Countdown to CAT 08: Gautam Puri of Career Launcher shares strategy to crack CAT on MBAUniverse.com Aspirant Zone (Part 1)

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Amit Agnihotri
Columnist & Author, MBAUniverse.com
Updated on July 24, 2016
Continuing our special series on CAT 2008, MBAUniverse.com brings expert advice from one of India's leading MBA test preparatory company Career Launcher.

In this article for MBAUniverse.com Aspirant Zone, Mr Gautam Puri, Vice Chairman, Career Launcher, offers advice to CAT takers on how to best use the last few weeks before the exam.

Expert Advice by Mr Gautam Puri – 45 Days before CAT:  

"With CAT only month and a half away, it would be wise not to waste time working on anything new. In the next few weeks, just revise your fundamentals. Also, the basic process of revision should not be one where you check yourself on whether you remember the solution to questions or not. 

While revising, see if there is a better way of doing a question. At this stage, your study hours should be down to a minimum of three to four hours a day and all that you do should be towards keeping a clear head and improving your concentration. 

Don't experiment
There should be no fiddling with your strategy at this stage. The time for experimentation is over now. As long as you know that the strategy you are using is giving you rewards, don't change it…

For example, you would know if your best bet is to scan a passage and then move onto to the questions, while another person could be more at ease scanning questions before going onto the passage. So just stick to whatever works best for you. 

Taking the tests
Test-taking is the most important aspect of your preparation now. Take two or at the most three tests a week. Test-taking should be followed by an analysis of the complete paper.
 
 
Analyse
What mistakes you have committed and how you will rectify them. The mistake that is commonly committed is that we take a test as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end.

Remember, CAT is not about last minute cramming and revising. It's about being alive and mentally alert, here and now. 

Gauge yourself
The most objective analysis of your performance is to judge your performance with respect to that of other students. There cannot be any method more objective than that. 

The second step is to go by the benchmarks you are expected to get in that test. Ideally, if you retain your old scores even if the test is getting tougher, it means that you are improving. At this stage, improvement can come not by knowing new things but by fine-tuning what you already know.  

Finishing touches
Do away with your urge to cover the complete syllabus instead of revising or analysing the test. Besides spending time on why some answers went wrong, also concentrate on why some answers were correct or whether there is any better way of doing the question. 

Furthermore, in any well-planned CAT paper, you will not be able to complete the whole section or paper. So go through the questions that you did not attempt and see if you made a mistake by leaving out those and attempting the ones you did.  

Also remember than in every paper, there will be both difficult and easy questions. This is where the concept of revision comes in. With regular revision, you get better and better at questions and are able to do them in a short span of time."

Mr Gautam Puri, Vice Chairman, Career Launcher, is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. In the next article, Mr Puri offers advice on the 'D-day' for all CAT takers.