How should they ward-off such concern as they begin their CAT journey?
A lucid picture before Aspirants on factors that would guide their preparation can make them much relieved. As the saying goes - “Well begun is half done”, a well organized understanding of CAT and the strategy for preparation may lay your way to a high percentile and hence your dream B-school.
CAT – A brief understanding
The Indian Institute of Management Indore, which is conducting CAT this year, has declared that the test will be held in a 20 days window between October 16 and November 11, 2013. Registration for the same will begin on July 29.
With CAT being one of the most competitive B-school entrance examination, it needs hardcore in- depth preparation, where nothing can be left to chance. One should start preparing for this computer-based examination at least six months in advance. Your high percentile in CAT awards you with opportunities to enter top B-schools like IIMs, FMS, IIFT, MDI etc.
Making it organized
CAT no doubt has a vast syllabus, it is like a big banyan tree with multiple branches, and every branch has got its due importance. One thing is however, clear you have to go up the trunk to reach those branches else will remain unfamiliar with it.
Find out the factors
If you are a commerce graduate or graduate with statistics, you may have good command on Data interpretation, Logical reasoning. If you are an engineering graduate or a graduate in Physics or Mathematics, you may have strong aptitude to solve questions based on Quantitative Ability. Students of Arts & Literature – as a general presumption - may have better skill in spoken and written standard English language. Hence first of all, you need to analyse your strength and weaknesses and how much time you may be required to devote to your weak areas.
The Analysis
Now looking at the syllabus and past pattern of CAT examination, there may be weak areas even in your strong holds. There you will have to study and practice more, and on the other hand there may be a few topics in your weak areas where you are stronger enough and you may need less revision and practice sessions for them. Strategically, you must find out such weak areas and segregate them from the strong ones.
MBA Aspirants who seek to score high percentile must begin with the section they like most. Another option is to take some expert guidance –how to proceed. A good preparation centre/mentor may help you find the root cause of your weak areas.
Some Aspirants have weak fundamentals. For example, while they can solve the jumbled paragraphs with certain short-cuts, instincts, elimination method but at the same time, they don’t have ability to connect the sentences logically. Such Aspirants need to begin their preparation with Grammar, Vocabulary, contextual use of words or sentences, correct usage, and practice of Reading Comprehension passages.
Choice of right study material
Once the weak areas are defined, the next step is to finding out the right study material for the same. Whether it is the self-study or mentor supported study, has to be picked up judiciously.
With the present generation of MBA Aspirants being more tech savvy than the yesteryears, the online preparation mode is also emerging as one of the most sought after options.
MBAUniverse.com also offers a comprehensive preparation package coupled with over 200 online interactive classes with Top CAT experts including from IIMs for CAT 2013 preparation. Visit the link below for more information and new batch schedule:
http://www.mbauniverse.com/mba-exam-preparation/CAT_Preparation/
mba_preparation_package.php
There are, however, some important books that can help you a lot during your preparation.
For example, you may need – Word power made easy-Norman Lewis; High school English Grammar & Composition –Wren & Martin; Living English Structure- W. Stannard Allen, Build Your Basics- S.K. Agarwal, Proficiency in Reading Comprehension - Ajay Singh, Reading comprehension for the CAT - Sujit Kumar and other related books.
Some of the above mentioned books are also available online. For example – you may down load –Living English Structure-W.Stannard Allan-it is free but they need your credit card number; Build Your Basics-S.K. Agarwal is so far a pure on-line book which goes on updated twice a week and contains – fundamentals, vocabulary, jumbled paragraphs, RC passages-all with exercises. It is available with the study material provided by MBAUniverse.com and can be accessed 24x7 on the site with updated chapters and exercises.
The importance of newspapers and periodicals is also very prominent in CAT. Although almost all the newspapers are available on-line, it is the experience that unlike e-book, on-line reading of the newspaper is not retained for a long time as you do not visit the same newspaper again nor you try to underline the interesting but unfamiliar words, phrases, clauses in the same. Hence it is suggested that you must develop a habit of going through the hard copy of the same. It may be kept in your small bag, laptop bag or you can carry it in your hand, you should carry a pen/pencil with you to underline the interesting but unfamiliar parts of the sentences. This habit will help and improve your reading skills many fold.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more feature articles on MBA Admissions & CAT prep.
