3 days to CAT 2015: FMS topper Shourya Jain shares the secret to crack the exam

Shourya Jain shares the secret to crack the exam

Students willing to get enrolled in a prestigious MBA college, very well understand the importance of cracking CAT exams. The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a national level entrance test conducted by Indian Institutes of Management (IIM). Depending on the score of the candidate, he/she is selected in various B-schools offering management courses.

Even though students know the importance of CAT exams, they fail to crack the same because they do not know the right approach to attempt these exams. Candidates appearing for CAT exams look for tips and tricks that can help them perform better in the exam. But there can be no one better than a topper himself giving out tips to crack the CAT exams.

With just three days to go for the exam, Shiksha spoke to CAT topper Shourya Jain. Jain is currently pursuing MBA from FMS Delhi and scored 99.95 in his CAT exam.

Here’s what Shourya had to say about CAT preparation.

Question 1: According to you, what is the minimum time frame needed to prepare well for CAT? How long did you prepare for it?

Answer: I was preparing for CAT from about three months, but I made sure that I spent about 1-2 hours each day. Many candidates put in too many hours of study, but that only leads to stress. I did not want to stress myself out, so I chose to put in only 1-2 hours every day. Also, going by my experience, 3-4 months of honest preparation seems good enough because while preparing for the exam, you get a fair idea of what you need to do, and how you need to go about it. Once this becomes clear, you can create a strategy that can help you cover everything important. 

Question 2: Is it necessary to join a coaching institute or is self-study good enough?

Answer: Self-study is good enough if your basic Maths and English (10th class) is good. It is important for your basic concepts to be clear, because lot of CAT questions are based on the Maths and English of 10^th standard. But at the same time, I will recommend giving a test-series as it gives a good idea of where you stand among 10 thousand candidates who are at least some bit serious about CAT. This will help you give an understanding about yourself, and you can access how and what you are lacking in, and can prepare accordingly.

Know about important books for CAT 2015 preparation

Question 3: What study plan did you follow for your CAT prep?

My preparation strategy was simple. I do not like to complicate things. Keeping things simple and to the point will keep you focused – this is something one needs to keep in mind in order to be successful in his/her attempt of cracking CAT.

Few Do's

• Identify the areas where you need improvement. Once this is done, give a practice test and find out patterns. I applied the same strategy, and this certainly helped me strengthen my weaknesses.
• Focus on all the sections of the exam. Quantitative ability can be improved by regular practice as it mostly involves revising what one already knows. Talking about verbal ability, grammar is not something that one can master in a couple of months. The wise thing to do is to learn some basic grammar rules that are commonly tested. Reading comprehension which forms a major chunk of VA can be improved by solving as many questions as one can. Excelling in Logical and DA purely depends on practice.
• Always remember that regular practice is the key to success, and it does improve efficiency.
• Studying for around 1-1.5 hours daily for about 4 months is the best strategy.

Few Don’ts

• Do not stress yourself.
• Focus more on practice and not much on theory.
• Don't focus on areas where you don't see yourself improving; rather focus on some other area in the same section. 

Question 4: How did you divide time for each section? Which sections did you spend more time on?

Answer: Unlike many candidates, I don't follow a set pattern and like to attempt right from the first question. I don't juggle between the questions as this quickly allows me to assess the time and the number of questions left. This has been my strategy since school days, and it has been a satisfactory journey. This worked well for me during CAT exam too.

Know how to analyse mock tests.

Question 5: CAT 2015 test pattern has changed quite a bit. What’s your take on it?

Answer: I personally like this pattern more than the one for which I appeared as this year there will be separate sections. The only catch here is that you should be comfortable in all the sections whereas earlier, good questions in the Logical section were able to overshadow English score.

Question 6: How should be a candidate’s preparation strategy for the new CAT 2015 pattern?

Answer: Candidates should not focus on only one section as the minimum cut-off is important. The easiest way is to identify at least 4 sections in each of the three sections and make sure you are perfect in each of those. This would help you sail smoothly through your weak section. 

Question 7: How did you work on improving your weak areas for CAT prep?

Answer: Before knowing how to improve my weak areas, I aimed at identifying those areas that needed improvement. I tried practicing problems and questions because I thought theory will not be of much help in such a short span of time. I suggest doing questions in time-bound manner – this is of tremendous help. 

Question 8: How much time did you spend on revision?

Answer: Solving question papers is a great way to revise what one has prepared. I kept the entire last month to just solve question papers. Doing so gave me an idea of where I stood, and at the same time helped me revise in a better manner. 

Question 9: Any useful study material/ reference books you can recommend for CAT prep?

Answers: Many candidates spend a lot of time in hunting for reference books and study material. Also, even if they find something, they are unable to decide what would actually be helpful. My recommendation is to practice questions and previous papers as they are the best guides. Also, 10th class NCERT is good enough to practice Maths. 

Question 10: What did you do right to crack it?

Answer: The first strategy I followed was to keep things simple rather than complicating them. Complication only leads to confusion, and the hard work that you would have put into your CAT preparations might just go for a toss. Simplified things are easy to process and easy to follow. Also, keep in mind to practice as much as you can. While practicing, you will tend to commit errors, which is absolutely fine – what you should remember is to not repeat those mistakes. Following this strategy religiously has helped me immensely.