With just about 6 weeks to CAT 2016, it is time for us to move on to the next stage of preparation. While the earlier stages of CAT preparation were about building up of fundamentals, application of concepts, exposure to MCQs, increasing speed and working out strategies for various types of questions, the focus of this stage of preparation is to ensure accuracy with speed.
This stage of preparation (6 weeks to CAT) is also a stage of confusion. Do I have sufficient knowledge to tackle the paper? Which topics can I afford to leave? How many Mock CATs should I take? Which CAT papers should I revise? What about Test Gym? What to do in the run up to CAT? Let me try and address some of these questions.
Play on your Strengths
You can win only on the basis of your strengths, so this is not the time to worry about the question types that you are never able to solve. This is the time to accept the fact that if you have not been able to understand a concept in the last six to nine months of preparation, no miracle will take place in the next six weeks so it is in your best interest to ignore these islands of ignorance and focus on the areas where you can improve your speed or attempt and accuracy. With about 6 weeks to CAT, “Selective but intensive” should be your motto.
The 6 week CAT Preparation Plan
In these 6 weeks to CAT, focus only on three things: Practice – Analysis – Revision. Let us understand this in detail:
The 6 week CAT Preparation Plan – Practice: Mock CATs (Proctored & Unproctored) along with Test Gym Classic/Lite, Section Tests and past CAT papers are the only things you should consider to keep yourself in shape for the D-day. Do not worry about the funda books; in fact, you can even throw these books away. You should, however, be revising the important MCQs in the funda books. The focus has to be taking tests (Mock CATs, Past CAT papers, and Section tests) under actual test condition so that you are CAT-ready.
To ensure that you are exposed to all question types, I strongly urge that you complete all tests in the Basic and Advanced levels of Test Gym Lite. Go for the advanced levels after CAT when you are preparing for XAT.
Once you are able to download your CAT admit card and know the time slot that has been allotted to you, please ensure that all tests are taken in the same time slot that has been allotted to you for CAT 2016. So if your CAT is scheduled at 2:30 pm, you should take all tests in the 2:30pm to 5:30pm time slot.
Past CAT papers should not be taken as a whole but in the form of section tests. The time limit for past CAT papers should be 100 seconds per question hence a section of 45 questions should be attempted in 75 minutes. While questions from all the past CAT papers (1990 – 2008) are important, you should ensure that the following CAT papers are definitely attempted:
• VA: CAT 1997 to 2008 as these papers have a good collection of Para Jumbles, Para Completion, and other verbal logic questions.
• RC: CAT 2000 to 2008 papers have a good mix of factual and inferential questions and also are of the right length. The earlier CAT papers had lengthy and mostly factual RC passages.
• DI: CAT 1990 to 1999 papers have the best DI sets. They cover a wide variety of DI sets of all difficulty levels. You can expect similar DI in CAT 2016
• LR: CAT 1999 to 2008 papers focused more on LR and less on DI and will provide good practice material for LR sets. Some of these sets are a combination of Logic and DI.
• QA: CAT 1990 to 2008: The CAT 2014 QA was similar to the QA section of the 1990s and hence these are important. However the QA section of the 2000-08 papers should not be ignored as the QA section in these was more logic oriented and less formula driven and CAT 2016 is expected to be a mixture of the two.
A simple way of implementing the above would be:
• Start QA and DI with CAT 1990 and move forward till 2008
• Start Verbal, RC, and LR with CAT 2008 and move backward till 1990
Hope you have taken or booked/taken your NMAT before your CAT. The experience of an actual computer based MBA entrance test before CAT would be useful. If not focus on ensuring actual test conditions for each Mock that you take.
The 6 week CAT Preparation Plan – Analysis: A test is useless if it is not followed by a detailed analysis. Every 180 minute paper needs at least 180 minutes for analysis. Analysis helps us in identifying what we are doing correctly and incorrectly in the paper. It helps us in fine tuning our strategy for the sections
Do pay attention to your question selection as missing out on easy questions or attempting difficult ones can lead to a disaster in CAT. The blogposts The single-most unpardonable, gravest sin you can commit in CAT and Are you choosing the right questions in your Mock CATs? give the guidelines for question selection.
The 6 week CAT Preparation Plan – Revision: The reason why many of us have a problem with speed and accuracy is the lack of revision. The focus in this last stage of preparation is to ensure that we are able to attempt around 75-80 questions in overall with at least 85% accuracy. Weekly Revision of important questions identified in Mock CATs, Section Tests and Past CAT papers ensures that if you come across a similar question type you are able to solve it fast, it eliminates silly mistakes, makes you more comfortable with vocabulary, grammar & difficult questions and also improves your ability to choose the right questions to attempt. All of these result in higher attempts with high accuracy.
How to manage all three?
My suggested plan is a 3-day cycle of Practice, Analysis & Revision. This would ensure that not only are the Mock CATs, past CAT papers and Test Gym took care of (with analysis) but also revision is not neglected. Assuming about 6 hours/day for preparation, your schedule could be as given below:
Day 1: Practice (Mock CAT) & Analysis
1. Mock CAT and Analysis of the test.
2. One section test of QA, DILR or VRC or one section test of past CAT paper or questions from Test Gym Adaptive/Lite.
Day 2 : Practice (Section Test) and Analysis
1. One section test each of QA, DILR or VRC or section tests from past CAT papers with detailed analysis.
2. Questions from Test Gym Adaptive/Lite.
Day 3: Revision
Revise important questions from all Mock CATs, Section Tests, Test Gym and Past CAT papers.
Day 4: Practice (Mock CAT) and Analysis
1. Mock CAT and Analysis of the test.
2. One section test of QA, DILR or VRC or one section test of past CAT paper or questions from Test Gym Adaptive/Lite.
Day 5: Practice (Section Test) and Analysis
1. One section test each of QA, DILR or VRC or section tests from past CAT papers with detailed analysis.
2. Questions from Test Gym Adaptive/Lite.
Day 6: Revision
Revise important questions from all Mock CATs, Section Test and Past CAT papers taken so far.
An alternate approach could be a 4-day cycle as given below:
Day 1: Practice (Section Test) and Analysis
Day 2: Practice (Mock CAT) and Analysis
Day 3: Revision
Day 4: Practice (Mock CAT) and Analysis
Obviously, the above plans are not sacrosanct; while on of these can be the default plan ideally you should work out a plan based on your specific requirements.
How many Mock CATs should I take?
My suggestion is to take for 2-3 Mock CATs every week. More than 3 Mock CATs a week will not give your time to do section tests or (more importantly) to revise and hence will not helpful. If this means that some Mocks will be left un-attempted, so be it. You can however attempt these Mock CATs as Section Tests.
What about IIFT?
If you are appearing for IIFT entrance test scheduled for 28th November then you have to start your IIFT preparation now itself. The good thing apart from GK and Mock IIFTs you do not need to do anything extra. Past IIFT papers and IIFT Mocks/FLTs will be good practice for CAT also. The overall level of difficulty of IIFT is lower than that of CAT but it is a more complex paper and requires you to manage time across four-six sections and ensure a minimum score in each. Also with about 120 questions in 120 minutes it will help you build your speed and improve your questions selection process. It is advisable that IIFT aspirants take one old IIFT paper (IIFT 2010-14) or a Mock IIFT every week with immediate effect by adding an IIFT paper/Mock in their schedule or by replacing one Mock CAT with a Mock IIFT. However do ensure that you do not go beyond 3 Mocks a week. In the one week before IIFT you can consider 2-3 IIFT Mocks/Old papers but do keep 26th and 27th November free for revision. I will be posting an article on IIFT Test Taking strategy in a few days.
All the best
Sir
what should be my strategy 10 days before the CAT ?
Nishant, take 2-3 Mocks, practice from old CAT papers and revise.
Hello sir,I am enrolled for CL cat+non-cat test series.my scores are stuck between 100-120 and my weaker section is dilr.plus I solve questions according to approach provided by you in quant and varc and regularly scoring 40-50 but in dilr scores fall miserably.what should I do ?
Kunal, call me at 9811155160 to discuss.
Hello GP sir,
I am facing a lot problem in solving RCs…can you please help me out?
Harsh, please call me at 9811155160 after 7pm to discuss.
Hello Sir
I have been taking mocks for the last 3 months. Earlier my scores were improving and I improved from around 130 to 150 with percentile of 97. But recently my scores declined sharply and I was unable to cross even a score of 100 in my last 4 mocks and percentile dipped to 80. I am unable to analyse my mocks as I’m working.
Can you please suggest me a way forward from here?
Shailav, call me at 9811155160 to discuss.
Hello GP Sir,
I am student of Classroom Program of CL Kolkata for CAT 16. I have attended all the classes and have been appearing for all the proctored mocks till date. However, to be honest, my self study was not up to mark and I haven’t practiced much till date. I did not even take few of my mocks seriously.
My scores had been ranging around 60-100, and Percentile between 55-75.
Sir, I know it’s pretty late to get the realisation but I have realised and am ready to work to my extreme potential for cracking CAT 16.
Analysing my mocks, I found that am able to deal with VRC and DI, but facing difficulties in LR and QA, especially with QA. Maybe that’s because I haven’t practiced and revised the concepts of Quant.
I need your help and guidance in this Sir.
My past academic scores are good and I want to Bell the Cat this year itself. Please Sir guide me as to what exactly I should do to Crack CAT 16 and score a decent %ile of 99+.
I might sound a bit impractical but I know that if I honestly follow the strategy and guidance provided by you, I will be able to do it.
Please help me Sir.
Thank You.
Akshat, you can still make it to top institutes. Please refer to the following posts:
1. From 70%ile to IIM-A
2. From 85 to 99.88 percentile in 45 days
Call meat 9811155160 in case you want to discuss the issue.
Sir, I have been taking mocks regularly however my scores have been very inconsistent. Till two weeks back, my performance was improving with every mock and the overall marks and percentile (95-96) were increasing. I have increased the frequency of mocks but my scores have suddenly gone for a toss. In the last four mocks, I have not even crossed 100 marks. I am not able to understand the cause of this, though I think it lies in the test taking strategy. Please guide me as to how to analyse and deal with this situations.
Thank you.
Tripti, please call me at 9811155160 today to discuss the issue.
Sir many a times it happens while marking non MCQS, that I get the correct answer matching the answer explanation, but since the answer is negative I obviously put a minus sign before it, and due to the same SIS processes my answer as incorrect. I hope that will not be the case in the actual CAT PAPER and we are expected to put a minus sign in front of negative values?
Smriti, it will be great if you could highlight any specific question from the mocks where it might have happened with you.
Hi GP Sir,
I have been scoring 94-95 percentile in past few mocks ( CL MOCK Percentile) in CL MOCK 12 / 14 / 16
My scores are
QA 55-60
LRDI 55-60
VRC 30-35
I am worried about my VRC section. as it might take down my whole score.
Please give me some tips.
Kush, at present the only thing that you can do is to practice VRC, especially RC passages. However it will be important for you to identify the reason for low marks in this section, is it because of:
1. one particular question type
2. low attempts
3. poor accuracy
Based on this you will be able to work out a preparation plan for the next couple of weeks.
Call me in the evening at 9811155160 in case you want to discuss the issue.
sir what percentile i can expect with a raw score of 105-120 mark in cat 2015.thanks
Ankit, my estimate is that a score of 105-110 could convert to a 85%ile in CAT 2015
Hello GP SIr,
I have been giving mocks ( to be mentioned IMS mocks and not CL) and in the past 5 mocks my scores have been as below:
93,95,97,98,99.
I am unable to do an analysis of the test as I am a working professional and not able to devote that much time to analysis. Just need to know what should I do apart from this to make sure that I am on the same track for the D- Day
Ravish, please confirm whether these are scores or percentiles.
