end, it is just another exam; enjoy the journey – good things will follow!