Dear Anusha, you havent mentioned if you have been working for the past 5 years because few IIMs also give weightage to Working experience. For example, IIM Lucknow,  prefers a minimum of 24 months as working experience for PGP-SM. Great Lakes Chennai needs freshers or less than 24 months of experience for its PGDM course. If your target is IIMs, your score should be atleast as follows:



General Category: 95+

OBC-NCL: 85+

SC: 65+

ST: 55+



And then your CAT section wise scores should be atleast:



QA            DLR          VARC       Overall

General              85              85              85               90

NC-OBC             77              77              77               82

SC                       55              55              55               70

ST                       50              50              50               65

PwD                    50             50              50                65



And once shortlisted for Written Ability Test and Personal Interviews, the weightage is approximately as follows:



Scaled CAT Score: 60

12th marks: 10

Graduation: 10

Work Experience: 10

Diversity Factor for Academics: 5

Diversiry Factor for Gender: 5



This is just a math of previous selection criteria. Now whether you can crack CAT or not, to answer this, lets see the format of CAT exam:



CAT exam paper can be Categorised into 3 parts:



Quantitative Ability

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning



The Verbal Ability section and Reading Comprehension has 34 Questions, Data interpretation-Logical Reasoning section has 32 MCQ questions and Quantitative Ability has 34 MCQ questions totalling up to 100 questions. Each Question has 3 marks and a wrong answer takes away 1 mark. CAT exam is not something where in you are either declared PASS or FAIL. Its a measure of your performance among other applicants. Better the percentile, fairer the chance of getting into Top B schools. For example, if your score is 90 percentile, it means you did better than 90 percent of the Candidates who applied. Now cracking CAT and faring better than a certain percent of Candidates totally depends on how you prepare. May be this can help you in your preparation:

Quantitative Aptitude covers almost 30% of the CAT question paper. QA can be categorised into Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Advanced Mathematics. Practise chapter by chapter and develop mental calculations. Like practise more of basic summation, subtraction, fractions and tables. Numbers, Percentage, Profit and Loss, Simple and Compound Interest, Ratio, Proportionality, Time-Distance, Time-Work, Mixtures, Averages, Partnership, Permutation and Combinations, Probability, Set Theory, Progression and Series, Line, Angles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Polygon, Circles, Ares, Volume, Height and Distance, Coordinate Geometry, Basic Trigonometry are few important topics.



Preparation tips:



Because this section involves mathematics and takes most of your time, your focus should be on solving the problems efficiently in the beginning. Even if it takes time, practise upto perfection. Practise as many questions as you can in the conventional way. As and when you get a grip on the subject, you can go for short cuts. Memorise tables, square roots, cube roots, conversion from percent to fraction, etc. Solve sample papers on Mathematics. In the beginning, do not worry about the time it takes. As you practise, you will get the hang of the subject and it will be easier for you.





In Verbal Ability session, command on your English, Grammar, Vocabulary, Understanding of the given paragraph are of more importance. Reading English NewsPaper will also help you in your preparation.



Preparation tips:



Read articles from time to time. Follow newspapers, magazines, and watch the news channels and browse the internet to keep yourself updated. You will need a lot of reading to help you in the comprehension section. You will need speed to help you in this section and you can achieve that only by thorough practise and reading. Take time to understand the question because most answers are interlinked.





Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning needs to be practised as much as possible. Comparison of data, Data Analysis, taking clues, interpreting missing data, coming to conclusions and making future projections will be covered under this Category. The questions here are interlinked and so if you get one formula correct, cracking the next few questions will be easy. So it's important to memorise and practise formulae. You should cover topics like Data tables, Data Charts, Bar Diagrams, Pie Charts, Graphs, Data Comparison and Analysis.



Preparation tips:



As this is the most tricky section, this needs a lot of practise. Solve as many sample papers as possible to get the hang of the section. Make notes when required. Regular practise can help you understand and solve the questions easily as time goes on.

Hi,

You can definitely crack MBA if you prepare well for the examination but before that you need to see whether you meet the eligibility requirements for qualifying CAT if you want to get a better institution though there are some which does not require CAT score. Be thorough with your syllabus and practice your syllabus by giving mock exams. You can even join a coaching centre in case you feel self study is not enough. You can also refer to this link in case you want extra guidance.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/bschool.careers360.com/articles/how-prepare-for-cat/amp

Hope this helps.

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