how to prepare for cat in 2 years by working.
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Hello,
2 years is ample amount of time for preparing CAT Exam.
1. I would suggest if your basics are clear join any reputated coaching class mocks(test series) to analyse yourself where you stand along with purchasng their books and practicing them.
2. If you dont have any idea , I would suggest you to join weekly classes where you will be having off on weekends from your work and you can choose weekeend batch and thereby practice and give CAT.
3. Meanwhile during preparation of 2 years , give CAT Exam falling in those years to get a more detailed overwiew how it would be when you give your fnal attempt.
Hope your doubts are cleared. Feel Free to ask more queries. Best wishes for your future endeavours.
Hi,
I would like to add to the above valuable points. As suggested by CAT toppers and experts, here are few most important tips that every working professional can use to prepare for CAT and other management entrance exams.
Utilise the existing timeAs Arthur Ashe said “Start from wherever you are; Do whatever you can; Use whatever you have,” working professionals need to use whatever time they have to prepare if they wish to crack the CAT exam.
So, utilising every second should be the goal. Working professionals can even enroll for online video tutorials to prepare and listen to them while travelling to office or during lunch breaks in the office or whatever free time you get during the day when you actually cannot sit practically to prepare.
Utilise weekendsUtilising weekends in a timely manner can be very result-oriented for working professionals because that’s the only free time that they have for consecutively two days. That’s why weekends play a very crucial role in CAT preparation for working professionals.
Get professional guidanceIt’s widely known that solving mock tests and analysing them is the single most important thing to crack the CAT. Now, when close to four months are left for CAT 2018, working professionals should ideally start solving CAT mock test papers at least once in a week to get an idea about their current level of preparation. But remember, solving mock tests is not enough. Getting your performance in mock test analysed by a professional is even more important. It will allow you to know your strong and weak areas.
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Last but not the least, keep up your self-confidence because that will not just help you during the entrance exam, it will also boost your performance in the selection rounds.
Simply follow these steps.
- Join an institute like TIME.
- Join their weekend batches.
- Work on cat for like 8-10 hours at least on weekends.
- Daily read newspapers and articles for like an hour at least to keep you upto date with current scenarios, you can do this while you travel to and from the office.
- Start giving mocks after course ends before the end of first year.
- Give cat get a good idea of where you stand.
- Keep improving in the next year by giving as much mocks as possible.
- Keep practicing correcting and give time to friends and family in those 4-5 days of the week when you don't have to work for cat.
- Give Cat again and excel in it.
All the best.
SMIT-IIM-AMRITSAR-PGP/04
Hi Krishnatuni,
You have lot of time to prepare for CAT. Its my peresonal experience as I also appear for cat while working. For that you can join a good coaching institute. Based on your office timings you can select either the weekend batch or weekday batch. Generally, for weekdays you have 2 hrs of class for 3-4 days and for weeknd batch its 4 hrs. Course duration offered is generally 6-10 monnths so you can join the coaching and give the first attempt next year only. By doing so you will get an idea of the CAT exam and how much you need to prepare more. Next year you can just join a test series to brush up your knowledge.
All the best
Dear Krishnatuni,
You have a lot of time to prepare for CAT 2019. THis can go in both directions. EIther you can buckle up and study hard now or this time will slowly pass away without you even realizing it.
Taking the first option in mind i would like to suggest that you start early and get clearly thorough witht the basics. Then start focusing slowly on MOCKS and start preparing for your weaker chapters or sections.
Also make reading a daily habbit to improve VARC. Try to solve past year mocks for DILR and practice well enough for QUANT
Hello Krishnatuni,
You have enough time to prepare for CAT examination. I suggest you to follow a systematic approach in your preparation.
You can join a good coaching institute and take a weekend batch. My personal opinion is that you should join it immediately in the first year. You will get a clear picture of the examination and how to prepare for it. The next year you can spend on self-study. You will be in better position to identify your strengths and weaknesses and thus focus on your weaknesses to improve accordingly. Moreover, you can join mock examinations of some other institute just before CAT examination.
So the idea is to learn as much as possible in first year and spend the next year in revision, accuracy and speed.
Good Luck.
It is human tendency to find an easy way out and thinking of quitting the job is an example of it. When you have nothing to do all day, you do not study for 16 hours. Even if you make up your mind to study, you find excuses for not studying and go on dangling with uncertainties between now and afterwards.
Nevertheless it will be a good idea to take leave for one or two months before the exam to keep you focused and in high spirits to implement your plan to go for vigorous practice of exercises, taking mocks and analyzing them more frequently than earlier. Leave the job when you get admission offer from your dream B school.
2) Work experience: Added advantage to CAT 2015
The fact is contrary to the belief that you can prepare better by giving up the job. No one studies for all the 24 hours nor can anyone do it. On the top of it IIMs award bonus marks to the working executives.
