When to start preparing for CAT?
Honestly, only you can answer this for yourself. Yes, because everyone comes from a different background and level of expertise in areas like quantitative ability, logical reasoning, and verbal ability. Engineers are typically good with quantitative ability due to their experience and practice with the subject. Some candidates who have good exposure to language during their schooling or undergrad in similar subjects may perform well there. You may find another set of candidates who enjoy solving puzzles, etc., and are good with logical reasoning.
Note: If you enjoy any of these sections and find them interesting, it makes the preparation journey a lot easier and improves performance too. CAT does have a whole lot of interesting sections and topics.
Now, coming to the timeline: Some people start early, say around 18 months before CAT, while a set of students start around a year before CAT, and another set starts 6-9 months before CAT. This is just to bucket the preparation period into long-term, medium-term, and short-term. Some coaching institutes may have a batch starting every month or fortnight. You may also find candidates at the extremes with preparation times of more than 18 months or less than 6 months. There are candidates who go in with only a few months of preparation or very limited preparation and still end up doing well in CAT. So, there is no secret sauce to success in CAT, at least in terms of how long you prepare for it. But yes, good preparation always helps, without any doubt.
Now, let us try and understand the pros and cons of each of these buckets. But take this with a pinch of salt, as your preparation needs will differ based on your existing knowledge and skills.
Long-term (18 months)
A lot of us are not well aware of how this space functions. Many of us are used to conventional exam patterns we encountered in school or undergrad, but CAT is a different game altogether. As a candidate, you also need to narrow down the colleges you are targeting, which takes research. Though not absolutely necessary, it does bring in motivation sometimes. But at the same time, it is good to be open to a larger set of business schools initially, and later on, once you have an offer letter, you can always choose to accept or reject the offer.
Now, with all these variables in place, starting preparation early helps you take your own time to absorb all of this alongside your usual CAT preparation. Most of us are preparing for CAT either alongside our undergrad or a job, which again reduces bandwidth. With enough time on your hands, you don’t have to rush through any of the steps in preparation. You get the luxury of giving each section and topic enough time in case you are completely unfamiliar with that subject. You can have a larger window between two mocks to work on your weaknesses before you appear for another mock.
But this journey might have a few challenges too. Since this is a long period of time, you may become a bit complacent during patches in this entire journey. You may not feel very driven by the time CAT arrives. In short, discipline will be crucial to reap the rewards if you are taking this route.
Medium-term: (12 Months):
This can be a good time period if you structure your preparation. In the first couple of months, you can spend some time familiarizing yourself with the format, business schools, etc alongside the usual preparation. You will also have some buffer to invest more time in topics you are not well-versed with. Another benefit is that you will have a few months before you start appearing for full-length mocks consistently.
It does have some pros of both long-term and short-term preparation plans, but this may not turn out to be the perfect sweet spot unless you structure it well.
Short-term (6-9 Months):
This is not as short as you would think as a first-time CAT aspirant. This is good enough to prepare well for CAT, but you need to structure your preparation well, as you cannot afford to be complacent during this journey. You will have to start giving mocks quite early; do not wait for the syllabus to be completed. It is okay to appear for mocks with certain parts of the syllabus yet to be covered.
Candidates often fear giving mocks, thinking they are not prepared, but mocks themselves are one of the most important parts of preparation, and there is no substitute for them.
This preparation timeline can also work for candidates who are appearing for CAT again. Some candidates wait for the final results and then decide, while others might take a call right after the CAT results. In both cases, 6-9 months should be enough, given the fact that you are well aware of the format and the business schools. You may also want to take a quick break to rejuvenate yourself before you come back to preparation.
At the end of the day, you will have to figure out what works for you based on your needs. It is absolutely fine not to take the conventional route and find the right preparation timeline for yourself. But structure your preparation well and do not underestimate the importance of mocks.
You will learn over this journey what works and what doesn’t work for you. It is an iterative process, so keep refining your strategy based on your experience.
Last but not least, never stop believing in yourself.