Either way, it is important to analyse your mocks and keep revising the difficult questions.
These are percentiles..not scores Sir
Ravish, call me at 9811155160 to discuss the way forward.
Sir the mock provided by CAT is quite different from that we were facing in MOCKCATS there was large no of questions on RC and quite a few on verbal and the no of NON MCQ based questions was also higher than what we were seeing in MOCK CATS. I am preparing for CAT for last 4 months and used my most of the time on improving my verbal skill and there is just few days left for CAT I’m feeling confused what to do next please guide me
Saurabh, now that CAT has released this paper all of us will need to make a minor change in our approach. In the remaining days to CAT while you should lay greater emphasis on RCs, you should not ignore the rest of Verbal Logic.
Sir,
which year did IIM-A set the CAT papers & from which year to which year shall i practice the previous years CAT papers??
Shreya, 2003 and 2006 papers were set by IIMA.
Which CAT papers to practice is given in this post itself.
GP sir
My percentile has stayed around 85 for a long time (around 25 mocks) and now occasionally (around thrice) comes to 60s, which naturally shocks and scares me. It is also on a steady decline, which at this point of time is really morale shattering. I am not able to diagnose what exactly is going wrong with the process as from my point of view I am taking all the necessary steps (practising, analysing and revision).
However, it is pretty clear that something is wrong. Can you please help me out.?
Also, where I have scored good in all the three sections, my strengths are constantly shifting. Initially my quant was low, DILR was high and verbal medium. Now DILR is sort of low, verbal is low and quant is high.
Eagerly waiting…
Akshit, call me tomorrow at 9811155160 to discuss the issue.
sir,
I need you guidance for the lr/di section i have completed cat papers 1990-2008. should i also xat and iift lrdi sets? what else should be done besides sectionals tests,mocks and old cat papers to maximize score for this section.Have the same query for quant as well.
Krishang, You can go for the DILR tests in Test Gym Lite. XAT/IIFT DILR sets will not be relevant.
Sir,
I’ve given around 5 proc mocks and some sectional tests. Although my percentile has been generally around 92-93, and touched 97 in Mock 19, there is a lot of inconsistency in sectional performance. Sometimes I do well in VRC, sometimes in LRDI, rarely in QA. I am not able to clearly decide what should my strategy be in these last 20-25 days. Please help.
Thanks.
Abhinav, you need identify the reason for your inconsistency and only then will you be able to find a solution to the problem. Suggest that you go through the last 3-4 Mocks and try and understand the reason for doing (or not doing) well in the section(s). Call me at 9811155160 any time today or tomorrow in case you want to discuss the issue.
Hi sir,
Wanted to ask you regarding past CAT RCs. The passages in 2000-2003 paper are pretty long(have just gone through these till now), longer than the ones in sample Cat paper. What do you think should be the ideal time for solving these long RCs which are about 1000 words long with 8 questions in each RC?.
Also in the actual CAT exam, how much time should one spend on critical reasoning as acc to the sample cat paper given by IIM A, 24 questions will be from RC and 10 from CR.
Also, you have mentioned in the post about 100 sec per question. Likewise, In past papers comprising 55 ques in each section, what should be the time limit? 90 mins or less?.
Urvashi, yes these are a bit longer but the kind that you an expect in CAT and hence my suggestion to attempt these papers. The RC passages in the CAT 2015 Mock CAT released by CAT authorities are also from old CAT papers (2003-08).
Assuming that CAT 2015 is the same as mock provided by CAT I would look at 15-20 minutes for Verbal and 40-45 minutes for RC.
For all past papers I would stick to 100 sec per question and for a section with 55 questions you should give yourself around 95 minutes.
what should we guys practice to solve algebra that usually asked in cl mocks
Khushal, Test Gym should be sufficient.
Sir I wanted to know, how much percentile does SP Jain take in normally?
Considering the good academic and co-curricular profile i have.
Shrey, SP Jain has two kinds of calls:
1. Profile based calls – criteria are your answers in the form, past academics and quantity & relevance of work experience. This category needs a score of at least 85%ile in sections and overall.
2. Marks based calls – criteria is CAT score and this category needs over 97%ile in aggregate and ata least 85%ile in sections.
Sir, its high time already.
And I guess, a bit too late to post a question like this.
Sir, I have been doing pathetically at DI (the graphs, pie charts, etc.). May be I haven’t practised well or something. Also, I never could crack DI’s easily.
Please suggest me, how do I gear up the prep. now to do well in DI. Ant strategy?
Also, Sir i am not very good and quick with calculating orally. Hence, I end up making mistakes or leaving the questions unattempted in ARITHMETIC. What do I do?
Shuchi, my apologies too for the delay in responding to your message. Call me at 9811155160 any time today or tomorrow to discuss the issues.
SIR I NEED YOUR HELP REGARDING CAT 2015 PREPARATION. SIR I AM REALLY STUCK…..PLEASE HELP ME OUT. CAN I MAIL YOU MY QUERY SIR OR SHOULD I POST IT HERE?
Jayesh, call me at 9811155160 to discuss.
Hello sir,
I’ve attempted # mocks till now but my percentile in all the past 3 mocks have been in the range of 50-60. Pls suggest some tips so that I can pull it up to 90+.
Bikash, Call me at 9811155160 any time today or tomorrow to discuss the issue.
Sir, I am sorted with my quant and verbal section in CAT.. but DI-LR seems to be a problem.. I just am not able to select the right sets that can be attempted.. and sometimes i end up investing time in sets and don’t do them at all.. Please suggest something..
Navdeep, Call me at 9811155160 any time today or tomorrow to discuss the issue.
Sir
What should be my number of attempts in each section as I belong to st category
Sona, as a ST candidate you should have at least 80%ile (preferably 85%ile) to be sure of a call from all IIMs and other top institutes.
My estimate is that a net 12-13 correct answers should be sufficient for a 85%ile in each section.
Hi Sir,
Hope I would get a reply ASAP .
29 days to go for the D-Day n I’m like super tensed n worried because of my Mock Scores. I take Cl Mocks and my percentiles are although increasing but like very slow I was around 38% when I Started and now With the last Proc Mock 20 , I was at 70 % which deepens my sorrow of not good percentile . With the strategy what you mentioned in this article will I be able to stand beyond 90+percentile . Or else please let me know the strategy that I should be done to achieve it
Thanks n regards
Jayanth
Jayanth, apologies for the delay in responding to your message. Please call me at 9811155160 to discuss the issue.
si gp sir ,
the cat pattern has changed again in RC sec which now has 6 ques and 3 ques wat is the approch that u suggest ?and do CL sec test and mocks have the same pattern …….im a CL student
Shashidhar, Assuming that CAT 2015 is the same as the mock provided by CAT, you do not need to change your strategy for QA and DILR.
In VRC I would look at 15-20 minutes for Verbal and 40-45 minutes for RC.
The pattern of CL mocks has changed effective Mock CAT 20.
Sir,
Your comments on MOCK exam released on the website. What are the important takeaways ?
Yash, apologies for the delay, it will be released today/tomorrow.
sir,
I am takin my nmat on the 3rd of november.
please suggest how I should use the test gym lite.
and will it be sufficient.
Anadi, for NMAT you should predominantly be solving Level 1 and Level 2 problems of the Test Gym Lite. You should be looking to score a 7/7 in the Level 1 tests and at least a 5/7 in the Level 2 tests.
Hi Sir, I am a working professional and have been giving CL mocks in the past few months. While my VRC percentile is consistently 90 percentile plus, I have been getting around 70-80 percentile consistently in QA and DI/LR which drags my score down. I took up the Smart Quant Cracker course only a week back and have started going through the sessions. I have also applied for SNAP and NMAT which are scheduled on 7th and 20th Dec respectively.
I intend to finish the Quant cracker course along with the schedule above.
My confusion is: with a plethora of tests available in the SIS portal(Test Gym Lite/Adaptive and Sectional tests) should I practice the 15 NMAT and SNAP tests too before CAT?
Also, I plan to cut down upon verbal practice and devote that sectional test time to QA and DI/LR.
Will it be a good startegy?
Please guide me with the same. Thanks a lot!
Kushagra, apologies for missing you message. Call me in the evening at 9811155160 to discuss.
Thanx a lot Sir,
I always follow your post,they are very very insightful.
SIr,in recent CL and TIME mocks m generally scoring 105-140 and percentile varies from 85-93 percentile.
How much score I should get approximately considering the difficulty same as CL mocks so as to score above 98%tile in CAT 2015,and is it possible to improve percentile by that much in one month.
Surabhi, apologies for the delay in responding to you message.
Since you are averaging around 90%ile in Mock CATs, you are in line for around 95%ile in CAT. My estimate is that in CAT 2016 a score of around 155 could get you a 97-98%ile.
hi sir
recently tried IIM profilizer to checck out my status it show not a single iims come in my score i have 49 in x , 62 in xii and 66 in bachelors and 6 mnth experience get around 70 percentile and with 1 month left i am hoping to reach the target of 95 but after seeing this what should i consider is there any institute which i can see in my scores or should i go for local mba what about colleges under snap and xat.
thanks & regards
shashank
Shashank, while the IIMs are not possible with your academics but most of the other top institutes have a low/no weight for the same and are all possible for you. IIFT, XAT, IITs (except Bombay) SANP institutes etc can be your target.
GP Sir….
i gave a Mock today..
My typical style of attempting the paper is JUST like yours…
VA in 30 mins….30 mins RCS…then i spend 10 mins on LR…
next i spend 70 mins on QA + DI (just like u with 2 rounds)
Then in the last 30 mins i give 15 15 mins each section based on paper
RCs and VA are my strength..LR is a DEFIINITE weakness..hence i only attempt the easiest set
This test had 4 Rcs and 3 LRs
This time i took 40 mins fr VA
i found RCs tough so i attempted 1 RC and thot ill try my hand at LR..
turns out the LRs wernt easy…and i wasted 12 mins on 3 LRs with 0 answers..(i left each with about 3-4 mins work)
Could barely do 1 more RC
Now as time for sections 2 was almost up..had to rush to section 1…
TOTAL CHAOS..AND PANICK..
Bcoz of this i REALLY PERFORMED AT MY WORST IN Section 2..
this CANOT happen in CAT…please give some suggestion as to how to avoid this..
iv learnt my lesson..will never attempt LR b4 30 mins of RC..no matter wot…any other suggestion from u sir will be great!!
Rushil,
At this last moment, please don’t experiment with your strategy, If something is working for you …keep on doing that
In the exam please stick to sectional timelines that you have decided for yourself.
in the next week please revise all QA concepts….give one more mock to finalize your strategy
All the best !
Hi Sir
This is off topic but your advice would be very helpful. I have not come up with any kind of preparations for quants. I am relatively stronger in LR and Verbal and I score above 90 percentile in the second section. I can solve DI but I did not work on the quant topics. I understand my chances of faring well in CAT are quite low but do I have any reason to hope to getting into the top colleges through XAT and SNAP if I work on quants now?
Thanks
Dear Mona,
Please focus on your strength area related to quant. Do not panic. Focus on the frequently asked topics from the various exams past year papers and you will be able to do well. You can definitely do well in SNAP as well as XAT as you have sufficient time to appear for both these exams.
Team CL
Hi Sir,
The mock cat given on the CAT website has 5 options for most of the ques in VA section but not in QA. Also there is no vocab based (fill in the blanks) or confusing words or odd sentence ques in the mock. Shall we expect the same pattern in main exam as well?
Varun, as per the latest document released by CAT on “Test Duration and Pattern” each correct answer will get +3 marks and incorrect answer will get a -1 hence CAT’14 should have 4 choices.
The kind of questions in the Mock CAT by IIMs is only indicative and it does not mean that these questions types will be asked in the paper.
