CAT 2024 preparation strategy

The CAT exam is a highly competitive exam, which is conducted by one of the IIMs on a rotational basis. Each year, lakhs of fresh graduates and experienced professionals take the exam from various fields to join a program in management education across prestigious B-schools in India.

A few important factors that should be kept in mind while preparing for the exam are:

Knowledge about syllabus- It is important to first know about the pattern of the exam and how is it evolving over the years. For each sectional area (QA, LRDI, VARC), you should know about the syllabus, topics that should be covered, and depth of study required.

Time management- It is an important factor to be considered right from the start of your CAT preparation. You have a sectional time limit of 40 minutes. During your preparation, keep track of the time taken to solve each question and always calculate the average time taken per question when you are solving a set of questions. As you progress, work on improving your speed and accuracy gradually.

Shortcut techniques- These are very crucial to solve questions as it saves a great deal of time. Keep in mind the shortcut CAT Preparation tips and tricks that your mentors teach you, and make sure you note them down and apply them on a regular basis to be in the practice.

Practising previous years’ question papers- It helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses in each subject area and also give a sense about the type of questions, difficulty level, and other aspects of preparation. The performance in past year papers is a good quality check about your understanding and preparation level of the topic and subject matter.

Mock tests- Regular mock tests help you identify our strong and weak areas, time management skills, and examination temperament. Mock tests are simulation of actual CAT exam and must be taken regularly no matter what you score. It is equally important to analyse the mocks taken by looking at what mistakes you made and how to eliminate them in future. It also helps a lot on learning how to approach and tackle a question efficiently.

Choice of question selection- One of the most important factors in cracking CAT is the choice of questions. Make sure you analyse a question carefully before you attempt it, and go forward only if you are confident enough to solve it. It saves a lot of time and also keep us focused on our output.

Time spent on a question- It is very important not to spend a lot of time on a question and move forward. For example, if in a section you aim to attempt 10 questions, you should try not to spend more than 4 minutes (40 minutes is for entire section) on solving a question on an average. It helps you to keep a track of time and help achieve the number of question that you aim to attempt.

Regular revision- Regular revision of different concepts, theories, formulae, and other tips and tricks is very essential. In addition to a study program of fresh topic, you should also focus equally on the revision. Try to divide time spent on new study/practice versus revision as 70:30.

Sectional strategy- For each section, you should have a different strategy which include also how many questions you want to attempt in each section. It depends on in which section you are stronger and in which you are average. Nevertheless, you should aim to score minimum of 90 percentile in any section to get calls from top IIMs (IIM-A, B, C, L, I, K, S) if you are in general category.

Discipline and regularity in studies- You should adopt a disciplined approach in your studies. Try not to make a vast routine of 8-hour study. But, stick to the 3-5 hours a day on a regular basis. Start with a 2–3-hour routine and increase the number of hours put in gradually and slowly. If you keep studying without any gap till your examination you will be ready for the actual CAT.