Although CAT 2016 may prove to be the most tricky entrance examination leading to top rated IIMs and other top Management Institutes in India like FMS, MDI, IMI, IITs, NITIE among others, if you make concerted efforts in next 4 months you may hit the target of scoring 99 percentile.
The fact that higher rating of CAT convening IIM impacts the exam pattern is substantiated with the changes in CAT brought about in 2015. When IIM Ahmedabad took reins of CAT 2015 from IIM Indore who convened CAT 2014, the entire exam process was revamped.
But another truth is that the changes were more aspirant friendly and the exam contained 28 Non-MCQs for the first time without imposing any penalty of negative marking for wrong answer. This boosted the morale of the test takers who scored higher percentile in the exam than they could have scored if the earlier pattern had been followed.
The ingredients of success in CAT 2016
Now IIM Bangalore is firmly in the saddle to convene CAT 2016. This top rated IIM has been awarded number 1 position by NIRF Ranking 2016 announced by the Government of India. Accordingly the convening B-school may again throw some different surprises which may or may not be aspirant friendly.
In view of Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2016 preparation, while embarking on your preparation journey to crack CAT 2016 with high percentile, you would require good reading skills, fast calculation ability with short cut tricks and high level of conceptual understanding.
Candidates starting too late usually end up with low scores in CAT and prefer avoiding admission in a B school in the first attempt. However, getting geared up to crack CAT 2016 after scoring low in the first attempt reflects the strong desire to pursue MBA from the top B school. The strategy of having observed CAT 2015 well and cracking CAT 2016 with a high percentile need concerted efforts coupled with confidence to get into IIM in 2017.
CAT 2016: the 4 month plan
Common Admission Test (CAT) 2016 is going to be a different experience for admission seekers to one of the 19 IIMs. While CAT 2016 will be the first step to explore admission in the coveted PGDM programme at Indian Institute of Management, scoring a high percentile in CAT 2016 may need some different strategy to ace the exam.
Besides, only high over all percentile in CAT 2016 may not be enough to cross the hurdle in securing admission offer from preferred IIMs as you will need high sectional as well as overall percentile score to get shortlisted for final admission round. On the top of it, IIM Bangalore has a different admission policy based on your profile, it is very much required that you also improve your profile alongwith scoring high in CAT 2016.
Aiming for high score
Most of the candidates who tried to gain confidence by putting in great efforts to prepare for CAT 2015 in their first attempt but couldn’t score high to get the desired IIM, have already started their preparation for CAT 2016 meticulously as against those who have got their confidence shaken and stopped their preparation for CAT 2016.
Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2016 preparation shares how you could move forward with your journey of improving the CAT score from 60 to 90 or from 70 to 99 and make your dream of getting admission in IIM come true.
If you had low percentile score in CAT last year, you could very well score 99 percentile in CAT 2016, the need is to analyse where you lagged behind, overcome the weaknesses and begin afresh. Please remember IIMs do not need a professor in Mathematics or English Literature. On the other hand you must have fair understanding of the concept on which questions are based and how to crack it.
In fact this is not the lack of confidence but the shadow of overconfidence and temptation to attempt more questions without understanding them that prevent you from scoring high.
CAT 2016 is going to have more questions in a changed pattern. It may have higher difficulty level since CAT 2016 is going to be convened by IIM Bangalore. Still there are 6 months to prepare well for the exam and if you wish to score high, you have to begin your preparation from today.
CAT has gone through perceptible changes but its charm has increased manifold and the number of CAT aspirants have also increased. The competition remains among top 30,000 candidates who fight to get the top position in CAT. If you can put yourself among top 5000 you can expect the IIM of your choice. IIMs have always been the most sought after B-schools, due to the great learning experience that you get there, the knowledge and Management skill they impart to their students and the excellent pay packages, their students get after completion of the course.
Know the exam well
Unless you know well about the exam you are going to appear, you may not be able to excel in it and may end up beating about the bush preparing with some wrong stuff. When you first know about forthcoming CAT 2016, you are not even aware what are its constituents, how to prepare, what to study, Can there be any well defined syllabus, where to begin and number of FAQs hover your mind. Sometimes you do not even find anyone to answer your queries. When you begin your self-study, it appears that you have entered an unorganized thick and large forest where it is difficult to locate which way to go.
This is the juncture wherefrom you get a crying need for help. If you compare your first attempt with low scores, all this was gradually learnt by you to prepare for CAT 2016. The same way now you need a tough study schedule with the help of some one, well experienced to train you in CAT 2016 preparation.
CAT 2016 is supposed to have 1 day testing window divided in 2 sessions. The exam structure and content could again be changed as compared to CAT 2015. Although it is expected that overall number of questions in CAT 2016 would be 100 divided in 3 sections, it is premature to anticipate the distribution of questions in each section.
Last year CAT test was divided in 3 sections beginning with Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) section comprising 34 questions; second section had 32 questions on DILR and the last section was on Quant with 34 questions. Total allotted time to complete the test was 180 minutes.
The trend in CAT 2016 might be to keep 3 sections but the number of questions and question pattern may change. It is also possible the sectional time constraint may be removed in CAT 2016 and candidates may be allowed to toggle among the 3 sections freely. The total test time is expected to remain 3 hours.
There may also be some changes on content part in CAT 2016. You may again find questions on correction of errors, Vocabulary usage, completion of sentences among other topics. You may also expect more RC Passages with more as well as twisted questions.
Continue the concerted efforts
Aspirants prefer reading and practicing those topics which they are well versed with but keep away from the unfamiliar ones. Practice may not do much good to them unless and until they are very clear about the concepts. A balancing act is required to begin the journey which is considered tough till it is complete.
Make sure you have got the right lesson and have understood it well. Any misconception or misunderstanding of the same will land you in trouble. Every mistake will teach you for better. Recurring mistakes must be avoided. Understand the concepts, practice them as many times as possible. The fundamental behind is to have more expertise. More you practice to solve the questions based on the understood concepts, more confident and accurate will be your approach.
Focus your studies with the intense desire to get the utmost clarity especially on the topics, you know are the tricky. The key words are speed and accuracy.
Related Article
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CAT 2016: Know the key facts about the exam before leaping into preparation journey
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