I got 90.90 percentile in the Common Aptitude Test in 2017 and that was the result of the hard work and the effort I had put in in the months leading up to the exam. CAT is not something that can be taken lightly and it requires some serious amount of preparation. Only people who are really keen on it will take it up and try to do well in it.
I made the decision to write CAT back in June of 2017 and at that time, I had around five months to prepare for the exam. I knew that the time was not adequate but I had to do with what I had. I signed up for TIME's online coaching program wherein they sent me the materials and provided me with access to their online portal which included various lectures, practice tests, and mock tests.
For the quantitative section, I bought the book written by Arun Sharma which is considered to be among the best. Every day, I allocated a couple of hours to solve problems from the book which was divided into sections based on the difficulty of the problems. For the Verbal Reasoning and the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning sections, I used TIME's online portal to brush up on the questions which I found out to be pretty easy.
Studying for CAT every day proved to be a difficult thing to do but nonetheless, I slogged through since I realized that not putting in the hard work will not help me crack the exam. I dedicated around three hours per day for studying and I never compromised on that, whatever the situation was. Doing so helped me maintain a routine that I got used to over the days and that helped me a great deal, especially in the days leading up to the exam.
One of the most important things in the preparation for any exam is that one must test themselves regularly in order to see where they stand with respect to the exam. For me, taking up TIME's All India Mock CAT (AIMCAT) helped a great deal since I was able to take up the test in an almost real-time environment which gave me an indication of how the actual exam will be.
The level of difficulty of the AIMCATs increase as the time to the exam reduces and for any serious aspirant, it is something that is a must. Mock tests are the best way to gauge one's level of preparation and doing well in such tests raised my confidence and gave me the belief that I can score a good percentile in the main exam.
CAT is not as tough as many make it be. With the right mix of preparation, dedication and hard work, one can easily score a good mark and join one of the top B-Schools in the country. Though it may seem daunting at first, a persistent effort will go a long way in make it look like a piece of cake and that, more than anything, should be the most important thing for any CAT aspirant.
Raghav Panchanathan
"1st Year MBA student at Institute for Financial Management and Research Graduate School of Business, IFMR GSB"