CAT 2014: 14 days plan

CAT 2014: 14 days plan

With 14 days to CAT 2014, the B-school aspirants are on tenterhooks. To hear words like Strategy, Mock CAT, Time Management, et al is very common to them. However, each of those words has its own importance when it comes to making your CAT attempt meaningful.

If you are taking the exam, try and stay calm. Keep working for the final showdown. The next two weeks may hold the key to consolidating all you have studied so far. It is easy, at this stage, to become nervous or lose concentration, and both the mistakes can prove costly. Do not shy away from practice. It is as essential as it was when you probably started your preparation for the CAT.

We have to remember that CAT is taken every year by lakhs of students. One cannot afford to sit back and relax at this moment. You need to keep yourself focussed and continue preparations until the last day.

Here we try to answer a few questions/ notions that trouble most of the CAT aspirants and we present our views on the same.

Mock Tests – Should I take them every day?

Yes. If not until the day of the exam, then atleast for the coming 10 days. Two reasons for that:

1. Get into the groove  – Taking a Mock test regularly will help you get into the groove. Also try and take the test at the time when your actual test is scheduled. This again will help you familiarize with conditions during those hours and make you more comfortable on the actual day.
2. Practice – Mock exams generally tend to provide real good practice and questions are often close to actual exam. A practice of those will help a student be in touch and have a constant practice of commonly asked/ expected questions. Though nothing can be predicted about such competitive exams, a practice of the most probable questions will definitely come handy.

One thing that most of the students tend to forget is to solve each question after taking the exam. This is so because as specified in point 2 above, the questions are important ones, and hence you need to know how to tackle them. So it is very important to solve each and every mock test completely, judge your suitability and move ahead!

New concepts – how many should I learn?

Possibly ZERO. The point is not to focus on what one does not know, but to focus on what one knows!

This one of the most common errors observed among the students. And it is quite understandable too. However, dear friends, please focus on the areas that you are already good at. Try to score maximum out of it. Learning some new concepts may help, but you cannot be sure. A good strategy would be to work upon your strengths and make them stronger. Remember, this is the phase of consolidation.

Math (Quants) – Darr lagta hai! What should I do?

If you are among the ones who are troubled by Math (Quants) and are not able to get to the sectionals, it can possibly mean two things viz.

•  (a) You have not given the required inputs
•  (b) You have worked but are not able identify the correct questions to attempt in the examination

In case (a), we need to practice to whatever extent we can.

In case (b), we need to identify our strengths and work accordingly. What happens with most of the students in the examination is that by the time they solve 15-20 questions, they have already consumed up the time devoted to the Quants section AND they are yet to see the remaining questions in the Quants. Now that can be horrible! We all know that Math is clubbed with Data Interpretation (DI). So if you are not so confident at Math and fancy your chance with DI, then go ahead – attempt DI. Chances of you being successful will be much more.

It is also advisable that you take Sectional test, everyday for the next 10 days in the Quant area. This will help you to develop the ability to select the “made for you” questions from the section.

To put it simply, there is nothing to panic. Analyse the question-pattern carefully, work on your strengths, do not forget we can have DI too and last but not the least, practice. Quants will be managed!

“Grammar” has my hands shivering!

If you are not through with the concepts of Grammar then it is possibly a herculean task right now with just 14 days left. However, if you are aware with the basics of grammar, we would advise that you take tests based on grammar every day. That should help you familiarize. Typically, such tests consist of 20-25 questions each and that would mean you will solve close to 300 questions and that should be good enough a practice. Same goes with solving the mock tests, analyse grammar questions carefully.

Reading Comprehension (RC) – I plan to leave it in any case!

Most of the serious aspirants of CAT must be aware that RC forms a major component of the verbal portion of CAT. We recommend not to leave ALL the RCs.

One can be weak at attempting RC if one has not practised as much. However, a good practice, even in the remaining 14 days can be of really good help. Please note that RCs can be based out of a variety of topics such as philosophical, business, economical, etc. and it is very much possible that we might be comfortable with two or more RCs asked in the examination.

Solve atleast 2-3 RCs every day!

Critical Reasoning (CR) – Any strategy?

CR questions are most commonly seen questions in CAT and other competitive exams. Most of the experts of MBA entrance preparation advise to exercise caution while attempting CR questions, so do we. Questions based on classifying the argument as strong or weak, true or false of questions asking to find out statements that strengthen or weaken the argument, are common. However, a scope of subjectivity is always there in most of the questions. Hence caution should be exercised while attempting such questions.

If you have practised such questions earlier, you can definitely attempt such questions with reasonable ease during the exams.

We hope that the above questions/ notions and the answer to them will help in clarifying doubts of thousands of aspirants of CAT 2014.

A few words without which this post will be incomplete:

• Trust your mentors

With all due respect to your knowledge and competence, we would still advise that trust your mentors. They have been with you all the way through, they know the exam and more importantly they know YOU. Trust them and be successful. It is important to emphasize this as it is very easy for a student to get distracted at the last moment, obviously because of tremendous pressure. In this age of information, it is quite possible to get distracted, but stay focused and be confident about your preparation.

• Stay Positive

Sounds cliché? May be so, but still it is quite important. As cited earlier, in a barrage of information, it is quite important remember and use the positive ones only. You have done quite well till now, you will be successful.

• Stay Healthy

It goes without saying that one has to maintain a good health. Avoid road-side food, junkfood, et al. Sleep well, sleep sufficiently. No need to stay awake for long hours.

What should be the correct strategy of taking CAT? Well, stay tuned to this blog!

All the best for your preparation for CAT 2014!

Paridhi Trivedi Parikh | Hardik K. Parikh

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Disclaimer: The views mentioned above are based on the authors' opinion and experiences. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on these views/ information.