CAT 2017: Self - Preparation is key to crack CAT; emphasize IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore toppers

With 150 days left for CAT 2017 exam day, your self-preparation remains the key to crack CAT 2017 with high score. This is revealed by the candidates scoring 100 and 99 percentile in CAT exams. CAT topper Avidipto Chakraborty who scored 100 percentile in CAT 2016 and was offered admission by IIM Bangalore began his preparation journey focusing only on self-studies. I completely relied on self-studies and did not get enrolled in any coaching centres remained the preparation strategy of Avidipto.

Alongwith the self-preparation strategy for CAT 2017, you need to take plenty of mock tests. Avidipto says I took 86 mock tests for preparation and trusted almost 90 per cent on the analysis.
50% CAT aspirants preferred self-preparation
More than 2 lakh candidates register for CAT. During last 2 years, number of CAT aspirants has increased from 2.19 lakhs in 2015 to 2.32 lakhs in 2016. Out of them around 1 lakh candidates rely on their self preparation and seek the need based help of coaching centres to refresh and assess their preparation level.

This fact is also admitted by various CAT coaching institutes across India. The statistics reveal that less than 1 lakh candidates enrol at coaching institutes and rest others work hard on their own. Most of the CAT toppers are those who have remained focused on self preparation and opted for only need based coaching.
Related links:

• CAT 2017: 5 smart preparation tips from toppers as per revised CAT exam pattern; crack CAT in 150 days
• CAT 2017: How to begin and plan 150 days preparation strategy
• CAT 2017: Exam pattern wants speedy reading skill; 10 expert tips to improve reading habits

How the CAT toppers did self preparation?
It is good to go for self-preparation. CAT toppers recommend the following line of preparation:
Avidipto Chakraborty cracked CAT 2016 with 100 percentile. He strongly favours the Self-Preparation as the most reliable CAT preparation strategy. Clarity on concepts through Books, online practice tests of TIME, CL, IMS, MBAUniverse.com, VistaMind among others could be much helpful. Avidipto says I took 86 mock tests for preparation and trusted almost 90 per cent on the analysis.

Pranjul Gupta and Vishesh Patni 100 percentilers in CAT recommend self study although coaching can help save your time on topics and questions where you are stuck. Both of them made sure to go for serious self-study apart from joining need based coaching classes. The message is to go for self-study plan.
Both advise the CAT aspirants that they should remain unbiased and must aim to crack around 85 questions with accuracy in CAT exam.

Neha Manglick started her serious self preparation for CAT around May/June, just 5 months before the exam. This is the same starting time for CAT 2017 aspirants. Her major focus was on self study instead of running here and there to prepare for the exam. And the result was 100 percentile in CAT. Although she took some help from offline and online coaching in her preparation on the topics where she got stuck, but the overall CAT preparation strategy was with self-studies.
Neha preferred to search for more than one way to attempt and solve the questions with accuracy and this proved to be her greatest strength during the exam.

Pranjal Agarwal the 100 percentiler in CAT did not take any coaching to prepare for the exam. Even before he started serious preparation, he began solving practice questions of Mathematics and Statistics on websites. He took sectional mocks where he found he was weak otherwise he preferred taking full length mock tests.
Get right study material; suggest CAT toppers
There are still 5 months left for CAT 2017 exam day which is expected to be on the 1st Sunday of December. So deep and smart study pattern will help you to crack CAT 2017. However, before embarking on the self-preparation journey for CAT 2017, you need to know how to begin? What stuff to read? Where to get the preparation material? How to check the preparation level along with other factors.

Books & study material as per CAT 2017 exam pattern
You should be aware about the CAT 2017 exam pattern. In fact CAT has gone with perceptible changes during last 3 years and from 2015 the CAT exam pattern has been totally revamped. You need the study material and books in which you can find the reading and practice material in accordance with changed CAT exam pattern.

The recommended books for each of the 3 sections in CAT are:

• Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension
• VARC is considered as one of the most difficult sections especially for the candidates coming from engineering background. CAT 2016 toppers confronted VARC as their weakest section but never got tired from moving with consistent improvement. The result was that they cracked the VARC section with very high percentile. Following books, study material to crack CAT 2017 is recommended by the toppers.

How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT- by Arun Sharma & Meenakshi Upadhyay

• Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT-by Nishit K Sinha
• Attempt online practice sectional Quiz, Mock Tests available on MBAUniverse.com site and other important study centres TIME, CL, VistaMind
• Editorial and short articles published in English news papers

Logical Reasoning
To overcome the hurdles and ace the LR section, there are very good books available in the market on Logical Reasoning apart from the study material available online for CAT 2017. A few of them are:

How to Prepare for Logical Reasoning for the CAT - by Arun Sharma (Published by McGraw Hill)
Logical Reasoning and data Interpretation for the CAT- by Nishit K Sinha (Published by Pearson)
Online study material for Logical Reasoning and study centres practice exercises

Data Interpretation
There are very good books & study material available in the market on Data Interpretation. A few of the good books and study material available are:

How to Prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT - by Arun Sharma (Published by McGraw Hill)
Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for the CAT - by Nishit K Sinha (Published by Pearson)
Attempt online practice sectional Quiz, Mock Tests available on MBAUniverse.com site and other important study centres TIME, CL, VistaMind

Quantitative Ability: prepare with right study material
Almost all the CAT toppers suggest to thoroughly study and prepare with class 10 books and study material on different parts of Mathematics. Not only the comprehensive and specific books meant specifically for CAT exam are helpful, the small NCERT prescribed books for class 10 CBSE board are quite helpful to make your fundamentals strong in Quantitative Ability.

Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT - by Nishit K Sinha (Published by Pearson)
How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT by Arun Sharma (Published by McGraw Hill)
Attempt online practice sectional Quiz, Mock Tests available on MBAUniverse.com site and other important study centres TIME, CL, VistaMind

In view of the CAT toppers what you can do more accurately and with greater speed with your self-preparation may halt your fast strengthening movement at the coaching centre as it may be teaching you with different strategy which can altogether confuse you also.
Unless and until the Coaching centres add value to your preparation speed and help you out of the dilemma you are in, it may turn into wastage of time instead of providing you required assistance to crack CAT 2017 with higher score. Accordingly, help of coaching could be sought only as per your need.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2017
Also See:

• CAT 2017: IIM Lucknow PGP Admission Chair Prof Neeraj Dwivedi is CAT Convenor
• CAT 2017: Convener IIM Lucknow may bring changes in exam; Insights of Last year exam
• CAT 2017 in changed pattern:Know all about CAT 2017 exam notification date, registration, pattern, IIM cutoffs
• MBA Ranking 2017:Check MBA Ranking 2017 for top 100 B-schools in India to guide you in MBA admission decision