50 days to CAT: Re-think your prep strategy to score high percentile

With just 50 days remaining for Common Admission Test which is scheduled to be held in a 20 days window beginning 16 October, 2013, you must re-think your prep strategy based on some crucial factors which can influence your CAT percentile.

While you must be in the midst of your preparation, CAT experts suggest that the last 50 days of serious preparation can bring you an edge over others. In this article, we bring you expert advice on how you can fine-tune your prep strategy for last 50 days of CAT to boost your percentile. 

Schedule your CAT date:

It you are yet to register for CAT, plan your test date after evaluating your preparation level now.

Arks Srinivas, CEO, VistaMind Education, and former director, T.I.M.E says that the date should be selected depending on your preparation level and also your personal convenience. “You should evaluate your preparation and if you feel that 15-20 days of extra preparation can make you more confident, you should definitely go for the last week for the test. But if your preparation is good, make it in the first week of the testing window and save more time for the next big exam which is XAT,” he says.

If you are confident with your preparation, you can go for early dates as it will save your time for preparation of other major MBA exams like XAT, NMAT, IIFT Entrance which can bring you many more admission opportunities to top B-schools in India.

Mr Sandeep Manudhane, Founder Chairman, PT Education also says that if a candidate is well-prepared, he should not schedule the CAT test in the latter half of the window as feedback emerging from the first half of the test window may unnecessarily stress and confuse you.  “Once the CAT begins, you start getting lots of information on each testing areas and sections. You also start receiving daily feedback from your peers. It puts unnecessary stress on you which may adversely affect your performance on D-Day,” he says.

Take as many mock CAT as possible:

Toppers and Experts suggest that you should practice a lot and take as many mock CAT as possible in last few weeks. Ms Sumedha Deogharia, a student of 2013-15 PGDIM batch of NITIE, Mumbai, who scored 99.35%ile in CAT 2012, says, “You should practice a lot; only practice can make you perfect and improve your accuracy. Take as many mock tests as you can. Come out with a proper analysis of your performance after each mock test and try to find out weaknesses and strengths.  

Arks Srinivas says that the Mock CAT helps you improve on your weak areas. “At the end of each Mock CAT, you can check your scores in each area/section and find out where you are lacking expertise in, and concentrate on those topics more before the next Mock CAT. This way, you would ensure that whatever the weak areas you have you can work on them before the next Mock CAT.”

While mock is must at this stage, Mr Rajesh Balasubramanian, an IIT, IIM alumnus, & 2011, 2012 CAT Topper and the author of CAT books, cautions that you should not try to attempt more questions in Mock CAT at the cost of your accuracy. 

“The most important negative factor with taking lot of mock exams is this tendency to give too much importance to percentile scores, he says, adding, the desire to increase attempts leads to two key errors- first, a very high score volatility; and second, a reluctance to resolve between the last two available choices.

“A student may scores 98th percentile in one exam and in the very next exam he might fall at 76th. If score volatility is this high, this will hurt confidence in the last lap of your preparation and panicky decisions will creep into the system on D-Day,” he said.

Forget other exams, focus on CAT:

As you must have worked on the basic concepts for your MBA exams in last few weeks, it is time to focus completely on CAT now.

While basics for almost all the MBA exams remain the same, you can focus on specific nature of different exams like XAT, NMIMS, IIFT Entrance after your CAT. 

The MBA entrance exam season will begin with Common Admission Test (CAT) starting October 16, 2013, and other exams will follow in the month of November-January. This will give you some time for specific preparation for other exams.  

The dates for all major MBA entrance exams have already been announced. NMAT 2014 Exam is scheduled in a two and half month window beginning October 5 and ending 18 December. While XAT 2014 exam  will be held on 5 January, 2014, IIFT 2014 Exam is scheduled on 24 November, 2013. SNAP 2013 Exam will be conducted on 15 Dec, 2013..

To Read More

 

 

Critical Reasoning in CAT: How to infer last sentence of a paragraph?

Critical Reasoning is part and parcel of Logical Reasoning section of CAT. This includes Para-completion which is an important part of critical reasoning questions. Since it is more inclined towards verbal ability, an aspirant with better command over VA will be better equipped to solve such problems. This type of question comes with an incomplete paragraph, leaving the last line, which is required to be opted out of the four alternative concluding statements, given as possible answers, to complete the paragraph in the most appropriate way. CAT began with such questions in 2005, creating a great deal of confusion among the CAT aspirants as all the options appeared quite close to one another. 

But a good understanding of the text, idea and tone of the author can lead you to the correct answer. You may expect two questions based on completion of a paragraph which would give you an edge of six marks and might improve your percentile by 12 to 15.

Completion of a paragraph is nothing but a test of your comprehension skills. However, knowing well that CAT is always full of surprises and the difficulty level is rather high, you should be aware how to attempt such questions with some tips beforehand. 

1. Understanding the unity and coherence in the paragraph is a must. Beginning of the paragraph may well provide a lead to its topic and tone. The paragraph develops its main body by discussing the details and facts. Try to link the sentences by spotting the key words and logical arguments.

2.    Identify the gist of the paragraph by following the thread of thought (steps cited above).

What to do now:

1.    Read the first sentence of the paragraph, it has got the tone and idea to proceed to main body of paragraph

2.    Find out the main points and main idea in the paragraph while giving it a thoughtful reading. If you are unable to decide the main points importance wise – check whether the point you have chosen has due relevance to your reading.

