30 days to CAT: Focus on 4 key areas to realize your B-school dream

With just around 30 days remaining for CAT, which is scheduled to begin from October 16, it’s time you shape your last-month preparation strategy for this prestigious MBA exam.

So, where should be your focus in last one month of preparation? What factors are critical towards scoring high percentile in CAT? How should you make best out of last 30 days of your CAT preparation? 

Experts suggest that your preparation in last one month to CAT is very crucial which can make or break your dream for your desired B-schools. Your efforts in last 30 days hold the key to success towards your dream run for top B-schools like IIM, FMS-Delhi, SPJIMR, JBIMS, IRMA, IMT Ghaziabad, MDI Gurgaon amongst others. 

Build on your strengths and concepts:
By this time of your CAT preparation, you must have been thorough with basic concepts in all the sections of CAT exam. Now it’s time to build on your strong areas and apply your concepts towards solving more and more questions.

CAT Toppers and Experts suggest that you should not pick many new areas of preparation now. Your focus should be on revisiting your basic concepts and practicing more and more questions based on the same.

Arks Srinivas, CEO, VistaMind Education and former director, T.I.M.E believes that solving questions on the concepts learnt so far will boost your confidence. “Confidence builds up if you find that you can solve almost every problem that you see on a particular area,” he says.

According to the experts, polishing more of your strong areas and picking a few select weak areas will increase possibilities of better accuracy on the number of attempts made by you in the mock and actual test. “An equal command on all areas may not be necessary as you can always reduce the number of attempts and instead go for more accuracy in your strong sections,” says another CAT expert.

Give it a best shot in last one month:
The last 30 days of concentrated effort may bring you in the club of high percentilers and also bring you admission opportunities to top B-schools. Since revising the concepts and applying the same again and again while solving questions or taking mock require a great amount of effort as well as time, you should schedule your last month in such a way that CAT remains on top over all other priorities.

“It will all depend on the rigor that you put during the last one month. You need to sharpen your focus and devote as much time as possible on practice and mocks,” says a CAT topper, adding, “you must make out most of the last 30 days as it is bound to reflect in your CAT percentile.” 

More amount of time you put for practice, the better are the possibilities for your CAT percentile. Rajesh Balasubramanian, an IIT, IIM alumnus, and CAT Trainer, says “While taking CAT, one has to have intensity, and a certain stamina level to maintain this intensity over 140 minutes. This also comes with a lot of practice.”

Mr Srinivas also suggests Aspirants to take computer based mock tests during last one month as it will make them more familiar with the actual testing environment. “Since CAT is a Computer Based Exam, it is useful to get comfortable with the mouse (clicks!). Reading on a Computer instead of on a paper should become a habit,” he says.

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