Are two months good enough to prepare for CAT 2020 & other MBA exams?

Shiksha shares ideas on how to effectively prepare for CAT 2020 and other MBA exams in two-three month time-frame.

As we all know, CAT 2020 will be held on November 29, which means you have around two months for CAT preparation. Other top MBA exams such as SNAP, MAT, NMAT, IIFT, IBSAT and XAT will be held around the same time (December-January). In short, candidates have about two-three months to appear for all top MBA exams.

So candidates, who are just about to begin preparing for CAT 2020 and other MBA exams like SNAP 2020, XAT 2021, CMAT 2021, etc. will be glad to know, that one can finish the entire preparation within two months.

This year, the exam pattern of many MBA exams has been revised, so one needs to be mindful of those changes while preparing. One thing the candidates must believe is that they can prepare for CAT even in less time. In fact, many toppers of previous years have cracked CAT and XAT with 2-3 months of preparation. So, even if you have decided to take the exam now do not be nervous, just focus on preparation and you will sail through.

Here are some tips from Shiksha.com on how to effectively prepare for MBA exams in two-three months’ time-frame:

Time-Bound Strategy

If you’re planning to begin CAT 2020 preparation now, remember to put in some solid hours for preparation. For the next few days, stay away from all distractions. Fix up a certain hours you’d like to devote in a day and focus solely on preparation. For some, 7 to 10 hours are good to prepare the cover the entire CAT syllabus and for others, just three hours are good enough.  

Somansh Chordia, who scored 100 percentile in CAT 2019 told Shiksha, “In October, I began focusing properly and gave much more time towards CAT preparation. Sectional tests were particularly helpful in improving weak sections. Towards the end (about 1-2 weeks before the exam), I dedicated almost all the time to my weak areas and solved some of the previous years’ CAT question papers.”

Detailed Preparation Strategy

With just two months left, develop a strategy according to your strengths are weakness. We suggest, for the first 20 days, just focus on completing the core syllabus. Finish all the topics in from various sections like Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, Verbal Ability, etc.

For the next, five to 10 days, devote more time to your weak areas. Practise as many sample problems as you can in the weak areas. Along with it, focus on a quick revision of the entire course.

Then come to sectional and full-length CAT mock tests. Start practising problems in both timed and un-timed settings. Work on the errors and devote more hours to the weak areas.

In the final days of prep, just work on revision, building up speed and accuracy. 

Also Read:

• CAT 2020: Tips from Toppers
• How many questions to attempt in CAT to score 99+ percentile

Clarify Concepts

It is extremely important to clarify concepts while preparing for any exam. Incomplete knowledge can cause problems while attempting other MBA entrance exams as most of them have negative marking for wrong answer. One should focus on understanding the basic concepts of the subject. There are no other shortcuts here. If the basic concepts are clear, one can easily attempt problems with 100 per cent accuracy.

Also Read:

• Verbal Ability (VA) solved questions
• Data Interpretation (DI) solved questions
• Data Interpretation (DI) solved questions - Part 2
• Logical Reasoning (LR) solved questions
• Quantitative Aptitude (QA) solved questions

Analyse Mock Tests

The idea behind attempting regular mock tests is to get a thorough understanding of performance. By analysing the results of each mock tests, one can assess their growth, take corrective action and re-attempt the entire mock paper. This way you can identify your strengths and weaknesses.

New CAT Exam Pattern

According to the new CAT exam pattern the exam will be of 120 minutes instead of 180 minutes and candidates will get only 40 minutes for each section instead of 60 minutes. There is no information whether the number of questions will also be reduced since the time limit has been reduced. Thus, in these last two months, candidates must time themselves in such an order that they can solve full-length mock tests in 120 minutes. This will help them stay in control of the exam, even if the number of questions is not reduced.

Read More:

• CAT 2020: Preparation Plan for Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning by Parasharan Chari
• CAT 2020: Preparation Plan for Verbal Ability by Parasharan Chari
• CAT 2020: Quantitative Aptitude preparation plan by Parasharan Chari
• CAT 2020: Simple tips to optimize exam preparation
• Last week preparation tips for VARC
• Last week preparation tips for DILR
• Last week preparation tips for QA