CAT

The NMAT exam is conducted for admission to NMIMS University and other reputed business schools. With an NMAT score, you can gain admission to MBA programs in other countries as well. The difficulty level of the NMAT exam is mostly moderate. This is due to the fact that there is no negative marking in the NMAT. Also, NMAT allows candidates to schedule the order of all three sections during the exam. This makes it easier to decide in what order they want the questions. Due to no negative marking, you can click on any guessed answer during the last few minutes of an unattended question. You can get three marks even if only one is correct. In terms of the level of questioning, it has a more limited syllabus than the CAT which has five sections. The question's difficulty level is moderate in most sections. It is comparable to the CAT exam in terms of the mathematics section. In recent years, the CAT has had some tough questions in the quant section, but sometimes the NMAT also features challenging questions in this section. Finally, NMAT gives you three test attempts during the test cycle, making it easier to crack compared to other exams like CAT.

The GMAT score qualifies you for a foreign institution, whereas the CAT exam is required for admission to the top Indian Institute of Management. It is challenging but not impossible to prepare for both exams. You can follow the experts' suggestions to prepare for both exams:
1. Find common sections to study in both exams. For example, the reasoning and quant sections are asked in both exams. You can practice these simultaneously.
2. You can also allot a separate time slot to analytical writing, which you can pair with the reading comprehension section of the CAT exam.
3. Understand the different demands of both exams to prepare accordingly. The GMAT prioritizes the verbal section, whereas the CAT prioritizes the quantitative section.
4. Select your study material in such a manner that it has some common books or notes that can be useful in both exams.
5. Give mock tests for both exams on alternate days. For example, if you are giving a GMAT mock on Monday, you should give a CAT mock on Wednesday. Because the GMAT takes significantly less time than the CAT you can begin preparing for the CAT before the GMAT. Also, make sure you leave enough time between the two exams to deal with exam stress.

The first step towards preparation for the CAT exam is to understand the syllabus and pattern of the exam. This is because, once you understand the CAT syllabus and exam pattern, you can plan your study strategy accordingly. For example, consider that you are a non-Science student and have difficulty in the quant section. Now, the exam pattern will help you know how many questions come from this section and what level they are. You can learn which topics are covered in this section by looking at the syllabus. Thereafter, you can plan your study schedule accordingly, giving more time to difficult topics in this section. Similarly, once you've seen the types of reading comprehension questions that are asked, you'll be able to focus on the newspaper appropriately. Some themes are repeated, so preparing important themes can give you an advantage. This also saves a lot of precious time if you have limited time to study due to work or study reasons. The next step is to select the study material where the syllabus and pattern knowledge of CAT will be useful. You can check the CAT syllabus and exam pattern at this link: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/cat-exam.