You should always start your preparation by analysing your strengths and weaknesses. This will help you in planning your efforts efficiently.
Following are some of the basic strengths which will enable a candidate to sail across CAT:
1.Has a decent reading speed 2.Good at solving puzzles 3.Has a decent grammatical aptitude 4.Ability to analyze, understand and adapt to a new situation very fast 5.Ability to take right decisions in lest amount of time 6.Ability to cope with the time pressure by proper time management 7.Most importantly ability to choose questions in a smart way, as per his strengths.
You need to work on the skills mentioned above and try to develop them within yourself.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
1. Find out your areas of improvement: You need to introspect and find out where do you stand and what all resources you need to crack CAT. CAT could be broadly classified into following 4 areas: 1. Quantitative Aptitude 2. Logical Reasoning 3. Verbal Analysis and 4. Data Interpretation Each of these area's have various topics from where questions are asked in CAT. To start with you must find out which all areas you are conferrable with and which one are those where you need to improve on.You will have to start putting effort depending on the number. of areas of improvement. More the number of areas of improvement more preparation time is needed.
2. Need of Classroom Coaching, is it really needed? Whether to join a coaching or not solely depends on a person's current level of expertise in verbal, maths and logical reasoning. To explain it better take example of Loans. To buy a car costing 1 Lac rupees how much loan one has to take totally depends on how much money he/she is currently owning. If a person is owning 1 lac then he doesn't need to take any loan :). Though one should definitely join Mock Tests. Continuing on the car example, Mock Tests are like learning driving before you buy a car ;).
Furthermore it totally depends on the discretion of candidate. If he feels he requires
coaching in certain areas which he cannot improve by self preparation, he should join a coaching. But always remember one
thing to crack the questions that comes in exams like CAT requires a
good foundation which comes along with your schooling till 12th
standard. How to find out whether you need coaching for exams like CAT or not? One simple way to find out this for those people who are going to attempt CAT for the first time in 2008 is by attempting free online mock CAT or attempting past year CAT papers. Attempt any of the two test papers of CAT from recent years. Do brush up your fundamentals before attempting any of these papers. When you attempt the past papers try to solve as many question as possible without putting any time constraints. If you are able to attempt around 25% of question correctly in each section then you don’t need to join any coaching. You only need to work on time management & smart selection of questions. But if you score is less than 20% in all these sections then joining coaching would surely help you. Click here to Take free Online Mock CAT Click here to download Past Papers of CAT & other MBA exams 3. Mock CATs, How helpfull are they? Along with your expertise , the other most important thing to succeed in exams like CAT is to a. Manage your time properly and b. Smart selection of questions. One can easily master these two things with abundant practice. Mock CATs
are the best way to practice as it simulates a scenario which is
similar to the real exam. Mock CAT provides the exact CAT like platform which enables candidates to master the time management and cope of up with the pressure.
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. "
Candidates aspiring to get admission into IIMs & other elite management schools need to appear for Common Admission Test (CAT). The exam is scheduled to happen on 3rd Sunday of November (16th November 2008). The admission procedure starts in the month of July with the issue of CAT Bulletins. Click to View->CAT Bulletins Click to View->CAT Elgibility Criteria Click to View->CAT Clarifications on Eligibility CAT Admission Process:
Following are the steps to be taken for writng CAT exam: 1. Fill the CAT Application form submit it to the IIM in your zone. Deatils of application form can be seen here: http://www.catiim.in/
2. If you want to apply for colleges apart from IIMs then you need to fill seperate application form for each of them. You need to seperately apply for colleges such MDI, SP Jain, IMT (they all accept the CAT score). For IIMs no seperate application is required
3. Write CAT Exam which happens on 3rd sunday of Novemebr each Year
4. Depending on your CAT Score you may or may not get calls from the IIMs & other instt. you have applied for in Step2 above.
5. Next in the admission process (i.e. after getting calls) , you would be required to appear in Group Discussion and Personal Interview.
6. Depending on your consolidated performance in CAT, GD & PI and even on your profile you would be offered a seat in a college.
Details about the CAT Paper
CAT paper comprises of following three sections:
Quantitative Aptitude Test
This section tests the mathematical aptitude of a candidate. The questions asked in this section are from various areas of mathematics such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning
The prime focus of this section is to test the logical and analytical ability of a candidate. Most of the question depict a real life scenario followed by a group of questions related with it.
English Usage and Comprehension
The focus in this section has lately shifted from grammar to analytical ability. Reading comprehension is one of the most important part of this section.
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