CAT website specifically stated that mock is only for experience and difficulty level will not be the same. The markings would be +3 for correct and -1 for incorrect on the CAT website (https://iimcat.ac.in/EForms/Mock/Web_App_Template/756/1/PDF/Test_Duration_format.pdf) so probably the options will remain 4 only.
However read the directions prior to the exam very carefully as CAT website is not clear on the directions in the Mock on the website.
Sir,
I am well on my way to finish the DI papers from 1990-1999.
In quant till now i have covered till 1999 paper( starting from 1995)
VA/EU 1997-2001
RC & LR i am focusing on papers from 2003-2008.
I noticed some of the RC’s in the 2000 paper or prior to 2003 were extremely lengthy and have 5 (min) to – 8(max) questions.
Since the IIM website has said RC will be in blocks of 4.Is it advisable to focus only on RC’s from 2003-2008.
Also i feel the level of LR prior to 2002 was quite nimble and not at par with what i have seen in the mocks.So i am taking the time to focus only on 2003-2008 papers.
My cat is on the 22nd. Morning slot.
Also, is it advisable to take another mock with 2 weeks to my CAT date or should i stick to old papers only and revise questions from the mock cats i have taken?
Regards,
Abheek
Please do give a mock before you go in for CAT to check your strategy as well as orient yourself to be stuck before a computer screen for 170+ minutes.
At this stage go back & revise the concepts that you have learnt…fine tune your strategy.
All the Best!!
Sir
I know its a bit late..but still better late than never….While analyzing mocks I have realized that there are atleast 7 to 8 question in each mock that I was not able to solve during the exam but as soon as I came back and tried again I was easily able to solve them. Question were pretty simple but during the exam, it just didnt click. Initially I thought the problem could be due to lack of practice but even after attempting good number of mocks i am still facing the same issue. Any advice on this?
Sanju, it is not uncommon to have a couple of questions like the ones that you mentioned in a paper but 7-8 is high. This is usually because of lack of revision (and not practice). My suggestion is to revise these question types a couple of times and hopefully you will be able to reduce the number of such questions.
Hello sir,
i have been practising di questions from 90-98 cat papers.. But i have faced the same problem of reading incorrect values from the graph inspite of using my admit card..and the options are close even… Please suggest me what should i do as i count di as one of my strengths.. any other questions from di area need to be practised?
deep, using the admit card will only reduce the error but will not eliminate hence if the choices are close you should not attempt such questions.
Sir,
I managed to get a raw score of around 80-90 in the first 3 mocks that i gave in august-september (with a 95 percentile in VA.), but as the D-day is approaching my performance in mocks is getting poorer as i now barely mange to get a score of 55-60 (in the last 4 mocks that i gave in oct-nov). I have absolutely no idea about what went wrong and i fail to understand this negative correlation between increased practise and a poorer performance. With only a week for CAT i have lost all hope and seek your advise regarding what should be the approprate course of action for me at this point. Also, could my poorer scores be attributed to the increasing difficulty level of the last couple of mocks?
Nikita, you need to relax. You are pressurising yourself and that is possibly impacting your performance. Give me a call in the evening at 9811155160 to discuss.
GP Sir,
I have my cat on 16th mornin..
My scores are around 130-150
i am currently givin mocks once in 3 days and preparing on that in the other 2 days(3 if needed)
As ive given plenty mocks..im focusing more on Past cat papers…
Although i have 2 question:
!::: What shud i do in the last 3 days…shud i tak a mock..not tak one..just revise..
2::: Thee are soo many questions in the past CAT (especially DI/LR)…is it necessary to do all??!!
I am focusing only on 1990-98 for DI/LR
Hello Sir
I’m confused in maintaining higher accuracy or raw score. While higher accuracy is always said to be good, is it okay to maintain higher accuracy at the cost of reducing raw score(slightly) ? Currently I’m going with a predetermined strategy to attempt 55+ qns. While i’m doing that, I’m losing out on the accuracy. Also wanted to know if percentile only depends on raw score or accuracy for a small range of same raw scores.
Hope to get your guidance.
Thanks
Vineeth
Vineeth, a higher score with lower accuracy is preferable since a higher score will give you a higher percentile. There is no data to suggest that higher accuracy is rewarded and same raw score gets same percentile.
Sir,
CAT Percentile predictor estimates 95% based on my mock scores. I am attempting at most 55 questions in mock(not every time 🙂 ).
What could be the ideal number of attempts and accuracy in both sections to get 99%+ ?
Category:- general.
Hi Abhiteja,
As the percentile gets higher, the competition gets tougher. To have an assurance of 99+ percentile, one should look to attempt around 70 questions with an accuracy of around 90 %.
Best regards,
Team CL
Hello Sir, My academic profile is as follows:
10th – 77.4 %
12th – 77.8%
Graduation – 76.2 %
I have done B.E. in Electronics and communication branch …. I have a work experience of 12 months in IT sector. Please help me understand what is the minimum percentile i need to get in CAT to ensure a call from the six old IIMs. Please be honest because I have heard that people having 70% in their academic record are not even called for GD/PI in most of the IIMs.
You definitely need a 98+ to expect a call from a good B-School if you are a general category student. However FMS, MDI, XLRI, XIMB don’t even consider X, XII, Graduation marks in your shortlist so you have a lot of options before you.
Hi,
The problem that is coming while doing DI is there are some graphs for which the values are not given. What should we do in this case. As sometimes even a difference of one leads to an incorrect ans..for. eg Q find the number of years for which the differnce of import and export is lesser than the previous year..
Options were 0,1,2,3….And i marked 3 although the ans was 4 as there was a difference of what I had thought it was for a particular year (40) but in reality was 41.
Any SQC technique ??This will help a lot. Or should i start practising points on a scale??
Hi Sir,
Shud questions from expert level be done in the test gym adaptive??
Shayantu, yes if you have reached that level.
Shayantu, graphs in which values are bot given use your rough sheet to extrapolate the point on to the axis so that the error in reading the values is minimised. Also in case the choices are very close it may bot be worth attempting.
GP Sirrr,
I have 16 morning slot..
i am currently doin all ast years papers..plus TGA…and REVISION
My scores in Mocks have stabilised around 140-160
🙂
i wanted to know what should be the plan for the last 3- days
shud i gave a mock then…or avoid one in the last 2 days…
shud i only revise in last 3 days
NO IDEA
So ig u cud please help m out with what exactly i shud b doing in the last 3-4 days
that’d b GR8!!
Looking forward to ur valuable advice.
Regards,
R
PS:i am giving a mock every 3 days …as i have analysed lots of tests and now i want to prepare more than just take tests.
So 1 test+analysis in 3 days currently…and 2 (someyimes 3 if needed) days of preparation on that analysis
Dear Rushil,
In the last 3 days, you need to do revision and solve questions on the TGA. Since you have a morning slot, ensure that your best comes out in that slot. If you need to make any alterations to your biological clock, now is the time to do so. Especially on the last 3 days ,try to simulate your exam day. Get up at the same time as you would on the exam day, perform similar tasks e.g. solving questions at the time of your exam slot and relax so that your mind as well body are exam ready. All the best!
Best regards,
Team CL
Hello Sir! Will CL be releasing the solutions of the Mock Test Provided on the CAT website? It will be of great help to assess our current level.
Shreehari, the solutions to the paper on the CAT website are available in your SIS.
GP sir,
I have been consistently getting percentiles in the range of 97-99.5, but my accuracy while answering is around 70-75%.
How do i improve this?
Also, what to do you suggest i do in these last 15 odd days. Currently i am focusing on writing mocks and analyzing them. Any other tips would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance.
Saurabh, your focus in these last few days should be on practise, analysis and revision of Mocks CATs, old CAT papers and Test Gym.
Regarding accuracy, please check the errors in the last 3-4 Mock CAT and categorise them as silly mistakes or wrong choice of questions. The silly mistakes can be eliminated by not rushing through the questions or calculations. The other type – wrong choice of questions can only be eliminated by avoiding these question types.
Hi GP Sir,
I am a student of CL pune.
In mocks, I am able to attempts around 45 (QA 21-24, VA 23-26)
but end up doing around 12-13 wrongs.
In QA, after analyze I observed, I hit the right (easy)questions
but due to the silly mistakes, I end up doing 5-6 wrongs out of around 22. And the break point here is I revise regularly but still not able to move.
In VA, I attempt 10 EU 10 LR 5 RC, and in all end up doing 7-8 wrongs
In EU, I do most of the wrongs. I end up doing 4 wrongs in attempts of 10. The problem I face in EU is I am not able to decide to mark or move on and at last end up doing 30-35% wrong attempts
In LR, If I get, I get it right. and in general I solve 2-3 LR and mostly has to leave atleast 1.
In RC, I attempts 2 RC and solve around 5-6 and get 3-4 right.
Please advice what I should follow to maximize the score in last 20 days.
Thanks !!!
HArish, apologise for the delay in responding to you query, please call me at 9811155160 to discuss.
Sir,
I am doing the DI sets from previous year CAT 99-90 papers. The particular values in the graphs is mostly not given. I assume differently and hence my answers go wrong frequently. so, is there a technique to assume values, specially in graphs in which the values are marked by squares or triangles(I mean do we have to take the base value in a square or center value)?
Please help me out.
Regards.
Shruti, if the values are not given and the choices are close you should not attempt the question. In general to read the value of a point on the graph, use your rough sheet to extrapolate the point on the axis. where you do not have a point but a square/circle/triangle you should take the value at the center of the figure.
Thank you sir,
Will keep this in mind.
Sir,
any views on the new Mock CAT sample given on the website of IIM. Some new question types have been incorporated and some old ones like FIj…there are no Para completion…etc..
Shayantu, almost all the questions are for CAT papers of 2004-08. You can see some of the questions that we covered in SQC in QADI. The paper is indicative and question types will be added or deleted. For example I still do not expect FIJ to appear in CAT’14.
Hi,
Thank you sir for the reply. Sir, what kind of questions do you expect in verbal Logic.
Which type of questions should I practice.
Critical reasoning, Summary, Syllogism..should these suffice or more is required.
Also Para Completion did not feature…but it is important right??
Shayantu, Para Jumbles, Odd statement, Para Completion, Critical Reasoning, Summary and Deductive Logic (Syllogism) are important for verbal logic.
Sir
What is the likely cut off for IIFT, and what range are the sectional cut offs around?
Also, since some B schools have already started application windows, what college among FMS, Spjain and MDI would be a feasable option to apply(they close within November)? I have two years work ex in a pvt sector bank but my graduation score was 51%. Also my projected score on CAT predictor is 92% as of now.
Thanks Akansha
Akansha, please refer to the post GP’s 9 fool-proof fundas for IIFT for your queries on IIFT.
With you experience you can consider applying to SP Jain since they give profile based calls at less than 95%ile also. You can consider MDI also, its cut off is around 97%ile for the MBA program but is slightly lower for HR and IM programs. However unless you are reasonably sure of increasing your CAT score to 99%ile it may not be worthwhile applying to FMS.
Sir,
What is the bare minimum one should score in Section 1 & 2 individually to get past 80pc in each at any cost? Thank you.
Gopal, my estimate is that 50 marks in each section should be 85%ile.
Respected Sir,
In the mocks i am getting scores around 70 – 80 but after the exam when i solve the questions i am able to get around 100 marks and in the exam i am some times missing to attempt easy questions.
I am good at number systems and algebra but i am not able to solve questions from geometry and many a times missing out to comprehend the DI set’s and i am finally landing up either with the wrong answer or not able to attempt the DI.
And when i see the solutions they seem to be easy.
Coming to QA i am able to do paracompletion and parajumbling questions but i found the LR’s in the mocks difficult(will the lr’s in final cat be that difficult?) and able to attempt 2 rc’s.And i am not good at vocabulary.
