Hello Aspirant!

It is good to see that you want to waste no time and start early! Kudos for the thought and effort. They say beginning is the hardest part of the journey and you are almost at the threshold of that.

When I started to prepare for the CAT, I had a lot of apprehensions - which institute to join, should I leave my job or not, what should be my backup plan and so on..

It is important to take a deep breath and decide on the following-

1. The coaching institute - which one should you join or if you even need one or not

2. Job or no job - Either option is fine as long as you can justify it

3. Mentally prepare yourself to persevere throughout the preparation phase. Start getting used to skipping parties and having lesser social engagements. Remember, it's all for good!

Once you have a rough idea about all this and actually sit down to prepare, I would suggest that you do the following diligently:

1. RC - Needless to say it is the biggest chunk in the exam, and a chink in the armour for many! You have plenty of time to perfect this and it can be done. Do atleast 2 RCs every single day.

2. Develop a reading habit - You must have heard this one countless times. When I say this, I mean when you are reading, be present in the moment. Train your mind to not wander and focus on only what you are reading. Then as you get comfortable, start reading faster. Develop speed. This will be the key to cracking RCs.

3. DI/LR - This is a skill that comes only with practice. Make it a point to practice one set everyday. Get done with the basic pie charts and bar graphs, seating arrangements etc in the first 3-4 months. Then increase the level to cat level DI/LR sets. So 1-2 everyday. This much should be enough to sail through it.

4. QA - This section is all about clarity of concepts. Do not ignore the basics. Do basic questions first and then jump to higher level. Try to formulate a thinking process of approaching questions. And do ratio and proportions very very seriously. It's most important and will be used in all quant topics.

5. Make a routine - Set a routine for yourself and don't waver from it. Discipline yourself and focus entirely on study during those hours.

6. Don't put all eggs in one basket - Aspirants get so caught up with the idea of being in one of the top IIMs that they do not make a sincere effort in other exams like XAT, NMAT and SNAP. Take it from me (an SIBM Pune student), you might score well in other exams and end up in a college just as good as an IIM.

Give it a sincere enough effort and you will be there before you know it!

All the best!

Hello,

Basically you can start your preparation either by coaching classes or by self study, if you are willing to join coaching classes then they will provide you with all the reading material and one to one classes.

But if you don't want to join any coaching classes , and want to continue with self study, then you can first look for the syllabus of CAT, and then buy the best available books for preparation, make a time table and follow that sincerely, you can always seek help from youtube channels give lessons for free, also download previous question papers for same, and solve them, this alone can help you to qualify the exam if done with dedication and sincerity.


Hope this helps, all the best.

CAT  is an online examination of 3 hours duration.The questions in the exam will be of MCQ and TITA type totaling 100 questions. MCQ are multiple choice questions, for which candidates get multiple answer choices. Each Question has 3 marks and a wrong answer takes away 1 mark. However Type in the Answer questions are exempted from Negative Marking.

CAT exam paper can be Categorised into 3 parts:

Quantitative Ability

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning

The Verbal Ability section and Reading Comprehension has 34 Questions,  Data interpretation-Logical Reasoning section has 32 MCQ questions and Quantitative Ability has 34 MCQ questions totalling up to 100 questions.  Each Question has 3 marks and a wrong answer takes away 1 mark.

First things first, know the syllabus. And go through the previous papers to analyse and prepare a comprehensive plan and set priorities according to the importance of different topics across sections.Customise your own study plan based on your strengths and weaknesses. Gauge your preparation from time to time by taking mock tests. Solve questions to check your levels of preparation but not to set any targets. Remember, its ok to have cheat days and relax. But make sure you have a plan and stick to it for the next few months because even Rome wasn’t built in a day.

NCERT books will sharpen your basics and you need strong basics for preparing for any entrance examination. Once your basics are in place, because the time period for preparation is quite less, your preparation should be extensive and thorough.

