Hello aspirant,

Six months' time, is considered ideal for preparation for CAT exam. As experts and qualified students claim, to qualify CAT you need to do smart and targeted preparation. CAT is a computer-based exam which comprises of 100 questions. To score a good percentile in CAT, a student does not need to solve all 100 questions.

Apps for CAT preparation

MBA Test Prep. Rating: 4.1/5.

TCY Exam Prep. Rating: 4/5.

MBA: NMAT CAT IIFT AIMA MAT. Rating: 4.1/5.

MBA - CAT / CMAT Preparation. Rating: 4.1/5.

Thankyou

Hello Aspirant,

Common Admission Test, in short CAT is conducted by IIM Indore every year for admissions to different B-Schools across the country. The paper is of total 228 marks and it will consists of 76 total number of questions divided in three sections namely VARC, DILR and QA. Out of these 76 questions, 54 question will be of MCQ type and other 22 will be Non-MCQ. For every correct answer 3 marks will be awarded and on incorrect answer -1 will be deducted only from MCQs not from Non-MCQs. 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 above three sections so that we can get the best score which can take us 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-varc

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!!

Hello,

In order to initiate preparation, candidates need to be well acquainted with the syllabus, CAT consists of three sections with their respective syllabus and recommended books are as follows-

Quantitative Ability consists of time and work, simple and compound interest, time, speed and distance, probability, geometry and mensuration, number system, basic arithmetic, algebra, permutation and combination, profit, loss, discounts, trigonometry, logarithms and sets.

Best Books for QA:

How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT by Arun Sharma has provided elaborate examples and further its divided into three levels of difficulty, covers all the important topics.

Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Nishit K Sinha is divided into five modules, it has questions with their solutions along with practice tests.

Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT by Sarvesh Sharma has topic wise division of chapters with practice tests with more than one solution for the given questions in the books.

Candidates can use NCERTs book from 6th to 10th standard to have conceptual understanding of the topics.

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning consists of blood relations, puzzles, data sufficiency, graphs, seating and data arrangement, tables, caslets, clocks and calendars, assumptions and binary logic, syllogism and venn diagram.

Best Books for DSLR:

How to prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT by Arun Sharma is written according to latest syllabus with quick and accurate techniques, new chapters, exercises for practice, mock test and sample paper to analyze preparation level.

Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation by K Nishit Sinha has fundamentals as well as advanced topics with better explanation.

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension consists of word usage, fill in the blanks, odd sentences, para jumbles, para summary, reading comprehension passages, sentence completion and correction.

Best Books for VARC:

How to prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT by Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay is written in lucid manner with topic-wise segregations, analysis of previous year papers including mock tests.

Mastering the Verbal Ability for CAT by Ajay Singh has defined topics in an extensive manner as per latest syllabus with more than 200 passages and test paper for better preparation.

The most important task is to make a timetable and accordingly assign each section to it. You should focus on having a conceptual understanding especially in case of QA and DILR, for this it's best you go through sample papers in order to evaluate your strength and weakness, and towards the nearing of the examination, mock tests are inevitable in order to crack CAT.

You can get CAT sample paper at https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/cat-sample-paper