CAT 2017: What type of Mocks you should take in next 30 days? Advice from IIM toppers & experts

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
October 16, 2017
Which are the best mocks I should attempt to crack CAT 2017 with high score? How to analyse them to improve further? These are a few of the key queries hovering the minds of CAT 2017 aspirants?
CAT 2017
CAT toppers and students at IIM Ahmedabad, Indore, FMS Delhi suggest the ways and means to use the Mocks to your best in your preparation for CAT 2017 in next 30 days

Which are the best mocks I should attempt to crack CAT 2017 with high score? How to analyse them to improve further? These are a few of the key queries hovering the minds of CAT 2017 aspirants?

Responding to such queries as how you can best utilise the Mocks, what type of CAT Mocks you should take, the past CAT toppers and students at IIM Ahmedabad, Indore, FMS Delhi suggest the ways and means to use the Mocks to your best in your preparation for CAT 2017 in next 30 days. These candidates have not only scored high in CAT exam but have also converted their call to coveted B-schools.

Important links:

Be consistent in practice
It is not necessary that you join any CAT coaching, but it is important that you should be consistent in your preparation.  IIM Ahmedabad student and one of the CAT toppers in 2016 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.”

No use of Mocks, unless analysed
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.”

Pick out the best strategy to solve Mock
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.”

IIMs’ official CAT Mock: Best way to understand CAT exam pattern
The best Mock is the one which is officially published by IIMs before CAT exam. For the last 2-3 years, IIMs have started publishing the full length official CAT Mock. It will also help you assess your preparation level. 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.

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

Overcome your weakness through CAT Mock
Priya Sahni, IIM Indore student for PGP 2017-19 and CAT topper with 96 percentile advises the CAT aspirants to understand well the nature of CAT exam through the Mocks. She is of the view that CAT is a qualitative exam and not a quantitative exam. CAT tests your aptitude so it is very important to be very thorough with the concepts and enhance your analytical skills. Every person is good at one section and has another section as a weakness. It is very important to identify both of them and plan your strategy accordingly.

On the importance of Mocks before actual CAT exam, she suggests,I feel that just taking a mock test is not enough. Go for a thorough analysis. I gave 3 hours for the mock test and almost the same amount of time for its analysis. Analyse each question that you did wrong or left. Try to find out which questions were easy and you couldn’t do. Try to improve on those questions.”

Best to Join Mock Test series of top coaching
Chanchal Gupta, PGP 2017-19 student at IIM Ahmedabad and CAT topper with 99.79 percentile 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 my accuracy in the questions that she solved.

Chanchal did self preparation for CAT last year but joined Mock test series of coaching. She also advises the CAT 2017 aspirants to join Mock test series of a good coaching and says “I joined only the test series. Coaching centre helps in maintaining regularity and provides a competitive environment.” In her view the best way to use mock tests is to analyse the Mocks afterwards. The mistakes should be identified and worked upon.

Take different LoD Mocks & test papers
In next 30 days you should take Mocks with different difficulty level. CAT toppers appeared for multiple mock tests in the last 2-3 months before CAT exam day. Besides, the Previous Test Papers are also the key source of preparation.

All the 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

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.

Please remember 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.

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

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MBA/PGDM Admissions 2018 Open - Important Dates
For your benefit, MBAUniverse.com has listed important MBA/PGDM Admission Application Deadlines. Check now: 

XLRI – XAT 2018
Application to XAT is open till November 30 without late fee and till December 15 with late fee
MDI Gurgaon
Application for PGPM 2018-20 at MDI Gurgaon is open till November 24, 2017
IMI New Delhi
Application for PGDM 2018-20 at IMI New Delhi is open till December 4, 2017
NMIMS Mumbai – NMAT
Application to NMAT by GMAC and for MBA admission at NMIMS, is open till October 3
IMT Ghaziabad
Application for PGDM 2018-20 at IMT Ghaziabad is open till November 24, 2017
XIM Bhubaneshwar
Application for MBA 2018-20 at XIM Bhubaneswar is open till December 8, 2017
SCMHRD, Pune – SNAP 2017
SNAP 2017 registration is open till November 24, 2017
Great Lakes Chennai and Gurgaon
The application for 2 years PGDM 2018-20 is open till Feb 25, 2018
KJ SIMSR Mumbai
Application for PGDM 2018-20 at K J Somaiya is open till January 31, 2018
GIM Goa
Application for PGDM 2018-20 at GIM Goa is open till January 3, 2018
LIBA Chennai
Online Application for PGDM 2018-20 at LIBA is open till January 31, 2018 at a cost of Rs.1500/-
IBSAT 2017
Application to IBSAT 2017 is open till December 12, 2017
CIMP Patna
Application for PGDM 2018-20 at CIMP is open till March 2nd week, 2018
SDMIMD Mysore
Online & offline Application for PGDM 2018-20 at SDMIMD is open till February 28, 2018 with application fee of Rs.1250/-
SOIL Gurgaon
Application for PGP 2018-19 at SOIL is open till February 25, 2018
SIBM Hyderabad – SNAP 2017
To apply to SIBM Hyderabad, apply to SNAP 2017 on Dec 17 and also apply to SIBM-H in the SNAP Form
SIBM Bengaluru
To apply to SIBM Bengaluru, apply to SNAP 2017 on Dec 17 and also apply to SIBM-B in the SNAP Form
 

 

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