Please suggest me on how to improve my score so that i will be able to reach 120-130 mark in the final CAT.
Regards,
Chaitanya.
Chaitanya, Please pick up the last 3 mocks that you have taken and go through the QADI questions again and in each paper identify:
1. how many questions were solve-able for you in the paper?
2. how many of these solve-able questions did you miss attempting?
3. what was the reason of mistake in the questions that you marked incorrectly – silly mistake or choice of question?
4. in how many questions did you spend a couple of minutes (or more) and then left it without marking an answer since you could not solve them?
The biggest reason for low attempts in QADI is the amount of time that is wasted in trying to solve questions that you are not sure of solving (point 4 above). Each such question leads to a loss of approximately 3 minutes and if your can eliminate this time wastage you would have sufficient time for the extra questions without increasing your speed.
DI and LR in the mocks are more difficult that what you can expect in CAT and hopefully you will be able to handle them in CAT. Please refer to the post 4 Weeks to CAT’14 – Ab billi door nahin for guidance on what to do in the next 20 days to CAT.
Sir,
Firstly, thank you very much for all your efforts and how you are understanding every aspect and every dark side of us students. It is really appreciated.
My query would be that I have my NMAT Scheduled on 30th of this month. With less than 3 days, I am feeling psychologically very blank. I do not know what to do exactly in these three days. if you could just help me out with this, it would be great!
Also, an overview of my analysis for CAT is that in all the mocks which I have given so far, I am getting an overall score ranging between the numbers 85-95.
Just in the previous mock, I got a score of 114 which turned out to be easier compared to the other ones. So, in order to maintain this what are some of the measures and means you would advice me to take and do with around 25 days to my CAT? Plus I have a personal issue as well which is burdening me as my college semester exams is clashing and I obviously cannot score less in those exams as well. So balancing the time, quality and quantity of the studies will be highly challenging for me. If you could give any insights.
Thanking you
Hriday Bajaj
St. Xavier’s College
Kolkata
Hriday, just ignore NMAT and assume that you are preparing for CAT and things should be easier. In the last couple of days just revise all the NMAT Mocks/FLTs and if you have already done it then take sectional tests of CAT.
As far as CAT is considered, please pick up the last 3 mocks that you have taken and go through the QADI questions again and in each paper identify:
1. how many questions were solve-able for you in the paper?
2. how many of these solve-able questions did you miss attempting?
3. what was the reason of mistake in the questions that you marked incorrectly – silly mistake or choice of question?
4. in how many questions did you spend a couple of minutes (or more) and then left it without marking an answer since you could not solve them?
The biggest reason for low attempts in QADI is the amount of time that is wasted in trying to solve questions that you are not sure of solving (point 4 above). Each such question leads to a loss of approximately 3 minutes and if your can eliminate this time wastage (point 4) you would have sufficient time for the extra questions (point 2) without increasing your speed.
Thank you sir. Means a lot.
Also, I just finished giving a mock NMAT and scored a 213
My English score was 54
My QA score was 108
and my LR score was 51
But I feel that the LR section is not weak as I can solve sets of CAT based LR sets. But this has codes and other sets of LR, which can be solved by me, but it takes a couple of more minutes during the mock/exam which I give.
Any insights on improvement on this particular part?
Thanking you
Hriday Bajaj
Hriday, while your QA score is very good the other two need to improved. A minimum score of 55 in LS and 65 in LR is required to ensure that you clear the sectional cutoffs hence in these two days practice and revise LR and LS from all the NMAT mocks, FLTs and sectional tests. This will most probably be sufficient for you to do well on 30th.
Definitely sir. Thank you.!
Respected Sir,
My strength is QA & DI i.e. Section-1. I want to attempt minimum no. of question from Sec-2 i.e. LR, RC, VA, Grammar, Vocabulary etc. and use more time for Sec-1. How much least no. of attempt in Sec-2 with either 80% accuracy, can provide >90%tile. as follows,
1. Section-2 : With 80% accuracy minimum no. of attempts = ?
2. Section-2 : With >80% accuracy minimum no. of attempts = ?
corresponding Section-1 : With >80% accuracy minimum no. of attempts = ?
Also I am facing some problem recently during full length exam,
1. After increasing my no. of attempts my silly mistakes or unforced errors also increased proportionally.
2. I am feeling some inertia OR rigidity when I am shifting from on portion to another portion, such that from QA – LR – DI – RC – VA.
3. How can I hold my same concentration level from 1st to last second?
Please help me.
Regards,
SIB SANKAR SAHA
Sib Sankar Saha, you should ensure a score of over 90%ile in Sections 2 which would be possible with 60 marks in VALR.
Increasing attempts leads to higher errors because you are working at a higher speed. Hence look at increasing your attempts by only a couple of questions in each section and once you are comfortable with it only then mover to the next level. Another thing that needs to be looked at is the amount of time that you are wasting in trying to solve questions that you are not sure of solving, in QADI each such question leads to a loss of approximately 3 minutes and if your can eliminate this time wastage you would have sufficient time for the extra questions without increasing your speed.
It is very natural to have rigidity when you move from one section to the other and hence it is useful to attempt the easiest questions from the section initially.
Thank you Sir. Your advice is always like an oasis in a desert.
Regards,
SIB SANKAR SAHA
CL Student.
The best advice till date.. Have Changed my last month prep better than anything else.. A warm thank you to you sir.. Well, anyway, i still want to shoot a query, as my friends were saying that with my acads even 100%ile score wouldn’t fetch me a,b,c calls ( not that I’m scoring that kinda score, my recent mocks have been in between 100-130, previously it used to be 80-100), and I request you to please confirm if that’s true. I have got an yearlag in b.tech and the dgpa upon completing the course will be 6.95. And X and XII were 71 and 68 respectively. And also can you suggest some colleges according to the percentile you assume I can score? I am a sc candidate. Thanking you again.
kiko, the gap of an year in B.Tech is not an issue. With your marks in X, XII and graduation IIM B and C might be a problem but interview calls are possible from IIM A, most of the other IIMs and other top B schools.
With your current performance (average score of 115 in mocks) you should be above 98%ile in CAT’14 and hence almost all institutes except FMS, IIT Mumbai and the top IIMs are possible.
Thank you sir, I don’t want to impose anything, but as I am a sc candidate.. Is it because of the graduation lag for which I will not get a call from fms?? And I don’t know what is iimt mumbai..
Kiko, you need to get rid of your imaginary fears. I am repeating that your gap year will not be a reason for rejection but if you choose to believe otherwise it cannot be helped.
As a SC candidate a score of 90%ile in CAT will be sufficient for calls from all IIMs, IITs, FMS and NITIE. Just focus on your preparation.
Greetings,
Sorry for irrevelent question. Can we get some help for S P Jain Form Filling on SIS homepage? Like if anyone willing to apply tht college can send their resume in detail, answers for thier questions asked in application etc., to an email or enter in for min SIS page .. can they get feedback and needed help?? pls see into this GP SIR.
Sumakesh, will try have have this implemented.
Sir, my Cat percentile predictor is showing 94 percentile(97 for best attempt), which colleges should I apply for?
and my profile is kinda weak,
10th- 83.25
12th- 66.56
B. Tech- 63.1, passed in 2014, 1 year gap between 12 th and grad
Please reply
Arit, past acads have low or no weightage for most MBA institutes so you can apply to all institutes.
Arit, a post will be published shortly on institutes to apply.
Greetings Sir,
I had emailed you on 20/10/14 with Sub:”Regarding strategy for CAT” on gp@careerlauncher.com. Kindly look into it
Regards
Vaibhav Gupta
Vaibhav, done. Please call me tomorrow in case you want to discuss the issues.
Hello Sir,
As said by you that we should practice CAT previous year question papers, so sir its a humble request to you to please upload video sessions of CAT previous year questions papers discussion on our SIS account. That would be really helpful sir.
Thanks
CL Student
Gaurav, unfortunately there are no videos of previous year CAT papers.
Ok sir. As 20 days are left for CAT exam and i have been practicing previous year CAT papers downloaded from online sites but their solutions are not up to the mark. I also googled the book written by you but it is out of stock and i urgently need that book. So being a CL student can i get that book from CL center.
I would really appreciate if you could provide with me good solutions.
Thanks
Gaurav, the book is available online. Please click on the following links
1. 25 CAT (COMMON ADMISSION TEST) SOLVED PAPER
2. Topic Wise Solutions – CAT Papers
Hi GP,
I am getting frustrated with my marks.In my VALR section I am doing good with attempts ranging from 30-38 and wrong answers in the range of 5-8.
But my pitfall seems to be QUANT where I cant get above 22 questions and that too 4-5 questions wrong.
I know why I am doing this.I get into a panic mode as soon as the clock starts ticking and it makes me hurry. Also if i end up leaving more than 10 questions in a row I start to panic.
The above things lead me to do silly mistakes.
My Scores are in the range:
VALR: 85-90
QADI-45-48
How should I go about increasing my score I want atleast a 99% and I also have a 2 year work experience.
But for that i need atleast 70 marks in QADI.
As you said a score of 165 shud be targeted .Kindly help me get through..i am feeling a bit let down
Shayantu, Apologise for the delay in responding to your query,
What is the big deal about leaving 10 questions in a row? When you have to attempt only about 25 questions you can afford to leave more than this. Your VALR scores are very good and a score of 55+ in QADI will not only be over 90%ile but also, along with a 85 in VALR, give you an overall score of 99%ile. So the problem boils down to improving your QADI score by about 10 marks or having 3 extra correct answers. Your focus on 70 marks in QADI is possibly the reason behind a not so good QADI performance.
The biggest reason for low attempts in QADI is usually the amount of time that is wasted in trying to solve questions that you are not sure of solving. Each such question leads to a loss of 3-4 minutes and leads to time pressure and hence silly mistakes. If your can eliminate this time wastage you would have sufficient time for attempting extra questions without increasing your speed. Please pick up the last 3 mocks that you have taken and go through the QADI questions again and in each paper identify:
1. how many questions were solve-able for you in the paper?
2. how many of these solve-able questions did you miss attempting and why?
3. what was the reason of mistake in the questions that you marked incorrectly – silly mistake or choice of question?
4. in how many questions did you spend a couple of minutes (or more) and then left it without marking an answer since you could not solve them? These are the questions that you need to ensure that you do not attempt in the subsequent papers.
5. Revise questions covered under Point 1 above regularly.
6. Do this exercise for other Mocks as well and revise them also regularly.
Please call me at 9811155160 once you do this analysis for a couple of papers.
K…sir…Thanks for the reply…I will call u in a couple of days
Hi GP
Another CAT SHOCKER: It is written in the Guidelines that :
If you do not understand a question on the test, answer it to the best of your ability.Details on negative marking and penalty on unanswered question will be shared closer to the exam date..
Does this mean we have to try to attempt all the questions and it has slightly turned into GMAT
Shayantu, I think that it is unlikely that CAT 2014 will have a penalty for unanswered questions but it cannot be ruled out and if there is a penalty for unanswered questions then you may need to change the way you attempt CAT 2014. There are three possible scenarios that student’s need to consider:
Scenario 1. Penalty for incorrect answers > Penalty for unanswered questions:
There should be no change in your approach, you should leave difficult questions and attempt the easy and less time consuming questions.
Scenario 2. Penalty for incorrect answers = Penalty for unanswered questions:
In this case you should continue with your focus on the easy and less time consuming questions but in the last 10 minutes of the paper you of should mark an answer to all the unanswered questions. In other words you should not have any unanswered question.
Scenario 3. Penalty for incorrect answers < Penalty for unanswered questions: Follow the approach suggested in Scenario 2.
