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Admission is MBA is done through various entrance exams conducted at national level such as CAT/MAT/CMAT/ATMA, or state level such as MAH CET/APICET/TANCET/OJEE or institute level such as SNAP/NMAT/XAT etc, you can check out at https://bschool.careers360.com/exams to know more details regarding this,

since you specifically enquired about CAT, firstly its eligibility criteria is passed graduation in any discipline from a recognized university securing 50% aggregate, there is relaxation of 5% for reserved categories, candidates in final year too are eligible to apply provisionally,

CAT is to be conducted for three hours, divided into three sections with a total of 76 questions, VARC and QA will have 26 questions each, and DILR will have 24 questions( a total of 54 MCQs and 22 non-MCQs), 40 minutes will be allotted for each section, total marks allotted is 228 marks, for each correct answer three marks are to be awarded, and for each wrong answer in MCQs one mark is to be deduced, in case of non-mcqs there is no negative marking.

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

Quantitative Ability consists of Number System,Permutation, Combination/Probability,Statistics, Weighted Average, Quadrilaterals,Polygons,Harmonic Progression, Factorials,Shortcuts in Averages,Properties Of Ratio, Proportion,Conditional Probability,Infinite Geometric Progression,Derangement,Remainder Concept

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,Bar  Graphs, Line Charts, Tables, Cubes, Column Graphs,SeatingArrangement, Tables, Caselets, Clocks and Calendars, Number and Letter Series, 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 Fill in the blanks,Para completion and inference,Idioms,Subject-verb agreement,Clauses,Articles,Tenses,Reading comprehension,Para-jumbles,Noun/pronoun,Conjunctions,Punctuation,Syllogisms, Analogies,Antonyms, Jumbled paragraphs,Sentence correction,One word substitution,Verbal logic,Verbal reasoning,Contextual usage,Different usage of same word,Sentence completion,Foreign language words used in English.

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 step to start off the preparation process 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 access CAT sample paper at https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/cat-sample-paper

Some of the top colleges offering MBA as per NIRF ranking are IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Kozhikode, IIT Delhi-DMS, IIM Indore, IIM Lucknow, XLRI Jamshedpur,IIT Kharagpur-VGSOM, IIT Bombay, you can check out at https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/ranking to know more details regarding this.