Hi Rabi, If you're doubtful of the right time to begin with preparation, and how to go about it, I suggest you go through this article - When and how to start preparations for CAT Hope this helps. Goodluck!

Hello Rabi Deb,

Its a golden opportunity for you since, you're in your second year and you'll be giving CAT next year and there's ample of time so that you can easily crack it.

According to me,

1.

If you're good at your basics , practice Arun sharma  and Nishant Sinha's books and purchase some coaching material books to practice. Join test series and analyse the mocks, Give monthly two mocks atleast from now.

2.

Join a coaching class, get your concepts cleared . practice hard. Devote atleast 2hr daily from now so that you can be at ease till end moment. Tke 2 mocks in a month to get a hint of exam and analyse them.

"Practice hard, till you succeed". Make sure you make the best of time and opportunity you have.

Hope your doubts are cleared.

Feel free to ask more queries .

Best wishes for your future endeavours.

Hi Rabi,

Since you are a student of B.Com you have good amount of time to prepare. As of  now you can start preparing for CAT exam by joining any good coaching institute. Or you can also brush up your skills for two months and thhen join a coaching institute. The course duration would be around 10 months so after that also you would be having a lot of time. During that time you can join any test series to increase the speed as completing the test in stipulated time  is very important.

All this is for the 3 sections (Verbal, LR/DI,Quants) but other exams like IIFT also looks for General knowledge. So I would suggest you to build habit of reading newspapers (like Hindu, Economic Times) and business magazines. This would help you in other competitive exams.

All the Best

Hey Rabi!

In case you are doing from DU, you will be having six semesters. So, starting preparation in the third semester is a good decision. As you are starting almost a year and a half early, you can daily contribute 3-4 hrs to CAT exam. This will lessen down the burden during your final semester and you can score well both in college and CAT exam.

1. Enrol yourself in a coaching institute. Try to complete the theoretical syllabus within the next six to eight months, then start taking mocks.

2. Read the newspaper, especially the editorial section for benefiting yourself in other exams like IIFT and TISSNET, where you will need strong General Knowledge.

3. Go through the Business Section in Papers like MINT or ECONOMISTS; it will be beneficial in long run.

Start preparation and ace CAT. Best wishes!

Yes

Cracking the CAT exam is mostly based on how much practice you have put in and how quickly you can think on your feet. The most important facet of this exam is choosing the right questions to answer. You need to be able to choose what to leave as they will take away too much time. This skill comes from practice.

I believe you are at the right stage to start preparing for CAT. It has 3 sections - Verbal Ability, Logical reasoning and Data Interpretation, Quant. It depends on individual perspective as to what is easy and what is tough. Majorly engineers find VA difficult while B.Com grads find Quant tougher. I'm sharing some tips you should follow:

Firstly choose any institute of your choice which has a national presence maybe T.I.M.E/Career Launcher/IMS. Attend their classes or you can opt for just their mock tests.

Secondly, General Awareness becomes very important at the interview stage as well as for some other competitive exams of MBA. So start reading newspaper 1hr a day. I would suggest you go through Hindu Editorials majorly. You can also add Frontline Magazine and Economic Times to the list once you get habituated to reading.

For Verbal Ability, excessive reading is important. Practice at least 2 Reading Comprehensions per day. Initially start without a time limit and analyse why every answer went wrong. Slowly, shift to time bound solving.

For LR DI, make sure you start with time limit only. There are only few models - Pie Charts, Graphs, Bar Charts, Line Charts etc. For every model, as you keep solving you will realsie that there are only a specific set of questions that can be asked from such a chart. Identify those patterns. For one complete LR-DI set you should never spend more than 10minutes. If within the first 2-3minutes, you don't get an idea, leave the question. Do atleast 5 sets per day. After the time is completed, then solve them without time limit and analyse where you went wrong.

Similarly for Quant divide the entire syllabus into sections - Arithmetic, Geometry, Profit & Loss etc. There are some basic models. Be sure of them. You should never leave a level 1 question of any concept. You should try to answer atleast 70% of level 2 questions. Never spend more than 5 minutes on one question.

