At the time of writing this article, I realized, a year ago around the same time I started my CAT preparation and had only 100 days before the D-Day.
I believe almost all of you would be able to relate to the title of this article, given you can’t really take physical coaching & things have gone digital. Do not get bogged down by the virtual setup, instead, take this opportunity to look a little out of the false importance of coaching institutions into the abundance of resources freely available online and save a few bucks too (Thank me later!). Read through the article to find out how you can make the most of these testing times to accelerate your self-preparation.
Talking a bit about my preparation journey - As a working professional, my preparation mostly depended on the office meeting timings. I had to adjust my study times accordingly but eventually, I got used to it. I did enroll in a coaching institute near my home for their weekend batches with the hopes of getting certain concepts cleared and doubt solving. But, my purpose was not solved as there was no permanent faculty to take classes or solve doubts. I had to turn to Facebook groups for doubt solving and resources available on the internet.
Based on my poor experience, my advice to the future aspirants is to self-study. Nothing beats that. You can join coaching if you feel the need but it's not at all the only way to crack CAT. There are umpteen free and paid resources (cheaper and better than coachings) available on the internet.
How I stuck through & overcame challenges
The first time I gave CAT (2018), I thought I would easily sail through VA. But boy, I was wrong. The ability to distinguish between two seemingly similar options was hard and required extensive practice. Another thing was time management - squeezing time out of each day.
So I,
- Watched QA concept videos while commuting to and from office
- Solved a few questions on those concepts at night
- Tried reading newspaper articles sometime in office
- Solved 2 RCs daily with a study group I joined through FB
- Gave mocks on weekends
I had often been told that CAT is all about playing on your strengths. I tried applying this to myself. Firstly, I identified my strengths with a few mocks and worked on perfecting those. At the same time, I did not completely ignore my weaknesses which were in RCs and some topics of Quant and LR. For those, I stuck to clearing my basics and not mugging up the formulas. I diligently solved at least 1 RC and 1 LR question each day, come what may.
At times, things felt a bit overwhelming, but my family and friends were always there to back me up.
The secret sauce of success (Apparently, this is not a secret anymore)
I would like to highlight 4 key things that helped me to prepare for CAT without coaching, to sail through the exam, and to prepare for PIs as well.
Firstly, taking and analyzing mocks. There's a consensus that to ace the CAT exam, one must enroll with at least two test series and take umpteen mocks. I don't agree with that. It's not the count that matters but what you learn from the mistakes in those. I took like only 6-7 mocks but diligently re-attempted them without timer and analyzed each one of them in the end. It is important to experiment with your test-taking strategies and find the right one that works for you.
Secondly, time management. No matter if you are a student or a working professional, you need to have some timelines to finish your syllabus and to take mocks. Create a schedule of your own, and stick to it.
Thirdly, it’s very important to stay positive throughout the preparation phase. At times when you feel low, talk to your mentors, friends, teachers, or family who has been through this.
Lastly, keep calm during the exam. It is also important to learn to maintain composure till the end, and not let the performance of one section affect another.
Be wise when it comes to the selection of resources
Finally, time for the reveal you were here for.
Look at the positives of the COVID situation. It comes up with such a big advantage - a lot of extra time at your disposal. Make sure to make the best of it.
There are a lot of free resources available on the internet. RC99/ RC100 PDFs are the Holy Grail for VA preparation. For LRDI, I would suggest following ElitesGrid and MBAInt LRDI series on YouTube. After clearing your basics through these videos, you can solve LR questions from previous years' papers and mocks. That would very well suffice for your prep for this section.
For Quants, you can watch Takshzila videos to clear your basics (the lesser said about it, the better) and then practice questions from any source (Arun Sharma, or any coaching institute's booklets). You can also follow ElitesGrid / MBAInt channels for some peculiar concepts related to CAT.
And lastly, take mocks but most importantly analyze them.
P.S.: Do not get bogged down by the number of material others are referring to. Be wise when choosing what resource works for you & what does not.