3.    Think carefully now, what should close the paragraph

4.    Choose the most appropriate option-the option that concludes the paragraph, instead of taking it to some other thought, idea, action or any other domain

5.    Mark the answer

Exercises and CAT Questions:                                          

Let us discuss some of the questions that appeared in CAT and other sample questions-

Question -1 

CAT question

Directions for question – Following question has a paragraph from which the last sentence has been deleted. From the given options, choose the one that completes the paragraph in the most appropriate way.

Relations between the factory and the dealer are distant and usually strained as the factory tries to force cars on the dealers to smooth out production.  Relations between the dealer and the customer are equally strained because dealers continuously adjust prices – make deals – to adjust demand with supply while maximizing profits.  This becomes a system marked by a lack of long term commitment on either side, which maximizes, feelings or mistrust. In order to maximize their bargaining positions, everyone holds back information – the dealer about the product and the consumer about his true desires.

A.    As a result ‘ deal making’ becomes rampant, without concern for customer satisfaction.

B.    As a result, inefficiencies creept into the supply chain.

C.    As a result everyone treats the other as an adversary, rather than as an ally.

D.    As a result, fundamental innovations are becoming scarce in the automobile industry.

E.    As a result, everyone loses in the long run

1.A  2. B  3. C  4. D   5.E

 

Ans. – 5.E – All other are problems because of reasons mentioned . So the Result signifies if it does not get solved – every one loses. 

The author of this article Mr S K Agarwal is a CAT Expert, a seasoned CAT trainer with over 25 years of experience, & author of many CAT books. He also guides Verbal Ability Section to CAT Aspirants through MBAUniverse.com online coaching classes. 

MBAUniverse.com offers a comprehensive preparation package coupled with over 200 online interactive classes with Top CAT experts including from IIMs for CAT 2013 preparation
Visit the link below for more information and new batch schedules:
http://www.mbauniverse.com/mba-exam-preparation/CAT_Preparation/mba_preparation_package.php

Toppers Mantra: Know success strategies of 99.35%iler Sumedha Deogharia

Ms Sumedha Deogharia scored 99.35%ile in CAT 2012. Presently a student of 2013-15 PGDIM batch of NITIE, Mumbai, Ms Deogharia shares her success mantras on cracking CAT.  In this exclusive session with MBAUniverse.com, the alumni of DAV Shyamali, Ranchi and Jadavpur University Kolkata, talks on the challenges she faced while preparing for CAT and which part of her preparation helped her score high percentile in CAT and secure admission to the top B-school like NITIE. 

She also talks on her GD/PI strategy, weekly study plans and what she finds as the best part of doing an MBA.

What was the toughest & easiest section for you in CAT? Why?

For me the toughest part was solving the DI questions. I could attempt only 1 out of the 3 problems. This was due to the fact that the DI questions needed a lot of calculation in a short span of time. A lot more practice on mental calculation and vedic mathematics could have helped me solve the problem.

I found the QA section really easy which had simple formula based calculations. As a result of which, I was able to attempt all the questions in that section. It was only because of a good accuracy in this section that my percentile shot up to an overall of 99.35.

What was your strategy to handle difficult parts?

First of all, I glanced through all the questions quickly.  I knew that there was no individual cut-off for QA & DI separately. So, when I found out that the DI questions were difficult and needed rigorous calculations, I thought of doing them in the last. First, I solved all the questions in the QA section and then started with the DI questions where I was successful in solving one out of them.

How did you manage your weekly study schedule? What should be the ideal duration for study every week?

I attended my coaching centre regularly in the evenings.  As I am a fresher, I used to study for two hours in the morning.  I used to study for another 2 hours after college.  A total of 5-6 hours of effective study per day would do the magic!! I used to take a day off and enjoy myself during the weekends so that I could start the next week with renewed energy.

Please mention one preparation area which influenced your selection to this Top B-school heavily. How?

Since NITIE only takes engineers, I already knew they would harp at my technical knowledge. So, I had prepared all my subjects very well. And as expected, the professors in the panel chose a random subject from each of the semesters and started throwing questions one after the other, all of which I was able to answer. It was only because of my thorough preparation that I was able to get through NITIE.

What was your long-term preparation strategy for GD/PI

The 5 points that I kept in mind as an effective GD/PI strategy are:

1. Be thorough with the current affairs and read newspapers daily
2. Participate in GDs regularly in your coaching classes.
3. Watch videos of prior GD-PI workshops conducted by your coaching classes
4. Make sure that you appear for at least three mock PIs
5. Read as much as you can from internet, magazines, books and television.

What was your biggest mistake during selection process beginning with CAT?

The biggest mistake that I had committed was that I had not given much importance to the HR questions and did not prepare for them.  Most of the B-Schools access the candidates on the interpersonal and management front by asking a lot of HR questions during the PI.

Your advice for CAT 2013 Aspirants

One good piece of advice for CAT 2013 aspirants from my side is that you should practice a lot; only practice can make you perfect and improve your accuracy. Take as many mock tests as you can. Come out with a proper analysis of your performance after each mock test and try to find out weaknesses and strengths.  Read editorial columns in newspapers to improve your knowledge base and reading ability. Keep revisiting your CAT preparation material from time to time. Work very hard if you want to bell the CAT this year itself!