SIR, PLZ SEE THE 8TH PAGE OF THE TEST DAY GUIDE, IT IS WRITTEN THAT THERE MAY BE A PENALTY FOR UNANSWERED QUESTIONS. PLZ CONFIRM THAT.
Himanshu, relax if it is there, it will be the same for all candidates and will be lower than that for incorrect answers. Hence it should not impact your strategy for attempting the paper.
sir, it means i shud attempt same no. of ques as i would have attempted in a paper with no penalty.
Himanshu, There are three possible scenarios that student’s need to consider:
Scenario 1. Penalty for incorrect answers > Penalty for unanswered questions:
There should be no change in your approach, you should leave difficult questions and attempt the easy and less time consuming questions.
Scenario 2. Penalty for incorrect answers = Penalty for unanswered questions:
In this case you should continue with your focus on the easy and less time consuming questions but in the last 10 minutes of the paper you of should mark an answer to all the unanswered questions. In other words you should not have any unanswered question.
Scenario 3. Penalty for incorrect answers < Penalty for unanswered questions: Follow the approach suggested in Scenario 2.
Thanx a lot sir, it really means a lot… 🙂
Greetings GP sir, In the recent attempts of mock CAT(10*, 12*, and 13*), I have been able to manage following scores:
MOCK CAT 10*— 101
QADI 17 attempts 14 correct. Score: 39
VALR 34 attempts 24 correct. Score: 62
MOCK CAT 12*— 79
QADI 15 attempts 9 correct. Score: 21
VALR 22 attempts 20 correct. Score: 58
MOCK CAT 13*— 98
QADI 17 attempts, 13 correct. Score: 35
VALR 33 attempts, 24 correct. Score: 63
Scores in the VALR section have been decent, but QADI still needs a lot of improvement. Within VALR section, I am comfortable with RC, and VA. I usually attempt 2 sets of LR, but in these mocks have been able to do 1 only. In QADI section, I have found the DI to be difficult due to focus on extensive calculation, and also due to unfamiliarity with certain types. Also I haven’t been able to attempt much in QA as well.
Tips to improve score in QADI and VALR scores.
Mohit, pleae call me at 9811155160 to discuss the issue.
Sir just saw a shocking thing.. !
in the guidelines pdf provided on the iim website (cant copy here seems we r not allowed to).. there is a screenshot of the test window ..and on the upper right corner if u see .. there is an option of calculator available 😮 Please have a look at it once sir.. is there any possibility of this happening ??
Avni, calculators have not been allowed in any MBA entrance in India hence I do not think that it will be available, however we will come to know about this only on 16th Nov. Suggest that you ignore the calculator and if it is available on 16th Nov then all of us will have an easier time doing the calculations.
Sir,
Your posts are always very inspiring.
From where can we get an access to all previous year CAT questions from 1990 to 2008?
Regards
Neha, my book on previous CAT papers are available online. Please click on the following links
1. 25 CAT (COMMON ADMISSION TEST) SOLVED PAPER
2. Topic Wise Solutions – CAT Papers
Sir, thank you for this amazing post.
But, I have some issues. My score is varying between 60-80. I think my few concepts still need to be worked on. But, as you have mentioned that now it is not the time to consider the funda books. Please tell me what should I do?
I analyze tests according to your method, I try to attempt the mock according to your way, but still I am unable to move forward.
Samarth, after the mock when you analyse the paper how many questions are you able to solve in each section?
20 around in va and 15-20 in qa.
Maximum attempted 42. That time my score was 82.
Samarth, please call me at 9811155160 in the evening to discuss.
Sir, my profile is 10-67%, 12- 78%, BBA – 74%. NC-OBC candidate, I want o know whether I will get a call from IIMs or not if I score good %ile in CAT . and please give me some tips for the last 25 days to prepare for Quant.
Thank you in advance
Arun, a CAT score of over 97%ile should get you calls from almost all IIMs.
In QADI you have to focus on essentially on practice and revision. For practice, in addition to the mocks you should do Test Gym Adaptive and here also focus on the topics that you want to attempt in the paper.
Good evening sir,
sir, I am not very comfortable with RCs, and i always prefer doing LR questions. Because of this, i end up doing zero RC passages. And i have followed this pattern for almost all the mocks. Even though when i analyse those mocks, i solve those unsolved RC passages. According to me, there are other questions in the paper which can be solved with accuracy and in less time, like LR questions, QA, VA questions like parajumbles, para completion, etc. But, somewhere i feel that this is not the correct strategy. But while giving mock, I face problem in solving RC due to pressure. So, at this point of time, what should i do?
Pooja, there are no sub sectional cutoffs in CAT hence it is okay to leave RC completely and attempt the rest of the VALR questions. However in this case you would most probably end up attempting the difficult questions of LR and Verbal Logic also and it might be prudent to attempt 1 RC passage, the one that you find to be easy.
Hi Sir,
I am a CL Student.
I have a query that –>”In which Sequence, I should attempt (QA-DI / VA-LR ) Section.
QA/DI is my strength area and I am pretty average in VA-LR(Avg in RC,LR,VA).
(Strengths in VA/LR Section : ParaJumble ,Vocabulary,Commom Confusables,Fill ups ,Easy LR sets, Specefic detail RC(not good at retention when read quickly))
I observed that I feel loaded in VA-LR and my efficiency drops when I attempt it after QA-DI.
I prefer QA-DI 1st for initial boost and confidence.
Should I start with my strength area QA/DI or should I start with VA/LR…?
Please guide me Sir….Thanks alot!!
Aman, my suggestion is to start and end with your strong areas/topics and keep you weakest area in the middle. You should not consider this to be a 2 section paper (QADI & VALR) but work out a sequence based on the 6 subsections – QA, DI, LR, Verbal Logic, RC and English Usage.
Sir,I was wondering about it how to go about my attempt as mentioned by you. But it is becoming highly complicated….Any other simplified approach can I go for..?
Thanks for your valuable time…
Aman
Aman, call me at 9811155160 in the evening to discuss.
Sir,
My CAT slot is 22nd Nov,2014….will that matter in any way…..like LOD of paper, cut offs etc? Is there any disadvantage for me?
Also I have my IIFT on 23rd Nov, what should be my strategy….how should I manage?
AG, the slot will not matter. Most probably all the four papers will be of similar level of difficulty and there will not be any disadvantage to anyone. The students who take the paper of 22nd will possibly be better off because there will not be any surprise factor for them.
Every week you could dedicate 2 days for IIFT, one for old IIFT paper and one for a Mock/FLT.
Thanks a lot Sir
One more thing sir…
Initially I thought I would do GK revision for IIFT only during the one week(16-22) ….but now I do not think I can follow the same strategy…so how should I handle this?
AG, GK should be available in your Test Gym in a couple of days, just focus on taking tests from there. Also do not forget to bookmark and revise.
Sir, I have a doubt? How to revise – RC’s ? I mean, we just do RC – Check what is correct, what is wrong. And leave it. And later on how to revise? Do we have to read entire RC again?
Another doubt, I am planning to give a mock for every 4 days once from 20th october, 2014 which will make it a total – 7 mocks by 13th November, 2014. And also what to do on last three days before CAT? Is it advisable to take a mock in those three days ? If so on when?
thank u
Sumakesh, RC is more of practice and less of revision but to revise RCs go through the questions that you got wrong and also the questions like tone of the author etc.
You could take a mock once in every 3 days and the extra 2 mocks could be of IIFT. In the last 3 days to CAT you should look at revising and not take any fresh papers.
Sir,
I am not giving IIFT – As I am not interested in international management. So, 4 days a mock is ok know?
Sumakesh, sure not a problem.
Hello Sir,
My attempts – 50-55 ques
Each Section- 25-30 ques
Overall Incorrect – Around 20 ques (around 10 in each section)
Reason – mostly silly mistakes and sometimes if I spend some time on a ques and I’m not able to solve it than I mark answer by instinct.
This is happening from last 5-6 mocks as a result of which I am stuck on the score of 70-80 marks. Please help what can I do in these last 25 days that I have.
Ashutosh, 20 incorrect out of 50-55 attempts is excessive. Fortunately you have identified the problem and all you need to do is to give these questions the extra 60 seconds that they deserve. It is better to attempt 50 questions with 7-8 incorrect rather than 55 with 20 incorrect. Go through all these questions again do that you know which question types will need more time.
Thank you sir.
I have send you a text msg on your mobile. Please reply whenever you get time.
Thanks 🙂
Sir, May i please know the chapters in quants that will get me score with a relative ease unlike a chapter like numbers where the concept looks never ending. My issue is that i have not been able to work very hard so far and now i want to put my time into good productive use. If you will be able to suggest specific areas i need to Prioritize, i will definitely make sure that atleast THAT content is done Very Well.
Help!
Nikhil, with CAT less than a month away, you cannot look at starting with new concepts now and will need to focus on the topics or question types that you are good at. The QA part of QADI is likely to be equally split between Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry and you will need to be good in one of them to do well in CAT, each of these have easy and difficult topics but which are the easy ones for you will be difficult to comment. However you could consider focussing on DI, Percentage, SICI, PLD, Time and Work, Progressions, Mensuration and Quadratic Equations. My suggestion is to attempt a Mocks every alternate day and focus on the questions within these papers that you can solve comfortably, i.e. move away from topics to question types.
Thank you 🙂
Sir, thanks a lot for this extremely helpful post.
Please provide the IIFT GK Compendium on the SIS. I have been posting this on your blog since the last 3 posts.
Kindly look into this asap.
Thanks
Vaibhav, GK will be available early next week.
Sir,
Once again a timely and helpful blog-post from you. At this stage, i’d like to ask your advice/action on below questions
– recent new proctored mocks (Mock *10 *12,*13), the analysis section isnt immediately available. previously this was not the case. the percentile would take time, but the analysis was always available post the test. Kindly re-enable this feature in SIS analysis . I feel immediate analysis after a test is the best way. Doing it 3-4 days later doesnt quiet have same effect IMO.
Thank you.
Harish, the test continues in the unproctored mode till Sunday hence the analysis is released on Monday.
hi sir,
m realy confused about the number of questions that should be attempted to get a 90-92 percentile.what will be the exact number of attempts approx to get such a percentile?
Karishma, a score of 105-110 should be sufficient for a score of 90%ile in CAT’14
Sir, I still feel that I am not thorough with my concepts (especially in QA). I feel the need to go back to funda books whenever I face problem solving them in mocks. Each concept seems to be important to me and I spend most of my time revising the concepts than solving the mocks. I feel once I have all concepts internalised then I will go for mocks which sadly will never happen. How to overcome this?
Guruprasad, at this stage of preparation you will need to be selective as you do not have sufficient time to get your concepts in order for all areas. Also you need to accept the reality that you will not be well prepared for 100% of the paper but fortunately you need to attempt only around 60% of the paper so just focus on what you know and ignore the rest. Be Selective but Intensive.
Please refer to the blogpost The Mystery of R1, R2, R3 Solved: Presenting the ‘Strength Finder’ for more guidance on this issue.
Thanks a lot sir, I will start my Practice-analyse-revise schedule from today accepting what I know and intensifying the same. Will post my results soon sir
Sir,
After going through the e-sqc, I am trying to applying sqc method in almost every question, out of these, in some questions, I am able to figure out the scenario of question & its all possible values, but when it comes to go for the correct option, out of the 2 choices, which I consider, after thinking for a time, I mark a option, which is incorrect one out of the two, I had chosen, what to do sir.Especially in geometry, when I see the figure, & I anticipate what will be the value of angle(like out of 30 & 25),there is a narrow miss, when I chose a option.
Please give your views sir.
Regards.
Abhilesh, before you apply these methods to the questions in Mock you should attempt the questions in the session again and revise them a couple of times to ensure that you understand the concept. Also identify questions from the old Mocks in which you can apply these methods and attempt them. Once you are comfortable with the methods only then should you consider applying these methods in the paper. Also if the choices are very close (like 25 & 30 degree) you will not get the answer be drawing the figure.
