Two Months to CAT 2025: Attempting These Many Mock Tests will Optimise Your Score
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Get expert tips and suggestion in solving CAT mock tests and analysis for the 60 days. Keep practicing the CAT mock tests from September to November 2025.
Two months before the CAT exam is a crucial phase which requires action on key fronts. For most of the candidates, the last two months of CAT preparation is make or break time. As you enter in the second phase of CAT 2025 preparation, you should be done with conceptual clarity in all three subjects - Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning and Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension. The 60 days should be dedicated to application and practice.
Since there is no change in the CAT exam pattern this year, your mock test practice strategy should not change either. The CAT 2025 exam will be of 120 minutes and for each section there will be a sectional time-limit of 40 minutes. So, to be able to utilise every minute of those two hours, practice the time-bound online mock tests prepared as per the pattern of CAT 2025 exam.
- CAT Mock Tests and CAT Preparation in 60 Days
- How to use a CAT Mock Test Series?
- CAT Preparation 2025: How to Manage Time?
- CAT Preparation 2025: How to improve Accuracy?
- CAT Preparation 2025: How to improve Speed?
- CAT Preparation 2024: How to Make Reading Comprehension Stronger?
- How to Manage Form Filling of Various MBA Exams and Colleges?
- How to Manage Other MBA Exams?
CAT Mock Tests and CAT Preparation in 60 Days
CAT preparation in the last 60 days should be based on level of conceptual clarity of all the topics and the percentage of CAT 2025 syllabus covered. When we say what you should do in the last 2 months before CAT, we go with the following assumptions:
- You have already finished the basic study material of all four areas of aptitude
- You have started CAT Mock Test Series
- You have the knowledge of format of CAT 2025 including, number of sections, number of questions asked in history, time duration, colleges accepting their scores
Commonly asked questions
No, it is not wise to attempt a CAT mock test, just before the exam. Candidates must practice only one CAT mock test just before the exam; not to check his control over topics but to keep the confidence of time management high. Any candidate who has practiced a good number of mock tests will be able to score 98-99 percentile by the last week of the CAT exam, so they need to just go with the same confidence.
There is no difference between slot 1, 2 and 3 of CAT exam paper in terms of structure and patten. The sectional break up, marking scheme and time limit are the same in all slots. However, due to unique sets of questions in each slot leads to difference in difficulty levels. There is usually a slight difference in the CAT question papers of different slots. Sometimes, topic wise weightage of the questions also vary. To negate advantage or disadantage to candidates due to difference in difficulty level of slots, CAT scores are normalised for result preparation.
As per the latest CAT exam pattern, there will be 68 questions. The format will be MCQ and non-MCQ. VARC will have 24 questions, DILR will have 22 questions and QA will have 22 questions. Each question will carry 3 marks and there will be negative marking of -1 for incorrect answer. Sectional time limit will be 40 minutes.
How to use a CAT Mock Test Series?
You are advised to write approximately 20 mock CAT papers in two months. Good percentiles are the outcome of aptitude skills and testing skills. 20 Mock CAT papers will help you optimize your score with the knowledge you have acquired. Spend one hour in analysis/introspection of learning from the test.
Every CAT mock test will help you understand your weak areas of aptitude and possible improvement in testing skills. Moreover, 20 should be a sufficient number of CAT mocks to develop appropriate stamina required to make best use of last two sections of the paper, as well.
Check out these link for CAT mock tests carefully created by Shiksha to prepare well for the exam
| CAT_Mock_Test_1 | CAT_Mock_Test_1_Solutions |
| CAT_Mock_Test_2 | CAT_Mock_Test_Solutions |
Also Read:
CAT Preparation 2025: How to Manage Time?
If you are a working professional, you need to plan your days, leaves and breaks in advance. It’s advisable to finish a CAT mock test before you leave for office. You can analyse it after coming back or on the next morning. Waking up early would get you some extra hours in your day.
Plan your leaves wisely. Plan your holidays of Dussehra and Diwali. Plan your weekends. Plan your office leaves available. Clubbing them with any other holiday will give you a good number of consecutive days which should be helpful to finish a sizable work load.
