Students’ Speak: Prepare as if it is the last exam
Common Admission Test 2025 ( CAT )
Exam On - 30 Nov '25
By: Athira Anand
Every exam is tough and it's the basic eligibility criteria before you get into an interview round or directly to the college. As it's said, one ought to fail and learn to reach greater heights. It's just another test and a phase which will pass on, dealing with failure is not so tough if you don't drown yourself in pressure.
The first step to deal with failure is to keep calm and understand that efforts were not upto the mark. The second step is to prepare for the best keeping in mind the mistakes that you made already. The third and final step is to give it the best shot. Shortlisting colleges is not so easy as it seems, but to do that, we need to know which course are we looking for.
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There are different exams like HSEE, KUAT, and many others, some of them also offer social science courses. It's always better not to target only one college and, but also opt for other colleges with similar courses. Another point to keep in mind is to check the difficulty level and prepare likewise. Say if we consider CAT and CMAT, the former is tougher as compared to the latter.
It's good to prepare as if it's the last exam. Referring to previous years' papers, cross-checking if the questions are repetitive, aiming to attempt maximum questions are among the few checklists one should always have in mind. Since there is no shortcut in getting into a good college, it is always necessary and goes without saying that practice is the only way to get it done. There are a few effective ways given below by which you can increase your score:
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- Build your own strategy to finish the exam on time, this can be done by introspection and also by doing a few mocks.
- Keeping notes to refer to and when required is another way to get good scores.
- Give preference to subjects which you're not sure of and make sure you learn as you move along your preparing schedule.
- Fundamentals should always be clear because that will always determine the way you approach a question.
- It's always good to change strategy for learning if you feel that it's not working or achievability is less.
- Always keep a backup plan before charting your studying schedule and keep track of what you've done and what's left, this will definitely help in knowing in which area more time has to be spent.
Last but not least, there is nothing in this world which is not achievable with hard work, it's the only way to crack the score you need. The tips above will always add a cherry on the cake.
About the Author:
Athira Anand is pursuing PGDM in Infrastructure Management from Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management. She is a civil engineer and passionate about techno commercial sector.
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