CAT Strategy: Tried & Tested Tips from IIM-A students
With CAT 2013 test window fast approaching, shiksha.com decided to get the views of those who've been there, done that and cracked the best. Here’s what Sufal Roongta and Darshan Sumant, current students of the Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad (IIM-A), have to say:
Q. According to you, what is the minimum time frame needed to prepare well for CAT? How long did you prepare for it?
Sufal Roongta, PGP Student (2011-13), IIM-A
Sufal:There is no minimum timeframe as such. It depends from person to person. I studied for nearly five months, with intense preparation in the last 1½ months. In the first 3½months, I took mock tests and analysed them well. As I had appeared for CAT two years ago after thorough preparation, it gave me a good headstart while preparing for CAT 2011.
Darshan Sumant, PGP Student (2011-13), IIM-A
Darshan: According to me, one needs to devote at least three months for preparation and ensuring a successful attempt; completely undermining the minor luck factor involved. Personally, I prepared for three and half months, starting from mid-July till my CAT exam in the second week of November.
Q. Is it necessary to join a coaching institute or is self-study good enough? What study plan did you follow for your CAT prep?
Sufal: That again depends on person to person. I believe coaching class is not necessary if you are clear with the basic concepts. However, mock tests are extremely helpful and I strongly recommend it for everyone.
I worked for around 2 hours on an average, mostly analysing the mock tests or solving questions in the weaker areas. In the last one and a half month, I worked around 4 to 5 hours on weekdays and 8 to 10 hours on weekends.
Darshan: Self-study is sufficient, however joining a coaching institute is recommended. This is primarily for meeting other students preparing for CAT, getting useful tips from instructors at a regular interval and the Test Series, which I believe is the most critical advantage of joining an institute.
I relied on self-study using the study material I got from a coaching institute. I also used the Test Series to the fullest, and it helped me a lot in terms of a more focused preparation.
Q. How did you divide time for each section? Which sections did you spend more time on?
Sufal: I had a good command over quant but was weak in verbal. So, I spent most of the time on verbal.
Darshan: Graduating from IIT Bombay, I was very confident of my quantitative and logical reasoning skills. I did lack in Verbal Ability (VA) and hence devoted more time towards its preparation. However, I spent almost equal time on Quant and LR to perfect every possible question CAT could offer. Spending time on my strong areas also helped me keep my confidence high and it worked as a relaxation technique after solving several questions on VA.
Q. How did you work on improving your weak areas for CAT prep?
Sufal: First was analysing the mocks and finding the weaker areas. Then, I would solve lot of practice questions from available materials or online MBA prep portals.
Darshan: As already mentioned, VA was my weakest section. Hence, I covered VA exercises in as much study materials as I could find, either through my coaching institute or any online content. I regularly read Op-Ed articles from The Hindu and followed a lot of blogs by good writers. This helped build a good intuitive understanding of VA, which helped me during the study exercises.
Q. How much time did you spend on revision?
Sufal: Last month, I spent a lot of time (around 50%) revising my earlier mock tests. It is crucial to consolidate all the previous learnings together in the end.
Darshan: I did not keep track of time. I rather kept a track of how many exercises I completed in every topic for each section, and the number of questions practiced. I aimed to finish all the study materials at least one month before the actual exam, after which I concentrated on practice tests (mostly full length tests).
I measured my performance on the basis of whether I got ‘addicted’ to solving more questions of the particular topic.
Q. Any useful study material/ reference books you can recommend for CAT prep?
Sufal: I hardly used study materials as such. I surfed through several online portals though for getting practice questions. Also, some materials from one of the coaching classes I took in the past helped a bit.
Darshan: I used the study material and the Test Series offered by T.I.M.E. I also referred to a few online resources and MBA preparatory platforms.
Q. What did you do right to crack it?
Sufal: Well, I worked hard and very sincerely. In the last two months of preparation, there wasn’t a single day when I did not prepare. I solved around 50 mock-tests in all and analysed them very religiously. That is something which I believed was extremely important and gave me a lot of confidence while solving the final paper on D-day.
Darshan: I prepared well for CAT and my aim was to leave nothing to the luck factor. I aimed to consistently score above 98 percentile in all full length tests given in the last 15 days.
One week before the exam, I tool a full length test at the exact time slot as my actual CAT exam. I even slept and woke up at the exact time as the final day. Two days before the exam, I even travelled to the test centre and back and then gave a full length test to simulate the final day. On the penultimate day (the day before the exam) however, I did not give a full length test. I preferred to just go through the basics, formulae and rules, etc and look at the number of exercises and tests I had finished, and glanced over the good percentile scores I had got in full length tests. This gave me a confidence boost for the final day.
I did practice a lot of yoga and meditation to keep my mind focused during the entire preparation period.
All the best!
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- Watch candidate reactions on Day 1 of CAT 2013: First Day First Show
