CAT 2017: IIM & FMS toppers’ 5 point preparation strategy; focus on Mocks & right study material

Barely 60 days are left for CAT 2017 exam day which falls on November 26, 2017. The time period could be seen as too short to enable you score 99+ or sufficient enough to join club 99. Past CAT toppers prefer the latter situation and in their view 60 days are sufficient to score 99 in CAT 2017.

CAT 2016 toppers and students of MBA/PGP 2017-19 at FMS Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Indore share 5 step preparation strategy to crack CAT 2017 with high score.

Step-1: Utilise Dussehra Holidays
Those who are preparing for CAT 2017 seriously are advised to utilise their next 3-4 days Dussehra holidays with intense CAT exam preparation and ensure that they are able to overcome their weakness, clarify their doubts and strengthen their fundamentals. Taking Mocks during these holidays and analysing them for the inadvertent errors must be done invariably, suggest the past CAT toppers.  

Step-2: Two Months enough to score 99
According to FMS Delhi student and CAT 2016 topper with 99.99 percentile, Atul Goyal “Prepare sincerely and even 2 months are not less to score 99 percentile, just be sincere and devote some time every day to your CAT preparation.” Read all about the CAT success story

The CAT 2017 aspirants should therefore not get disheartened only because of the fact that only 2 months are left. Instead right preparation strategy with the help of different LoD CAT Mocks can lead to high scores and on the CAT 2017 exam day, the actual exam will be no different than another Mock test.

Important links:

• ‘Focus on improving Accuracy in CAT 2017’ Success mantra from IIM Ahmedabad student Chanchal Gupta
• FMS Delhi student & CAT topper with 100 percentile Mukesh Goyal shares Success Mantra “Peer discussion helps a lot”
• CAT topper & IIM Indore student Priya Sahni shares Success Mantra “Enhance your analytical skills” 

Step-3: Focus on Self-Preparation

Almost all the CAT toppers who scored 99+ and converted the call to IIMs and FMS Delhi agree that there is no substitute to self preparation.

IIM Ahmedabad student and CAT topper with 99.73 percentile, Akhil Garg did not go to any offline coaching centre and preferred to adhere to self-preparation strategy. He says, “My main preparation strategy was regular practice. I regularly solved questions of each section with time limit.”

FMS Delhi student and CAT topper with 100 percentile, Mukesh Goya says “I did not go for any offline coaching. It depends on the individual whether he/she needs coaching or not. Students have done well in CAT with coaching as well as without coaching.”

CAT topper with 99.79 percentile and IIM Ahmedabad student of PGP 2017-19 batch, Chanchal Gupta is also in favour of self preparation although she believes that joining or not joining coaching depends on the individual.

Step-4: Time to take different LoD Mocks & test papers
In next 2 months you should take Mocks with different difficulty level. CAT topper and IIMA student Chanchal Gupta appeared for multiple mock tests in the last 3 months leading up to CAT. Instead of trying to attempt all the questions, she focussed on improving her accuracy in the questions that she solved.

Official CAT Mock: Best to know the expected LoD
The best Mock is the one which is officially published by IIMs before CAT exam. The official CAT mock contains only those type of questions which are expected in the CAT exam.  The level of difficulty of the questions in official CAT Mock is also very close to the actual CAT exam. For the last 2-3 years, CAT has started publishing the full length official CAT Mock. It will also help you assess your preparation level.

Take official CAT Mock with questions and answers. The Mock is published by IIMs

Previous Test Papers: Key source of preparation
CAT toppers agree that you should solve more previous test papers and analyse your weak areas. The previous year CAT papers will help you to know the correct CAT exam pattern, CAT syllabus topics on which questions are based in CAT exam and give you a good practice opportunity.

Solve CAT previous test papers
According to Akhil, IIM Ahmedabad student and CAT topper, “Mocks are not useful until you thoroughly analyse your performance afterwards, understanding where and why you went wrong so that you know which areas to work upon.  Identify your weak areas, plan your strategies and monitor your improvement through future mocks.”

CAT topper with 100 percentile and FMS Student, Mukesh Goyal suggests, “One can try different types of strategies in mocks and accordingly see what kind of strategy suits him/her better. All the mock questions – incorrect, correct and un-attempted should be analysed properly. Through proper analysis, one can know about his/her weak and strong areas and can work accordingly.”

Step-5: Sectional Preparation: Use right material to overcome your weakness
Each of the 3 sections in CAT 2017 is important and you need to clear the cut offs to get shortlisted by IIMs. Candidates need to overcome their weakness in the particular section of CAT.

It has been found that most number of candidates are weak in VARC and as shared by CAT toppers and IIM Ahmedabad and FMS students they devised different preparation strategy to overcome their weakness in this section.

IIM-A student Akhil was relatively weak at VARC. Hence, he focused a lot on reading different articles and novels, conversing in English with friends and even watching English TV series and movies.

FMS Delhi student and CAT 100 percentiler Mukesh was also weak at VARC section. To overcome the weakness he practiced sectional tests and topic specific tests in order to improve this section. He used to focus on analysis part of these tests and solved a lot of RCs and CR questions

IIM Indore student with 96 percentile in CAT, Priya Sahni was also weak at English. She devoted approximately 40 % of her preparation time just to English. She read in all her free time and advises to devote more time to the section you are weak at.

The suggested sectional preparation strategy shared by the toppers is

For VARC section
The most important part is the maximum time that you can devote to reading, so read a lot. Apart from this, practice at least 5 RC’s in a week and analyse them after solving them. Try to find out why your answers went wrong. Do the RC’s in a strict time frame.

For DILR section
DILR gets better the more you practice. Try to solve one set every day and never leave any set unsolved no matter how much time it may take.

Quant
For Quant also practice is the key. Try to be clear with the concepts. Try to come up with your own shortcuts and logics. Preferred study material is Arun Sharma, Nishit Sinha, study material from coaching institutes, online reference material, regular reading of news papers among others.

Almost all the IIMs are expected to increase their intake in PGP 2018-20 as suggested by Shri Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of HRD, Government of India to all the IIMs. If you can score well in CAT 2017, you may get the chance of studying at one of the coveted IIMs in the country. 

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

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