Start practicing from now with basic questions and concepts. All the best!

Yes, starting the prep right now will definitely give you enough time practice and an edge over others appearing for it.

Join a good institute like Time/Career launcher. And start making and executing plans about the preparation. Once you are into it maybe in evening batches or maybe in weekend batches start working hard for it.

One of the biggest challenges that graduates face is the VA section. Make newspaper reading as an everyday habit. The opinions and editorials will not only help you in Cat but also in placement offers if you opt for it. And guess what, all top Bshcools today that people aim to get in have GD-Wat-Pi processes.

How do you plan to crack it??

Here also Apart from Acads and workex you need a nice grip on what's happening around you. And how do u get it? From Newspapers!!

Give around 50% time for VA and rest 50% for other subjects combined. Moreover once you start the process keep yourself in check with mocks from different institutes. On an average 2-3 institute mocks as from CL,Time,Ims etc. are preffered, as they have changes in difficulties and variety of questions.

Give sectional mocks and overall full 3 hour mocks and no matter how hard it seems and how much ever low marks you get, remember it is a practice and not the Cat paper.

Keep the fire under your belly burning, It will get frustrating, Difficult, and at times boring and monotonous too!!

But imagine the good times that you get once you are par with it, imagine sitting in a classroom with the best minds of the country and been taught by Proffesors who are CAs, Marketing heads, Valued HRMs, and those who have done their FPMs through the most prestigious institutions of our country. The possibilities are endless.

In the movie of MSD (if I correctly remember) he was told that the world cup is 2 years away, why start preparation now?? Well the rest is History!!

Time is Ripe, Time is running, Start working, Right now For it stops for none!!

All the best.

SMIT-IIM-AMRITSAR-PGP/04

Hi Rabi,

Since you are in the 3rd sem of your B.Com and you have 3 more sems remaining to complete your UG course, this is the best time to start preparing for CAT. You can go through the syllabus and start preparing on your own for this year's CAT. Identify your weak areas and apply more focus there. You can use this year's score as a benchmark and prepare full time for next year's CAT.

Join a reputed coaching institute like TIME, IMS, Career launcher etc. for next year's prepration as they will be able to give you the right guidance along with their materials and practice tests. Practice makes anything perfect, and it is no different when it comes to CAT. After getting your concepts right, keep practicing as many mock tests as you can to identify mistakes and work on them.

Most importantly, keep the fire in you alive till you get into your dream B-school. Good luck!

Best wishes,

Anjali Sam

PGP Batch 55 (2018-20)

IIM Calcutta

Hello Rabi

Yes you can surely start your preparation from now on. If you want to take CAT exam next year then start working on your quantitative apptitude for one hour everyday. Though I would suggest you to do some certification too especially in data science or statistical model which will give you an edge in any B school you apply for.

If you have already applied for CAT this year only then you have to be very much rigours in your practise.

For next year i would suggest you to learn 20 words from que cards and start writing essays too especially on current affairs. Rest all sections will take only 3-6 months of practice to crack esteem B school cut offs.

Good luck for your career ahead.

Thanks.

Hi Aspirant,

Yes,you can absolutely start your preparation for CAT.

When starting,try to go through books and develop problem solving abilities,so as to facilitate the same in the main exam.Starting now would give you a lot of time to properly go through all the sections involved and would also allow you to finish your syllabus beforehand.Post that,you can easily give time for mocks and also prepare(rather be acquainted) for the interview.

I wish you the best of luck in your ventures.

Hope this helps.

Yes definitely you can start by joining coaching institutions like TIMe /CPLC/CareerLauncher /IMS/CaTking which are recommended. Start studying basics from Arun sharma and also coaching institution notes. By final year you must hav ecomoleted syllabus and start appearing for mocks to analyse weakzones and focus accordingly. Revise all concepts and keep yourself calm.

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