CAT 2017: Does it take many attempts to join club 99? No, say CAT toppers - Check your prep plan

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
September 7, 2017
View of CAT toppers is to intensify your self-preparation in a smart way to crack CAT 2017 with high score in first attempt instead of repeating the appearance in CAT exam year after year and wasting time. Going by the past CAT exam trends also, most of the CAT 2017 toppers are expected to be the first timers
CAT 2017 preparation plan
For next 75 days, following the toppers’ suggested strategy to prepare and crack CAT 2017 with high score can help you improve your CAT score substantially

CAT toppers do not favour repeated appearance in CAT exam year after year to crack the exam with a high score. Their view is to intensify your self-preparation in a smart way instead of beating about the bush and gaining nothing.

Going by the past CAT exam trends, most of the CAT 2017 toppers are expected to be the first timers or at the max second timers. It is a rare phenomenon that after 3rd or 4th attempt suddenly a candidate becomes CAT topper unless there are some drastic changes in the attitude and preparation strategy of the CAT aspirant.  

Read More on CAT 2017 preparation

Most 1st timers cracked CAT with 100 percentile
Avidipto Chakraborty (100 percentile in CAT 2016); Yash Choudhari (100 percentile in CAT 2016); Ketki Gupta (99.58 percentile in CAT 2016) and the candidates like Vidit Garg – who despite scoring 89.67 percentile in CAT 2016 converted IIM Ahmedabad, Prachi Sukhwani with only 20% eye-vision had scored 98.55 percentile in CAT 2016 and made it to IIM Ahmedabad  are all 1st timers and are of the view that even in the first attempt you could emerge a winner, if you prepare smartly and have a disciplined study schedule.

Toppers suggest CAT 2017 Preparation strategy
For next 75 days, following the toppers’ suggested strategy to prepare and crack CAT 2017 with high score can help you improve your CAT score substantially. Following are the key tips suggested by the past CAT toppers to prepare for the exam:

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Set deadlines to cover CAT syllabus
Plan well and set deadlines for yourself. For CAT 2017 you need to cover huge amount of syllabus in small time. To prepare well you have to plan well and setting up deadlines serves as a check for your plan and keeps you motivated.

CAT no doubt has a vast syllabus and now with more questions the test paper has widened its spectrum further. The pressing thought and dilemma can be cleared if the aspirant has a lucid picture before him in regard to the factors that would guide the preparation journey.

Plan Time bound practice
Time-bound practice can sure sail you through CAT 2017. The trickiest part of clearing CAT is to get to the right answer in least amount of time. This can be done only if you practice with a check on time whether it is MCQ or Non-MCQ type of question.

There is no substitute to hard-work, this specially holds true for CAT. The more you practice the better you will get.

Make a good peer group
Working with other motivated individuals preparing for CAT 2017 will help you to continue even in tough times. You can also discuss tough questions. It also helps while preparing for GD/PI.

Always take expert opinion
Talking to an expert - mentors at coaching classes or online tutorial, helps you to gauge your performance against others. They can help you in working on your weaknesses and teach you important time-saving tricks

Many books confuse more
The suggestion from CAT topper and IIM Ahmedabad student Swapnil has always been to refer to maximum 2 books on a subject. Too many books create confusion. Some of the books have questions much tougher than those asked in CAT. Preparing from them won’t do any good.

Move on-leave the sticky topic
With a vast syllabus covering so many topics it is easy to get stuck on a hard subject. You should remember that everything is relative and spending a lot of time on one subject is not advisable

Time to go for Mock test series
Enrol for a mock test series for CAT 2017 new exam pattern. Be consistent in taking the mock CATs. Perform a thorough analysis after each mock. The analysis will help to figure out the loopholes and your weak areas so that you could improve on them and further fine-tune your strategy. Above all, go about your CAT preparation with a cool head. Your success in CAT 2017 will be attributed to your calm demeanour and the discipline that you show in writing Mock CATs consistently.

Don’t quit your jobs for CAT 2017
Nilanjan Dutta, a working professional who scored 100 percentile in CAT 2016, is a second timer for CAT exam, the first being in 2011 when he scored 99.43 percentile. Dutta did not quit his job of Business Consultant with Cognizant to get through the CAT exam nor does he suggest the CAT aspirants to leave their jobs as it may lead them nowhere.

CAT is the type of exam which can be cracked with a systematic preparation plan. You need not study for many hours but need to prepare as per CAT exam syllabus to gain more in less time.

