In continuation with the Test Prep Chats and with less than 60 days to go for CAT, InsideIIM hosted Nishant Priyadarshi – the COO at Vistamind Lucknow and one of the Directors of Vistamind for
chat session.
Nishant Priyadarshi is an alumnus of IIM Kozhikode – Class of 2001 and has trained over 15000 students over the years.
How to prepare for Quant and LR areas when the number of attempts are not more than 15-18 with 75%-80% accuracy?
Target a group of chapters and work on them for a week. Try to improve your score in that area in the next mock. Similarly, next week and so on.
I have been scoring in the range 100-135 in the past 5-6 mocks. RC, grammar, geometry, DI continue to be my nemesis. How should I go about preparing CAT. How many mocks should I attempt. What should my strategy be?
135 is not a bad score. Remember, that smaller increase in score will lead to bigger increase in percentiles. So, just one more correct answer per week may be enough. You just got to decide where that extra correct answer will from.
Although I can solve most of the questions when at home, I continue to score less in the aimcats. I seem to have a problem at finding the right questions to attempt. Is there anyway to tackle this problem?
Try to replicate the same atmosphere at home. And write a mock every 3-4 days and use the remaining time to analyse them.
How to improve aptitude in the coming 60 days? Also, I have to give NMAT and IIFT as well in between, what must be the strategy?
Just one or two more correct answers per week may be enough. So divide and rule. Divide the syllabus into small areas, especially the areas in which you are not scoring and work on them. Same for NMAT and IIFT. Just write some mocks of these exams and get familiar with the pattern and prepare a strategy.
Could you please share an ideal 60 day plan for a working professional
Just take a group of chapters/concepts, in which you are not scoring, and work for a week. Then the next set and next. First take up areas which are giving you regular questions but you are not able to crack them.
How many RC I need to target for the exam?
I will say all passages, but not necessarily all questions. Unless of course, you are unable to comprehend some passage at all. Still, there might be 1-2 questions in that which you may be answer just by scanning the passage.
I have done the syllabus once as per CL material. Should I practice from one more book at this point or stick to CL material itself and just give mocks ?
Just write 1 mock every 3-4 days and spend the remaining time in analysing the mock. Revise the concepts for which you got answers wrong or left questions.
How to approach verbal section, specially grammar if one has to start now from scratch?
Just go area by area, revise the basic rules and solve lots of questions.
Could you please suggest me ways to get faster and better. Especially in LR?
LR will take some time. More important is to get it correct. We always suggest that after reading the passage and the question, you do not look at the answers and think of the answer yourself. Then whichever choice is closest to what you thought, mark that as your answer. If you simply scan the answers, all of them look correct.
For QA, should I stick to only CL or TIME study material ?
The time to do material is over now. You should write Mocks and on them.
Could you tell me which other colleges should i apply for other than the IIM's
We will be releasing our annual ranking of B-Schools on our website
http://www.vistamind.com in the first week of October. You can refer to that.
I can identify my weak areas. But I want to solve substantial amount of good questions in that area. Where should I search for that particular type of question ?
There are many websites and books which give you concept/chapter wise questions that have appeared in CAT. That would be a good resource to work on.
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