CAT 2015 Journey to join Club 99: From 80 in 2014 to 99 percentile in 2015; know how to achieve

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
April 8, 2015
Your preparation journey to crack CAT 2015 with high percentile would require good reading skills, fast calculation ability with short cut tricks
This is not the lack of confidence but the shadow of overconfidence and temptation to attempt more questions without understanding them prevent you from scoring high

Embarking on your preparation journey to crack CAT 2015 with high percentile, 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 but simultaneously getting geared up to crack CAT in the coming year with high scores reflects the strong desire to pursue MBA from the top B school. The strategy of having observed CAT 2014 well and cracking CAT 2015 with a high percentile need concerted efforts coupled with confidence to get into IIM in 2016.   
 
Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 is going to be a different experience for admission seekers to one of the 20 IIMs. CAT 2015 will be the first step to explore admission in the coveted PGDM programme at Indian Institute of Management. Scoring a good percentile in CAT 2015 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.

 

Don`t panic: Aim for high score

 

CAT is considered as the most tricky entrance examination to top Management Institutes in India like IIMs, FMS, MDI, IMI, IITs, NITIE among others. Most of the candidates who tried to gain confidence by putting in great efforts to prepare for CAT 2014 in their first attempt but couldn’t score high to get the desired IIM, have already started their preparation for CAT 2015 meticulously as against those who have got their confidence shaken and stopped their preparation for CAT 2015.

 

Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation shares how you could move forward with your journey of improving the CAT score from low to high and make your dream of getting admission in IIM come true.

 

If you had percentile score of 80 in CAT 2014, you could very well score 99+ percentile in CAT 2015. The need is to analyse where you lagged behind, overcome the weaknesses and begin afresh. Please remember IIMs do not need a professor in Quant or verbal Ability. On the other hand you must have fair understanding of the concept on which questions are based and how to crack it. This is not the lack of confidence but the shadow of overconfidence and temptation to attempt more questions without understanding them prevent you from scoring high.

 

CAT 2015 is going to have more questions in a changed pattern. It may have higher difficulty level since CAT 2015 is going to be convened by IIM Ahmedabad. 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 for perceptible changes but its charm has increased manifold and the number of CAT aspirants have always been very high. The level of competition is among top 40,000 candidates who fight to get the top position. If you can put yourself among top 4000 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.

 

Get acquainted with CAT 2015 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 CAT, 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 2014. The same way now you need a tough study schedule with the help of some one, well experienced to train you in CAT 2015 preparation.

 

CAT 2015 is supposed to have 2 day testing window. The exam would have 100 questions divided in 2 sections with 50 questions each comprising Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability & Logical reasoning. The exam does not propose to have any sectional time constraint and as per the pattern followed in CAT 2014 proposes to allow the test takers to toggle between the 2 sections freely. The total test time is expected to remain 170 minutes.

 

The pattern of questions has also changed and the same pattern is expected to continue in CAT 2015. There may not be questions on Vocabulary usage, completion of last sentence of paragraph. On the other hand there would be more RC Passages with more questions and more questions on error corrections. Questions on summarising the paragraphs are also expected.

 

Continue the efforts: Shed fear of falling

 

A ground with Short grass is preferred when you begin to pedal the bicycle and you always try to find a safe place to practice lest you should fall. Similar strategy overpowers the aspirants and they 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.

 

CAT 2015: Need of killing instinct

 

The candidate has to individually score a high percentile in each of the two sections, to receive the call for final selection round. 

 

Those who come from mathematics/Engineering back ground may have strong Quantitative Ability or may be skilled in Data Interpretation. They may get through this section more easily. This section of quant + DI has 50 questions- 34 on quant and 16 on DI. The past record shows that a candidate who hits 23-26 questions right, would get a percentile as high as 90+. The candidate has the choice to attempt more quant and less DI or vice versa.  There will not be any sub-segmentation of scoring separately in quant and/or DI. The section will be treated as one. Find out the areas where you are strong enough, make them your strong hold and then switch over with same vigour to the weak ones.

 

The second section - a mix of Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning, is agonising for those who do not begin their preparation a little early.  At least a six months’ thorough preparation is required to be well conversant with this section. The section may be divided into three parts instead of two as one of the topics in Verbal Ability has much more weightage. There are expected  18 questions on Verbal Ability; 16 questions on Reading Comprehension passages; 16 questions on logical Reasoning. So this section again consists of 50 questions. It is always advisable not to have a biased mind or limit oneself to attempt a limited number of questions.  It may be that you may attempt more than anticipated questions. Be open to have the choice to attempt all the 50 questions, if you can but never ever try to attempt the questions which you do not understand well. The difficulty level in CAT 2015 is expected to increase and hence more versatile study is required.

 

Choose Your Mentor: The time saving device

 

You flip-flop this or that way- topics on Verbal, Quant, DI-LR are away from you-unable to grasp despite wasting a lot of time, a feeling of desperation finds its way in, and there you have a mentor, your time saving device, he not only solves the problems but also gives you unforgettable tips on them.

 

You cannot complete the CAT 2015 syllabus in a short while. Right from the first day to the last day, process of learning has to be planned. It is very difficult for an aspirant to chalk out the strategy and path of study.  Besides CAT is very much fond of giving surprise elements every year, however strongly they may deny this fact.  Your mentor may foresee it, will analyse the past trends, will come up with more probable type of questions, will discuss the extinguished types as well.  All this, as an established fact, may not be visualised when you have no guidance or have inexperienced guidance.

 

Crack CAT 2015: Make it well accomplished journey

 

Focus on skilfully accomplished CAT 2015 with a high percentile, well guided GD/PI/WAT – paving your way to desired B-school. The unforgettable journey to the top B-school that you always dreamt of requires consistent and right approach to prepare. How to behave and utilize your learning in exam is very important. Your admission to the B-school will be the reward of your devotion, hard work and optimum utilization of guidance you received from your mentor. Utilise the time, Energy and intelligence to their optimum level with the guidance of your mentor and hope for the best.

 

CAT 2015 aspirant has to remember that a single wrong answer will dip the percentile taking away one third of the right answer. More wrong answers mean further dip in percentile. So avoid choosing a wrong answer.

 

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.  Bring out the strength from your reservoir and attempt to hit the goal.

 

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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates and preparation tips for CAT 2015