IIM Lucknow - Indian Institute of Management Answered Questions

Yes, you can prepare for CAT at home. First, clear your basics and then move forward.
Here are some books that you can refer for your preparation:-
1) Quants - First solve the NCERT from 6th to 10th standard and then solve M.Tyra and Rs Aggarwal. These books will strengthen your foundation. Once you complete these books you can go for Arun Sharma.
2) Verbal/ RC- Start reading as much as you can. Read newspaper, novels, magazine etc, this will increase your ability to understand the context. Also, refer to verbal ability and reading comprehension book by Arun Sharma.
After all this, you need to have a good command over vocabulary, for vocabulary you can refer to word power made easy by Norman Lewis.
Also, join test series of any coaching. It will provide you real-time tracking of your preparation.

Good acads is a very subjective categorization of your academics. Your acads might be good enough for other colleges, but not be good enough for IIM A/B/C. I know people who got shortlisted for B/L at 93 percentile/97 percentile also. Because, either they have exceptional acads or have relevant work experience or both. Hence don't get disheartened by not getting shortlist this year. Work your level best and try to get even a higher percentile next year and go for A/B/C/L.

You can avail the education loan which can be accessed easily if you are a student of IIM, Lucknow. The college itself has two renowned banks inside the campus which help a lot in availing education loans. Apart from that, various other banks also participate during the admission process from where you can easily avail your education loan.