How to face CAT successfully?
What is CAT?
The Combined Admission Test (CAT) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) on the 3rd Sunday in the month of November every year is known to be the most difficult entrance test in India to pass successfully in order to get admission to undergo post-graduate course in management in one of the IIMs or in anyone of some well-known University Departments of Management Studies or one of the well-known participating private business schools in the country. Institute of Management Technology (IMT) with its participating Campuses at Ghaziabad and Nagpur besides its foreign Campus in Dubai is one of the top 10 private business schools in the country which participates in the CAT.
The Post-Graduate Programme in Management done from anyone of the above-mentioned business schools is recognized internationally and accepted widely as a passport for successful career in management. This qualification provides a number of distinct advantages including strong leadership capabilities with proficiency in communication, analytical and presentation skills, comprehensive business knowledge base and wide networking with business world.
Whether CAT is an intelligence test and the only criteria for selection?
CAT is not, in fact, an intelligence test. CAT is basically a Business Aptitude Test intended to identify those students who are likely to perform well in the area of business management. It is also important to know that CAT score is only one of the criteria for the final selection of a candidate to a business school. The final selection of a candidate is decided by not only his score in CAT but by his performance in the Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI) and also by his Academic Record. CAT basically assesses a candidate in three basic areas, namely, his Quantitative Ability, Analytical Ability and Verbal Ability required to become a good management professional.
Certain assumptions
For passing CAT successfully, certain tips have been suggested in the paragraphs that follow. In this write-up, it has been assumed that the preparation for appearing in CAT has been initiated with full zest at least one year prior to appearing therein and the foundation for preparing for CAT was laid down at the higher secondary level itself. It is also assumed that the candidate for CAT has understood well the fundamentals of all the subjects involved in CAT and he knows as to how to apply the concepts found in various subjects and has also made sufficient practice before appearing in the CAT.
Since this year CAT is to be held very shortly on 16th November, 2008, the tips suggested in this article should prove to be quite helpful for the last minute fine-tuned preparation and then for appearing in CAT for securing high percentile. Before the tips are discussed, it is necessary to understand the true nature of CAT.
Which capabilities are tested in CAT?
As indicated above, it is candidate's basically three capabilities, i.e., Quantitative Ability, Analytical Ability and Verbal Ability, which are tested in CAT. Quantitative Problems given in CAT measure a candidate's mathematical skills. These problems also assess a candidate's skills in Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency. Data Interpretation problems assess the candidate's ability to analyse and interpret information in graphic or tabular form. Data Sufficiency problems assess the candidate's ability to analyse a problem with the assistance of information which has been supplied. Quantitative ability and analytical ability determine the level of proficiency of the candidate in decision –making.
Verbal Ability problems assess the candidate's ability to understand and comprehend written English. This is tested through Reading Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning and English Usage questions. The purpose of assessing verbal ability of the candidate is to know his level of written communication skill which is important for any person holding a managerial position.
What are the Tips for making last minute preparation for different sections of CAT?
Data Interpretation
This section includes questions based on bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts, caselets, scatter diagrams, etc. The questions can be observation-based, calculation-intensive, based on deductive reasoning, etc. Right interpretation of such questions is crucial.
While attempting such questions, one should first read the set properly and if one feels that the questions can easily be solved, only then one should attempt the questions or do them later. Before attempting such questions, one has first to decide how much time that one can devote to the set. One has not to ignore any set. It is possible that the set which the candidate is ignoring may be easy to solve.
For making proper data interpretation, the candidate should regularly read different business related articles from magazines, journals and newspapers. Through regular reading of such articles, he will feel confident and more comfortable with the terms or jargons used in such articles and this process would help him to understand and analyze the data in a better way. In this connection, it is suggested that the candidate should go through all the volumes of such journals or magazines at least of past one year so that he may have proper linkages of the current themes in different areas of general awareness.
Data Sufficiency
The questions falling in this section may be based on judgment or may need to be worked out. The candidate should independently use the information supplied in the statements. The candidate has to find whether the statement is sufficient to find answer to the question. It is feasible that one may get different answers with different statements.
Problem Solving
In this section, there are four main areas – Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Modern Mathematics. The candidate must ensure that he is proficient in concepts of these areas of mathematics. The candidate has also to identify the area where he is more comfortable so that while attempting this section, he should start with those questions first where he is more comfortable. After that, the candidate should attempt other questions so that his level of confidence remains intact and no time is wasted on any question.
Reading Comprehension
The candidate for CAT should develop the habit of doing some general reading on regular basis. Scanning a passage for finding key words is very helpful while answering questions in a very short time. One should read the passage as quickly as possible so as to arrive at the essence of the subject matter at the earliest possible. In this section, the questions could be direct, indirect or inferential or partly inferential in nature. The level of difficulty of questions is important and it may range from easy to medium to difficult.
Verbal Ability and Verbal Reasoning
Adding to the vocabulary regularly is the key to get good score in this section. Finding new words from the dictionary and writing them repeatedly would assist the candidate to memorize them. Using new words in one form or the other would be very helpful to increase the verbal ability. Knowing the general concepts which are normally tested in grammar, such as subject verb disagreement, mismatch of tenses, defective parallelism, etc. will help the candidate to strengthen his verbal ability. Attempting the jumbled paragraphs in the verbal reasoning section expects the candidate to eliminate the wrong options which would determine candidate's level of reasoning.
