It's more sophisticated than one may realise. Review on Tips for CAT Preparation

[Myself, a B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur, have taken CAT once... last year... and I made it to MDI, Gurgaon... which is ranked no. 6 among management institutes in the country according to BT (Business Today). However, I chose not to join it as I think the ''brand value'' of the top 3 IIMs make them worth a second try. My second attempt at CAT is going to be on the 24th of this very month!]

Just like the IIT-JEE for school-leaving students, CAT is an all-important exam for many a graduate student, irrespective of his/her field. Although it is supposed to be an aptitude test with a syllabus that may seem a trifle but make no mistake, it requires intensive preparation starting at least 6 months before D-day. It's all about giving attention to each and every sub-section of the exam... making each drop add up to an ocean.

There are 4 major sections in CAT viz. Math Ability, Verbal, Reading Comprehension (RC) and Data Interpretation (DI). I will not delve into describing what these are as I expect the reader to know this much about the exam.

Let's tackle the Math section first. You will be happy to know there hardly any problem in this section that an examinee cannot hope to solve on his own. The key element (for the entire exam as such) is the time factor. From personal experience I have discovered that a hop-skip-and-jump strategy works best. What I mean to say is that if a problem will take too long to solve or you have not been able to make head or tail of it, DO NOT waste time attempting it. There are FAR EASIER problems lying elsewhere waiting to be solved.

However, there is an important caveat here: do not be afraid of making ''intelligent'' guesses. I am saying this despite the fact that there is negative marking for wrong answers. This is because the negative penalty for a wrong answer is a meagre -1\4 whereas one gets a full point for a correct answer. Even by the law of probability, if you randomly attempt the paper without looking at the answers, you can hope to end up with a positive score. I say this only to be explain the importance of guessing when you can't do much about the problem. I am not, under any circumstances, saying that you depend extensively on guessing... that would be tantamount to inviting your grave... as far CAT is concerned.

A lot of problems in the Math section are trick problems in the sense that they have a shortcut, which if used will help you arrive at the solution in hardly any time. So, devote time on developing a knack for catching these tricks. This will, of course, require a sound base of formulae in one's memory and gruelling practice in a time-frame.

Next, I look into the Verbal section. This section is most scoring for a majority of the examinees. To be very honest, there are no deep fundae that anyone can share with you regarding this section. I reiterate my basic advice here: practise each sub-section separately... and the ''drops''... well and truly... will add up to the ocean.

Next comes Data Interpretation. This section can be scoring once you get a hang of it. Focus on trying not to fully solve the problem but get an estimate... as this will save time... which is ever so VALUABLE. To explain with a simple example... only a lunatic would put pen to paper if one has arrived at 27/83 through reasoning and the choices given are (a)10%, (b)33%, (c)50% (d)80%. Quite obviously, the answer is (b). Not exactly so... but look at the other answers! With more practice, you will get better at this as you will discover your own trick-methods to save time.

Last but not the least, we come to Reading Comprehension. If you have time on hand, then develop a reading habit. Never mind if that has not been the case till now... better late than never. More importantly, read material that you don't usually read because the examiners are not going to set passages according your likes and dislikes.

Personally, I have found that reading the questions before the passage has proved very useful. This is because most questions are based on a specific portion of the passage and not the entire passage. Hence, those portions that do not contain the answer to a question can be rushed through without much attention.

Since RC is relatively time-consuming, even the best students do not attempt all passages. They choose some from among those given. Factors that go into choosing the passages are <1>Topic- Do you like it or not? <2>Difficulty of questions- Are most of the questions direct or twisted? (An example of a direct question would be ''In which year did... ? A twisted one would be ''What did the author mean when he wrote... ?'') <3> The Questions/Length ratio- A long passage with few questions will pay little dividend in relation to the time one puts in.

Finally, I come to what material/coaching one should use. If you are a first-timer, classroom coaching should be taken up. (IMS and Careerlauncher are some of the big names in this business. However, which is the best available coaching depends more on which city you are in... so, ask people who would know.) The classroom will introduce the topics systematically and also prevent you from slackening at any stage of your preparation. Study material (IMS and Careerlauncher only) should be purchased for studying the fundas calmly and carefully at home... so that one imbibes the fundas permanently into the memory bank. IMS SIMCAT series is an absolute must... apart from providing practice under examination conditions... the percentile scores will tell you where you stand in relation to your competitors. For extra test-practice, you could also take up Careerlauncher MOCK-CAT test series.

Best of luck...