currently i am pursuing BBA1st sem.. is it good decision to take CAT preparation from now? i want to join in any CAT coaching course.. is it right decision?

Hi, hope you’re doing well!

CAT (Common Admission Test) is an exam that assesses students' concepts and application of these concepts in stipulated time.

The exam includes questions basic to 10th and 11th class students which can be answered with proper clarity of the pattern and concepts. It all depends on how well you understand and apply these concepts in the exam.

Some students can grasp these fundamentals very quickly while others might struggle a bit. Preparation for the CAT should be tailored to the individual student; not all students need the same amount of time to complete the same syllabus. It’s all relative to how well you know your strengths and weaknesses. Some may require assistance in Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning sections while some require more time in the Quantitative Aptitude and DI section.

Your decision to start early will help you attain better clarity and more time for self evaluation. However, you will only become eligible to give exam from final year onwards.

The pattern of CAT exam is as follows:

Quantitative Aptitude - Total 26 questions (High on Arithmetic, Other on Geometry, Log, Algebra, Roots, etc.)

1. Basic Quant : This section covers the Maths we learn in grade 6th to 9th. These contain fundamental topics like percentages, profit/loss and series, among others. Now, the amount of time that needs to be allocated varies from person to person. For this section, Rd Sharma's books are sufficient.

2 . Geometry and Algebra: This is a slightly tougher domain and you will need some certain professional assistance in order to master this part. You may buy correspondence packs of institutions like TIME, Career Launcher etc.

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) - Total 26 Questions (4 RC passages with 18 MCQs; VA 8 Non-MCQs are subdivided into Para Summaries, Para Jumbles, and Context Sentences.)

1. Reading Comprehensions: It is necessary to read on a regular basis in order to develop this aspect. It is difficult to master RCs in a short amount of time. As part of your preparation, you should read 500–600 passages, as that is the average size of an RC anticipated in the paper. After a few days of reading, you'll notice that your reading time per passage is decreasing, and you'll gradually learn how to speed read.

2. Paragraph Completion/Sentence Rearrangement/ Sentence elimination: This necessitates a thorough understanding of grammar, so I would advise you to read Wren and Martin. Grammar will take time to refine, so don't stop practicing once you think you've covered everything; instead, keep going until the very last day.

3. Text Completion/Word Usage: For this, you'll need a lot of vocabulary, so I suggest Norman Lewis' Word Power Made Easy, which has applications and roots for a lot of words. There is also an app called VoLT (Vocabulary Learning Technique) that is very useful because it has pictorial representations of words and a very large word list.

Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) - Total 24 questions (Data Interpretation: 14 Questions, Logical Reasoning: 10 Questions, All in Sets of 6 & 4 Questions)

1. Data Interpretation : This section is based on interpreting charts and graphs and analyzing the data given. It’s a difficult section, for an average student, requiring a good amount of practice.

2. Logical Reasoning : These are very simple conceptual based algorithms that you have probably already done in many Olympiads and other entrances; regular practice will be sufficient

3. Data Sufficiency

In regard to coaching,

All institutes will provide you with just material and knowledge. Your self practice is going to be decisive for your performance in the CAT Exam. There are students who just self study (They don’t join any coaching, yet they clear the exam). This exam is all about clarity, practice, discipline and hard work.

You may join any good coaching centre near your residence. Being near, it will also help you save travel time, since time is of essence. You need to also make sure to maintain a good schedule to finish the syllabus on time and attempt mock tests.

Also, for admission in an MBA and a good B-school, your profile is also important along with CAT score. Your overall profile should portray the following:

• Good Academic Score
  
  

• Skills learnt through internships, projects, event on field tasks
  
  

• Participation in Extra Curricular Activities like societies, competitions
  
  

• Contribution at Social Level
  
  

• Interests and Hobby
  
  

First Year is a good time to start and lay a foundation for better career prospects.

For any further information, refer: https://bschool.careers360.com/exams/cat

Hope this information helps!

All the best!

Hello Aspirant,

Yes of course it would be the good and wise decision if you start preparing for CAT from very first year of your Graduation but you should take care of balance between the CAT preparation and your graduation studies, if you take any coaching it would be great but even if you don't go for coaching then also you have sufficient time to prepare yourself for CAT because currently you are in first year. Common Admission Test, in short CAT is conducted by any of the IIM in rotation every year , it is a computer-based entrance exam conducted for MBA/PGDM admissions at 20 IIMs and 1000+ B-Schools in India.

You can get complete information about CAT 2021 from the link given below :-

https://bschool.careers360.com/exams/cat

For complete exam pattern(latest) of CAT kindly check out the link given below :-

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/cat-exam-pattern

Now let us discuss how to prepare for the three sections so that one can get the best score which can take him/her to the best B-Schools of the country.

For Quantitative Ability :-

> For this section your pre-requisite is the complete understanding of basics of Mathematics.

> You should have proper command on topics like profit and loss, number system, geometry.

> Practice as many as sample papers you can and go for some mock tests as well.

For complete details about preparation of QA section kindly check out the link given below :-

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/how-prepare-for-cat-quantitative-ability

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension :-

> Reading skill is the pre-requisite for this section, so try to read different English story books, magazines, etc.

> Go through newspapers, journals, blogs, articles, etc to enhance your reading skills and watch some English visuals such as English News, web series, movies and likewise.

> Try solving questions based on comprehension, inferences and para jumbles. You can purchase some booklets for the same from market.

For complete details about preparation of VARC section kindly check out the link given below :-

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/how-prepare-for-cat-quantitative-ability

Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation :-

> This section seems to be the toughest section in CAT exam, but it is not if you practice a lots of questions on logical reasoning and practice solving different hard core problems so that your problem solving ability will increase, which is the pre-requisite for this section.

> Go through some basic topics like seating arrangements, blood relations, syllogisms, etc to get familiar with this section.

> For complete details about preparation of DI&LR section kindly check out the link given below :-

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/how-prepare-for-cat-di-lr

I hope this information helps you.

Good Luck!!