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The best strategy for the CAT is to have NO strategy!
Article by Gejo Sreenivasan, IMS Learning
These days, there are too many articles on how to crack the CAT, XAT or any other test for that matter. The articles that I love the most are the ones on strategy. How by merely strategizing you can get great score in the CAT - 45-45-45 minutes on each section and 15 min in the end for one section where you want to clear the cut-off; start with your favorite section; how should one select questions; how can one pick up the sitters etc. Then there are the articles on how to prepare in the last few months before the CAT – practice, practice, practice; forget areas that you are weak; how to improve reading comprehension in 30 days etc. According to me, the best strategy for the CAT is to have NO strategy! To build the premise for my argument let me first explain the purpose of the CAT.
With due respect to IIMs, they want the best set of students to be a part of their management program so that they can 'claim' that the success of the student's career is only because of the efforts IIMs have put in 2 years. Why single out IIMs, I believe that this is what everyone [including the corporate] does. Coming back to the IIMs - There are more than 2 lac aspirants and it becomes practically impossible for the IIMs to have a serious look at each and every candidate. Do you know how many apply to the top MBA program in the world – Harvard? 6000! [Mathematically, it is easier to get into Harvard than into IIM!] Harvard has all the time to look at the 6000 candidates and take a decision. IIMs do not have that luxury and therefore, CAT is here to solve this 'logistical problem'. The main purpose of the CAT is to help weed out 6000 from 200000.
Having said that, the task in hand for the CAT is not all that easy. It has to ensure that the ones that clear the CAT are better than the rest. CAT uses around 75 questions to arrive at that decision. Each question should help the CAT to differentiate the good from the rest. Imagine a question which is answered correctly by 100% of the test takers. Is it a good question? It is a useless question. What if no one could answer a particular question? It is useless again. A CAT question is not about difficult or easy. It is all about the question's ability to get only around 20% to answer it correctly and 80% MUST get it wrong! That is how each question is designed [this is not my opinion but is true with any aptitude test. There are lots of white papers on aptitude testing]. This entire 'gyan' is only to lead this conclusion. CAT is NOT about the entire paper – CAT is a set of questions and to crack the CAT, you must have the ability to solve individual questions. Period! No strategy can help if you can't solve a question.
Now let me attack various common strategies: The most common is how to divide time among the three sections of the CAT. There is this so called 'theory' [for want of any other better word] that you must spend extra time in your weak section – say 60-40-50. Here is my logic – the extra 10 minutes is AFTER you have spent 50 minutes in that section. How many questions are you going to solve in that extra 10 minutes – 3 to 4? If that is true, then you would have solved 20 questions in the first 50 minutes! It beats me as to what you will do with that extra 10 minutes. I believe that you should just divide the time equally to the three sections. If this is the case, how does it matter which section you start with.
The other strategy is selecting questions. I have a doubt – how can you select a question [to solve or not] just by looking at the question? You have to read a question to decide whether you can solve or not. This means you have to read all questions! This in turn means that the order of solving questions in a section does not matter!
The process is simple –
1. Read a question with the objective of understanding a question
2. Decide whether to solve now or later
3. Solve
I do not know what great strategy someone would require to select a question. My gut feeling says that CAT will eventually force everyone to solve every question by putting negative marks for un-attempted questions. As long as you understand the purpose of the CAT and focus your preparation on tackling individual questions you never have a worry irrespective of whatever structure/surprise CAT gives you.
Let me end this by giving a small input on how you should focus on the last few months [I can read your mind – "God!! This is not over!"]. For instance, Pappu [couldn't think of another name] wants to improve his looks. On Day 1 he looked into the mirror and saw what he needs to change. Day 7 he looked into the mirror again, Day 14 he looked into the mirror once again. He is worried that his looks have not improved. It will not improve just by looking at the mirror. In the same way, a test [like the SimCAT] is a mirror. Just by taking test after test, you are making the same mistake that Pappu did. What you do between 2 tests is more important than the test itself. The purpose of the test is to only act like a mirror and believe me SimCATs truly reflects! The SimCATs questions are carefully designed with the same logic as the CAT. You need to do complete analysis of the test and do the necessary correction before you take the next test. Also, to aid you on the same, IMS has the intensive workshops. These are 30 workshops created after analysis of last 15 CATs. Don't focus too much on the test but focus on what you do between the tests.
I wish you a great career. No matter what, believe that you are good and you are destined to have an impactful career. Keep the faith & stay focused.
Mr Gejo Sreenivasan is General Manager, IMS Test prep. IMS Learning Center was established in 1977. It has more than 148 centers across the country. The contribution of IMS in shaping the successful careers of many students has been incredible. Over the years, more than 50,000 IMS students have passed through the prestigious portals of top management institutes in India.
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