How to Approach the Mock CATs and The CAT?

Dear CAT aspirant, we hope your preparation for CAT is going at full throttle.While thinking of CAT mocks, the first thing to figure out is how many CAT mocks should one write? It is advisable to write anywhere between 50 to 100 CAT mocks. Let us assume you have 6 months left for CAT and you plan to write 50 mocks. You should distribute the mocks with 2-3 in the first month of your preparation and increase it up to 12-15 in the last month. If you have more time, then you can increase the number of CAT mocks per month.

In the first month of your CAT preparation, you should be focussing on clearing your concepts and equipping yourself with the CAT tricks to solve various types of questions. In the first 4-5 mocks you should try various strategies to attempt the paper and zero-in on the one that suits you the most. Please note we will not mention the number of questions to be attempted as it entirely depends on the difficulty level. Never go for CAT or any CAT mock with the target of solving these many questions. Naturally an easy paper will demand speed and a difficult paper will require accuracy. You will be able to judge the difficulty level of any paper only if you have written a sufficient number of CAT mocks. Let us talk about the strategies section by section.

VARC in CAT Exam:

The verbal section generally contains 24 questions on RC and 10 questions on verbal ability. You may solve RCs first in 40-45 minutes and verbal ability questions in the remaining 15-20 minutes. Or, you can go in the reverse order. Try both the strategies in two mocks each and you will have an idea of what suits you. Generally people attempt RCs first as these 24 questions are bundled in sets. Naturally solving a RC set takes more time than solving individual questions of verbal ability. Hence even if you have limited time after solving the RC part, you can go for some standalone questions for verbal ability. Your focus should be to utilize each of the 60 minutes provided.

DILR in CAT Exam:

This section consists of 8 sets of 4 questions each. A common and advisable strategy is to scan the 8 sets in the first 5-6 minutes and get a rough idea of what the type of sets are. Some sets will be heavy on calculations and require less logical reasoning. Some others will be the opposite of this. Some may seem easy while others may seem difficult. Some sets shall be so long that reading the entire set will take upto 5 minutes, let alone solving it. While you scan the sets in the first few minutes, make a list of the order in which you shall attempt the sets. It is advisable to keep the easy ones at the top of the list. Also, you may solve the sets requiring logical reasoning before the ones requiring heavy calculation. The rationale behind the list is to figure out the easily doable sets in the first. This will stop the pressure from building and help to keep a calm head. Doing the most difficult or calculation heavy sets at first will require more time and getting stuck will build pressure.

QA in CAT Exam:

The QA section contains 34 questions. As there are no sets here, you should not waste your time on scanning the entire paper. Start from the first question or from the middle of the paper if you want. Do the following:

• If the text is so long that only reading it will take 1.5-2 minutes, skip it instantly. You will have time at the end for the skipped questions. Also, skip a question if you are not able to figure out how to proceed in 1-2 minute after reading the question.
• Once you have found a doable question, a general rule of thumb is to absolutely not spend any more than 3 minutes on that question. Only if you are sure of solving it in a maximum of one more minute, then you could think of spending an additional few seconds.
• Please note there will be some easy to moderately easy questions distributed throughout the paper. Your priority should be to find and solve them. They will give you the time to go back to skipped questions in the end.
• Keeping these things in mind, you should be able to go through the entire paper in 45-50 minutes. By this time you will be done with all the easy and moderate questions. The remaining 10-15 minutes shall be for skipped questions.
• While you skip questions, note them down into two groups, group one for the lengthy ones and for those in which you made partial progress. Second group for those which are best left unsolved owing to their difficulty level. Doing this will save you some valuable seconds.
• Note that these are advisable strategies. A good number of mocks will help you find what strategy suits you.

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:

Month	Number of Mocks	Comment
1	3 with one each after every 10 days.	The next day after mock should be used to analyze it. As you begin your preparation here, new concepts are learnt.
2	6 with one each after every 5 days.	The next day after mock should be used to analyze it. In these months you should strengthen your fundamentals.
3	8 with one each after every 3-4 days.	The next day after mock should be used to analyze it. Focus on accuracy more than speed, which shall increase eventually.
4	10 with one each after every 3 days.	The next day after mock should be used to analyze it. All basics should be completed. Focus on accuracy with speed.
5	12 with one each after every 2-3 days.	The next day after mock should be used to analyze it. Focus on solving as many questions as possible.
6	15 with one each after every 2 days.	The next day after mock should be used to analyze it. Write the mocks in the same time frame as your CAT paper.

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!

Online learning is the future of Education

Coaching industry can primarily be divided into offline coaching and online coaching industries.

The online learning industry in India is booming.
There are various reasons behind this, such as:

• Suboptimal standard of education in schools/colleges.
• High level of competition leading to the need of having an edge over others.
• Access to educators around the world.

Let us have a look at the traditional offline coaching. The classroom experience has remained unchanged for decades. Classroom allows live interaction between students and teachers and among other students. Offline coaching provides the means for exchanging sudden sparks of genius and clarification of doubts with peers. This interaction is the main selling point of the offline mode of learning. Having said that, let us see the downside of offline coaching institutes:

• Offline centres are usually motivated by money.
• The attention is likely to fall on the ‘better’ students. So, to say it in a more appropriate way, ‘A possible rift between fast and slow learners.
• A fixed amount of content to be covered in one class, causing teachers to rush with content delivery.
• Students are segregated into batches based on marks.

As seen above, the offline method has a lot of flaws, which are quickly resolved by the online mode of learning. Indian students are shifting to the online mode of learning. According to a KPMG report, the online education industry had a user base of around 1.6 million people in 2016. By 2022, it is projected to be at 9.6 million users.

Let us now look at why students are turning towards an online mode of learning:

• The online courses offer more flexibility. Learning is self-paced, based on the needs of the particular student.
• Easy on the pocket: With the reduced cost of infrastructure for the institutes, they can pass on the reduced cost to the students in the form of the reduced course fee.
• The material and practice tests are regularly updated, unlike offline institutions where it is mostly done once a year.
• Better Study Experience: Institutes are using animation extensively to draw images. This reduces time and gives a better experience as the images are perfect. Animation can develop your 3D imagination very easily, hence making things simpler to understand. There is no way a drawing on a textbook or diagram on board can match the animations.
• You also get to study at the comfort of your room without having to travel all the way every day or living in a – not so comfortable – hostel.
• This is especially applicable to Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities in India. There is limited access to good coaching centres as they tend to be in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities or are clustered in some states.
• You can compare yourself to students all over India with test series and rankings. This gives a realistic picture of where you stand, unlike comparing yourself with limited students in one batch.
• The problem of unavailability of interaction with faculties is overcome by live classes and doubt sessions.
• You have access to many faculties from all over India as compared to the limited number of them in a coaching centre. Hence, you have many different perspectives not only from teachers but also from fellow students.
• Option to chat with students all over India and understand others’ problem-solving strategies.
• With the boom of technology and easy and affordable access to the internet, students can very easily go for online learning.

With your doubts about online learning cleared, enrol for an online course of your choice with GATEFLIX and experience the new era of learning.