IIM Student participates Crack CAT 2015 live chat session; shares tips on New Exam pattern

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
September 4, 2015
Karan Shah, a CAT topper and an IIM Rohtak student participates and guides the prospective CAT 2015 aspirants
Keep reading lot newspapers, magazines, novels. If you still need a book, go for MBA UNIVERSE material Karan Shah CAT topper to CAT 2015 aspirants

How to prepare and face the CAT 2015 in its drastically changed pattern, is the biggest anxiety among CAT 2015 aspirants and MBAUniverse.com has been receiving innumberable queries from the candidates. This has prompted us to organize a live session with Karan Shah, a CAT topper and an IIM Rohtak student to participate and guide the prospective CAT 2015 aspirants. The tips how to prepare and crack CAT 2015 with high score are summarized below

Tips to improve in Verbal Ability
Verbal Ability and reading comprehension (VRC) will be the 3rd section in CAT 2015. This section as advised by CAT Centre 2015 will have 34 questions comprising MCQs and Non-MCQs. The time allotted to solve this section will be 60 minutes.

To improve your skills in Verbal Ability, Karan suggests

1. Read regularly and improve the reading speed with accuracy.

2. Make reading your habit and keep practicing the verbal questions. Daily practice will help you a lot

3. Reading and writing habit helps cruise through RCs. Attempt RCs keeping in mind the questions and put yourself in author's shoes while finding the answers

4. Keep reading a lot- newspapers, magazines, novels. If you still need a book, go for MBA UNIVERSE material or Verbal Ability by Arihant Publications

5. RC can be really tough to answer sometimes. To actually prepare for RC, try to read as much as possible. My. Also if you are not so sure about them, make sure you attempt other questions perfectly.

Tips to crack DILR: A crucial section
CAT 2015 will have 32 questions on Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) placed exclusively in the 2nd section. The allotted time to solve DILR section will be 1 hour.

1. Work hard to improve on calculations.

2. An onscreen calculator will be provided this time But I would suggest not to be dependent on that. Keep practising.

3. I attempted 85 questions out of 100 to score 98.85.  You can estimate that you need to answer around 27 from each section.

How to crack Quant
Quantitative Ability will be the first section in CAT 2015 with 34 questions to be solved in 1 hour. The section like others will also consist of few Non-MCQs.

1. Keep calculating even on go. Keep a small notepad with you and write questions on it. Keep the notepad in your pocket and keep solving questions when travelling by bus, or in elevator or while sipping coffee during breaks. This will help you a lot.

2. Estimate the number of questions you know in the beginning by looking at every question. Once you know the number of easy, moderate and difficult questions in your exam, you can easily judge the amount of time you can spend on those questions.

3. For quant there are various books available.

Time Management in CAT 2015
CAT 2015 will have 100 questions to be solved in 180 minutes. It is less than 2 minutes per question. So the test taker will have to devise the strategy to ace the exam

  1. Since there were 2 sections in CAT 2014 and now there are 3 sections in CAT 2015 so  managing the time comes down to the clarity of concept and how fast you can apply them.
  2. While the time of 1 hour for each section is sufficient, to crack CAT, you need to attempt a lot of mock tests to know how to actually attempt the exam. Take 5 minutes and just see all the questions of the section in one go in the beginning.
  3. Do not panic, attempt with a cool mind.

How to approach Non-MCQs in CAT 2015
CAT 2015 will be having non MCQ questions in each of the 3 sections. To solve these questions a specific strategy and approach need to be devised

1. Attempting non MCQs requires more presence of mind. Just be calm and do each calculation properly.

2. In verbal, analyse the problem properly and then go forward.

Utilizing the drop year
A drop of 1 yr after graduation may not bleak your chances to get a call from IIM, if you follow the certain tips

1. Getting a call from IIMs depends on a lot of factors. A drop of one year is a just a very minor one.

2. Be ready to justify the drop in interviews. Perform well in CAT.

Importance of Academics and work ex
Your academic background and your work experience play a great importance in the final selection process, according to CAT topper Karan Shah.

1. A good academic background and work ex add to your profile.

2. You need to be good overall- communication, CAT score, Acads, Work ex.

3. You will be successful if you can justify yourself everywhere.

Need of Mocks
One Mock a week in the beginning is suggested to improve your skills. The strategy is shared below

1. Take one mock test every week till October end and then increase the frequency.

2. In the last week of November, attempt one test everyday.

According to the CAT topper Karan, you can get even 100 percentile depending on your dedication and hardwork. The Strategy should be to focus on CAT oriented questions and trying to learn the tricks to solve those questions. A CAT 2015 aspirant needs to devote around 4 effective hours everyday to produce the best result.

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