Sir…
2 Questions
1]While practising these past CAT papers (as sectionals) my FOCUS should still be on attempting only those i am comfertable with right.
Based on how ive given past CL Mocks..it looks like i have a clear attempting strategy (for rejecting too tough questions or questions from sub topics in Colun 3 of Strength Finder)
So i am to use this for the Sectionals too right??
Bcoz i dont think theres any need fussing over very tough questions which i ANYWAYS dont do.
Yes i do agree goin thru these tests is going to help gain acquaintance with CAT 90-08 pattern questions.
Hence ill go thru these..but with a clear REJECTION STRATEGY as i use for the urrent mock CATS (which works very well for me myt i add)
Sounds good?!
2} Also sir…while i think your judgement is unparallel when it comes to CAT..just one thing i wanted to know
What is the reason behind practicing DI sets from CAT 90-99 papers??
3]Any online place to get these past papers??!!
Iv seen your book on the same..but is it available online ??
if not ill certainky purchase the book itself(Although id prefer having an on computer version)
Thanks and Regards
Rushil, agree with you that there is no point wasting time over very tough questions that you ae unlikely to attempt in the paper.
CAT 2000-08 DI had become simpler and also calculation focus was lower. With the reduction in the number of questions the variety of also came down. Also this was the period in which LR became important and a few DI sets involved only observation and counting. Conversely CAT 1990-99 will provide you with a greater variety of calculation as well as logical DI.
I am not aware of any place where the past papers are available in the online format, will make it available for students next year. The book is available online at flipkart, other book stores and at G K Publications.
Superb Sir…
I’ll get the book and practise till i die 🙂
PS: Any news on the Smart Cracker e- sessions for DI/LR/Verbal
I can plan my tests accordingly
**Hopeful eyes**
Sir, Can you plz tell me where the past CAT papers can be found??
Komali, books on pat CAT papers are available in the market, you can also get them online at flipkart, other online book stores and at G K Publications.
Hello Sir,
I have been doing exactly this from past week. My concern is that my score is stuck between 95 and 100. What should I do to boost it upto 120-125? And how much percentile should I expect with the score of 95-100?
And thank you Sir for this post.
Aman, The good thing is that you are consistently doing okay in the papers and 3-4 extra extra correct answers in each sections could take you to the next level. The starting point should be identify:
1. where can you save time? Are there questions in QA, DI & LR that you try to solve but are unable and hence leave them unmarked or mark any choice because you have spent so much time? If yes what is common to these questions?
2. accuracy – how many errors in each questions type (not section)? What is the reason for these errors – can they be rectified or some of these question types should not be attempted in the future.
3. marks per minute. How much time do you give to each sub section,what is your attempt in each and how many correct? The sub sections are – QA, DI, LR, Verbal Logic, English Usage and RC? Which of these give you a better return on investment of time?
Answer the above questions based on your last 4 mocks and you should be able to get the path to 99%ile. Give me a call at 9811155160 after you have done the above in case you need to discuss.
Such a timely post, such an eye opener Sir. You rock, as always…
Hello Sir,
I have been giving CL proctored from the past two months and only now after a long time, in prock mock-10, I scored a score of 95/300 and started to get confidence after, I discussed with you over phone. I reduced the number of attempts and focused on accuracy only.So what is your take on my score of Proc-mock-10 But in a section , I am unable to cover more than 18-19 questions in the given time.
2) After the paper, once I analyze without any time constraint I feel I can attempt a lot more questions. Moreover, I am unable to analyze the verbal part as in CL analysis the solutions appear for all the questions. Kindly help me in this regard.
3) Also sir, I am unable to do the LR and DI questions in the speed with which they must be done and hence failing on that front. Due to this when I come to the RC section, I hardly have time to complete the RC and generally do the questions that can be answered without reading the RC’s.
Kindly help, how I can improve on these three fronts in the next 25 days, so that I can gain confidence by atleast scoring 95+ in mocks before CAT
Sriki, 95 in Proc Mock 10 is a decent score but this is only the first step, you will need to continue with what we discussed on phone and what what has been suggested in this post. Speed will increase with practice and revision only and hopefully in a couple of weeks you will see an increase in attempts.
If DI and LR are taking too much time and not allowing you to attempt RC then it might be useful for you to attempt 1 LR set less and give the time saved to RC.
Dear GP Sir,
1. I get intimidated when I see a data intensive DI set, and generally make a couple of silly errors all the time. This has happened in all mock papers. However, I am comfortable with logical DI. What should be my strategy for the next 10 days ? ( I read at many places that CAT 2013 is throwing a lot of calculation intensive problems).
2. In VA section, even after a lot of practice, the accuracy in RC is not improving. What to do about it ?
3. What kind of LR problems should I focus on in remaining days ? I am comfortable with conventional question types (arrangement, order, binary logic, cubes etc) but when it comes to some new type (as we have seen in the past, CAT has thrown some very innovative problems in LR), I fail to crack them in the given 10 minutes. What if all the 3 LR sets in my CAT slot are of this type ?
Please guide and motivate !
Anand, apologise for the delay, missed responding to your query.
1. Fortunately this year most of the students have reported simple DI sets which typically are simple tables 4-6 rows and columns or bar charts or bar charts. It has been at best one data intensive set out of the three DI sets. Venn diagram (set theory) sets have also been reported. While some of the questions are high on calculations in most of the questions working with the choices reduces the calculation effort significantly.
2. Focus on LR and EU, target 1 RC passage only. You time allocations could be:
a) 30 min to LR @ 10 min/set. Upto 35 min is fine
b) 20 min to EU with a focus on Para Completion, Para Jumble & Fill in the blanks. Attempt sentence correction and phrasal verbs only if you are 100% sure of the answer else leave it.
c) Upto 20 min to RC for 1-2 passages, attempt only that passage whose subject you are comfortable with. An alternate approach could be to read all the RC question and answer only the specific detail questions from all passages.
3. What you have is sufficient in LR, just make sure that you have practiced all LR questions from the old CAT papers.
Dear Sir,
I have exactly 20 days left for CAT and although i enrolled for Coaching with Cl from july but due to various reasons was not able to study anything and even missed out on many classes. I have practtically started studying from October Only. However with just 20 days left I am thoroughly consfued as what to to,
I am currently going through concept books and tryin to solve Class handouts ( i know its unimaginably late!) .But its taking too much time, Sir I am really confused as how to maximize my 20 days as i still don want to give up.
Please guide me Sir on what I should do in 20 days. Also I have given about 3 mocks only ;-( and percentiles are quite low (70`s range with missing the cutoff in Quant)
Sir i know i am sounding very funny and messed up but is there any way u can guide me to maximize my prepration and what i should do in these 20 days given the negligible preparation ;-( ;-()
Yssh, just stick to past CAT papers, your target should be to attempt all questions of CAT 1990 – 2008 as suggested in this post. Please target completing these CAT papers in the next 4-5 days and then go for a Mock CATs you can take a Mock CAT once in 3 days till CAT but they too have to be analysed and revised as suggested in this post.
Going to fundabooks and class sheets at this late stage will not be of any help. It might be useful to enrol for the QA module of Smart CAT Cracker as it will clear your QA fundas as it has an application focus.
Hello Sir,
I Attended the wexex session on Cat First Day held just now. You mentioned that all 3 sets of RC and LR were do-able. However, after doing 2 sets each of RC and LR , if we want to do one of the remaining RC and LR set, which one do you sugegst we do, given that LR takes time but we can get it right;while RC can be done in elss time but there’s a chance of getting it wrong?
(PS : I am comfortable with both RC and LR)
Pulkit, you area of strength (between LR and RC) should get the preference for the extraa set.
sir I wanted to know that as there are only 62 seats alloted in srcc for the mba programe….sir do they ONLY give prefrence to the bcom students of srcc..or do they take outside students also…? sir please do reply
Niharika, there is no preference for SRCC or B.Com. students in GBO program. The admission is through an admission test.
hello sir
if I get 15 questions right in both the sections each…will i be able to score a 90 percentile? sir plz do reply
Nikita, yes it is possible but could be a borderline case.
thank you sir…sir if i do the CL worksheets and the test gym will it be possible to get through geometry and algebra…i have solved the sums from test gym..but havnt done from the funda books…
Nikita, yes this along with Mock CATs and past CAT papers is sufficient.
hello sir…Do the cat based tests in test gym contain all the past cat question so ..need not to go to the collection of past papers.. practicing from here wud b enuf…??????????rply asap sir plz!!!
Pinku, the CAT based tests contains questions from past CAT papers but not all.
GP Sir,
I was not sure where to find you, hence thought would write here. Will it be possible for you take a session on visual DI? Previous sessions on SQC have been very helpful to improve the score. Tips on how we can crack a DI question just from looking at the graphs and with minimal calculations will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much!
NEha, it is not planned but will see if it can be done in the next 2-3 days. You can however go through the videos of Proctored Mock-CATs in which Niraj, Gejo and I have discussed the DI sets.
Sir u said that fundabooks are not of much use now but if i dont know the basics of any topic,i dont think i can manage solving the problems without going through the fundabooks atleast once.
RK, if your basics are not in place then you need to to go through the fundabooks but with CAT starting on 16th Oct, do you have sufficient time? My suggestion will be to consider Smart CAT Cracker QA Module for getting your fundas in place.
Sir the videos offered by 361 degree minds have been helpful.Can i rely on the videos for the fundamentals??
RK, yes you can.
hello sir….wanted to ask that institutes like LBSIM,IMT GAZIABAD,BIMTECH NOIDA,MHROD,MIU…can we fill the forms of the respective institutes after our cat exam..my exam is on the 1st of nov…can i fill the forms after my cat exam? do they extend their dates..like for imt gaziabad the last date is 15th of oct…sir plase do reply
Nikita, extension of date cannot be confirmed and hence it is advisable to apply based on your estimated CAT percentile based on your Mock CAT scores or based on CL Percentile Predictor
hello sir…my cat will be on 1st nov…n till now m very low in accuracy…n low score in mocks…plzz suggest how to make most out of these last 20 days dat i can score well.. getting low score in quant as the solution didnt hit me while attemptng and in VA its incorrect…wat to do in dis last days for a 85-90 percentile …plzz reply asap sir…!!
n ryt nw …m doing past cat questions plus proc mock…r they enuf…???
Pinku, Past CAT papers and Mock CATs are good enough.
Pinku, just follow the schedule that has been suggested in this blog post.
Hello Sir,
I wanted to know, that does the normalization process carried by CAT consider accuracy of a candidate while determining his/her percentile or is it solely based on the final score of the candidate ??
Lets say, an attempt of 18 ques, 15 correct, 3 wrong, score of 42 ( 80% accuracy ) by candidate 1 and an attempt of 14 ques, 14 correct, 0 wrong ( 100% accuracy ) by candidate 2. Will both these attempts fetch the 2 candidates same percentile in the same paper ???
Ankit, it is the net score and not accuracy that is important. In the example mentioned by you, both candidates will get the same percentile.
Thanku sir.
Also, I wanted to ask , will marks around 40 in each section be suffice to get a score of 90+ % in each section with overall 95% score ??
Ankit, yes 40 marks in each section should get you around 85-90%ile in each section based on CAT’12 data.
Hello GP sir,
I have appeared for CAT a couple of times. Last year I scored a lowly 91 percentile but got a call from XLRI, IIFT and NMIMS among others, though I could not make it in any of them. My paper for this year is on 1st Nov.
In most of the mocks that I have appeared till now and I have been scoring decent marks in verbal section with more than 95 percentile in the last four. But it is Quants which worries me a lot. My scores here lies around 30 marks, though after the exam I am able to solve most of the questions.
