CAT 2015: Dont take the risk of quitting your job; Prepare well while working

Add Review

MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
March 20, 2015
Taking leave from the job for a month or two to finalize your CAT 2015 preparation may be a good decision but giving up the job to prepare for CAT 2015 may not be the wise action
The preferred strategy is to go for self study, join some good late evening online CAT 2015 classes and attend off-line classes at weekends.

Earning a handsome amount after graduation and taking leave from the job for a month or two to finalize your CAT 2015 preparation may be a good decision but giving up the job to prepare for CAT 2015 may not be the wise action by an IIM aspirant says Prof S K Agarwal, Verbal Ability Expert and mentor on CAT preparation.

 

Common Entrance Test (CAT) is taken by a high number of working professionals who prepare for the exam while keep on working. Many think of leaving their jobs but most of the working executives who aspire for the management degree from IIMs to achieve their career goals balance between the preparation and job well. The preferred strategy is to go for self study, join some good late evening online CAT 2015 classes and attend off-line classes at weekends.

 

Leaving the job is easy but don’t think you can prepare well if you are idle. A busy person can plan better and can spare a good volume of required time for his CAT 2015 preparation. You need 3 to 4 hours a day for next 6 months to prepare well for CAT 2015. If you have already started your preparation to improve your weak areas, you need to go for planned strategy for next 180 days which will need around 3-4 hours a day.

 

Full day idle: No study

 

It is human tendency to find an easy way out and thinking of quitting the job is an example of it. When you have nothing to do all day, you do not study for 16 hours. Even if you make up your mind to study, you find excuses for not studying and go on dangling with uncertainties between now and afterwards.

 

Nevertheless it will be a good idea to take leave for one or two months before the exam to keep you focused and in high spirits to implement your plan to go for vigorous practice of exercises, taking mocks and analyzing them more frequently than earlier. Leave the job when you get admission offer from your dream B school.

 

Work experience: Added advantage to CAT 2015

 

The fact is contrary to the belief that you can prepare better by giving up the job. No one studies for all the 24 hours nor can anyone do it.  On the top of it IIMs award bonus marks to the working executives.

 

6 months to prepare: 2-3 hours a day needed

 

CAT 2015 is proposed to be held in the month of October 2015 preferably on weekends. If you are serious enough to crack CAT 2015 with a high percentile, the suggestion is to devote 2 hours a day. Out of your 24 hours, if you spend 8-10 hours at your work place and supposing that your 10 hours are spent to a cozy sleep, time in bathroom, dining, travelling, entertainment, among others you are still left with 4 hours. If you extract 2-3 hours out of your busy schedule, you can score a very high percentile in CAT 2015.

 

Plan the CAT 2015 Preparation & Continue working

 

Prepare your CAT preparation schedule according to your working hours. After spending the day in office, you should devote a few hours in the night preparing for CAT 2015.

 

Prepare a schedule first and then follow it for next 30 days. Update the preparation strategy after 30 days, make amendments according to the need and again follow the same without any laxity. Devoting 2-3 hours a day for next 6 months out of many years of life is sure not a bad deal to get the best for your career. Once you start the preparation according to the schedule, it will become a routine for you.
 

Join evening Online CAT 2015 classes

 

Working professionals who were associated to MBAUniverse.com Online CAT Preparation classes remained stuck to the strategy to keep the evenings for their CAT preparation. If sometimes they missed the classes due to late working hours or due to the change in working hours, they made it a point to view the recording of the class before going to sleep or wake up early in the morning to view the recording while jotting down the doubts which they preferred to clarify in the next CAT session, or raised the same on mail or on forum.

 

Faculty used to respond to such queries quickly so that no time of the candidate was wasted. The suggestion is if you are determined enough, you should never compromise on your daily preparation.

 

Attend Offline sessions on weekends

 

Being a working professional, it may not be convenient for you to join the full time class room program. The best way is to enrol for regular online classes for CAT 2015 and go for the mock tests and test series that are held during weekends, without hampering your work schedule. Moreover, owing to the fact that CAT is now a computer based test, many of the MBA coaching institutes offer computer based tests which can be taken from anywhere.

 

Utilize the idle moments for CAT 2015 prep

 

You may not be spending all the office hours working and  may find out some time to relax and do something different. If you are a serious CAT aspirant, you can utilize these moments for some preparation which does not toil your brain much. You can read editorials in the newspapers, it will help you improve your reading speed and will also help on RC passages. You can also click on some online study material and exercises attached to it. May solve a question or two; solve some puzzles on Sudoku, Crossword. This will help you improve your skills in Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning.
 

Prepare and take Mocks
Preparing for CAT 2015 is not only about studying the theories hard, but also to take regular mock tests and analyze your preparation. If you have kept 6 months for your preparation, divide the time equally among the 4 parts of 2 sections in CAT namely Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation, Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning.

 

Go for regular sectional Mocks and after 2-3 months or so go for full length mock. Analyze them well, plug your weak areas and work more upon your strong areas. Prepare a schedule in such a way that out of next 6 months, you spend 3 months for building all the concepts and fundamentals of the areas proposed to be tested in CAT 2015 and the last 3 months can be used to take mock tests.

 

Experts suggest…

 

Working professionals with 1-2 years experience tend to have forgotten what they had learnt during their school/college days. This is also one of the reasons that they need meticulous study plan to prepare for CAT 2015. A working executive has less time and it is difficult to join a regular coaching for him. If he gets stuck on some point, he needs quick guidance that can take him out of the dilemma. Online mentoring will sure help him save his time and boost his preparation level.

 

The fact that ratio of working professionals who are preparing for CAT 2015 is high enough signifies that the charm of great learning, being an alumni of top rated B school and getting placed as a high profile management professional is increasing among currently employed graduates as well as students pursuing their graduation alike. IIMs, SPJIMR, MDI, IMT, IMI, JBIMS, FMS are a few examples of highly ranked B schools that have always been fascinating and inspiring the aspirants to score high to get admission in their flagship PGDM/MBA programmes.

 

Related Article

 

CAT 2015: Know all Insights of Last year exam with Experts view to plan you preparation

 

CAT 2015 to add more glory: Asia`s top B school IIM Ahmedabad to convene; expect more innovations and changes

 

CAT 2015: IIM Ahmedabad to conduct; TCS to remain testing partner
 

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2015