Commonly asked questions
CAT question papers are released within a week of the exam in the form of a PDF as a response sheet and answer key. Candidates who have appeared for the test are able to access the CAT question paper and answer key. The question paper of every slot is released on the same day along with candidate response sheet and official answer to all question. If any candidate needs previous year CAT question papers for preparation purpose, then they can download them from Shiksha website. We have hosted last five years' CAT question papers for aspirants to download and practice. These official CAT question papers are available for download free. You can download the CAT question paper PDFs at this link: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/cat-exam-question-papers Candidates must check and practice the latest CAT question paper to know the latest exam pattern and difficulty level.
CAT has 68 questions. Each question carries three marks. There is negative marking of minus one for incorrect attempts. There is no deduction of marks for unanswered questions. Total marks in 204.
In CAT exam, each candidate gets 120 minutes to solve the paper. There are three sections in CAT Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude. For each section 40 minutes are allotted as sectional time limit. For PwD candidates, the sectional time limit is 53.20 minutes per section. Candidates have to complete each section within the given time limit. Since the CAT is an online mode exam, the test screen will move from first section to the next section automatically as soon as the time limit gets over. Thus candidates have to be mindful of the on-screen timer and pre-decide the number of questions to solve in each section. The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension section of CAT has 24 questions, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section has 22 questions and Quantitative Aptitude section has 22 questions. It is not mandatory to solve all the questions in CAT so candidates can devise a strategy to use 40 minutes per section as per their strength and weakness.
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CAT Preparation 2025: How to improve Accuracy?
Sincerely finishing all questions of all CAT mock tests would help. Also plan to revise areas which need attention. If you follow the 20-mocks plan, 40 out of 60 days you will not have CAT mock tests to practice. These days can be used for working on weak areas.
| CAT Quantitative Aptitude questions with solution for practice PDF | CAT DILR questions with solutions for practice PDF | CAT VARC questions with solutions for practice PDF |
Also Read:
- Verbal Ability (VA) solved questions
- Data Interpretation (DI) solved questions
- Logical Reasoning (LR) solved questions
- Quantitative Aptitude (QA) solved questions
CAT Preparation 2025: How to improve Speed?
If accuracy is always the first target to be achieved while preparing for the MBA entrance exams, speed is the second. The continuous trade off between the two is experienced by all the aspirants. Practice of standard variety of questions enables you to solve many of them with minimum rough work. This certainly adds to speed in long run. Moreover, a good number of questions in Quantitative Aptitude are of standard set of varieties. More practice of such varieties increases the number of questions which look familiar while solving a test paper.
Regular practice helps you to develop more comfort with the topics and keep the stamina perfect even towards the end of the test. This ultimately gets you enough fuel to get more attempts and score in the last section.
Commonly asked questions
No, it is not mandatory to attempt all the questions in CAT. Candidates can choose to attempt questions as per their preparation. It is not possible also to attempt all the questions due to time limitation and difficulty level. Reading dense RC passages often take up a lot of time. In DILR and QA too, some questions are time taking and calculation intensive due to which not much time is left in hand to attempt all questions. The aim of every test taker should be to attempt about 2/3rd of the total questions in all the sections of CAT.
Yes, the question papers of all CAT exam slots are different from each other. This is done to ensure that there is no question leak before the next slot, and that second and third slot candidates have no advantage over first slot candidate.
Candidates should practice at least past 10 years' CAT question papers to have a good control over the exam. Many times, questions are repeated so prior practice will be helpful. CAT question papers are also best source of RC passages.
CAT Preparation 2024: How to Make Reading Comprehension Stronger?
There is no alternative to Reading in CAT 2025 preparation. 24 per cent of the CAT question paper is made up of Reading Comprehension (RC) questions. It’s highly recommended that you solve RCs for at least an hour on the days you are not practicing mock tests. Find the areas of reading you are uncomfortable with. Read RCs related to such topics to increase comfort with them. Read on a variety of topics regularly. A 100-hour reading till CAT should take care of speed and accuracy in RCs in the actual test paper. Check out RC passages of last 10 years' CAT question papers. Practice those and similar passages.
How to Manage Form Filling of Various MBA Exams and Colleges?
