CAT – Last Minute Tips and Tricks
Here are some preparation strategies from top scorers of CAT 2018
Presumed to be a tough nut to crack, CAT is a difficult exam because of the level of competition that surrounds it
CAT 2019, scheduled to be held on the November 24, is being conducted by IIM Kozhikhode and is just days away. The MBA entrance test scores a candidate on the bases of Quantitative Ability (QA), Verbal Ability (VA) and Reading Comprehension (RC), Data Interpretation (DI) and Logical Reasoning (LR) for admissions into the IIMs and several other prestigious B-schools in the country. Presumed to be a tough nut to crack, CAT is a difficult exam because of the level of competition that surrounds it.
For aspirants who will be appearing in the coming exam, here are some success stories of a few stellar CAT 2018 scorers who have paved a way for themselves into IIM Rohtak with well-guided strategies coupled with discipline and hard work.
The Achievable 99 Percentile
Twenty-eight year old Ankit Anand, an electronics and communications engineer, scored the near perfect 99.99 percentile in the VA and RC section and a 99.03 percentile overall in CAT 2018. He does not prescribe a singular ideal approach to crack the test but believes in charting a methodology that works best for an aspirant.
Ankit is of the opinion that his close to perfect percentile in the VA and RC section is definitely achievable and he suggests reading anything and everything under the sun. “Make reading a habit”, he says, when asked about how to go about preparing for the same. While candidates are predisposed to solving mock tests for hours on end, he also recommends reading the editorial columns of certain English dailies like The Hindu and The Economic Times and understanding them in one go, just like one would a novel. This particular habit has doubly advantaged him, making him well-prepared for solving Reading Comprehension questions and the subsequent IIM interviews as well. `
Sans Mathematics? Do Not Worry
Shree Khandelwal, a twenty-one year old from the city of Jaipur, is a commerce graduate but sans a background in mathematics. He elaborates on how he did not follow the traditional methods of problem-solving and instead looked at questions from a real-life perspective. Shree suggests an amalgamation of long hours of self-study supplemented by a practical approach, and visualizing problems as logical puzzles of everyday life and then solving them. His resilience and sincere efforts which have helped him achieve an overall percentile of 98.06 and a sectional percentile of 99.82 percentile in LR and DI demonstrate that CAT is for everyone.
Self-study
A correspondence BA in Political Science, History and English graduate, Shubham Sangwan is a B-Tech drop out. From watching his peers succeeding to having jeers pelted at him, Shubham knew that he had to make it big. His intellectual curiosity, consistent efforts and a religious schedule of self-study have earned him an impressive 99.08 percentile in CAT 2018. He credits his success to his knack of solving problems in order to identify his strengths from an early age. He also suggests working hard on one’s weaknesses and channelling one’s negatives into positives to say the least.
From 14 percentile to 97.6
But the most interesting of them all is the story of Ayush Khetan, who hails from a small town in Rajasthan. He went from scoring a 14 percentile in his first attempt in CAT 2017 to securing a 97.6 percentile in CAT 2018. Similar to Shree, he has a non-math background. He recommends reading editorials, novels and using YouTube primarily for constructive purposes.
Source Credit: Education Times