3) 6 months to prepare: 2-3 hours a day needed
CAT 2015 is proposed to be held in the month of October 2015 preferably on weekends. If you are serious enough to crack CAT 2015 with a high percentile, the suggestion is to devote 2 hours a day. Out of your 24 hours, if you spend 8-10 hours at your work place and supposing that your 10 hours are spent to a cozy sleep, time in bathroom, dining, travelling, entertainment, among others you are still left with 4 hours. If you extract 2-3 hours out of your busy schedule, you can score a very high percentile in CAT 2015.
4) Plan the CAT 2015 Preparation & Continue working
Prepare your CAT preparation schedule according to your working hours. After spending the day in office, you should devote a few hours in the night preparing for CAT 2015.
Prepare a schedule first and then follow it for next 30 days. Update the preparation strategy after 30 days, make amendments according to the need and again follow the same without any laxity. Devoting 2-3 hours a day for next 6 months out of many years of life is sure not a bad deal to get the best for your career. Once you start the preparation according to the schedule, it will become a routine for you.
5) Join evening Online CAT 2015 classes
Working professionals who were associated to MBAUniverse.com Online CAT Preparation classes remained stuck to the strategy to keep the evenings for their CAT preparation. If sometimes they missed the classes due to late working hours or due to the change in working hours, they made it a point to view the recording of the class before going to sleep or wake up early in the morning to view the recording while jotting down the doubts which they preferred to clarify in the next CAT session, or raised the same on mail or on forum.
Faculty used to respond to such queries quickly so that no time of the candidate was wasted. The suggestion is if you are determined enough, you should never compromise on your daily preparation.
6) Attend Offline sessions on weekends
Being a working professional, it may not be convenient for you to join the full time class room program. The best way is to enrol for regular online classes for CAT 2015 and go for the mock tests and test series that are held during weekends, without hampering your work schedule. Moreover, owing to the fact that CAT is now a computer based test, many of the MBA coaching institutes offer computer based tests which can be taken from anywhere.
7) Utilize the idle moments for CAT 2015 prep
You may not be spending all the office hours working and may find out some time to relax and do something different. If you are a serious CAT aspirant, you can utilize these moments for some preparation which does not toil your brain much. You can read editorials in the newspapers, it will help you improve your reading speed and will also help on RC passages. You can also click on some online study material and exercises attached to it. May solve a question or two; solve some puzzles on Sudoku, Crossword. This will help you improve your skills in Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning.
8) Prepare and take Mocks
Preparing for CAT 2015 is not only about studying the theories hard, but also to takeregularmock tests and analyze your preparation. If you have kept 6 months for your preparation, divide the time equally among the 4 parts of 2 sections in CAT namely Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation, Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning.
Go for regular sectional Mocks and after 2-3 months or so go for full length mock. Analyze them well, plug your weak areas and work more upon your strong areas. Prepare a schedule in such a way that out of next 6 months, you spend 3 months for building all the concepts and fundamentals of the areas proposed to be tested in CAT 2015 and the last 3 months can be used to take mock tests.
9) Experts suggest
Working professionals with 1-2 years experience tend to have forgotten what they had learnt during their school/college days. This is also one of the reasons that they need meticulous study plan to prepare for CAT 2015. A working executive has less time and it is difficult to join a regular coaching for him.If he gets stuck on some point, he needs quick guidance that can take him out of the dilemma. Online mentoring will sure help him save his time and boost his preparation level.
The fact that ratio of working professionals who are preparing for CAT 2015 is high enough signifies that the charm of great learning, being an alumni of top rated B school and getting placed as a high profile management professional is increasing among currently employed graduates as well as students pursuing their graduation alike. IIMs, SPJIMR, MDI, IMT, IMI, JBIMS, FMS are a few examples of highly ranked B schools that have always been fascinating and inspiring the aspirants to score high to get admission in their flagship PGDM/MBA programmes
Thanks,
Azim Musa Shaikh
You have sufficient time for your preparation. Do not think that you being have to go to office or work will not let you prepare or hinder your chances of getting into a good B-school.
Take little but significant steps in continuity so that you don't lose track of your progress and preparation.
You have to be consistent in your preparation, and if you feel that 2 years are too much to begin, take a pause and start over the next year.
Start with self-analysis (as you have sufficient time) by checking previous year's sample papers that will give you a rough idea of where you stand currently. Let this be the zero level. Understand what all concepts you need to sharpen, hold a better grip upon, hone, or maintain by doing this. If one mock /sample doesn't give you this idea, you can go for another one too.
Nextly, start over your preparation.
Either join a coaching centre ( not recommended 2 years in advance because CAT needs maximum 6 months of coaching)
Or start preparing on your level with the help of online content / preparatory books.
Some of the good books in market are:
VARC: How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT by Arun Sharma
DI-LR: How to Prepare for Data Interpretation for the CAT and How to Prepare for Verbal Ability for CAT respectively by Arun Sharma
QA: How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Arun Sharma
Go through online YouTube content as and when you find time. There are a number of CAT preparation tutorials for QA, DILR, VARC.
Thoughout your preparation, just keep one thing in mind:
To be consistent.
Hope this helps!
All the best!!
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