Quantitative Aptitude covers almost 30% of the CAT question paper. QA can be categorised into Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Advanced Mathematics. Practise chapter by chapter and develop mental calculations. Like practise more of basic summation, subtraction, fractions and tables. Numbers, Percentage, Profit and Loss, Simple and Compound Interest, Ratio, Proportionality, Time-Distance, Time-Work, Mixtures, Averages, Partnership, Permutation and Combinations, Probability, Set Theory, Progression and Series, Line, Angles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Polygon, Circles, Ares, Volume, Height and Distance, Coordinate Geometry, Basic Trigonometry are few important topics.

Preparation tips:

Because this section involves mathematics and takes most of your time, your focus should be on solving the problems efficiently in the beginning. Even if it takes time, practise upto perfection. Practise as many questions as you can in the conventional way. As and when you get a grip on the subject, you can go for short cuts. Memorise tables, square roots, cube roots, conversion from percent to fraction, etc. Solve sample papers on Mathematics. In the beginning, do not worry about the time it takes. As you practise, you will get the hang of the subject and it will be easier for you.

In Verbal Ability session, command on your English, Grammar, Vocabulary, Understanding of the given paragraph are of more importance. Reading English NewsPaper will also help you in your preparation.

Preparation tips:

Read articles from time to time. Follow newspapers, magazines, and watch the news channels and browse the internet to keep yourself updated. You will need a lot of reading to help you in the comprehension section. You will need speed to help you in this section and you can achieve that only by thorough practise and reading. Take time to understand the question because most answers are interlinked.

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning needs to be practised as much as possible. Comparison of data, Data Analysis, taking clues, interpreting missing data, coming to conclusions and making future projections will be covered under this Category. The questions here are interlinked and so if you get one formula correct, cracking the next few questions will be easy. So it's important to memorise and practise formulae. You should cover topics like Data tables, Data Charts, Bar Diagrams, Pie Charts, Graphs, Data Comparison and Analysis.

Preparation tips:

As this is the most tricky section, this needs a lot of practise. Solve as many sample papers as possible to get the hang of the section. Make notes when required. Regular practise can help you understand and solve the questions easily as time goes on.

Overall,once you know the syllabus, it's easier from there on.Go through the previous papers to analyse and prepare a comprehensive plan and set priorities according to the importance of different topics across sections. Customise your own study plan based on your strengths and weaknesses. Gauge your preparation from time to time by taking mock tests. Solve questions to check your levels of preparation but not to set any targets. Remember, its ok to have cheat days and relax. But make sure you have a plan and stick to it for the next few months

We can recommend a few books for you:

NCERT books to cover the basics from 6th to 10th Class

Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Nishit Saxena

Quantitative Aptitude Quantum for CAT by Sarvesh Sharma

How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Arun Sharma

Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Exams by Abhijit Guha

You can also download free downloadable e books at:
https://bschool.careers360. com/download/cat-ebooks

Hi

To start your cat preparation  understand its examination pattern first ,your complete CAT paper is divided into three major sections :-

*Quantitative Ability
*Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)
*Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)

Top books which you can follow for CAT are listed below section wise  :-

QUANTITATIVE ABILITY

*How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT by  Arun Sharma

DATA INTERPRETATION AND LOGICAL REASONING (DILR) :-

* Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for CAT by K. Sinha Nishit

*How to Prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT by Arun Sharma

VERBAL ABILITY AND READING COMPREHENSION

*Word Power made easy by Norman Lewis

*Mastering the Verbal Ability for CAT by Ajay Singh

*How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT by Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay

For detailed information go through

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/best-books-for-cat-preparation

*Make a routine to utilise the time in the best possible way and to avoid procrastination and laziness .

*Keep short breaks of 20 to 25 minutes after every 1.5 to 2 hours between your studies in your routine .Half of the time of your studies must be for practicing questions

*Solve previous  year question papers of CAT :-it will let you know the examination pattern, type and difficulty level of questions, also concepts behind the question often gets repeated, so you should definitely solve year papers

*Once you are done with complete CAT syllabus then go through CAT mock test papers , it will let you know your preparation level and and weak areas so that you can work on them and perform well in your examination

For detailed information go through

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/how-prepare-for-cat/amp

Thank you

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