Dear aspirant,

These type of competitive examinations require proper schedule along with hard work and smart work. 1 full year ahead of cat is enough to crack the nut. Every day you need to dedicate atleast 2 hours for specific area of preparation.

As per my opinion verbal needs time to increase the marks.

Hello there

First of all I would suggest you that if you are new to CAT preparation then you must firstly try to understand about the examination pattern that what it asks from the candidates who give this examination and you should firstly take a look at this syllabus and past year papers and also read or watch the experiences of the students who have cracked this examination just because of these things you will be getting a fair idea that how this examination works.

Now coming to your question starting preparation for this examination too early or too late is totally  dependent upon aspirant to aspirant depending on his academic background and his prior exposure to any competitive exam. But if I tell you generally then you should start your preparation at least 24 to 18 months before your examination and before your this preparation you should also start your casual preparation which includes doing the things which involves the practices for this examination. Also if you're not new into this preparation then preparing for this examination one year before will be sufficient.

I hope it helps you!

Good luck!

Hello Aspirant,

See CAT is an entrance exam which the candidate can give in his/her final year or after that so to prepare for CAT, year is sufficient therefore one should start preparing for from his/her pre-final year of graduation but with full devotion, it should not be taken for granted and if you prepare seriously then it it very easy to get into any of the top IIMs through your CAT score.

Common Admission Test, in short CAT is conducted by any of the IIM in rotation every year , it is a computer-based entrance exam conducted for MBA/PGDM admissions at 20 IIMs and 1000+ B-Schools in India. Candidates who have completed graduation with 50% of marks are eligible to apply for IIM CAT.

For exam pattern(latest) of CAT kindly check out the link given below :-

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/cat-exam-pattern

You can get complete information about CAT from the link given below :-

https://bschool.careers360.com/exams/cat

Now let us discuss how to prepare for the three sections that are asked in CAT so that you can get the best score which can take you to the best B-Schools of the country.

For Quantitative Ability :-

> For this section your pre-requisite is the complete understanding of basics of Mathematics.

> You should have proper command on topics like profit and loss, number system, geometry.

> Practice as many as sample papers you can and go for some mock tests as well.

For complete details about preparation of QA section kindly check out the link given below :-

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

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension :-

> Reading skill is the pre-requisite for this section, so try to read different English story books, magazines, etc.

> Go through newspapers, journals, blogs, articles, etc to enhance your reading skills and watch some English visuals such as English News, web series, movies and likewise.

> Try solving questions based on comprehension, inferences and para jumbles. You can purchase some booklets for the same from market.

For complete details about preparation of VARC section kindly check out the link given below :-

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

Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation :-

> This section seems to be the toughest section in CAT exam, but it is not if you practice a lots of questions on logical reasoning and practice solving different hard core problems so that your problem solving ability will increase, which is the pre-requisite for this section.

> Go through some basic topics like seating arrangements, blood relations, syllogisms, etc to get familiar with this section.

For complete details about preparation of DI&LR section kindly check out the link given below :-

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

I hope this information helps you.

Good Luck!!

Hi

1 year is enough for CAT preparation, so you can start your preparation for CAT in thr last year of your graduation, or preferably in the 2nd last  year itself so that you can easily manage your CAT preparation with your college studies without any load.

Follow the below tips to prepare well for CAT examination:-

********* First of all go through its syllabus and examination pattern so that you can prepare accordingly.

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

Exam pattern:- https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/cat-exam-pattern

Here's a brief of CAT examination pattern:-

********* Section wise preparation tips:-

Your CAT examination has 3 sections :-

-------------------------------) VERBAL ABILITY AND READING COMPREHENSION ( VARC) :- Reading  is the key to score good marks in VARC, you need to go through newspapers, articles, journals, etc so that you can improve your reading skills. While reading note down the new words and write their meanings to improve your vocabulary. You need to practice questions based on comprehension, para jumbles and inference.

>>>> Best books for VARC

• Word Power made easy by Norman Lewis ( to improve your vocabulary)

• How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT by Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay

• Mastering the Verbal Ability for CAT by Ajay Singh

--------------------------------)DATA INTERPRETATION AND LOGICAL REASONING (DILR) :- You need to practice topics like blood relations ,seating arrangements, syllogisms,Propositions, etc to have a good hold on this section. Unlike maths, there's no formula in DILR so practice is the key, the more you practice, the better you get.

>>>> Best books for DILR :-

• How to Prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT by Arun Sharma

• Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for CAT by K. Sinha Nishit

--------------------------------)QUANTITATIVE ABILITY (QA) :- First clear your basics of maths,  you need to go through topics like profit and loss, geometry,  Arithmetic, number system, Time-Speed and Distance etc . Avoid the use of calculator so that you can do improve your calculation speed. For each topic, you can write down important fomulas and short tricks on a sheet of paper so that it's easy for you during revision.

>>>> Best best books you can follow for QA:-

• How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT by Arun Sharma

• Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT by Nishit K. Sinha

• Quantitative Aptitude Quantum by Sarvesh K Verma

********* Make a time table, give more time to the subject you are weak at , for example if you are weak at Quantitive ability then give it more time.

********* Plan your studies, and set daily, weekly and monthly goals and meet them without any fail.

*********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 . You can get cat previous year question papers at https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/cat-question-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

Thank you