30 Days To CAT
The adrenaline and stress of an adventure are better than a thousand peaceful days.
This adage fits best in the coming days of adventure. Yes, I used the term Adventure which you all will be able to understand through what I have to say next.
The D-day is waiting for you all in the next 30 days, where there will be a lot of stress, anxiety, and of course some reason to succeed.
Reading the coming sections will somewhat make you all clear on
“how to control your nerve and to maintain calm posture in such a high time of 30 days to CAT”.
Time to focus on your strengths-
If you look at the whole syllabus, all topics can be divided into three areas:
1. Strong areas or topics
2. Indeterminate areas or topics (neither strong nor weak)
3. Weak areas or topics
With all of you in the last lap of preparation, it is the time for you to reduce your focus on your weak areas and start focussing on your strong areas. There is not much that can be done about the weak areas. The maximum you can do for these areas is to revise the basic concepts and be thorough with it.
Your maximum focus should be to work on and using these to boost your scores. Also, work on your gray areas and try to convert these areas into strong ones.
Make sure you also work on areas for which you have conceptual clarity but takes a lot of time to solve. By studying these areas and reducing time spent on questions for these topics,you can gain the most in your preparation.
For the reference, I have suggested what all materials and strategies you all can use to ace the exam with flying colors!! Read it in a go!!
Essential Materials:
Last year CAT papers
Any coaching class material
At least 20-25 mocks for practice
Here is what I can recommend for each of the sections.
Quantitative Ability
● Important topics that can be covered in QA.
o Arithmetic (Percentages, Ratios, Profit & Loss, Time and Work, TSD,Averages )- 8 to 12 questions
o QE/Polynomials/Inequalities/Logs- 8 to 10 questions
o Numbers - 4 to 5 questions
o Geometry/CG/Mensuration - 5 to 7 questions
You can pick 5/6 subtopics from each section and try to do that part either from previous year papers or from current mocks.
Data Interpretation
● DI can be divided into 7 types of questions
● For each of the 3-4 days in between mocks, solve about 10 to 15 sets in each type of questions
o Tables
o Bar Chart
o Line Graphs
o Pie Charts
o Games and Tournament
o Max/Minima & Venn Diagram
o Miscellaneous – Spider, Triangle, Scatter Diagram, etc.
Logical Reasoning
● Divided LR into the following types
o Arrangements (Linear and Circular)
o Selection
o Networks & Routes
o Order Sequencing & Ranking
o Binary Logic
o Cubes & Venn Diagrams
● Every day Solve 5 to 6 sets
● At the end of 30 days, you should have solved close to 150 sets of LR
Verbal Ability
● Areas to work on
o Grammar – daily 15 questions
▪ Try understanding the entire gamut of questions that can come
▪ Subject-Verb; Parallelism; Phrasal Verbs; etc.
o Para Jumbles: Solve 8 questions every day
o Critical Reasoning: Solve around 20 questions on every 3 days.
o Para Completion/Summary: Solve 6 questions every day
o Words: From every Mock CAT, make sure that you know as many words as possible along with its usage.
Reading Comprehension
● Solve 3 to 4 RCs a day for the next 30 days.
● Check every answer – wrong ones as well as the ones you get right!
● For every wrong answer that you get, make sure that you understand that why that was not an answer which as a result will help you to develop the process of thinking.
Final Word For CAT
● 30 days can make a huge difference to your score.
● You can add a minimum of 30-35 marks then you are currently getting in your mocks.
● That could mean jumping about 15 to 20 percentile in the final analysis.
● If you are getting 90 percentile now, you can hope to touch 95-96 percentile with this approach.
● For all the approach and strategy which I suggested one of the most important thing which I want to convey is that whatever you do try to do the mocks with utmost sincerity and of course don't forget to
analyse it thoroughly (key to crack CAT) with spending at least 3-4 hours in the analysis part.
● You can make it to the best B-Schools,if you have the attitude of perseverance.
Remember last days are very crucial and nerve breaking. So, remember to get a good sleep so that you all can concentrate more on your studies.
Good luck!!
Name-Anoop Agarwal
Email-id-anoopagarwal181@gmail.com