Updated on March 20, 2014
In this article of MBAUniverse, we give you the expert advice on how to accelerate your scores from 70 to 90 percentile. Here are the five pointers which you have to keep in mind during your preparation at this stage.
The month of October is finally here. CAT 2011 exam is now less than three weeks away. By now you must have done a reality check for yourself and you already have an estimated percentile which you can expect in CAT 2011. If that is above 90, then you can feel a bit relieved. But you should not be totally relieved as this is not the end until you reach your destination, which is the actual CAT test.
But if your percentiles are hovering from 70 to 85, you should definitely work on it to accelerate it to up to 95. You may be thinking that now it is too late to learn or do anything to improve your percentile, but if you have faith in yourself, it won’t be impossible for you to increase the score in the remaining few weeks.
In this article of MBAUniverse.com, we give you the expert advice on how to accelerate your scores from 70 to 90 percentile. Here are the five pointers which you have to keep in mind during your preparation at this stage.
1. Manage the last mile properly: According to CAT guru Arun Sharma, the difference between a 70 percentiler and a 95 percentiler is just a matter of seven to eight questions. “It is nothing, but a matter of six to eight questions. If you don’t attempt the right questions, then you will lose your marks due to negative marking system,” he said. “Remember, CAT is more of an accuracy test rather than speed test,” he said.
2. Dedicate adequate time and effort: The first step to boost up your percentile is to spend dedicated hours for meaningful preparation. By meaningful preparation we mean learning, revising, testing and analyzing. Now that only few weeks are left for the test, you should spend eight to ten hours for CAT preparation. “I would suggest you to practice along with revision. Unless you revise, you will forget what you have learnt and your practice will be futile. Write as much as possible as it will help you memorizing,” advises Gautam Puri, Vice Chairman, Career Launcher.
3. Judge your current preparation level: You should judge your current preparation level before moving on to the next level. To do that, you need to revisit the areas which you think you have already covered well or know the basics and have taken sectional and full length mock tests. Now is the time to know what your present situation is.
Ankur Jain, who scored 99.93 percentile in CAT 2010 and is a first year student of MDI Gurgaon says, “Along with your preparation, taking mock test is very necessary. Try all the methods to solve a question and see which one suits you the most and takes least time with maximum accuracy. But more than taking the mock test, it is the analysis which will guide you towards the next level.”
4. Back to basics of key concepts: While you analyze your performance in the mock test, you will find out the nature of your mistakes. You may find out that you are repeating some of the mistakes due to lack of conceptual clarity. In such cases, you have to go back to the basics.
“If it is a conceptual problem, you need to go back to your basics and study more. But if it is a careless mistake, you need to practice more,” says Gejo Sreenivasan, Principal Consultant, Career Launcher.
5. Don’t burn out: Don’t burn out while preparing for CAT 2011. Though rigor is necessary but it does not mean you will out do yourself. Remember, CAT is just a means to reach your dream and not an end. There are other MBA entrance exams like IIFT, SNAP, XAT and IRMA which you can take to reach equally good MBA institutes.
In this article of MBAUniverse.com, we give you the expert advice on how to accelerate your scores from 70 to 90 percentile. Here are the five pointers which you have to keep in mind during your preparation at this stage.
1. Manage the last mile properly: According to CAT guru Arun Sharma, the difference between a 70 percentiler and a 95 percentiler is just a matter of seven to eight questions. “It is nothing, but a matter of six to eight questions. If you don’t attempt the right questions, then you will lose your marks due to negative marking system,” he said. “Remember, CAT is more of an accuracy test rather than speed test,” he said.
2. Dedicate adequate time and effort: The first step to boost up your percentile is to spend dedicated hours for meaningful preparation. By meaningful preparation we mean learning, revising, testing and analyzing. Now that only few weeks are left for the test, you should spend eight to ten hours for CAT preparation. “I would suggest you to practice along with revision. Unless you revise, you will forget what you have learnt and your practice will be futile. Write as much as possible as it will help you memorizing,” advises Gautam Puri, Vice Chairman, Career Launcher.
3. Judge your current preparation level: You should judge your current preparation level before moving on to the next level. To do that, you need to revisit the areas which you think you have already covered well or know the basics and have taken sectional and full length mock tests. Now is the time to know what your present situation is.
Ankur Jain, who scored 99.93 percentile in CAT 2010 and is a first year student of MDI Gurgaon says, “Along with your preparation, taking mock test is very necessary. Try all the methods to solve a question and see which one suits you the most and takes least time with maximum accuracy. But more than taking the mock test, it is the analysis which will guide you towards the next level.”
4. Back to basics of key concepts: While you analyze your performance in the mock test, you will find out the nature of your mistakes. You may find out that you are repeating some of the mistakes due to lack of conceptual clarity. In such cases, you have to go back to the basics.
“If it is a conceptual problem, you need to go back to your basics and study more. But if it is a careless mistake, you need to practice more,” says Gejo Sreenivasan, Principal Consultant, Career Launcher.
5. Don’t burn out: Don’t burn out while preparing for CAT 2011. Though rigor is necessary but it does not mean you will out do yourself. Remember, CAT is just a means to reach your dream and not an end. There are other MBA entrance exams like IIFT, SNAP, XAT and IRMA which you can take to reach equally good MBA institutes.
