How To Prepare Online for the CAT exam, in 180 Days?

Going by the trend, CAT Coaching 2020 will tentatively be held in the last week of November 2020. With around 6 months remaining for CAT preparation, let us look at the ideal strategy to go for CAT online preparation. Whether you’re a working professional or a student, the strategy for CAT online preparation remains unchanged. We are assuming you don’t have any prior online CAT preparation ideas. Let us look at the strategy for online CAT preparation.

Know your CAT Exam: First things first, be aware of the sections in CAT Exams, namely VARC, DILR and QA. Know the pattern of CAT Exam and number of questions asked in CAT Exam is also a very essential part of CAT preparation. Generally, there are a total of 100 questions in the CAT exam. The distribution is 34, 32 and 34 for VARC, DILR and QA respectively in CAT exam. The questions are of MCQ and TITA (Type In The Answer) in CAT exam. Each question carries 3 marks; hence the CAT Exam paper is of 300 marks. For a wrong answer in MCQs, there is a rule in CAT Exam that you are penalized with -1: while, there are no negative marks in TITA questions. Please note there is no hard and fast paper pattern for CAT Exam. This is the pattern that is observed over the past years. CAT Exam has a notorious reputation behaviour of throwing-in surprises.

Strategy for VARC for CAT Exam: The VARC section in CAT Exam will consist of 24 Reading Comprehension (RC) questions and 10 Verbal Ability questions. The RC section contains passages from varied fields like science, business and economics, social sciences, current events. Please note the list is not exhaustive. CAT EXAMS may, and does surprise all. Since RCs are given from such diversified sources, your reading habits should also be diverse in order to crack CAT Exam. A prior reading habit would help. The following reading sources are suggested:

• Newspapers: It is a must for any MBA Aspirant. You should focus on the editorials and the front page.
• Magazines: Preferably business magazine.
• Novels: Expose yourself to novels of various genres.

As a strategy for CAT Preparation, try solving two RCs every day, hence in 180 days before your CAT Exam, you will be done with 360 RCs. No one can stop you then.

For the VA section for CAT preparation, the only strategy is ‘TO PRACTICE, PRACTICE AND PRACTICE’. The VA section contains para jumbles, para summary and picking the odd sentences out of jumbled paragraphs. Reading habits will again come in handy. Solve as many questions as you can from previous CAT Exams and CAT test series.

Try solving ten questions for VA every day as a part of CAT preparation. You may choose 10 para jumbles one day, 10 para summary the next day and 10 odd one out the third day. Solving 1800 VA questions will make you unstoppable towards CAT exam cracking.

Strategy for DILR for CAT Exam: The DILR section in CAT Exam consists of 8 sets, each set containing four questions. There is no distinction between LR sets and DI sets, as logical thinking is required for solving the DI sets too in CAT Exam. In recent years, the DILR section is generally the most difficult, and hence you must focus on accuracy rather than speed during your CAT Exam. You should not expect to get specific question types like seating arrangement for this section. Questions are made to test your ability to think out of the box on the spot. Hence, for this section, it is advisable to solve new questions types, without other’s help. In the CAT exam, you will face new question types demanding out of the box thinking. Your CAT mentor cannot develop this for you, you need to do it yourself. Solve previous year CAT Exam papers and study materials. Try to solve at least two sets every day and in 180 days you are done with 360 sets! Also note, in the past 2-3 years, solving only 3-4 sets correctly will fetch you outstanding percentiles in CAT Exam.

Strategy for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT Preparation: Unlike DILR in CAT Exam, you can expect similar questions from your CAT textbooks and previous years CAT Exam papers for this section. If your CAT basics are not clear, go topic wise first and clear all the concepts before you start your CAT exam revision. If you know the concepts, then start solving CAT practice tests, identify which chapters seems difficult. If there is any, read the concepts from that chapters. You should try to complete all the CAT topics within three to four months. Once all the concepts are clear, try to solve CAT exam papers and practice sets with questions from all the topics. Remember, the CAT Exam paper will have questions distributed from all the topics. It is advisable to solve 15-20 questions daily back to back. Solving 2700 – 3600 CAT Exam problems in 180 days will be the last nail in the coffin to seal the best score in CAT Exam.

Strategy for MOCK TESTS for CAT Exam: Any top percentiles in CAT have solved anywhere between 50 to 100 mocks. As you have only 180 days, try to write at least 50 mock CATs exam. On the days you write the mocks, you may reduce the number of daily practice questions prescribed above. You can do it in the following fashion:

Following this pattern, you will be done with more than 50 CAT Exam mocks. That’s like writing the CAT Exam more than 50 times. You can understand how beneficial it would be.

ALL THE BEST FOR YOUR CAT PREPARATION FROM TEAM GATEFLIX!