With little more than a month to go for CAT, your preparation will have reached a gallop from a trot.
Remember that passion, practice, and perseverance are the keys to achieving your goal. The first thing to do is to calm the butterflies in the stomach and arm yourself with the confidence that only regular and focused practice can give.
In the last leg of your preparation, it is time to revise the basics of each topic. This will help you make the right choices when it comes to choosing/prioritizing questions to attempt in the test. Time management within each section will help you increase the number of attempts while not compromising on accuracy.
You must revisit the full-length mocks (AIMCATs) you have already attempted. Pay attention to the questions you spent a lot of time on and yet got them wrong. Make a note of why you marked the wrong answer. A list of such learnings will prove to be invaluable. Invest time to thoroughly analyse each section.
Do pay attention to all three sections – the strong one to help maximise your score; the weak one to help you plug the hole and perform better. For the Reading Comprehension part, go for passages that you find challenging – do not get complacent, yet read with a calm mind. Make sure that you attempt different types of questions that involve critical thinking. The para-based questions should be tackled in a logical manner, keeping the idea flow in mind. The AIMCATs + the AIMCAT-SAs (mocks) will introduce you to a variety of topics and questions.
The Data Interpretation part can be quite tricky. The key here is to attempt an assortment of sets and train yourself to patiently filter out the easy and moderate questions to attempt. The Logical Reasoning questions should be attempted astutely. Make sure to devote ample time to practicing them.
The quantitative ability section is the last in the order in CAT. Revise the basic concepts and formulae. The section in the last few years has had a spattering of questions related to many topics. Keep in mind to go through the sectional tests for each topic. Arithmetic is mostly in the limelight, but you should practice questions from all the topics – this will help you pick the easy/moderate questions for better accuracy.
Remember that you learn from every question you get wrong, so there is no need to be intimidated by fluctuating scores. This may happen when you are trying out different ways to approach the test. Keep working on gaining conceptual clarity and applying the concepts in the questions.
Take the mocks in the time slot as per your admit card – this will help you optimize your actual performance. Every mock test must be followed by a detailed analysis. By this time, you would have worked on different strategies, and zeroed in on one. But remember, you cannot lock one strategy; depending on the difficulty level of the paper/section, you may need to re-work the strategy for the main CAT.
Increasing your accuracy and getting a few more answers correct will push your percentile up north. CAT is all about putting your logical and analytical mind to work, so your temperament will play a big role. Stay calm, stay focused.
Keep the winning post in mind, keep persevering, and believe in yourself!
The author, Tarannum N Raza is the Chief Knowledge Expert- VA at T.I.M.E
