IIMs have always been the dream B-schools to pursue PGP (MBA) from one of them. Since Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 will be the mandatory exam to seek admission in one of the IIMs, the test taker has to prepare hard for the exam and has to score high in each of the 2 sections as well as overall.
Only 150 days are approximately left to prepare for CAT 2015and this neither too short nor too long a period to prepare for the most important MBA entrance exam leading to IIMs. Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation is of the view that although it may not be considered too short a period as you can prepare well, begin new topics, work and practice a lot on all the topics, take as many mocks as you can; it is also not too long a period to remain slow and lazy to prepare for CAT 2015.
Combined Admission Test (CAT) is considered the most tricky entrance examination to top Management Institutes in India like IIMs, FMS, MDI, SPJIMR, IMT, IMI, TAPMI. On the top of it since 2014 CAT has gone for perceptible changes especially in number of questions, changed pattern of questions and reduction in time limit per question.
Another big issue is that CAT 2015 is going to be conducted by IIM Ahmedabad which is the top B school in the country and has been very quick in innovations, changes, and making the things move at a faster pace. One of the examples is that IIM Ahmedabad, the mentor IIM for IIM Nagpur, has made the newest IIMN a reality by finalizing its admission process, launching its website while the details of other 5 proposed new IIMs are not available till date. So be on your alert and prepare well to ace the exam.
Segmentalize the topics and frame study schedule
Planning your study schedule may not be a difficult task if you are focused and determined to crack CAT 2015. Whether it’s quant, verbal, DI or LR divide the entire course in topics and sub topics. Even if one topic takes a week to cover, a sub topic may be completed in a day or two after devoting an hour a day.
All the aspirants have matured mind and almost all the relevant topics they have already studied at one or other level, so it should not be a problem to refresh the concept and move on to practice sessions on the topics. Try to come out of your comfort zones and plan a little tough study schedule. After all you will be doing it for your own future.
Focus your studies with the intense desire to get the utmost clarity especially on the topics, you know are the tricky. For example, aspirants find it difficult to get the tone of the RC passage, fail to catch the dangling modifiers in error correction in the sentences etc. – pick out the topic, if you can do it on your own, else find out the mentor who will help you build the concepts and go for more and more practice. The key words are speed and accuracy. Bring out the strength from your reservoir and attempt to hit the goal.
Both the sections are important
Aspirants in the new system feel a little relaxed. Nothing to manage neither the flying sheets of paper nor the sharpening of pencil. Number of sections have been reduced from 3 to 2. An aspirant may feel a little more comfortable since he/she has to individually qualify in two sections instead of three. However, the candidate has to individually score a high percentile in each of the two sections, to receive the call for final selection round.
Only Quant!-no way
Those who come from mathematics/Engineering back ground may have strong Quantitative Ability or may be skilled in Data Interpretation. They may get through this section more easily.
This section of quant + DI in CAT 2015 is expected to have 50 questions- 34 on quant and 16 on DI. Less than 2 minutes per question are available and the time may not be considered sufficient enough. The past record shows that a candidate who hits 28-34 questions right, would get a percentile as high as 90+. The candidate has the choice to attempt more quant and less DI or vice versa. There will not be any sub-segmentation of scoring separately in quant and/or DI. The section will be treated as one.
Find out the areas where you are still weak and are strong enough. Make all out efforts and begin from now to convert your weak areas into strong ones and further strengthen the strong areas.
Hit the Verbal with high score
The second section - a mix of Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning in CAT 2015 may be agonising for those who do not begin their preparation a little early. At least a 5-6 months’ thorough preparation is required to be well conversant with this section.
The section may be divided into 3 parts instead of two as one of the topics in Verbal Ability has much more weightage. Questions on Verbal Ability in CAT 2015 would be around 18; questions based on 4 Reading Comprehension passages would be around 16 and questions on logical Reasoning would be around 16. So this section again consists of 50 questions.
It is always advisable not to have a biased mind or limit oneself to attempt a limited number of questions. It may be that you may attempt more than anticipated questions. Be open to have the choice to attempt all the 50 questions, if you can.
Pattern changed-Time reduced
Unlike the earlier pattern till CAT 2013 when candidates had more than 2 minutes’ time per question to answer, since CAT 2014 less than 2 minutes per question are available. CAT 2015 may not be an exception to this fact.
Earlier a CAT taker had 140 minutes to answer 60 questions, now there are 170 minutes to answer 100 questions. However, the time constraint of not allowing to move from one section to other till completion of 70 minutes has been removed. CAT 2015 taker would be allowed to toggle between the 2 sections freely till the overall time of 170 minutes is over.
The difficulty level in CAT 2015 is expected to increase and more versatile study is required to crack CAT 2015.
Size and length of questions have been reduced especially in Verbal Ability section there are no more Vocabulary questions with big sets of direct synonyms and antonyms. There are no mixed-up questions now. They are well defined, placed in proper section
The RC passages, although reduced from 1200/1400 words to 800+ words, are followed by 3 to 4 questions based on each passage. One can expect 4 passages in CAT-2015 followed by 15-16 questions in all. The difficulty level is moderate to tough. The passages are embedded with phrases/idioms, true/false statements, and indirect references. It is necessary to read them between the lines and understand them. The questions based on them are also not direct one, one has to understand the meaning and the indirect reference before proceeding to answer them.
Other parts in Verbal Ability section will have questions based on Error corrections in grammar usage, jumbled paragraphs, summarizing the paragraph, fact-inference-judgement paragraphs, jumbled paragraphs wherefrom you would have to pick the ‘out of context sentence’. All these questions, taken together will not be more than 18. Where is the catch – the level of difficulty which is good enough to keep you thinking.
The aspirant has to remember a single wrong answer will dip the percentile by 7- and one right answer will improve the same by 6+. So have the killing instinct to study with appropriate material and with the help of good institute that can provide you good guidance.
Overcome the weakness
Aspirants usually love to go on working and practicing questions on the topics which are their strongholds and in the process the topics which are no less important and need more improvement are left behind in their preparation journey.
Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability suggests that aspirants should identify their weak topics and should focus on improving them as there are still 150 days to go for CAT 2015. The time if utilized in a disciplined manner can bring the desired results else even full one year is not sufficient.
Related Article
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