That’s exactly your job in these two months before CAT 2025.
- Keep analyzing your ongoing performance of Mock CATs. Envision where you can reach in two months.
- Do basic research of colleges available through various MBA entrance exams and their cut offs
- Depending on your probable range of percentiles, your interest of specialization and the cut offs of the colleges, prepare a list of MBA colleges and exams you should apply for
- Manage a diary or an excel sheet of application deadlines of all these MBA colleges and entrance exams
- Fill application forms of those MBA entrance exams before the deadline
Explore more MBA exams with upcoming dates
How to Manage Other MBA Exams?
CAT kickstarts the MBA exam season. It is followed by SNAP, NMAT, IBSAT, MAT, XAT and CMAT. All of these exams are speed tests but have slightly different marking scheme and questions from CAT. It’s advisable that your planning includes writing at least three to four mock tests of each of these exams before taking them.
Overall, these two months would be the game changer. If you started late, going aggressive is the only option now. If you are on track, ensure that you don’t lose momentum for a single week.
All the Best..!!
About the Author
Parasharan Chari is an alumnus of SP Jain and is currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at a popular MBA coaching institute
Read More:
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- CAT Preparation Plan for Verbal Ability by Parasharan Chari
- CAT Quantitative Aptitude preparation plan by Parasharan Chari
- CAT Preparation 2025: Simple tips to optimize exam preparation
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 2 days ago
Yes, students can get admission in Shri Vaishnav Institute of Management & Science MBA without CAT. That is because the institute accepts CMAT scores instead. Admissions to the programme are through CMAT + counselling basis. CAT is not required.
U
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 3 days ago
No, CAT exam is not strictly required to take admission in MBA at Babu Banarsi Das Institute of Technology. Candidates may submit scores from CAT, MAT, XAT, CMAT, or GMAT for MBA admissions.
R
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 4 days ago
Yes, according to the GITAM School of Management MBA cutoff 2025 via the CAT entrance examination, you could get into this institute if you belong to the General AI category.
The aforementioned category had an estimated qualifying percentile of 70 in 2025. Admission for this category candidates may
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 days ago
The Global Institute of Business Studies delivers consistent training for aspiring business professionals to prepare them for interviews and the workplace via a number of organized programs and other forms of practical experience.
A CPMP (Finishing School) prepares students with the following:
- Resum
M
Beginner-Level 4
Answered 5 days ago
Yes, admissions in MBA at AIM-Assam are possible without CAT. The institute accepts other exams like CMAT/MAT/XAT and ATMA. Students can appear for entrance and fill the application form on official website. The university selects students on the basis of merit. Selected students have to appear for
B
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 6 days ago
Business schools with campus in Bangalore GIBS Bangalore accepts a wide range of entrance exams for its AICTE-approved PGDM programme (MBA equivalent), prioritizing accessibility for diverse candidates over elite CAT toppers alone. This flexible policy suits your MAT 522 score, enabling shortlisting
G
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
KMAT, and Karnataka PGCET are the accepted entrance examinations at Jyoti Nivas College. Students who wish to get admissions must clear all the entrance examinations for admissions.
L
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
The Global Institute of Business Studies has set a moderate cut-off for its CAT exam, far lower than those of the premier IIMs.
Expected CAT Cutoffs
- Minimum Requirement - Approximately 60 Percentile
- Safe Range - Approximately 60 to 65 Percentiles
- Good Chance of Admission - Approximately 65 to 70 or grea
M
Beginner-Level 4
Answered a week ago
GIBS Business School situated in Bangalore acknowledges CAT, MAT, and XAT as authorized admission tests for both undergraduate and postgraduate programs.
Approved Admission Exams
- CAT (Common Admission Test)
- MAT (Management Aptitude Test)
- XAT (Xavier Aptitude Test)
Additionally to these Three Tests, GI
M
Beginner-Level 4
Answered a week ago
Jaipuria Institute of Management can get admission in PGDM programme without CAT scores. CAT is one of the accepting exams for admission. However, aspirants with MAT, XAT or CMAT scores can also get admission in PGDM provided they also meet the eligibility criteria.
N
Guide-Level 15