Mock tests are the most important elements of your CAT 2019 preparation, and careful analysis of your performance in these tests is crucial to optimizing your performance on the D-day. But what exactly is the right way to analyse mock tests? What are some effective mock tests strategies that have been used by CAT 99%ilers and CAT toppers? What are some mistakes to avoid during mock test analysis for CAT 2019?
To answer all these crucial questions, here are some mock test analysis tips from IIM students, CAT toppers and CAT experts!
Before moving on to understanding how 99%iler analyse mock tests, it is important to understand exactly how similar/dissimilar mock tests are to the actual CAT exam. In this article, Rajesh Balasubramanian of 2iim explains what adjustments you will need to make when shifting from mock tests to the actual CAT 2019 test!
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The Right Way To Analyse Mock Tests | Tips From A CAT 99.96 Percentiler And IIM Ahmedabad Student
Bishwadeep Bagchi, an IIM Ahmedabad student, took a total of 60 mock tests that led him to a 99.96%ile score in CAT 2018.
"This is what I used to do while analyzing the mocks:
- Solve all the questions that I couldn’t solve or got wrong during the exam without any time limit. This enabled me to reach the solution on my own, which helps in retaining it for a longer period of time.
- Bookmark the problems which had a different kind of question, a novel method of solving it or had anything which I would want to revise again."
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Biswadeep also spent a large amount of time tracking his mock test performance and laying out a strategy to rectify mistakes, and analyse even the questions he got right! More from him in this article.
Are You Following These Steps While Appearing For CAT Mocks? – Mock Strategies By IIM Lucknow Alumnus
Which mock tests should you take? How many mock tests should you take? How can you mirror the actual test environment? What are the major questions should you ask yourself during mock test analysis? And finally, how can you avoid getting demotivated after a mock test result and focus on strengthening your weak areas?
Samaksha Vaishya, an IIM Lucknow alumnus who cracked CAT 2015, answers these five questions in the minds of all CAT 2019 aspirants in this article.
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The Ultimate Mock Test Taking Strategies For CAT - Arks Srinivas, CEO of MBA Products At Career Launcher
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Mock CAT Tips And Strategies To Boost Your Percentile - Tips From An IIM Kozhikode Alumnus
"It is imperative that you give at least 15-20 mocks, but what happens with most students is that they score 50-70 percentile in the initial 4-5 mocks and end up giving up or losing their confidence before the CAT even happened.
I have seen many testimonies where students who were scoring 0 or even negatives in mocks ended up scoring 99 percentile in CAT, so never give up and keep on grinding!"
Karan Kakkar, an IIM Kozhikode alumnus and someone who cracked CAT after four attempts, shares some highly crucial tips and tricks to improve your test-taking strategy. This is one article you don't want to miss from one of InsideIIM's most popular authors!
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“Mock” ing Your Way Through CAT By Rinku Stephen – IIM Bangalore
Rinku Stephen, an IIM Bangalore alumna, shares three important tips to effectively analyse your mock tests and boost your D-day score! Here is one of those three tips:
"Know What Question to Pass – The important thing to remember about CAT is that it's not about attempting all questions but knowing which questions to skip. This is because of the negative marking component. By practising and taking up mock exams, you will be able to know how sound your knowledge of a topic is and so, decide if you can afford to spend time attempting a tough question. You can always come back to it if you’ve managed to save time."
Read the complete article by Rinku on mock test strategy here.
If you have any questions to ask or tips to share around mock test strategies, share them on this dedicated thread.
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Preparing for CAT? Have you checked out our Ultimate CAT Preparation Guide? If you haven't go check it out now for some excellent tips from CAT 99%ilers, CAT toppers, and old-IIM students for some excellent section-wise tips as well as strategies for the D-day.
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Comments
Vijay Chauhan
I am enthusiastic learner and CAT aspirant.
mam, can you please tell me the section wise approach.
4 Jun 2018, 06.06 PM
+Read Replies (3)
Krishnika Agarwal
Krishnika Agarwal had scored 99.44%ile in CAT 2017. She will be joining IIM Lucknow this year. She likes painting and traveling, and occasionally indulges in yoga and meditation.
VA - I had given GMAT just before I started my preparations. So that helped me with it. I used Manhattan Sentence Correction Guide for basic exercises. Egmat blogs and webinars really helped me a lot. RC - https://www.gpkafunda.com/solving-rc-passages/ video helped me a lot. Apart from this, it was mostly about choosing the right kind of passages during AIMCATS and spending more time on those. DI/LR - I was able to solve 5-6 passages during AIMCATs, so this was not really a problem for me. But one strategy which helped me during CAT 17 was to skim through all the questions in starting 2-3 minutes. This helped me identify the easy ones and solve them first. Reading all the sets before beginning the section is very important due to the fact that the time is not sufficient to solve all the sets and the level of difficulty varies largely from one set to another. QA - After taking the diagnostic test, I realized that I was out of touch with the formulas. So the first thing I did was to solve the TIME Quant booklets' exercises. Also, while analyzing my AIMCATs, I used to bookmark questions which I felt were different or difficult or had a new concept. I revised these questions 2-3 times before CAT. I used to take as many mocks as possible. The mocks covered almost all kinds of questions and helped me decide the best possible strategy for me.
4 Jun 2018, 09.29 PM |
Vijay Chauhan
I am enthusiastic learner and CAT aspirant.
Thank you very much mam... All the best for your MBA.
8 Jun 2018, 11.33 PM |
Krishnika Agarwal
Krishnika Agarwal had scored 99.44%ile in CAT 2017. She will be joining IIM Lucknow this year. She likes painting and traveling, and occasionally indulges in yoga and meditation.
All the best for CAT!
9 Jun 2018, 01.34 PM |
Muskaan Duggal
Learner....
First off, thankyou for such an informative article, really helped a lot :) I just wanted to ask that do we require a coaching for preparing or are there any online platforms?
9 Jun 2018, 01.07 PM
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Krishnika Agarwal
Krishnika Agarwal had scored 99.44%ile in CAT 2017. She will be joining IIM Lucknow this year. She likes painting and traveling, and occasionally indulges in yoga and meditation.
It depends from person to person. Personally, I felt that test series and TIME material was enough for me. I did not have time to attend the classes. If you have enough time to attend classes (religiously) and still manage to self-study and give mocks, then you can definitely join a coaching. Coaching institutes provide tips and tricks to solve questions. On the other hand, if you do not have sufficient time, then I would recommend you to practice questions and go through their solutions as well. The solutions provided by the coaching institutes consist of the tips to solve the particular question, if any. Online platforms that I referred to: 1) Time test series : Consists of AIMCATs + SAMCATS + 100+ Sectional tests and topic tests 2) CL test series : AIMCATs (with good analysis) + few free material and video lectures on some topics
9 Jun 2018, 01.33 PM |
Muskaan Duggal
Learner....
Thankyou so muchh :D Good luck to you on your IIM journey :) :)
11 Jun 2018, 11.36 AM |
Krishnika Agarwal
Krishnika Agarwal had scored 99.44%ile in CAT 2017. She will be joining IIM Lucknow this year. She likes painting and traveling, and occasionally indulges in yoga and meditation.
Good luck to you too :)
13 Jun 2018, 04.43 PM |