CAT 2017: Improve Speed & Accuracy to crack CAT with high score; tips from toppers & experts

Speed and Accuracy should be prime preparation strategy for CAT 2017 in next 60 days, is the advice by CAT preparation experts and CAT toppers. CAT 2017 aspirants are now left with hardly 2 months including the big festival time of Dussehra and Diwali  to face the mother of MBA entrance exams on November 26, 2017. During these 2 months, the CAT 2017 preparation plan can be devoted to improve the level of accuracy alongwith reducing the time taken to solve the questions.

CAT toppers suggest…
One of the CAT 2016 toppers with 99.79 percentile, Chanchal Gupta, student of IIM Ahmedabad shares her preparation strategy “Instead of trying to attempt all the questions, I focussed on improving accuracy in the questions that I solve.”

Sambangi Abhishek who scored 99.32 percentile in CAT 2015 and IIM Ranchi student, is of the view “Accuracy is the one thing which should be given the highest priority.”

Can’t get qualifying score without Speed & Accuracy
The most important thing to be understood now is that, the accuracy without due speed cannot put you in merit as you will be trailing behind your peers who have both. Out of 100 questions in CAT 2017 exam, if you can solve only 20-25 even with a high level of accuracy but not matched by speed, you may not be shortlisted by IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore or Calcutta, as you wouldn’t be able to score even the qualifying sectional and overall percentile. 

CAT 2017 with sectional time limit of 1 hour for each of the 3 sections, will require you to manage not only the high accuracy level but also the time with faster speed and this needs due concerted preparation strategy with devoted practice and analysis sessions.

3 key suggestions
For next 60 days you need to prepare well for CAT 2017. If you are seriously pursuing the preparation for CAT 2017 and wish to emerge as one of the winners in this greatest show of MBA/PGDM entrance test for the admission year 2017-19, the 3  key suggestions from Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability for CAT 2017 preparation would be highly helpful to prepare for and crack CAT 2017 exam with high score.

Please remember that with the changed face of CAT 2017, aspirants may not get such high percentile as was possible in earlier CAT exams with the same pace of preparation. There was availability of more time and fewer questions till CAT 2013 and in CAT 2014 there was no sectional time constraint that enabled you to attempt any question from any part.

The pattern has changed since CAT 2015 and those who are appearing in CAT 2017 exam for the second or third time, are well aware of this fact. CAT 2017 has not only de-clubbed Data Interpretation and Logical reasoning parts from their respective Quant and Verbal sections and has created new 3rd section of DILR, but has also reintroduced sectional time constraints. Now despite having 10 more minutes in CAT 2017, you have no liberty to move to next section before the lapse of 60 minutes allotted to that section.

How to manage 3 sections in CAT 2017?
CAT 2017 will have 3 sections to be solved in 1 hour each. These 3 sections in CAT 2017 will comprise ‘Quantitative Aptitude (QA)’; ‘Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)’ and ‘Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)’.

Prior to 2015, Common Admission Test (CAT) used to have 2 sections comprising questions on Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation (Quant & DI) and on Verbal Ability, Reading Comprehension & Logical reasoning. The Questions on Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning have been de-clubbed from their earlier sections and now forms a new section comprising DILR questions.

Total number of questions and their sectional division is yet to be announced by IIM Lucknow, the CAT 2017 convening IIM. However, it is expected that total number of questions may not exceed 100 questions although their sectional division can deviate from last year.

In 2015 and 2016 CAT exams, Quant (QA) and Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) had 34 questions each and the DILR section contained 32 questions. Similar pattern is expected to continue in CAT 2017.

Accordingly, sectional management is a big issue. You need to qualify minimum prescribed qualifying percentile by the IIMs to get shortlisted for PI-WAT round. The range of CAT 2017 sectional and overall percentile cut off announced by IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore, Kozhikode varies between 70 and 85 sectional, 80 and 90 overall.

Read all about the admission criteria of top IIMs

• IIM Ahmedabad Admission 2018: CAT 2017 cut offs announced; needs 70 sectional percentile
• IIM Bangalore admission 2018: 25% weight to CAT 2017; highest to academics among top IIMs
• IIM Calcutta Admission: Lowers CAT 2017 cut offs with 56% weight; 40% goes to academics
• IIM Lucknow admission 2018: CAT 2017 cut offs announced; needs 90 overall & 85 sectional in CAT
• IIM Indore Admission 2018: CAT 2017 cut off announced; class 10 & 12 marks get 76% weight
• IIM Kozhikode announces CAT 2017 cut offs for admission 2018: 35% weight to CAT; 60% to GD-PI-WAT
• IIM Visakhapatnam announces Admission 2018: CAT 2017 gets 25% weight; 40% goes to PI-WAT

Time short: How to maximise CAT sectional score?
There is individual time allotted to the CAT 2017 test sections, you need to maximize your attempts within the allotted limit. Each of the 3 sections in CAT 2017 has to be solved in 60 minutes. The liberty allowed in CAT 2014 to move to other section without any time constraint was withdrawn in 2015 and now CAT 2017 takers are not allowed to move to other section before completion of 1 hour allotted to the current section.

So even if you have solved the maximum number of questions in the VARC section and have ample time left, you are supposed to remain within the VARC section and are not allowed to move to next DILR section, nor you are allowed to come back from the current section to the earlier one,  if the time limit is over.

