Ask a CAT topper and he will advise you to be selective on choosing the questions in CAT while maximizing your attempts. Speed and accuracy are the bye products of this selection in your effort to achieve a high percentile in CAT 2014. There is less scope of getting shortlisted and converting the call despite scoring high overall percentile but not scoring similar high sectional percentile in CAT 2014 new exam pattern.
There will be 100 questions in CAT 2014 instead of 60 as used to appear in earlier CAT years. It implies that CAT 2014 will offer an opportunity of more choices among the questions. A candidate used to solve approximately 40-46 questions earlier to score a high percentile. On the same pattern if you attempt accurately around 60-70 questions in CAT 2014 new exam, you can score the same high percentile. The major difference however in CAT 2014 is that you will have more questions to choose from. In fact it will be a bit easier to choose the question of your choice while maximizing the attempts in CAT 2014.
The success mantra to achieve the high sectional as well as high over percentile in CAT 2014 lies in your strategy to choose the right question to avoid any negative marking and thereby saving your score from going down.
Those who scored high overall percentile of 99+ in CAT 2013 but scored low percentile in one of the two sections were either not shortlisted for PI round or even if shortlisted couldn’t convert the call. On the top of it one of the questions they faced in PI round was ‘how come you have good overall percentile but low sectional percentile, tell us…’ None of them could share a convincing reply in the PI round and are now left with no alternative but to prepare again for CAT 2014. With the changed pattern of CAT 2014, uncertainty of success still hovers their testing room strategy to go selective in their attempts.
Be choosy in your attempts
Your choice of selection of right question to solve means that in your first attempt you should select the question which you can solve with confidence in less time. You may be able to attempt around 20-25 questions out of 100 in first attempt. This will boost your confidence level and morale. The next attempt may be a little longer and you may take more time but again the questions you choose should be of your strong areas and must be attempted diligently to avoid negative marking.
Prof S K Agarwal Verbal Ability expert on CAT preparation suggests that aspirants should go through all the questions and pick the easy questions first as they will be distributed at random basis. So make sure that you don't leave any easy question. After this go through the moderate ones and at last pick the difficult ones.
More options are available: Choose the most appropriate questions
It’s quite unlikely that out of 100 questions you will not get more options in comparison to earlier CAT sessions. CAT aspirants could score a very high percentile to the tune of 95+ when they solved 30-40 questions out of 60. On the same pattern if you are able to crack 60-70 out of 100 questions, a situation which is more likely to happen in CAT 2014, you may get a high sectional as well as overall percentile.
According to Prof S K Agarwal Expert and CAT trainer the advisable approach is to maximise your attempts by solving maximum number of questions from both the sections. This facility is unrestricted in CAT 2014 since sectional time constraints have been removed.
Why to stick to difficult one; time is precious-move on
You need to solve more questions in less time. Improvement in devising the strategy to solve more questions within the allotted time should be the focus of preparation now for CAT 2014. Prof S K Agarwal reveals that temptation to attempt a question which you find difficult but still want to struggle to solve it will only result in wastage of time, losing your marks on other doable questions and inviting tension and panic on account of time constraints. If you leave it outright and mark it for review, you may come back to it if time permits and after attempting other questions of your choice in CAT 2014 new exam pattern
Please note that CAT 2014 will have 100 questions divided in 2 sections with 50 questions each. Now Quant & DI section and Verbal & LR section will have 20 more questions each. Total number of questions therefore stands increased from 60 to 100, a 66% increase. But the proportionate time to solve these questions has not so much increased. Earlier it was 140 minutes for 60 questions in CAT 2013 and now it is 170 minutes for 100 questions.
If we calculate, there is no proportionate increase in time to solve the questions. On the contrary the time allotted per question to solve has been reduced by 1 minute. CAT aspirants earlier had 2.32 minutes at their disposal to solve one question and now it stands reduced to 1.70 minutes per question. It is therefore better to focus more on right kind of questions instead of more number of questions which may attract penalty of 1/3 negative marking.
Improve the speed: will help in choice of questions
‘Practice more to improve speed’ says CAT preparation expert, Prof S K Agarwal. The challenge to choose the right question with a speedy reading habit solely depends upon the ability of the aspirants. Since no CAT aspirant goes to solve all the questions in both the sections, it’s better to improve the speed within the allotted time by practicing more and more. This strategy of preparation for CAT 2014 during next 45 days will not only boost the confidence level of the candidates but also will improve the speed.
Accuracy: A bye product of right choice
If you select the right and doable question, your accuracy level will improve else it will go down, says Prof S K Agarwal. You can attain high accuracy level only when your reading speed is improved with clear understanding. When you opt for an answer option you should be clear on it. Else the negative marking may get you nowhere.
CAT 2014 is expected to place more different type of questions on the same topics. Prof S K Agarwal shares that the need is to practice more on variety of questions. In your preparation include also such type of topics and questions that had appeared long back in CAT and the questions which never appeared in CAT but have made their presence in other tests like XAT, MAH-CET, IIFT, CMAT.
With 100 questions in CAT 2014, you will have more options but don’t expect an easy test in CAT 2014. Since more questions are to be added, variety of questions will also be there. If you have practiced enough to crack the right answer option by improving the level of accuracy, you may expect a high percentile.
Judiciously use the Freedom of switching the sections
CAT 2014 will allow the movement between the two sections. Now the candidates may switch from one section to another within the allotted time of 170 minutes. They can solve questions according to their preference in either section. While many CAT aspirants call it a welcome move, others feel that the freedom poses a big challenge in getting more output in less time.
Aspirants now will have full 170 minutes with them to focus on entire test and in case they do not follow an already devised attempting strategy, they may lose on one section or may tempt to lose more time on one question. This may result in poor choice of questions and poor sectional scores.
Balance the attempts
The caution, according to experts is not to focus only on one section and aspirants now have to score high sectional percentile along with high overall percentile. If you get stuck and spend more time on one section, you wouldn’t be left with much time for another section. The strategy should be to equally divide the time for both the sections in your initial attempts and solve as many questions from both the sections as possible.
The best preparation strategy to keep it balanced in the 2 sections is to periodically go for a set of mocks with 100 questions. Keep a clock with you and start solving.
Experts’ advice
Prof S K Agarwal and other experts on CAT 2014 preparation advise the CAT aspirants to have clarity on their basics, practice as many mock tests as possible, don’t panic and should maintain their calm.
Be particular about the time spent on each question since you do not want to linger on a particular question for too long at the cost of not getting a chance to see other questions. Be realistic in approach and avoid guess work. Over-attempting can lead to disastrous consequences. Try to attempt the questions you are sure of.
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