What are general tips to be followed while attempting CAT successfully?
Equal weightage for each section in CAT
It has been observed that the candidates with engineering background heavily depend on quantitative and analytical sections in CAT and they do not pay adequate attention to verbal ability section. It is also true that all IIMs and well-known participating private business schools give weightage to all the three quantitative, analytical and verbal ability sections in the CAT. It is, therefore, suggested that the candidates irrespective of their educational background should give equal weightage to all the sections in the CAT in order to get entry to one of the IIMs or well-known private business schools or University Departments. Of course, it is also true that every candidate has his own strengths and weaknesses and he should take benefit of his strengths in order to compensate for his weaknesses.
Speed and Accuracy
For attempting CAT successfully, the candidate has to acquire sufficient speed and accuracy in attempting different sections of the CAT question paper. These can be achieved only by regular and sincere practice; since it is well experienced that practice makes a man perfect. The regular practice with full focus and concentration of mind will help the candidate to achieve sufficient speed and accuracy in attempting different sections of the Question Paper.
In this connection, it is worth mentioning that CAT is not about solving 75 questions in 150 minutes. It is about 45 to 55 questions with 85 to 90 accuracy which will help the candidate to score better percentile. Accuracy is a distinguishing factor amongst the candidates. However, merely focusing on accuracy may lead to spending more than average time on the questions which can create panic in the candidate towards the end of the examination. Therefore, an optimum mix of both accuracy and speed is recommended to get success.
Therefore, the following recommendations are made to the candidates for the CAT to achieve an optimum mix of accuracy and speed at least one day before the examination date, i.e., 14th November, 2008:
- Follow strictly a preparation schedule in order to eliminate the possibility of stress and pressure.
- Keep a track record of the performance in terms of total attempts together with percentage of accuracy.
- Keep in mind the clarity of the strategy and clarity of the goals which will help to stay focused during the last month of the preparation for the ensuing CAT.
Proper allotment and management of time and sequence of handling questions
Not only speed is needed to attempt CAT successfully, even proper allotment of time for various sections in the examination hall is also very important. If some problem is taking too much time, it is advisable to leave that and attempt another one which can easily be solved and if time is left, then unsolved problems which were taking much time, may again be attempted. Thus, proper time management is also required to achieve success in CAT besides speed and accuracy. The bulk of poor percentiles result from mismanagement of time in the examination hall.
It is advisable that the candidate should not start attempting questions immediately. It is better to go through the examination paper properly and try to determine which sections and questions will be easiest to answer first.
The examination lasts for 150 minutes. Given below is the allotment of time which can assist the candidate to score better percentile:
- 5 minutes for filling in the personal data and marking the OMR sheet (145 minutes left);
- 5 minutes for scanning the paper and planning the approach to attempt the questions (140 minutes left);
- 45 minutes at the most for the strongest section (at least 95 minutes left);
- 45 minutes for the medium section (at least 50 minutes left);
- 45 minutes for the weakest section (5 minutes left); and
- 5 minutes for reviewing the answers.
It is also advisable that, for each section, the candidate should start the questions which will consume less time and the candidate is able to solve the same with confidence. Only after handling easy questions, the candidate should move to more difficult questions.
Verbal questions such as direct dictionary meanings and sentence corrections should be the priority; since they do not require much time. The time the candidate saves here can be utilized while doing an inference-based question from a passage that requires more time and work.
Perseverance and regular practice
It has been experienced that 90% perseverance and 10% intelligence are required to get success in any venture. There are very few persons who may be termed as really ‘genius’. Most of the achievers in various fields of activity are found to be persons of ordinary intelligence. They are basically hardworking persons believing in perseverance and regular practice to make themselves perfect and ultimately successful in their ventures.
Hard but smart work
It is also important to note that not only hard work is required for success but the work should be done in the most desirable, smart and least time-consuming manner so that maximum problems may be solved in the least possible time to gain success. There may be problems which can be solved through different methods. The candidate should develop the skill of solving problems in the least possible time and in the most efficient manner.
Taking mock tests
Practice through mock tests would be helpful to the candidate to achieve success in CAT. In fact, there is nothing like a mock test to tell a candidate what he is good at and what he needs to improve on.
Making post-test analysis
After taking a test, making post-test analysis would also assist the candidate to know whether he could finish the test well within the allotted time with sufficient score. It would also help him to know which questions he could not do properly and why. The post-test analysis of the test would help the candidate to make improvements wherever they are required to do better next time.
Mental composure and relaxed mood
For achieving success in CAT, it is very important to note that the least mental stress and maximum mental peace and relaxed mood are required. Through adequate mental composure, many problems which may be quite tricky can easily be solved. Once mental composure is lost, even simplest problems cannot be solved. Therefore, it is suggested that the candidate for the CAT should have complete rest and sound sleep at least one day before the CAT and should enter the examination hall with full mental composure.
Developing high level of confidence for appearing in CAT
The last but not the least important factor for one's success in CAT is the confidence for achieving success. It has been well experienced that a person may be highly knowledgeable; but if he loses confidence, he loses everything. Therefore, not only the knowledge base of a person should be strong for achieving success but his level of confidence should also be high. Therefore, it is advisable for the aspirants for CAT that they should develop high level of confidence with positive thinking to achieve success in CAT.