According to Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2017 preparation, you are supposed to maximize your attempts with speed and accuracy within the given sectional time frame of CAT 2017. To achieve this goal make sure that you begin with the easiest to difficult questions without taking any question as a challenge. This preparation strategy can improve your scores in the CAT 2017 exam.

Speed & Accuracy: How to balance?   
For next 60 days, CAT 2017 aspirants need to improve the pace of preparation keeping in mind the following 3 key points to balance the speed and accuracy in each section. It would help them score more in the exam.

• How much is the improvement in Accuracy level? Measure everyday
• How faster you have become in solving the questions?
• Sectional time Management with a view to maximize score

The preparation strategy at this hour, therefore has to be slightly changed from simply practicing to prepare and then practice within the allotted time and try to achieve the best possible level of accuracy.

Following tips will help to modify your preparation strategy leading to success in CAT 2017 as the CAT spirants now have to score high in all the 3 sections.

Improving Speed: Key tips
Since you have equal time to solve each of the 3 sections, you have to focus only on that section which you are going through and maximize your score in it.

Keep a clock with you when you attempt exercises. The topics that are not your strong hold and if you feel that they will create more confusion while preparing may be avoided. 4-5 rounds of attempts should be devoted to solve each section. If you are still left with some time, you may opt for selective questions in the section. Later on get the incorrect answers analyzed.

This will further help you to reduce the time taken to solve and will improve the accuracy. The purpose is to stick to the speed and improve it further that takes you around 100% accuracy level. No aspirant might be able to solve all the 100 questions in CAT 2017 but whatever you solve, do it with confidence and with the highest level of accuracy.

RC Reading: How to improve?
Improving the pace of reading needs a regular and dedicated practice. Suppose you are reading the Editorial part of the newspaper and someone has framed a few direct/indirect questions on this passage in accordance with CAT 2017,  now in order to improve your reading speed you are trying to read it fast but the Editorial is of no interest to you and has difficult words in it as well.

In such a situation, you will neither be able to read it at a faster pace nor will be able to understand it. After reading of the same you choose the answer options which are very close and get them all wrong. Entire exercise that you did, goes waste and you feel depressed. There is no use of such reading.

Better would be to keep a piece of paper with you, note down the difficult words while reading, mark the important sentences in the passage, read them twice and by the time you finish reading most of the passage will be clear to you. Then try to attempt the questions. You may get most of them right. Besides, contextual usage and meaning of difficult words should be checked in the dictionary. 

Find out how much time you had spent on this exercise. Next day do the same exercise on next article and with this strategy in a period of 6 days you will find that your reading time of the same size of passage on different tones is getting reduced and you are consistently improving.

Begin with passage size of 500 words and go upto passage size of 1000 words to get expertise in faster reading practice. CAT 2017 is not expected to offer you passages below or above this size, rest assured. 

3 steps of answering the question: Accuracy is the key
Reading, understanding and then solving the question accurately are the 3 steps to improve, synchronize and balance the speed with accuracy to attempt CAT 2017 whether it is MCQ or non-MCQ. Every question you attempt needs to be solved first to arrive at the right answer option or to write the answer on computer screen.

You are supposed to cope with the reduced proportionate time per question and this is only possible by improving the speed to read, understand and attempt the question. If you are able to read the sentences, paragraphs, parajumbles, Reading comprehension passages faster and understand them, you will be able to solve them more quickly.   

You need to solve more questions in less time. Improvement in speed and accuracy within the allotted time is the strategic focus of preparation now for CAT 2017 during next 2 months.

Non-MCQs: Score booster – Be accurate
25 to 28 questions in CAT 2017 are expected to be of Non-MCQ type. You need to solve them and write the correct answer/answer option on the computer screen instead of simply clicking on the answer option. These questions have no negative marking.

In each of the 3 sections there will be a few Non-MCQ type questions with no penalty for wrong answers as against the MCQs the wrong answers of which attract penalty of 1/3^rd negative marking. These non-MCQs are proposed to be in a range of 7 to 10 questions in each section of CAT 2017.

All the questions in CAT 2017, whether MCQs or Non-MCQs will carry equal weightage of 3 marks each. Incorrect response to each MCQ will result in no-marks for the wrong answer and deduction of 1 mark out of your earned score. It means if you mark 3 correct and 3 incorrect, you will score only 6 marks.

On the other hand, while answering Non-MCQs and typing a wrong answer on computer screen, although you are not entitled for 3 marks assigned for the correct answer, you will not be imposed any penalty of negative marking also. If you mark 3 MCQs correct and 3 non-MCQs incorrect you will score 9 marks without losing any credit for incorrect answers to non-MCQs.

The scoring scheme for non-MCQs is a great relief to the candidates who prefer solving the questions first and then arrive at the answer instead of jumping straight to the answer options and then going backwards to go through the question.

Prof S K Agarwal expert on CAT 2017 preparation suggests that candidates should focus on conventional way of approaching the answer after solving the question. This will ensure a good scaled score and high percentile score in CAT 2017.

For next two months and till the CAT 2017 exam date of November 26, you need to continue your march on faster pace of preparation, if you plan to get one of the top IIMs or other top B-school like FMS Delhi, SPJIMR Mumbai, MDI Gurgaon, IMI New Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad among others.

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

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