CAT 2016: Preparation strategy for last two months

The Common Entrance Test (CAT) 2016 is scheduled to held on December 4

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CAT 2016: Take mock tests regularly

With only 100 days left for the CAT 2016, for admission to the coveted IIMs and other good management institutions of the country, the preparation is on the fast pace. We look at how to proceed for the next 100 days.

For most of you, “more studies” is better but with an important caveat. Studying more will help provided you are able to concentrate and learn. If you find it difficult to concentrate or understand what you are studying, it is time to take a break. Most of you who are not working or do not have any other major demand on your time, can study 6-8 hours a day.

It is difficult for most people to study with good concentration at a stretch. We recommend that you study for about two hours and take a break for 10-15 minutes before you start the next study session.

Studying different areas in a day helps in better concentration. For example, if you plan to study eight hours a day in buckets of two hours, you may do Quant, RC, DI and LR for two hours each with about 10-15 minutes break between every two sessions.

However, please ensure that you should cover all areas every week. Further, weaker areas should be allotted more time. The general rule is that the weaker you are in an area, the more time you allocate for the section. Ironically, most students allot more time to those areas which they prefer and are therefore stronger.

Resist this temptation and spend more time on the areas you like relatively less. This will help you with the sectional cutoffs, which are present for the IIMs and other good management institutes.

Read: CAT 2016: These strategies can help you get that percentile

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The exam gives you less time than required to solve the entire paper, therefore, time management is crucial. Thus, always work with a ‘time deadline’ when you are tackling / solving questions / exercise / tests so that you are accustomed to the time pressure. Set an alarm to keep you under pressure. You may not use the alarm when you are learning something but always use it for taking a test. The standard guideline is that the time you set, should be sufficient for tackling around 75 per cent of the questions.

Take 1-2 mock tests per week with the complete analysis is sufficient. By the end, taking around 2-3 full-length tests in a week will be sufficient followed by analysis. When analysing, look at what you solved but took too much time, look at what you solved but got wrong and look at what you left but could have been solved easily.

This will give you targets to work on for study.

Revision of mathematics concepts and important formulae can be done the last one month. For now, focus on improving your conceptual clarity.

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Do not memorise formulae since the CAT is not looking at your ability to memorise but rather the ability to apply concepts. Working on lots of questions in practice tests that test your concepts is a much better approach than just working on formulae based questions.

For DI and LR, do look at all types of questions, so that there are no nasty surprises in the exam. If you are familiar with various types of problems in the exam beforehand, you are likelier to do well on the test. Your mock tests can serve as an excellent source of a large number of sets which are the level of the examination.

For English, please note that more than two-thirds of the English section is reading-oriented, whether it is RCs or reading oriented VA questions like logical completion of paragraphs, logically ordering the paragraphs, error in usage, et al.
Surely, there are some vocabulary and grammar questions but the effort you put in them is not going to be as fruitful as improving reading skill. So focus more on reading.

Read: CAT 2016: Check exam dates, how to apply

You may continue reading some newspaper but now the time is for solving the material provided to you, which will give you reading practice and question practice. Do not worry too much about lots of grammar rules, new vocabulary words. Whatever new words you do find in a passage that you may revise but do not focus extensively on improving vocabulary now.

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Last two weeks
Do not start anything new in the last two weeks before CAT. Focus only on strong areas in the last two weeks. Gradually reduce your study in the last 3-4 days and relax on the day before you will take CAT.

Some students fail to do well in mock tests and feel demotivated. Be realistic in your assessment of your caliber and set realistic and achievable goals. Performance improvement takes place slowly since everyone is studying and is trying to improve. Even if you improve on an absolute scale, you may not see much improvement in your relative performance.

The author is Ankur Jain, Chief Knowledge Expert, T.I.M.E. Delhi

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