It is not the overall CAT percentile but your balancing act in sectional percentile score which can get you through CAT 2017. You may not be sure how many times you wish to appear in CAT since there are number of 99 percentilers who are still striving for an IIM. They dropped a year or quit their jobs, prepared for CAT, scored a decent percentile but did not get call from any IIM. These aspirants fought again with the same fate.

They lost 2 years after graduation, gave-up their jobs and again remained at the same ground. As a matter of fact, despite scoring high overall percentile, all these candidates lagged behind in scoring high sectional percentile in one or other section.

The other side of the coin is that, there are number of candidates who were working and worked till one or two months prior to the CAT exam, scored fairly high overall and sectional percentile and converted more than 3-4 IIMs of their choice.

A year’s drop doing nothing after graduation or quitting the well paid job to prepare for CAT 2017 may not be a very good decision as a well planned preparation strategy utilizing the available time may serve the purpose of getting above 99 percentile.

Plenty Vs Scarce time: Waste or utilize 
Those who dropped the year or quit the job could not manage the plenty of available time with them as it was not well managed. They also now and then deviated from their preparation schedule. Instead of realizing and improving their other skills also on other components of IIM selection criteria since CAT score is only one of the many shortlisting and selection parameters, they did not look-up to work upon the other components which have higher weightage in IIMs selection process..

Besides, with the changed CAT exam pattern of increased number of sections from 2 to 3 and many content level changes, many candidates do not realize that more practice is required at the equal level for the newly created DILR section as it now plays key role in shortlisting criteria. Such candidates stuck to old preparation pattern and lost in the race to cross the CAT score cut off in newly created section.

CAT 2017 Success strategy: Focus on balanced sectional score
The candidates who continued working, didn’t go for a drop-year and scored between 92 and 97 percentile with balanced and high sectional scores and excellent academic profile, were shortlisted by top rated IIMs.

CAT toppers suggest the following preparation strategy to crack CAT 2017:

  • Chalk out your preparation plan well in advance knowing you have limited time available with you for preparation
  • Instead of barging into any coaching institute, beging self-preparation
  • Study 3-4  hours a day
  • Make it a practice to read one good article, editorial, feature in the newspaper or reputed magazine to improve reading speed, vocabulary
  • Utilize week-ends to attempt Mocks, analyse them and get the guidance in a good coaching institute/experts
  • Meticulously follow the study schedule and now when CAT 2017 exam is 2-3 months away, increase your study period from 3 hours to 4 hours, cutting on other daily activities
  • There are more than 2 months to CAT 2017 exam day. If needed, you can now take leave without quitting the job
  • Increase the Study/mock practice time to 8-10 hours a day
  • Remain cool & calm throughout, utilize time well and feel no stress
  • Have a clear vision to appear in CAT

Full day study not needed
You need about 3-4 hours a day to prepare well for CAT 2017. If you have already started your preparation to improve your weak areas, you need to go for planned strategy for next 75 days which will need around 3-4 hours a day that you can very well spare out of your busy schedule.

Follow a different preparation plan
To achieve your career goal of getting into IIM-A, IIM-B or IIM-C, devise a preparation strategy which can balance between the study and job very well. The success story of Nishant Gupta, a working professional non-engineer and now a student of IIM Bangalore did his most of the preparation while travelling in Metro train. 

Please note highly competitive CAT 2017 may not be tough but it has inherent risk. You cannot be sure of getting into an IIM despite scoring 99 and above percentile in CAT 2017. The admission to batch 2017-19 in IIMs reveal the painful story of many such toppers who could not get a call from any IIM although they scored a percentile above 99. So it is not only a CAT percentile of 99 but you need to target each and every part of CAT 2017 exam to get into the IIM of your choice.

CAT 2017 exam date is November 26, 2017 while the last date to submit CAT 2017 online application is September 20. CAT 2017 is the gateway to 40000 MBA/PGDM 2018-20 seats. There are 20 IIMs and other top rated B-schools like FMS, SPJIMR, NITIE, MDI, IMI, IMT, BIMTECH, TAPMI among others who will accept CAT 2017 scores. More than 2 lakhs MBA aspirants are expected to appear in CAT 2017. This number also includes a good number of working professionals.

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

Read also:

Take CAT 2017 Mock Full LengthTo assess your preparation in revised CAT 2017 exam pattern with 100 questions.
CAT Previous Year Question Papers, Answer With Solution:
CAT 2008    |    CAT 2007    |    CAT 2006    |    CAT 2005   |    CAT 2004
Section 1: Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension CAT 2017: Quiz 1 CAT 2017: Quiz 2
Section 2: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning CAT 2017: Quiz 1 CAT 2017: Quiz 2
Section 3: Quantitative Ability CAT 2017: Quiz-1 CAT 2017: Quiz-2