With the announcement of the appointment of Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, faculty IIM Ahmedabad as the CAT 2015 convener, decks to convene CAT 2015 on time with more innovations and improvements stand cleared.
While your CAT 2015 preparation should have started rolling and must be gearing up with each day passing by, Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation shares a few leads and tips that could help you in your CAT 2015 preparation strategy and would improve your CAT 2015 score.
Common Admission Test, more commonly known as CAT is the most sought after entrance examination to pursue MBA/PGDM in IIMs and other top rated MBA colleges in India. IIMs, FMS, MDI, NITIE, Management departments of IITs, JBIMS have made CAT a mandatory exam for admission to their management programmes for the batch 2016-18.
Scoring an overall percentile of 95-97 and sectional percentile of 85-90 each in CAT 2015, may get you newer IIM but you will not be shortlisted for final admission round by IIM A, B, C, L. Any compromise on preparation strategy and relaxation to aim for less than 99+ percentile with equally high sectional percentile may not get you IIM A,B,C or L, if you really wish to pursue your MBA from a top rated B school, be it an IIM, FMS or others.
The road to score such a high percentile of 99 is sure not easy or less difficult and would need consistent study, practice, understanding and common sense as well. Based on his deep insight and analysis of changed face of CAT 2015, Prof S K Agarwal suggests the CAT 2015 aspirants to come out of their cozy and easy going mode and must fasten their belts to prepare with determination to crack CAT 2015 with not less than 99 percentile.
How different CAT 2015 would be: key tips
CAT 2015 could be a different test in different pattern as against the earlier CAT exams.
There were significant changes in CAT 2014 in the duration of testing window reducing it from 21 days to only 2 days; increasing the number of questions from 60 to 100; doing away with the sectional time constraint and allowing the test takers to toggle between the 2 sections freely; increasing the total test time from 140 minutes to 170 minutes but reducing the time available to solve per question from 2.32 minutes to 1.80 minutes and many more.
While CAT 2014 was convened by IIM Indore, CAT 2015 is going to be conducted by IIM Ahmedabad with Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay as convener for CAT 2015. It is a well known fact that IIM Ahmedabad is the top rated B school in the country and may bring about more changes in CAT 2015. While it is expected That CAT 2015 would follow the newly adopted pattern of CAT 2014 you should also take note of these anticipated changes and accordingly plan your preparation strategy.
Next 5 months to crack CAT 2015
More than 4000 candidates will find admission in 21 IIMs in their flagship PGP batch 2016-18 on the basis of CAT 2015 scores apart from 10000+ admissions in other highly ranked B schools. In nutshell, around 15 to 20 thousand candidates in top rated B schools will get admission on the basis of CAT 2015 scores
Common Admission Test (CAT) conducted by Indian Institutes of Management will be a computer based test. CAT 2015 organizing IIM Ahmedabad will provide a practice test beforehand to familiarise the candidates about the type and pattern of the test.
CAT 2015 is expected to have total time duration of 170 minutes. The exam is proposed to be divided in two sections without any time constraint since CAT 2014. Candidates would be allowed to switch from one section to other during the overall time limit of 170 minutes. Till CAT 2013 the test had sectional time constraint of 70 minutes each.
CAT 2015 taker will have to ensure that not too much time is wasted only on one section as sectional high score is also very important to get shortlisted by an IIM.
In CAT 2015 the first section of Quantitative Ability and data Interpretation would contain 50 questions and the second section of Verbal Ability and logical Reasoning would also contain 50 questions.
CAT 2015: need for focused preparation
Describing the CAT 2015 preparation strategy, Prof S K Agarwal, mentor and expert on verbal ability, shares that an aspirant needs to know what and how to prepare before moving on the tricky path of CAT 2015 preparation module.
Make a mix of preparation
While the strategy on how to prepare for CAT may differ from person to person, meticulous self study has no substitute. Most of the candidates coming from Engineering or other technical background find it easy to get along well with Quant, DI and LR but when it comes to Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, they find the section too difficult.
Self Preparation is the best preparation strategy for CAT 2015 but time spent per question and on specific topic is also an important factor. If a candidate gets stuck on some question due to his/her lack of conceptual clarity, the wastage of time is more and depression begins to set in. It could be a small quant formula, LR logic, or Verbal usage clarity which might need a simple push to come out of the shallow waters. This help can be provided by your mentor online or offline depending upon your preference or a mix of both.
Managing time during preparation
An important fact in CAT 2015 preparation journey is the difficulty level which is more wanting. The quest for speed and accuracy has increased- a challenge which is to be met by the examinees. Till CAT 2013 the test taker had 2.32 minutes per question to solve but since CAT 2014 the time is reduced to 1.8 minute per question to solve.
The four parts divided in 2 sections of CAT 2015 namely Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation, Verbal Ability and logical reasoning need a systematic study schedule. Looking at the level of difficulty and surprise elements that appeared in CAT 2014 examination, a concerted preparation of the relevant topics especially where you can score more and can move fast with accuracy after due preparation is required to crack CAT 2015.
5 months is a reasonable time and if you begin your preparation even with one of your weakest topic and continue revisiting the strong topics with consistent practice sessions, it can sure yield the desired result.
Please remember it will not be sufficient to score overall high in CAT 2015; your section wise score should also be high. CAT 2014 takers with 99+ percentile couldn’t get admission in any of the top rated B schools as the percentile in either of the two sections was low. On the other hand candidates with 96 percentile could get through the top rated IIMs as they had high percentile in both the sections. CAT 2015 would need hardcore in-depth preparation, where nothing can be left to chance.
The best talent of country aspires for IIMs which are highly ranked in imparting management education. There are around 2 lakh candidates who propose to go for CAT 2015 and are preparing to appear in this most coveted test to get their desired IIM. However a lucky few thousands preparing meticulously are able to crack it with high scores and give wings to their career.
Please remember that CAT 2015 will not only be a mandatory entrance exam to 21 IIMs but also for other top rated B schools like FMS Delhi, Delhi School of Economics, SPJIMR, JBIMS, NITIE, SIMSREE, KJ Somaiya, MDI, IMT, IMI, BIMTECH, TAPMI, Department of Management studies at IITs, Great Lakes, LIBA among hundreds of other ones.
Return on investment at IIMs is probably the best. Top recruiters from India and world eye these institutes for their placement season and feel proud when a few of the students from these B schools join them. Make sure that your hard and intelligent preparation for CAT 2015 leads you to your desired IIM in 2016.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2015
