Your Guide To Cracking CAT

Cracking CAT is not rocket science, but it is no cakewalk either. B-school aspirants are likely to feel the pressure as CAT is approaching. You need to manage your time, you need to strategize and you need to attempt mock CATs - everything needs to be done effectively and efficiently. Here are a few tips that you can use to your advantage:

1) The complete package matters: Your complete profile and/or complete package is of paramount importance, as far as B-schools like IIMs are concerned. You should be fairly confident if you have a good profile, good academic record and considerable work experience. Getting 98.5 is not as difficult as going from 98.5 to 99 and beyond. If you have secured a score of about 96-97 in mocks, solving merit problems can help you get a score of 98-plus.

2) Aim: Most IIM aspirants tend to aim very high. This is further aggravated by the competition they witness around them. Suddenly every one feels like scoring at least 50%, and they start to expect calls from all IIMs. Setting goals is important, but you need to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as well. You should set realistic goals. For instance, if you score around 90, it would be impractical to aim at 130 or more. Students often feel pressurized as they tend to aim too high.

3) It is imperative to clear cut-offs: Let us assume that you are used to the 95-96 percentile level in mock CATs, chances are you will perhaps clear the cut-off for a section even if you haven’t done very well in that section.

4) Go by the 50-50 rule: Make sure you don’t spend over 50 minutes on the first section. Remember to begin the last section at least 50 minutes before the closing stage of the test. The remaining timelines can be modified as per the requirement. By not spending more than 50 minutes on the first section, you get to spend extra time on the other two sections. In other words, it allows you time flexibility. You never know how much time you would take to solve the other two sections.

Please remember that mock CATs are not the be all and end all. Your mock CAT performance does not significantly impact your performance on D-day. Of course there is some correlation between the two, but it does not guarantee success or failure on the D-day. Use the 50-50 rule to clear all cut-offs.

Related Articles :