CAT 2014: Month-wise preparation strategy guide

By Sidharth Balakrishna
CAT 2014 notification finally is out. This year, the exam will be held in four sessions spread over two days – November 16 and 22, 2014.
Soon, students will commence with CAT 2014 preparation. How should candidates go about CAT preparation in the next few months? With new pattern in place, should the candidates focus on speed right from the beginning or first understand concepts?
Ideally, candidates should aim to complete their preparation by September- end or early-October, so that they can move on revision stage. Revisions along with mock tests should take up the last few days before the exam/
To be completely ready to face the CAT exam, here’s month-wise preparation strategy guide.

August

• In the month of August, students should do the following:
• Start working on speed. While preparing for Reading Comprehension, try and ensure you achieve a ready speed of ~250 words a minute for the tougher, ‘inference’ type passages and more than 300 words a minute for simpler passages.
• Practice verbal ability (grammar etc) for at least 20 minutes daily.
• For Quant, do something like 25-30 questions daily covering all aspects of Quant-algebra, arithmetic, geometry, mensuration, speed-time-distance questions etc. Try to complete these questions within 45-50 minutes.
• Do around three-four Data Interpretation sets daily and about 8-10 Logical Reasoning questions.
• Look through past CAT papers to understand the nature of questions that could appear in the exam.

September

• Students should start taking regular practice tests, first section-wise and then full-length practice tests. This should be done both at home with pen-and-paper as well as Computer-based tests. I would recommend taking around 3 tests a week; more than this could cause burnout and fatigue.
• Keep working on speed, while also improving your conceptual clarity. Try to reduce the time you spend on logical reasoning and data interpretation questions, by practicing shortcuts, approximations and other time-saving techniques.

October

• By now, students should try and ensure they have worked out their test-taking strategy and are aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
• Fine-tune your test-taking strategy by practicing mock tests, to decide which types of questions you plan to attempt at first, which type of questions you may choose to leave etc.

Last 15 days before exam
• Should be for revision of concepts across Verbal Ability, Quant, DI& Analytical Reasoning.
• Should continue taking mock tests.

Last 3 days
• Should decrease their hours of work to avoid burn-out.
• Concentrate on practicing a few questions and quick revisions.

About the author:
Sidharth Balakrishna is the author of several Pearson textbooks on CAT like ‘An Introduction to CAT: Tips from an IIM Alumnus', ‘Reading Comprehension for the CAT: A Winning Approach by an IIM Alumnus', ‘Case Studies in Marketing’-part of the Pearson Case Book series, ‘Vocabulary for the CAT: A Winning Approach by an IIM Alumnus’. Sidharth is also a career counseling expert and a member of interview panels to select MBA students at various B-schools. He is a faculty in several management institutes.