Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 the gateway to IIMs and other top B schools to pursue MBA programme 2016-18 is a mandatory test without which you may not think of getting admission in one of the 20 IIMs. The test is proposed to be conducted in the month of October-November 2015 across the country. The registration & application process for CAT 2015 is expected to open in the last week of July or first week of August 2015.
CAT has gone with perceptible changes and from the year 2014, the exam has taken a new shape with more time, more number of questions, different types of questions and changed pattern of questions as well.
The preparation for CAT in earlier years was not an easy process but with the changed pattern and surprise elements appearing year after year, CAT 2015 aspirants anticipating yet more changes find it difficult where to begin from, what to study and how to study. While the nature of exam drives the aspirants crazy as they have no fixed syllabus to study and hence all the topics appear very important to them, the difficulty level in CAT 2015 is another big issue to crack the test with high score.
If a CAT 2015 aspirant is not aware what all the preparation stuff is about and how to begin with it, the may not begin well and even if it begins it may not be focused preparation and may move beside the point. CAT no doubt has a vast syllabus and now with more questions the test paper has widened its spectrum further. The pressing thought and dilemma can be cleared if the aspirant has a lucid picture before him in regard to the factors that would guide the beginning of his journey.
The proverb “Well begun is half done” is undoubtedly true to a great extent especially for CAT preparation. It is not difficult to walk the difficult job is to find out the way on which you will walk. Let us have a well organized understanding of CAT 2015 from Prof S K Agarwal Expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation and the shared strategy from him to begin the preparation for the same
CAT 2015: Largest MBA/PGDM entrance test
CAT 2015 is the most coveted B-school entrance examination, supposed to be conducted in October- November, 2015. No other MBA entrance examination is so preferred as CAT. It needs hardcore in- depth preparation, where nothing can be left to chance. One should start preparing for this examination at least six months before the commencement of it. It is a computer based examination unlike paper pencil one. The success in CAT awards you with the opportunity to enter top B-schools like IIMs/FMS/MDI/SPJIMR/IITs among others. The great learning experience and fat remuneration that you receive after completion of your MBA is much more than offered by any other programme. Persons leave their top jobs to pursue MBA from IIMs.
Your preparation: Organized beginning is the key
CAT 2015 no doubt has a vast syllabus, it is like a big banyan tree with multiple branches, and every branch has got its due importance. One thing is however, clear you have to go up the trunk to reach those branches else will remain unfamiliar with it.
Identify the strengths & weaknesses
If you are a commerce graduate or graduate with statistics, you may have good command on Data interpretation, Logical reasoning. If you are an engineering graduate, graduate in Physics or Mathematics, you may have strong aptitude to solve questions based on Quantitative Ability. Students of Arts & Literature – as a general presumption- may have better skill in spoken and written standard English language.
Now looking at the syllabus and past pattern of CAT examinations, there may be weak areas in your strong holds where you will have to study and practice more, and on the other hand there may be a few topics in your weak areas where you are stronger enough and you may need less revision and practice sessions for them. Strategically, you must find out the weak areas and segregate them from the strong ones.
For example, an aspirant, who is an engineering graduate and is a working professional, is both strong and weak at Verbal Ability. With the help of his mentor in Verbal Ability and after analysing some past year model tests, he finds that he is very good in cracking questions based on jumbled paragraphs, but very weak when it comes to sentence error corrections, and the questions based on the Reading comprehension passages as he can’t follow the phrasal, idiomatic expressions in the passage and can’t understand the vocabulary of the same as well.
Now if you want to crack CAT-2015 for sure-you have the option of beginning with any section you like and work hard on it to get expertise in the same. Another option is to take some expert guidance –how to proceed. A good preparation centre/mentor will definitely like to find out the root cause of weakness in this case.
In case the aspirant has weak fundamentals, he may not be able to solve the jumbled paragraphs without certain short-cuts, instincts, elimination method. At the same time despite having the ability to connect the sentences logically, he will be required to begin with the strengthening of his fundamentals-and the path is supposed to be from- Grammar-Times zones understanding-Vocabulary contextual use-correct usage-to rigorous understanding and practice of Reading Comprehension passages.
Right study material
Once it is decided what are the weaknesses and where to begin from, since all the topics are equally important and nothing can be left to chance, the right study material whether it is the self-study or mentor supported study, has to be judiciously picked up. An aspirant whether working or non-working, in the present scenario, is more tech savy and can study on-line instead of carrying the stuff with him all the time. The on-line preparation hubs like MBAUniverse.com can be visited 24x7 and the updated questions & answers, wordpower, quant questions etc. can be visited for free on site. Consolidated preparation module with on-line classes starting from the basics is available at a nominal price.
There are however, some of the books that may or may not be available on-line and If you can not access such books on-line, you are left with no alternative but to have the hard copies of them to continue the consistent process of preparation. For example – you may need – Word power made easy-Norman Lewis; High school English Grammar & Composition –Wren & Martin; Living English Structure- W. Stannard Allen, Build Your Basics-S.K. Agarwal, Proficiency in Reading Comprehension-Ajay Singh, Reading comprehension for the CAT-Sujit Kumar or any other book. However, there are some books out of the above which you may down load and some of them have to be purchased. For example- Build Your Basics by S.K. Agarwal, is so far a pure on-line book which goes on updated twice a week and contains – fundamentals, vocabulary, jumbled paragraphs, RC passages-all with exercises. It is available with the study material provided by MBA Universe and can be accessed 24x7 on the site with updated chapters and exercises.
Going through the topics and determining their relevant importance is very important factor leading your preparation strategy forward. Even if you have the study material – on-line or in hard copy form, it will be helpful only when you are able to utilize it to the optimum extent. There are certain topics that appear of no importance but omission of the same may reduce your percentile to a great extent. For example – usage in punctuation, articles may not appear important and may not also interest the aspirant but CAT has been fond of framing questions in Verbal Ability section on them and a simple omission of a (,) comma may cause a loss of four marks, reducing your percentile by ten or so.
Besides, how deeply you have followed the concept cannot be determined by you. This can be judged by the person who knows the intricacies of the topic. It is always a good idea to begin with the expert guidance and continue clarifying your doubts consistently and not compromising with the self study.
Editorial: good source for RC
The importance of newspapers and periodicals is also very prominent in CAT. Although almost all the newspapers are available on-line, it is the experience that unlike e-book, on-line reading of the editorial part and other articles in a newspaper is not retained for a long time as you do not visit the same newspaper again nor you try to underline the interesting but unfamiliar words, phrases, clauses in the same. While e-book may continue getting updated regularly, a new news-paper will appear the next day and you will lose interest in the old one. As it is the human nature, you will switch over to the new. Hence it is suggested that you must develop a habit of going through the hard copy of the same. It may be kept in your small beg, laptop bag or you can carry it in your hand, you should carry a pen/pencil with you to underline the interesting but unfamiliar parts of the sentences. This habit will help and improve your reading skills many fold.
Since there are hardly six months left to prepare for CAT 2015, it is very important that you should begin your journey with concerted efforts and making sure every topic is covered. At a later time when you begin taking mocks for CAT 2015, it will be difficult to begin working deeply on new and confusing topics.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2015
