CAT 2025 Preparation: 8 tips on How to Crack Logical Reasoning

Usually, it is recommended to start CAT preparation about a year or nine months in advance. However, one can prepare for this exam even in six months if they put 8-10 hours daily into it. Candidates who have attempted the CAT before may not face a lot of hurdles in six-month preparation as they have a foundation in CAT preparation from previous year, but candidates who are appearing in the exam for the first time may face obstacles, mostly related to accuracy. The syllabus of CAT is vast and includes a lot of reading.

One also has to spend a lot of time in practice sessions and mock tests to be able to master all types of CAT questions - easy, moderate and tough. If you are a student of engineering/technical or commerce background you will need to pay extra attention on VARC . 

However, you'll be able to manage the syllabus of DILR and Quantitative Aptitude with adequate practice of topics. But if you are a student from Arts background, it is advised to start CAT preparation much earlier because you will have to brush up a lot of Mathematics. Reading Comprehension is one subject that cannot be mastered by student belonging to any academic stream, if their English comprehension is not strong. To develop reading habit all CAT aspirants will have to start much earlier.

Aspirants should start preparing for CAT exam at least nine months in before the test date. CAT preparation requires long-term planning thus one must start early. The best time to start CAT preparation is in March. Starting early will also help you assess that whether you need to join a coaching institute or not.

Divide your preparation into two phases -

1. Covering the CAT syllabus 
2. Practicing mock tests, sample questions and revision.

The CAT syllabus includes the following topics:

• Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension: Parajumbles, Parasummary, Sentence Completion and Inferences, Questions based on passages, para meaning, order of sentences
• Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning: Tables, Graphs, Pie Charts, Venn Diagram, Blood Relation, Seating Arrangement, Caselets and Syllogism
• Quantitative Aptitude: Geometry, Algebra, Number System, Arithmetic, Mensuration.

You can read the following CAT books for exam preparation:

• CAT Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning by Gautam Puri
• Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for the CAT by Nishit K Sinha
• Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency by Ananta Ashisha
• How to Prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT by Arun Sharma
• How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT by Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay
• 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary Mass Market Paperback by Wilfred Funk and Norman Lewis/ Simon and Schuster
• How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT by Sharma and Upadhyay
• High School English Grammar and Composition by Wren and Martin
• How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT by Arun Sharma
• Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Nishit Sinha
• Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT by Sarvesh Sharma
• Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by Abhijit Guha.

CAT is a speed based test which is designed to assess a candidate's analytical aptitude, logical reasoning skills, data interpretation and English comprehension. Now, it may sound tough, but these are the skills which we are taught in school so there is nothing new to learn. What is required is to learn these subjects at advanced level. If you are an average student but have studied Science or commerce in Class-12 and graduation, you will find a lot of familiar topics in Data Interpretation, Quantitative Aptitude and Logical Reasoning. All you will need is brush up the basics and practice the concepts on advance level problems.

However, since the competition is so high in CAT and less than 95 percentile can break your dream of joining a top college like IIM, the preparation for CAT requires a lot of focus, dedication, discipline and diligence. If you can do that, despite being an average student, you can crack the CAT exam.

Yes, the difficulty level of CAT syllabus is very high as compared to other MBA entrance exams. However, if you prepare well and follow the CAT exam pattern well, you will be able to score well. Besides having an understanding of the CAT syllabus 2025, candidates also need to be well aware of the CAT exam pattern before they start preparing for the exam. The CAT exam pattern was revised in 2021 and the number of questions were reduced from 76 to 66. The structure of CAT 2023 and CAT 2024 was the same. The syllabus is still tougher than other exams.

The most important things to keep in mind are:

1. CAT exam mode is online
2. Each question carries three marks 
3. There is negative marking of minus one mark for wrong attempts

The section-wise distribution of questions and difficulty levels as per the latest CAT exam pattern are listed below:

• Quantitative Ability (QA) - 24 questions, difficulty level - moderate to high 
• Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) - 20 questions, difficulty level - moderate 
• Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) - 22 questions, difficulty level - moderate. to high

Candidates will know their allotted CAT exam centre only from the admit card. There is no way to know the test centre before the release of the CAT admit card. The examination authority allots a test centre to aspirants in the city of their first preference as mentioned in the city. So, candidates can atleast be assured that they will get a test centre in the city they had chosen as first preference in the CAT application form. However, the venue will be mentioned only on the candidate’s admit card. So as soon as the CAT admit card is released, candidates must check the test city and test centre details. In order to avoid any confusion, they must visit the centre at least once before the exam day.

It is difficult but not impossible. If you give yourself a good enough time to improve English comprehension, grammar and vocabulary, you will be able to do it. Yes, a non- English medium student will require longer time for CAT preparation as they will have to start reading and improving English comprehension. So, may be they need to start English preparation for CAT in the second year of graduation, instead of final year (much earlier than English medium students). They may also need two attempts to crack CAT with high percentile. But that's not true for all. If you work hard and study smartly, you will be able to crack it.