CAT 2017: Preparation guide for first & second timers; how to aim & get high score?

Your date with CAT 2017 exam is on November 26 either in morning or afternoon session, depending upon which slot is allotted to you by CAT Centre 2017. IIM Lucknow, the CAT 2017 exam convener, has already clarified that allotment of exam centre and exam slot will be done only after the CAT registration last date of September 20 is over.

CAT 2017 exam registration window opens on August 9 and prior to this date, IIM Lucknow will enable the CAT registration guide and registration video to help CAT 2017 aspirants to understand how to fill up the CAT registration and application form. The registration guide and video prove to be a good help especially for the first time CAT test takers.

Important CAT Preparation tips

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CAT 2017 to be on past pattern
With less than 120 days now left to CAT 2017 exam day, the aspirants preparing for the exam are also getting anxious regarding the shape and content of the most preferred MBA/PGDM entrance examination leading to admission in top rated IIMs and other B schools in the country.

CAT 2017 may, with number of changes in content and type of questions, prove to be a tricky MBA entrance examination for top Management Institutes in India like IIMs, FMS, MDI, IMI, IITs, NITIE among others.

The candidates appearing for the first time in CAT this year, are now trying to gain confidence by putting in great efforts to prepare for CAT 2017 in their first attempt. Those who appeared in CAT last year but couldn’t score high to get the desired IIM, have also been preparing for past many months to crack CAT 2017 and get the opportunity of getting admission to one of the dream B schools.

Will CAT 2017 be a high LoD exam? Tips for CAT 1^st timers
The anxiety as shared by Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2017 preparation may prove to be detrimental to your exam preparation. CAT 2017 aspirants despite preparing so hard could lose more marks in the exam if they do not remain cool, confident and motivated through their preparation journey.

As already shared in various articles on MBAUniverse.com, CAT 2017 could be full of surprises and changes but the difficulty level of the test may not vary too much. So be relaxed and continue your preparation on the same lines without compromising on practice sessions, conceptual clarity and the topics that you think are forgotten in CAT.

Instead of getting panicky and raising your anxiety level, you should focus on covering the topics as per the CAT 2017 syllabus for all the 3 sections. What didn’t appear in CAT 2015 or CAT 2016 may resurface in CAT 2017. So make sure whatever topic you are preparing, you should prepare it in full, leaving no room for errors and omissions.

Preparation tips for second timers
If you had percentile score of 80 in CAT 2016, you could very well score 99+ percentile in CAT 2017 with a systematic and planned preparation schedule.

How you could move forward with your journey of improving the CAT score from low to high and make your dream of getting admission in IIM come true is shared by Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2017 preparation

The first and foremost is to analyse where you lagged behind, overcome the weaknesses and begin afresh. Please remember IIMs do not need a professor in Quant or Verbal Ability. On the other hand you must have fair understanding of the concept on which questions are based and how to crack it.

This is not the lack of confidence but the shadow of overconfidence and temptation to attempt more questions without understanding them which prevents you from scoring high.

CAT 2017 is going to have 100 questions divided in 3 sections. Read the full exam pattern of CAT 2017. However the exam may not have higher difficulty level as CAT 2017 proposes to increase academic diversity in IIM class rooms and also proposes to reduce the weightage on Quant section.

So apart from preparing Quant and DI, please focus on Verbal ability section and Logical Reasoning section more. Make sure that you divide Verbal Ability section preparation in sub sections and cover the basics of grammar, sentence formation, subject verb agreement that could help you in understanding the RC passages, summarising the paragraphs, Out of Context sentence in Jumbled Paragraph. Improve your reading habits and focus on editorials in news papers and periodicals. This will help you to a good extent to improve your scores in Verbal Ability section.

Registration number increasing: keep pace with competition
Please remember although CAT has gone for perceptible changes but its charm has increased manifold and the number of CAT aspirants have always been very high. Since 2013 number of candidates who registered for CAT every year has gone up from 1.95 lakhs to 2.32 lakhs in 2016. The number of registrations is expected to increase further this year.

But the key fact about CAT exam is that the competition is among top 40,000 candidates who fight to get the top position. If you can put yourself among top 5000 you can expect the IIM of your choice. IIMs have always been the most sought after B-schools, due to the great learning experience that you get there, the knowledge and Management skill they impart to their students and the excellent pay packages, their students get after completion of the course.

CAT 2017: Registration & exam schedule

Common Admission Test (CAT) 2017 is the mandatory entrance exam for admission to MBA/PGDM 2018-20 programmes in all the 20 IIMs, FMS Delhi, SPJIMR Mumbai, MDI Gurugram, IMI New Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad, JBIMS Mumbai, TAPMI Manipal and other hundreds of highly ranked B-schools in India. One or other older IIM conducts CAT every year. This year the responsibility to convene CAT is assigned to IIM Lucknow.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2017

See Also:

• CAT 2017: 12.5% Application fee hike in 2 years; Registration starts August 9 – note the key points
• CAT 2017: 10 Questions on CAT exam & CAT Registration answered by IIM Lucknow; must read
• CAT 2017 Notification release on July 30 by IIM Lucknow; 5 do’s on this Sunday
• CAT 2017 in changed pattern: Know all about CAT 2017 exam notification date, registration, pattern, IIM cutoffs
• MBA Ranking 2017: Check MBA Ranking 2017 for top 100 B-schools in India to guide you in MBA admission decision