Can you please suggest me as to where I might be going wrong and what should be my strategy for the remaining 20 days. I have almost whole day at my disposal.
I am getting a little impatient with my Quant preparation and I do not want to screw CAT this time.
Thanks for the help sir.
Yash, in the remaining 20 days to CAT you should focus only on past CAT papers and Mock CATs as suggested in this blogpost. Since you are able to solve most of the QA questions after the paper, it is not a problem of knowledge but of test taking techniques. Please refer to the following blogposts to work out your strategy in QA:
1. 7 Rules to Excel in QA
2. The Mystery of R1, R2, R3 Solved: Presenting the ‘Strength Finder’
3. Things you must-do after every mock you take
4. Are you Choosing the Right Questions in your Mocks?
5. The single-most unpardonable, gravest sin you can commit in CAT
Thanks Sir. I am trying to apply these methods during and after the test but it is just not working right now. Hoping for the best as the D-Day is so near.
Yash, try to relax in the paper, maybe you are putting yourself under pressure in the QADI section. Target only 15 questions and choose the questions carefully.
Hello Sir, I am coming back to you with almost the same query again. My performance in verbal continues to be decent with percentiles more than 97 percentile all the time but still my Quants is vulnerable.
Like today I gave the Proc Mock 10(my last mock before CAT) I scored 98.XX in verbal but only 65 percentile in quants. I have attempted 22 questions from Quants section. This means that I am able to attempt the decent number of questions but because of silly mistakes I got 8 of them wrong.
I have my CAT on 1st i.e. 3 days from now. I am not sure how to avoid these mistakes in the exam. Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Thank you sir,
Yash
Yash, please call me at 9811155160 in the evening to discuss the issue.
sir if i get 27-28 questions right out of 60 questions then how much percentile should i expect? will i be able to get through imi delhi,lbsim or fore delhi? sir please reply
Rahul, based on CAT’12 it would be around 90%ile
sir can i apply to IMT GAZIABAD,LBSIM,BIMTECH NOIDA,MHROD…after my CAT EXAM? my exam is on 1st nov..do they extend d last dates…?
Arpita, last date may not be extended so do not take a chance apply on the basis of your estimated CAT percentile.
sir if i get 18-19 questions right in both the sections each…then how much percentile will i be able to secure? please reply
Arpita, based on CAT’12 data, this will mean over 95%ile each section and an overall score of over 98%ile
hello sir
sir my DI is not upto the mark
sir if i only do the sums from proc mock , unproc mock and cat papers will it be enuf to get a decent score in DI?
Anam, this is enough but do them 2-3 times
thank you sir..sir by practicing the DI sums frm proc unproc will I BE able to attempt ATLEAST ONE SET FROM DI?
Anam, yes it would be possible if you attempt all the DI sets in Mocks CATs and in past CAT papers.
Sir , I wanted to know how do you rate Proc Mock 10 in par with CAT exam when it comes to difficulty level . Should i be concentrating on the same difficulty level of questions which we got on mock 10 till my D-day ? If of the same level as of mock 10 , how much should i look for to get 98+ in actual CAT ( i got 89 marks in mock 10)
Hi Sir , Can you please reply to my post , looking for your reply
Neha, Proc Mock 10 is at par with CAT especially the DI and the VALR sections. For 98%ile the score should be around 108 and you needed a couple of extra correct answers in each section.
Please check the Mock CAT 10 analysis in your SIS for details.
hello sir
sir my acads m,arks are all in 70s..sir for SRCC do they put more weightage on the past academic records or clearing the GBO exam and gdpi would do…? sir what is the sectional cutoff for the GBO entrance…? and sir the number of seats alloted for the same please do reply
Anaali, only the top IIMs are hung up on academics. Most of the other institutes admit students on the basis of the written test and the GD-Interview process. The program has 62 seats and it does not have sectional cutoffs. Details are given at http://www.srcc.edu/post-graduate-diploma.html
Sir as suggested by you earlier i have solved past cat questions of di/lr,will revising all the questions 2 times be sufficient?
SIR.
M feeling alot of pressure over me sir.!!
m nt well dese days,
Sir please tell me how to reduce dis mental stress..
I dont know how to make myself strong.
please help.
Afreen, you have to remember that there is life outside MBA as well. Even if you do not do well in CAT there will be other opportunities, so relax and things will fall in place.
sir is there any possiblity of getting iift,xat,snap papers questions in CAT EXAM? should i solve iift xat papers for cat..or i should just focus on cat papers?
Richa, it is unlikely and you should focus on CAT papers. Go for XAT and IIFT papers for additional practice only after completing the CAT papers.
hello sir
sir i was able to attempt all the questions of LR in proc mock 10..i attempted almost all the parajumbles and sentence completion question…i attempted RC 2 passages…but I am not comfortable with the grammar questions and vocab…sir if i leave those question will i be able to get through the sectional cutoff…or should i make more attempts? please help
Anvi, an attempt of about 22 questions with 4-5 errors will lead to a score in excess of 98%ile so you can leave sentence correction and vocab question.
hello sir,
some questions of LR which are there in CAT 2008 and 2006 papers like the data sufficiency and paragraph format questions..are they important?
Shreya, these questions can be ignored.
Hi sir
In Test Gym classic , we are having CAT based tests.
Are these tests taken from last year’s CAT question papers..??
If not where can I get CAT based section tests in ‘time bounded’ format??
Pradnya, All the questions in CAT based tests are from previous CAT papers. The year is also mentioned along with the questions.
Sir, the ‘if u dont want to attempt this question in future, u should forget about it’ approach in quant. Is it safely applicable in DI?
Also sir.. please throw some light on the level/type of DI sets in CAT. Can we expect the CAT DI sets to be CL mocks like?
For somebody who has 25 days to CAT.. and is average in DI.. and is targetting atleast 5-6/9 questions in DI..
what can be the best way/source to practice DI? except for the past CAT papers..
Thankyou.
Also sir.. at this point of time.. to maintain the confidence level in quant, should i give a quick topic wise revision to all topics?
Recently m quant section has observed increasing silly mistakes and unforced errors.. which is taking me down.. i willingly dont want to trust bad performance in few tests and i know that i have it in me.. but it does affect trigger some unwanted dilemmas.. what should i do to pick up?
please reply sir..
Done, apologise for the delay.
Sonia, yes a topic wise revision will be useful in reducing the errors and also increasing the speed. For additional practice do attempt the topic wise tests in test gym adaptive.
Sonia, yes, this approach is applicable in DI also. The DI sets in Mock CATs are at par with the ones that came in CAT’11 and CAT’12. Based on CAT’12 a good attempt in DI was 2 out of 3 sets in 15-20 minutes based on your comfort with DI. The best way to prepare for DI will be to attempt the DI sets of past CAT papers as suggested in this blogpost and also to revise all the DI sets of Mock CAT a couple of times.
Sir,
Could you please tell me what should be the number of correct attempts in both the sections to get IIM calls for a OBC candidate? I am not very sure about QA and DI parts, but am strong in the VA and also LR sections.
Sam, please wait for a blogpost on this issue in a couple of days.
Sir i have low attepts in mock papers like QA-10-13 ,va/lr-16-17.
Please suggest some strategy so that i can clear cutoff for IIMS?
Abrar, the only strategy that will help you improve your performance is given in this blogpost – Practice, Analyse and Revise. Focus on the past CAT papers and the mock CATs.
Sir,i was going through DI Qs of previous year CAT papers,from 95 onwards..sir the Qs seem pretty straight forward and simple.Do such Qs still come in CAT? out of the 9 odd Qs in DI how many can we expect to be easy and straight forward? and how much time would you suggest suggest on each of the 3 sets of DI Qs?
thank you.
Jaspreet, you can expect 1 DI set to be simple and 1 difficult, the 3rd set could swing either way. The ideal time for the 3 DI sets is 25 minutes but they should not take more than 30 minutes.
Sir,tough in the sense that it will be calculation intensive or would it be a data set difficult to comprehend.i dont have much problem with long calculations
Jaspreet, based on last two years CAT, it is likely to be calculation intensive rather than difficult to comprehend.
k.sir thanx.Also sir one last thing,i gave proc mock 10 yesterday and scored 82.how would you rate mock 10 with actual CAT? and how would you rate my score?..also sir what score out of 180 would be the general score for 99+ in CAT? my exam is on 10th.so i still have about a month and i’m daily going through test gym and my scores have been increasing.
Jaspreet, Mock 10 is at par with CAT. A score of 82 is a bit low, 98%ile would be around 108 marks. In CAT’12 for 99%ile one needed a raw score in excess of 105
Hi Sir
I am appearing for CAT2013. For the past two months I focused solely on my QA section. As a result my QA percentile has increased to about 90-95 although I am now worried about my English section. My english was good as mostly I used to get 88-92 percentile. But now somehow it has decreased. Actually m a little confused coz when I solve english sectional tests I score gud enuf and in sum mocks am able to score till 97 percentile but the thing is am not able to predict my english perfoemance. PLEASE HELP. Also I wud like to know howmuch shud I attempt and what my percentile shud be in order to ace CAT…NEED UR HELP my xam is on 21st
Sangita, You are on track and do not let minor issues worry you. Given that you are doing well in QADI, I assume that LR is also not a problem for you, hence my suggestion is to focus on th 9 LR questions, 8 VA questions (Para completion, Para Jumbles and Fill in the blanks) and 1-2 RC passages. Please attempt and revise the CAT papers that have been suggested above. An attempt of around 22 (with 4-5 errors) in VALR section is usually good enough to get a score in excess of 97%ile CAT.
Please read the blogpost The Ultimate Guide to the VA-LR section: Make every single minute count., it will help you work out a plan for the VALR section.
Dear GP sir
I need your expert advice on the dilemma I am going through these days regarding my cat 2013 preparation. Prior to citing my problem, let me give my little background. I am an engineering graduate and have been working for past 4 years. I wrote cat last year and scored 91 % (57 in QA&DI, 98.8 in VA& LR). I would say that it was a very loose attempt as I decided to write it just 2 month back and also didn’t put much of the effort. Even though I was aware of my preparation level the score in section 1 was really heartbreaking but I was extremely joyous about my performance in section 2. After a bit of introspection I realized the reason of my low score in section 1. It was mainly due to my disconnection with fundamentals, lack of practice and poor time management. Realizing all these mistakes I am preparing myself this time keeping these in mind.
The real problem as it may appear is not the quants and DI but the Verbal section. I scored good percentile and until 10 days back I was living in that joy only and never bothered to know the reason of my performance. Last time I didn’t prepare for verbal at all. I didn’t go through any lecture on RC, English usage, grammar, etc and as far as I remember I have never done the same in last 6-7 years also. Only thing I remember doing after graduation is reading a lot and communicating In English. First I thought my score was due to good command over LR, but then I solved only 2 sets accounting for 6 questions and left one set. I attempted around 25-26 question in section 2 .I didn’t approach this section with a set strategy. I just remember reading and answering whatever was coming in the way.
You may be wondering about my intension by now. The problem is I am not able to comprehend the reason behind my performance. When I see myself I realize that neither I have an exhaustive vocabulary nor I remember grammar rules by heart, but only I have is an interest and temperament to read. Last week I started to study lecture notes on individual topics of section 2 but then I felt I hardly know anything and there is lot to learn. These lectures gave some strategies to solve problems and when I tried to implement it were conflicting with my way of solving questions. I stopped with the uncertainty in my mind that whether it will harm me or benefit me. I am totally confused. I am completely clueless to frame my preparation strategy and with one month in hand it’s creating panic. It’s affecting my section 1 preparation, where I know I have to do a lot of practise. I would have not asked you these questions and keep doing the same like previous year. But then I know; although I scored 98.8 %, I got 148 marks and this shows that there is lot of scope for further improvement.
