CAT 2015: Dont attempt mocks after Nov 20; Ashish Sarda, IIMR student

CAT topper and IIM Rohtak student Ashish Sarda inspired and motivated the CAT 2015 aspirants recently in a live Chat session on MBAUniverse.com platform and made all out effort to fill the gaps in their preparation strategy for the D-day. Ashish also appeared for IIFT and scored 98.74 in the exam. But he preferred IIM Rohtak.

Ashish Sarda shared the preparation tips and testing hall strategy for CAT 2015 aspirants how to ace the different sections comprising MCQs and Non-MCQs in the changed exam pattern.

No Mock after Nov 20
Responding and taking clue to the anxiety level of the aspirants, Ashish Sarda advised the candidates to take 3-4 Mocks per week. If there is a decline in scores in mocks, he suggested to take a break from Mocks for a week and then again begin taking 3-4 mocks a week. According to Ashish Sarda Do not attempt any mock after 20th November and do not get disheartened by the scores. In his view after attempting mocks it is a must to analyse them.

In his view practicing previous year CAT papers is a better idea instead of doing previous year mocks. A candidate in his/her final year of graduation has to prioritize the work to manage the time well. For example instead of thinking on final exam of BTech which will be held in some time Dec/Jan, the CAT 2015 aspirant should focus on CAT 2015.

How to manage 3 sections
Ashish Sarda advised the aspirants to take sectional tests of 30 minutes for each section and suggested the to work on their weak areas for now and in last 15 days only study topics on which they are confident.
Balance between speed and accuracy

Responding to the query which one to be focused more Speed or accuracy, Ashish clarified that all would depend on the exam. If you find the test easier, solve more questions. But the necessity is to make a balance between the two.

How to crack RC
Regular reading of English newspapers would improve the reading speed as well as vocabulary. Ashish further advises if you get 5 out of 16 questions in RC correct with 100% accuracy, you may get a good score. CAT 2015 aspirants should begin with the strategy to select the RCs they want to attempt. These are either with factual questions or the RCs with topics they are interested in.