I am a BBA 1st year student and I am determined to crack CAT and UPSC exams but I don't know the strategy and books to refer as i don't want to join coaching centre because of past incidents ? if u aren't able to an can u pls help me out....

Hi

CAT and UPSC civil services examination completely two different examinations it may be very difficult to prepare for both at the same time so I'll suggest you to prepare for only one at a time

To start your cat preparation, first of all go through its syllabus at

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/cat-syllabus

And understand its examination pattern ,your complete CAT paper is divided into three major sections :-

*Quantitative Ability
*Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)
*Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)

Top books which you can follow for CAT are listed below section wise  :-

QUANTITATIVE ABILITY

*How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT by  Arun Sharma:-
it is the best  book  for your Aptitude for your cat examination as it covers all the topics as per CAT syllabus, and also has elaborative examples , question are  divided into 3 levels of difficulty

DATA INTERPRETATION AND LOGICAL REASONING (DILR) :-

* Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for CAT by K. Sinha Nishit:- it covers both your fundamental and advanced topics with explained examples , questions of three difficulty  levels are there etc

*How to Prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT by Arun Sharma :- it has strategy and concepts to solve questions quickly and accurately, excerises are designed in a manner to boost your Logical thinking etc

VERBAL ABILITY AND READING COMPREHENSION

*Word Power made easy by Norman Lewis:- it is the one of the Best books for improving your vocabulary and learning correct usage of words.

*Mastering the Verbal Ability for CAT by Ajay Singh:- it has more than around 200 passages for your practice ,it also contains test papers of other B-School as well, etc

*How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT by Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay:- it has past years papers analysis , topicwise segregation is also there along with mock papers for practice

For detailed information go through

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/best-books-for-cat-preparation

*Make a routine and religiously follow it as it will help you to utilise the time in the best possible way and  avoid procrastination and laziness .

*Keep short breaks of 20 to 25 minutes after every 1.5 to 2 hours between your studies in your routine .Half of the time of your studies must be for practicing questions

*Solve previous  year question papers of CAT :-it will let you know the examination pattern, type and difficulty level of questions, also concepts behind the question often gets repeated, so you should definitely solve year papers

*Once you are done with complete CAT syllabus then go through CAT mock test papers , it will let you know your preparation level and and weak areas so that you can work on them and perform well in your examination

For detailed information go through

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

UPSC is one of the most toughest Examination , you need to be really serious and focused towards your studies to crack it

Follow the below tips to prepare well for your UPSC  examination :-

To start your preparation  first of all go well through syllabus  , you can check the complete syllabus at
https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-syllabus

Top books which you can follow for UPSC examination preparation are listed below subject wise:-

HISTORY

*NCERT XI (Ancient & Medieval)
*NCERT XII (Modern Indian History)
*Facets of Indian Culture Spectrum
*From Plassey to Partition - A History of Modern India

Indian Art & Culture

*Indian Art & Culture - Nitin Singhania

Polity

*NCERT IX-XII
*Indian Polity M Laxmikanth

Geography

*NCERT VI X (Old Syllabus)
*NCERT XI, XII (New Syllabus)
*Certificate Physical Geography G C Leong
World Atlas

Economics

NCERT XI
*The Indian Economy Sanjiv Verma
*Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
*Economic Development & Policies in India Jain & Ohri

Environment

*Class XII Biology (last 5 chapters)
*Environment by Shankar IAS Academy

International Relations

*NCERT XII (Contemporary World Politics)
*Current Affairs ( read newspaper )

To get the complete list of books go through
https://competition.careers360.com/articles/books-for-upsc-ias

*Make a routine or a time table and try to religiously follow it , take short breaks in between your studies.

*Read newspaper daily and keep yourself updated with the current affairs

*Choose your optional subject wisely , choose the subject you have interest in.

*Make short notes for each subject, it  will help you in your revisions a lot as syllabus is wide

*Revise :- there's no point of preparing for the exam if you couldn't recall anything in the UPSC Examination so you should stress on revision as well.

*Solve previous year question papers and mock test papers ;- You should solve these , it will give you idea of types of questions asked and their difficulty level and will help you a lot.

*Also work on your communication skills and personality development as it plays an important role in your interview round

For more tips go through

https://competition.careers360.com/articles/how-prepare-for-upsc-ias

Thank you

Hi Dear,

Both CAT and upsc are totally different exams. Both the exams need different approach to be cracked. It is really good that you have started thinking about cracking the exam from 1st year of your graduation. this will ensure that you have good time to study and start with your preparation. You can refer youtube videos for self preparation. Also refer the following books :

CAT:

• How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Arun Sharma
• R.S. Aggarwal's A Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning
• Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay's How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT
• Arun Sharma's How to Prepare for Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning for CAT
• Nishit K. Sinha's Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for the CAT

UPSC:

• India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha
• NCERt Books Complete
• Indian Polity by M. Laxmikanth
• Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh (Economy)

Good Luck