The Common Admission Test is the gateway to admissions in the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management, as well as several other institutions that use test scores as a benchmark for entry. The most recent CAT results announced on the weekend threw up surprise: 16 people were in the 100 percentile.
Maxing the CAT is not child’s play. More than 1.6 lakh people took the exam this year for a little over 4,500 seats in total at the IIMs.
Of course, everyone knows that doing well in the exam involves hard work and practice. But, what are the things a CAT aspirant should avoid. Three toppers shared their insights with Scroll.in.
1. Don’t focus on your strengths
CAT is as much about managing preparation well as it is about ticking the right options in the exam, said Anuraag Reddy, an electrical engineering undergraduate from IIT Mumbai. Reddy said he didn’t waste a lot of time on quantitative aptitude, knowing that he could solve maths problems without much effort. Instead, he moved on to sharpening his vocabulary.
“I would only study Verbal Ability whenever I got some time,” he told Scroll. “To manage my quantitative aptitude, I gave mock CATs regularly but spent most of my time on reading newspapers and solving verbal ability questions as it wasn’t my strongest suit.”
2. Don’t try to attempt every question
The pattern of the exam changed this year and candidates now attempt a total of 100 questions, 50 each in the two sections of Quantitative Aptitude and Verbal Reasoning over a total time of 170 minutes. The strategy, in this case, according to IIT Delhi’s Maheedhar Maram, is not to attempt every question.
“There are some trick questions which are meant to suck up your time,” Maram said. “I consciously stayed away from attempting data interpretation questions which are calculation-heavy and focussed on getting as many correct responses as possible in the Verbal Ability section instead.”
Harshveer Jain agreed. “The [number of ] questions increased about 66% but the time increased by only 20%,” he said.
3. Don't waste time on theory
Spending too much time on theory did not bring Jain better results in mock CATs and he had to quickly improvise his strategy. He began to devote more time to practicing questions rather than reading about the underlying concepts.
“CAT tests our question solving abilities, not the amount of definitions and axioms we know,” he said. “I tried to solve as many questions as possible and regularly gave my mock exams to be on the top of topics. Time is crucial but accuracy is what matters in the end.”
Jain pointed out that aspirants need to change their preparation patterns because of the lengthened exam duration. Studying for six-eight hours a day with breaks may not be the best strategy, he said.
“The reason is that exam is a three-hour long drill and one should never take breaks for at least three hours while studying,” he said. “I had to train my brain to last a minimum of three hours without fatigue while preparing for the exams so that I could still think and solve the last question instead of letting it go.”
Maxing the CAT is not child’s play. More than 1.6 lakh people took the exam this year for a little over 4,500 seats in total at the IIMs.
Of course, everyone knows that doing well in the exam involves hard work and practice. But, what are the things a CAT aspirant should avoid. Three toppers shared their insights with Scroll.in.
1. Don’t focus on your strengths
CAT is as much about managing preparation well as it is about ticking the right options in the exam, said Anuraag Reddy, an electrical engineering undergraduate from IIT Mumbai. Reddy said he didn’t waste a lot of time on quantitative aptitude, knowing that he could solve maths problems without much effort. Instead, he moved on to sharpening his vocabulary.
“I would only study Verbal Ability whenever I got some time,” he told Scroll. “To manage my quantitative aptitude, I gave mock CATs regularly but spent most of my time on reading newspapers and solving verbal ability questions as it wasn’t my strongest suit.”
2. Don’t try to attempt every question
The pattern of the exam changed this year and candidates now attempt a total of 100 questions, 50 each in the two sections of Quantitative Aptitude and Verbal Reasoning over a total time of 170 minutes. The strategy, in this case, according to IIT Delhi’s Maheedhar Maram, is not to attempt every question.
“There are some trick questions which are meant to suck up your time,” Maram said. “I consciously stayed away from attempting data interpretation questions which are calculation-heavy and focussed on getting as many correct responses as possible in the Verbal Ability section instead.”
Harshveer Jain agreed. “The [number of ] questions increased about 66% but the time increased by only 20%,” he said.
3. Don't waste time on theory
Spending too much time on theory did not bring Jain better results in mock CATs and he had to quickly improvise his strategy. He began to devote more time to practicing questions rather than reading about the underlying concepts.
“CAT tests our question solving abilities, not the amount of definitions and axioms we know,” he said. “I tried to solve as many questions as possible and regularly gave my mock exams to be on the top of topics. Time is crucial but accuracy is what matters in the end.”
Jain pointed out that aspirants need to change their preparation patterns because of the lengthened exam duration. Studying for six-eight hours a day with breaks may not be the best strategy, he said.
“The reason is that exam is a three-hour long drill and one should never take breaks for at least three hours while studying,” he said. “I had to train my brain to last a minimum of three hours without fatigue while preparing for the exams so that I could still think and solve the last question instead of letting it go.”
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