The guidance and tips for CAT 2015 aspirants at this eleventh hour from mentors, CAT toppers and conveners more or less move around to keep your confidence level high and remain motivated. The number of Mock tests that you have taken are supposed to have provided sufficient grooming and lift to your preparation level. For next 3 days till the CAT 2015 test day, it is suggested not to go for frequent Mock tests as it can make adverse impact instead of further strengthening your candidature for IIMs.
Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation along with the CAT toppers is of the view that you should concentrate more on your strong areas instead of taking more mocks now. The 5 key reasons for this strategic approach are shared below
More Mocks: Confusion creator now
Taking more mocks now for CAT 2015 might involve questions on some new concepts and topics which you have not prepared well and can create confusion instead of helping you. There is no time left to begin your preparation on some new topic nor it is advisable to waste time on them. On the other hand the questions on these unprepared or weak topics may create more confusion and instead of giving your preparation a boost for the D-day, you might be getting a feeling that you know less than required. This feeling is not good and may further aggravate your confusion level creating a vicious circle.
Analyse the improvement on errors made in earlier Mocks
The Mocks that you have already taken need to be analysed again for the errors and whether you have improved on those areas. For example whether you are able to read the RC passage in a flow, understand its key words and meaning of phrases in one reading or need one more speedy reading. How good it is to go through the questions before going for second reading of the RC passage? Would it help you more than visiting the questions after complete reading of the passage for 2 times? Did you make a mistake in choosing the correct answer option on explaining the phrase in the RC passage?
So instead of going for more mocks, take out all the previous mocks, and make sure that the mistakes that you made in them are not repeated.
Further Mocks with Low score: cause of despair
This is the time to keep your spirits high, keep yourself motivated and never-ever allow your confidence level to dip even a bit. In case you score low in further mocks taken for CAT 2015 in next 3 days, despite your well groomed preparation level, you may feel your confidence level dipping down. This is not desired at this moment.
With your strong preparation level, you already have a fair amount of idea about how prepared you are with respect to each section. The best strategy would be to choose topics you are reasonably good at but where there is still room for improvement. There is no need to spend too much time on topics you have already prepared well or have not prepared at all. Be confident and try to remain calm and composed during the exam.
No pre-conceived notion: Just Revise & improve
The key point of success is don’t go biased or pre determine the difficulty level in your mind without attempting the question. Revise and update your preparation on the topics related to your strong areas. The strategy whether in Mocks or on the D-day is to find the questions from your strong areas first and make sure that you attempt them in the first go.
If you spend time only in taking mocks now, your revision and updation in even the strongest areas will suffer. Since not much time is left for preparation, brushing up what you have already prepared and dividing your revision schedule for next 3 days is the important key to crack CAT 2015 with high score.
Mock score not to over power you
Don't try to think how others did and are doing in Mocks. Don’t calculate the final percentile/cut-offs in your mind based on your 'perceived' difficulty level in CAT 2015. It all depends on actual exam and relative scores. On the contrary, divide your next 3 days schedule with a focus on all the 3 sections in which you will need good balanced percentile.
You may have stronger quant than VARC and with DILR also of moderate level, you may not feel so confident for VARC but the need is to keep a balance among all the 3 sections. There may be questions from your strong areas even in the weaker sections, make sure that you have further strengthened these topics.
In the exam, many of the questions would be similar to those you must have come across and solved during the course of your preparation. Try those familiar questions first they would appear easy ones than the others which you have not practiced.
Each of the 3 sections has a time limit of 60 minutes for 34 or 32 questions as may be the case. So the first thing the CAT 2015 taker should do is to scan the section before beginning to answer the questions in the relevant section. Then focus on such questions in the first attempt which you feel, belong to your strong areas keeping high your confidence level.
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