Need some important points to know while attempting CAT exam?

Take mock exam in CAT website. You have to choose your strategy by trial and error method. You will understand your strong and weak points.

One important rule which is common for all the sections is to Scan, Identify and Attempt questions in the order of Easy, Moderate and High difficulty levels.



VARC Section:

One trick that you can use is to skim quickly through the passage, solve the questions which are basic or easy (The ones that have factual straight forward answers) and then move on to questions that are indirect and require your full attention.



While attempting you can use the choosing by eliminating method. Eliminate all the options that are definitely not the answer and zero down on the right one. Answer those and if you have time on your hands you can attempt the difficult ones. But be careful as MCQs have negative marking.



DILR:



The most important part, read the question carefully. Read it twice or thrice if needed but be absolutely clear about what the question demands of you. DI and LR sections have the most confusing questions in all management entrances.



Do not, at any point, assume any data which is not specified in the questions. At times you may be tempted to do so as it would seem obvious but this section is not the test of your knowledge of that field in general but your reasoning skills with the available data.



QA:

Start off first and foremost rule specified above. Reiterating again: Scan, Identify and Attempt questions in the order of Easy, Moderate and High difficulty levels.



Look and attempt familiar questions first. Most of your time will go in vain if you try to understand a question that you have never come across which will leave almost no time for the ones that you can easily solve. Remember, an exam is not a place to sit and solve a difficult question, it is something that has be done at home. Exam is where you solve as many problems as accurately you can.



All the best!

The first and foremost important point is "stay calm". I can tell you this via a short story. There's was a person whom I knew who appeared for CAT'17. She was a real hard worker, non-math background student, practiced enough before appearing for CAT, however she found a particular section in the exam very difficult and she wasn't able to solve many questions. But the reason she not only cracked CAT with a decent percentile but is now a part of one of IIMs, is that she kept calm and cool during that section. She didn't give up. So remember one thing, you have practiced a lot, worked hard for that day and so you will surely be in a position to apply your concepts. And if at all anything seems to be hard, then that would be difficult for everyone not only for you. You only have to paddle consistently and smartly during your sections. Other pointers are:

* Reach your centre some time in advance to avoid last moment hustle and bustle

*Drink water and stay afresh

*In the First section, i.e., VA-RC, chose your RCs very wisely as per the topics that you might be comfortable in. I hope practice would have revealed to you, your core strengths. Do not spend too much time in just one question. Attempting 4-5 RCs with 98% accuracy is considered good. For the VA section, jumbled paragraphs, odd sentence out, complete the paragraph,  kinds of questions were prominent. Don't miss out any TITA question.

*In the second section,i.e., DI-LR,  again chose your sets very carefully, whichever you have been comfortable in. Don't get stuck to any particular set. You will get an instinct that you are not able to solve that set, so immediately skip it and try some other. There may be cases when the kinds of questions in which you are comfortable in might be really tough,  but other kinds might be easy. So, don't forget to have a glimpse of all the sets right in the beginning. This will hardly take 5 minutes. But I understand that in CAT, each minute is important so strategise the way you have been giving mocks.

*For the QA section, solve the questions that you can quickly solve.

Remember every section will have easy questions. What really matters and what will distinguish you is how quickly and how many such easy questions can you find.

*Above all,  leverage your strengths in all the three sections.

*Usually pens and rough sheets are provide to you in advance.

*Check your systems too. There have been numerous incidents where systems have abruptly shut down. Do not panic in such situations. You won't lose out on your time.

Wish you all the  best!!  Stay positive, things will go well.