CAT prep 2014: IIM-A student offers useful tips

CAT 2014 will soon knock the doors. Have you started preparing for it? Do you have a schedule or prep plan in place?

To help you with your CAT prep efforts, we decided to catch up with Mohd Farhan. He is currently pursuing PGP at IIM Ahmedabad (batch 2013-15).

Farhan studied Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Computer Engineering from Jamia Millia Islamia. Thereafter, he worked with Sapient for one year eight months, before joining IIM-A.

Owing to institute policies, Farhan refused to reveal his exact CAT scores. He, however, revealed that his score in Quant section is 99.85 percentile.

So what did Farhan do right to crack into the best B-school of India? Find out here:

Mohd Farhan, IIM Ahmedabad (batch 2013-15)

Q: What is the minimum time frame needed to prepare well for CAT? How long did you prepare for it?

It depends from person to person. If a person is weak in Quant, he needs to put more efforts in that area. I prepared for just two months. Ideally, a serious aspirant should start preparing from January till October when CAT happens (10 months are enough).

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

For the first attempt, I did join a coaching institute. One gets to learn the tricks needed to crack questions. After that, for successive attempts, I only joined the test series and did self-study.

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

I solved past year cat papers, joined a test series. After every mock test, I used to solve the incorrect questions again without looking at the answers and then looked at the answer provided by the coaching institute.

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

I was strong In quant but average in verbal. So, I devoted more time on VA and RC. I read books on Philosophy as some of the RC passages in CAT are related to philosophical topics.

Q: How much time did you spend on revision?

The last week before CAT, I never touched a new concept, didn’t give any more mock tests. Just focused and revised earlier concepts.

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

Career Launcher’s test series is very much compatible with actual CAT exam. For RC, History of Western Philosophy is a must read.

Q: What did you do right to crack it?

Earlier in CAT’s Verbal section, I attempted a lot of questions and got them wrong. The year I cracked CAT, I attempted lesser number of questions in VERBAL, mostly RC’s and with a greater accuracy, got them right. In the end, it’s all about accuracy. About 80% accuracy is the bare minimum needed. Also, the number of questions attempted should be at least 48/60.

Please note: The above article depicts Farhan’s views. It is not a representation of IIM Ahmedabad’s stance.