The month of June is here indicating that the CAT 2011 exam is not very far away. Though the dates of the exam has not been announced yet, but following the last years pattern, you can guess that its going to be held between October and November and hence you need to prepare accordingly. In this MBAUniverse.com article, we will introduce you to the three sections of CAT 2011 and the preparation strategies for the sections.
Quantitative Ability: The Quantitative Ability section or the section of mathematics is considered to be toughest and trickiest amongst the three sections. The most important chapters in the Quantitative Ability section are geometry, algebra, functions, number systems, time speed & distance and mensuration.
You should be thorough with these chapters as most of the questions are from these areas. Now that about six months are left for CAT 2011, you should develop the areas of importance, as well as the ones you are most comfortable in. “The best thing to do is to take one chapter at a time and solve as many questions as possible over a week or 10 days. The objective should be to master the chapter and develop a very high level of comfort and confidence so that you can answer any question from the chapter. Thereafter, move on to the next chapter,” suggests Anurag Goyal, 99.56 percentile scorer in CAT 2008.
Verbal Ability: Verbal Ability or the English section is also known to be a dreadful section for many. The section can be divided into two parts, vocabulary, English Usage and grammar. The basic preparation can be done through learning words from the books like Word Power by Norman Lewis. English Usage and Reading Comprehension can be developed over practice.
For preparing the Verbal Ability section, the best thing to do six months before is to read and practice as much as possible. “Six months before CAT, the best thing to do for vocabulary is read. Add words to your lexicon. As for reading comprehension, the answers are not absolute like Vocabulary. They are subjective. To understand the kind of answers that CAT looks for, the only method is to practice and reason out,” says Goyal.
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning: Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning is another tricky section and it can be developed over lot of practice. The Data Interpretation questions are on graphs, tables, charts etc. from where you have to interpret the data shown in them. Logical Reasoning is more like solving puzzles. You will be given different situations and information from where you will have to deduce the answers to the questions asked.
Six months before the test, practice is the only solution. “Six months before CAT, you should best invest your time in practicing. Another important thing for DI & LR is to go over mock test questions and caselets thoroughly. This will help one in understanding the mistakes made and learning the correct approach,” Goyal mentions.
Another important thing which you should keep in mind while preparing for CAT 2011 is that you should not avoid taking mock tests. Taking mock tests is of utmost importance as you can judge your own performance and know which sections need to be stressed and which are your strong sections.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more on CAT 2011 preparation.
