Preparation experts, mentors for CAT 2015 and toppers from earlier CAT exams unanimously agree that taking good quality & relevant Mocks and their due analysis with the aim not to recur the mistakes can prove to be an excellent measurement of your preparation level providing great help to improve your CAT 2015 scores.
CAT 2015 new pattern practice test has not yet been made available by the IIMs although entire test pattern has been changed. Exact type of questions proposed to appear in CAT 2015 have not so far been disclosed except for the fact that apart from regular type of MCQs test takers will also have to confront Non-MCQs in the exam. Accordingly the right pattern of Mocks should also contain the expected type of questions.
IIMs have also not shared what would be the ratio of MCQs and non-MCQs in each of the 3 sections in CAT 2015. Preparation centres are offering various types of Mock test series for CAT 2015 in accordance with their anticipation and visualization of CAT 2015.
Take right kind of Mocks
Right kind of Mocks as per CAT 2015 new pattern are required to give a lead to preparation level. Analysis of such Mock tests will surely have more important role in assessing how good the score of CAT 2015 aspirants would be in real exam. Hence the Mocks that you take should be in strict accordance with CAT 2015 standard.
If Mock Test providers are good enough to anticipate the ratio of right type of questions from various source topics in CAT 2015, you may utilize this opportunity to assess your preparation level and the expected percentile in the exam. You will be lucky enough, if you find such type of Mocks in the market. However, Aspirants can make sure to some extent about the quality of Mocks whether the claim is correct based on following parameters.
1. CAT 2015 Mocks need to have 100 questions divided in 3 sections namely Quant with 34 questions; DILR with 32 questions and VRC with 34 questions.
2. The questions should be of proposed standard of CAT 2015 with good level of difficulty.
3. CAT 2015 will have 180 minutes to solve 100 questions. 60 minutes per section will be provided in the real exam with sectional time constraint. Mocks should provide 10 minutes less time to solve the entire test paper.
4. CAT 2015 Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension section in Mocks should comprise 16 questions based on RC; 2 on Para summary; 2 FIJ; 3 Vocabulary based questions; 6 on error corrections; 3 on jumbled paragraphs; 2 on Out of context sentences.
5. Out of 34 questions 5 to 6 questions should be of Non-MCQ type and should not have any answer options. The candidates are required to solve and type the answers of Non-MCQs on computer screen.
6. If this number is present in CAT 2015 Mocks with the same difficulty level as has been appearing in earlier CAT papers, you may expect that a good research work has been done to bring mocks before you.
7. While attempting the mocks, please remember that time restriction for each section exists as it has been re-introduced in CAT 2015. Now the test taker cannot move from one section to another without completion of 60 minutes assigned to one section. The mock you are taking should also be attempted on the same pattern
Need of new pattern Mocks
Prof S K Agarwal, expert on CAT preparation, shares the necessity of updated mock tests as per CAT 2015 new pattern and emphasizes that CAT 2015 aspirants should go for plenty of right kind of mocks.
Same difficulty level
CAT 2015 aspirants will have 1.8 minute per question to solve with no anticipated change in difficulty level. Since IIM Ahmedabad is convening CAT 2015 it is anticipated that CAT 2015 new pattern will have at least the same difficulty level as appeared earlier, if not higher with different type of questions.
In view of Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability, aspirants need to attempt the Mocks in accordance with the similar difficulty level as expected in CAT 2015 new pattern. The exam not only requires the stamina to sit and use your brain without break continuously for 3 hours. A CAT aspirant has to test himself in the new pattern of CAT 2015 and only right type of Mock test would be the best tool to go through it.
Analysis with no recurring mistakes; a great help
CAT 2015 preparation Expert Prof S K Agarwal is of the view that analysis of only right quality of mocks can provide the right opportunity of self evaluation and suitability of getting shortlisted in CAT 2015 based on high percentile.
Mock tests are like guess papers for CAT 2015. In earlier CAT sessions many CAT toppers were lucky enough to find the similar questions in exam as appeared in their Mocks. They happened to go through the Mocks that had practice questions to the CAT standard and later in their real examination the aspirants found questions on topics covered in those mocks quite close in CAT. The strategy can again lead to the status of evaluating their preparation level and provide a good opportunity to them to know about the probability of scoring a high percentile in CAT 2015.
CAT toppers suggest that more mocks will let you know what topics you have missed and which are your weak areas where improvement is required. Even in the strong areas, the weak points, weak topics might need more improvement.
Avoid confusion with replica tests
With no exact information on ratio, shape and type of Non-MCQs in CAT 2015, the Mocks as available in Market are trying to find the pearls in the dark. With so many changes announced in CAT 2015 new pattern, candidates are yet to know about the ratio of different type and pattern of questions in CAT 2015.
Aspirants have no yardstick to know how good the commonly available Mocks are but to go by the claims of various Coaching Institutes. CAT Preparation expert Prof S K Agarwal and number of other CAT toppers warn the CAT 2015 aspirants to be on their guard as these mocks for CAT 2015 may have questions types as appear in XAT, SNAP, CMAT. Such Mocks may not exactly reveal your level of CAT 2015 preparation.
On the contrary, they might create more confusion and you might go off-track while preparing for CAT 2015. Your dream of scoring a high overall as well as sectional percentile will depend on your performance in CAT 2015 and mocks despite being an indicator may lose their relevance given the changed CAT 2015 pattern.
It is definitely better to prepare and practice right type of questions instead of falling into the trap of wrong type of Mocks for CAT 2015.
All the earlier CAT announcements didn’t require any different type of preparation and there was no significant change either in test pattern. Aspirants were therefore in their comfort zone with almost similar type of mock tests. But the case is not so with the announcement of CAT 2015 new exam pattern. Hence greater care has to be taken.
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