Sunny, first of all please stick to your way of solving questions in VA+RC, your natural logic and methods worked last time and there is no need to change. New methods/strategies are likely to confuse you and lead to poor performance. Due to your reading habit you have a logic of your own which works, so stick to it. To improve in this section you need to improve in LR. In CAT’12 the LR questions were easy and if you could attempt only two out of the three sets then there is significant scope of improvement for which you should stick to practice and revision as suggested in this blogpost.
Hello sir,
I have been getting a percentile of 98+ in the mocks except a couple of times.But i have noticed that I hardly attempt any difficult question in quants section in the exam.Those ones which are categorized as difficult in the analysis.Will this be a drawback when scores will be normalized in CAT?
Himanshu, this is the right approach for CAT and all other MBA entrances – leaving the difficult questions. All questions have equal marks so leaving the difficult/time consuming questions is the way to handle the paper. Stick to you way of attempting the paper and you will get calls form top IIMs. All the best.
Thankyou sir 🙂
Sir,
Will you be uploading ESQC-2 video on SIS ? If yes, then when ?
Sir, please upload it as the first version of SQC was very helpful.
Arpan, eSQC 2 will also be uploaded, it will take a couple of days.
general category male
GP Sir,
The highest %ile that I got till date was in proc mock 9 (87%ile).
Should I apply for colleges like imt-G, MDI, (the colleges having their last date before 16th oct).If yes kindly name a few.
My details are-10th-87.4% 12th-78.8% cat 2012-75%ile BE-73% (2013 passout) no work ex.
Kindly suggest some college that I should apply.I HAVE TO take admission this time. Also pls provide the approx cat cutoffs for great lakes , ubs , tapmi.
Please do reply
thanks
Prakhar, Please check the CL Percentile Predictor, if it indicates over 95%ile then you should apply to MDI. Will be writing a blog shortly on the last year’s cutoff of various institutes.
Sir,
my quant is quite good….when I do the question without time constraint I feel very comfortable But in mock cat I end up with low attempt around 13-15. but when I again attempt the mock cat paper I can easily solve the paper with 20-22 attempt…..whr I am lagging??? Plzzz reply sir…….
Kuldeep, you are possibly lacking in revision. If you revise regularly your accuracy and speed both improve. Please refer to my blogpost “Things you must-do after every mock you take”. to identify what to revise.
sir, how important are the 1990-2008 cat papers. Any benefit solving them as they contain huge number of questions. Which years cat papers are the paper that must be sloved ?
Plz help
Arpan, The blogpost above gives the CAT papers that one needs to solve for different sections.
sir, pls reply ASAP! time bohat kam hai!
Done.
Hi Sir,
I am having problem in solving Geometry questions since they consists a major part (4-6 ques) in CAT so I just can’t leave them and concentrate on my strengths . What should I do from now on for this?
Ankur, focus on your strengths but do attempt all the geometry questions from past CAT papers and Mock CATs.
sir,
1-how many minimum number of days it take to complete the whole sis?
2 – how many questions should one do per day in last 30 days?
3 – we have to do full previous year cat papers from 90-98 or only DI section of it as you mentioned in article, but in comments you told someone to do full paper except RC’s.
please reply sir?
4 – I’m not good in quant, so should I focus more on DI?
Akash, yes you can focus more on DI but you still need to attempt about 13-15 out of 21 QA questions since 6 out of 9 DI is very good.
Akash,
1. You will not be able to complete the SIS in 30 days so be selective in deciding what to practice. Test Gym adaptive will be a good option as it will give you questions based upon your level in each topic.
2. number of questions per day is a function of time available but 50-100 questions should be sufficient.
3. At this point of time restrict yourself to the relevant sections in the CAT papers.
Hi GP Sir ,
On the topics given below , my concepts are completely clear ( I can also solve some very difficult questions with ease in these topics)
TSD Ratios Work Progressions Percentages Logarithm Maxima / Minima Functions Algebric Equations Cordinate Geometry
But still i make a lot of silly mistakes in them , most of the questions are solved by me more than once ( in the paper because I commit some mistake or the other in the first time ) and many I end up committing silly mistakes .The problem can be that on the questions from these topics I feel very confident on solving them, so I try to solve them as early as possible in order to solve other questions, which leads to rushing through these questions. I think I need some thorough practice in these topics. I have 2 sources :- Test Gym adaptive or the book ( Topic wise solutions to CAT papers 1990-2008 written by you ) . Please suggest me which one should I use .
My personal inclination is to complete these topics from your book on topic wise solutions to Previous CAT papers(1990-2008) . After that I can keep practicing to stay in touch by using the Test Gym Adaptive.
P.S :- My concepts in these are completely clear . I just end up making many silly mistakes . Please advise any other solution if you think that would be better . I have decided that I need to work for some 2-3 days on these topics before I take another couple of mocks to see what was the improvement made by me in these topics.
Note :- I have full day to myself . Am at home till my CAT on 6-Nov. Please advise accordingly.
Sorry sir , I forgot to mention the 3rd source I have at my disposal, I am also a student of the smart Cat Cracker (complete course) . So, consider this also apart from my other 2 sources .
Rahul, you have correctly identified the reason for silly mistakes and need to be a bit cautious when attempting the questions from topics that you are confident in. For practice on these topics first attempt the questions from past CAT papers and then move on to Test Gym Adaptive. I am in agreement with you not taking a Mock for a few days and brushing up these topics. You could also revise the questions from Mocks also after the CAT papers.
Hi GP sir ,
Please answer a query regarding question selection analysis : If in a mock we make a conceptual error , and commit the same mistake on solving again till we see the solution and get where we had a wrong concept, should this be categorized as unforced error or risky shot ?
Rahul, this will be a “risky shot” but if you understand the solution then in future it may be attempted.
Hi GP Sir,
How many rough sheets ( counting 2 different sides of 1 page as 2) are given in CAT, what was their size ( was it A4) and were they given in the form of separate pages or one booklet(If they give it as booklet , I will also staple A4’s and use them or otherwise). Asking because I want to use similar in my mocks to create the feeling of the CAT Exam in my home mocks.
dear sir,
i am unable understand di set but very familier with percentages and ratios ..when i see those di got scared and left all
which decreased my percentile and goot attempt with 11-12 ques. related to quant with 100% accuracy ….how to improve sir
Inderpal, comfort in percentages and ratios is a big advantage in DI. You are unnecessarily afraid of DI, please practice DI from past CAT papers and you will be able to handle them comfortably.
thank you for help but sir when i attempt previous year and proc cat di i am unable to understand how to apply logic and how to proceed on those sets
Inder, please go through the solutions of the DI sets to get an understanding and then apply that learning to other sets. For example you could understand the solutions of one DI paper and then apply this to other DI sets in other papers.
hi sir ,
i have chosen my date to be 25thoct . i am confused , should i shift my date or stick to it to apply above plans ( i have taken off from 1st of oct for preparation thoug 😛 ) ??
Secondly in mock my attempts are usually arnd 12 in QA/DI and 18 in VA/LR due to wrong selection of ques .. But after re attempting mock i do more than 20 ques easily but w.o time constraints . Please suggest what should i do know ? and is there is enuf time to make improvement ..??????????
Please reply asap sir … Thank you so much for such articles . A COMPLETE EYE OPENER .
Rohit, change of test date is not required. 21 days x 10 hours are sufficient to give finishing touchges to your preparation.
sir the gk questions which is there in the sis account is good enough to get through the iift gk questions.?.from where should we read to through the iift gk question…..please reply
Saanvi, noting is ever sufficient for GK, however the questions in SIS and Management Compass should suffice.
sir any news paper to be followed? please do reply
Saanvi, any newspaper is fine. My preference is Indian Express.
SIR, how 2 go about solving questions ‘find out the sentence which is
out of context out of 4 given sentences’.
I try 2 solve it by approaching them as para jumbles and trying 2
find out which 1 does not fit in the context ; but i go wrong
sometimes .
sir is there a better way 2 approach this questions ?
Ashish, it has to be done as a para jumble only. Possibly some more practice is required.
sir..
m not able to perform good in DI section.
even i cant attempt in mocks..:(
my concepts of DI are not clear.
I try hard but I dont undrstand..
please help me sir to score good in in DI.
Few formulas driven from the graph..m not able to derive that..!!
Ankita, without clearing your concepts of percentages and ratios it will be difficult to do well in DI. Please solve the CAT and the Mock CAT DI set as suggested in this blogpost and revise them a couple of times, hopefully things will fall in place. Also please spend some time with a faculty to clear your basics of DI.
Dear Sir,i would like to ask you that how many attempts(targetting 90+ %)in CAT 2013 would help me score a good percentile(I belong to SC category) as i am weak in QA though i am good in VA.Can you please help me so that i can target to atleast clear the cut off in QA.
Saurabh, as a SC candidate about 13 correct in each section can get you a call from the top IIMs. Since you are good in VA target about 18-20 in this section which will help you cover up in case your QA attempts fall. Do ensure at least 10 correct answers in QADI.
Sir
please tell me the top colleges to apply through the CMAT exam which is to to be held very soon. Is the last date of any top college nearing…??
Bhupendra, at present the top college accepting CMAT score are under CET of Maharashtra, outside this the top college is GIM followed by Somaiya. I expect morte colleges to accept CMAT scores this year but we will have to wait for their notifications.
Sir,
I regularly read your blogs and i find them really helpful…and also the answers to the comments and questions asked other students…thank you
Sir, I am encountering this problem….i am not able to increase my attempts in QA/DI beyond 11-12 questions…i get around 10-11 of them correct but i am taking far too much time..and the times i push my attempts to 15 my accuracy suffers and still i get only around 11 correct…. on good days i get around 90%ile with that kind of attempt but on bad ones i fall to around 60-65%ile…..and by the time i complete my R1…there is less than 10 mins left and i end up not attempting the DI part.
although i am able to solve around 20-22 of the problems when i revise…but not in the test.
please help.
also ..i am taking CAT on 30th
PS: Sir, u missed my earlier query so i have posted again
Deepankar, it was responded, repeating my earier response.
Deepankar, if R1 is taking you 60 minutes then you are not quick in leaving questions. Hope you have read the blogposts – Are you choosing the right questions in your Mock CATs? and The single-most unpardonable, gravest sin you can commit in CAT. It is essential for you to identify the time consuming questions and ensure that you do not waste you time on them. Secondly speed is a function of revision and you need to identify and revise the important questions as suggested in the blogpost Things you must-do after every mock you take. You have sufficient time and can improve your speed and score comfortably.
thank you sir. 🙂
HELLO SIR,
I HAVE RECENTLY JOINED CL AND HAVE ALSO ATTENDED FEW CLASSES….
QA AND DI ARE JUST AWESOME….
BUT ENGLISH IS JUST NOT GOING FINE….. HOW TO START OF WITH ENGLISH ,I HAVE ONE FULL YEAR IN HAND…
PLEASE REPLY SIR……
Chirag, is it for CAT’13 or CAT’14?
Hi GP,
I have been reading your blogs for a few months and have benefited a lot.
I would like your inputs on my strategy on VA.
In my mock CATs, i am attempting 28-30 questions out of which getting 19-21 correct.
I have tried to reduce my attempts (incorrect ones), but my correct attempts have also reduced (for which i am unsure).
So, should i continue with this Correct : Wrong :: 20-21 : 9-10
strategy ??
Please respond.
Deepanshu, while you do need to cut down on your errors, go for what gives you a higher score.
Sir, will you be posting more analyses on the unproc mocks in the coming days? I’ll plan my mocks accordingly
Shaswat, I’ll do so for one more Unproc Mock, will announce shortly.
Sir, since past 2-3 months i have been taking mocks regularly nd also analysing them religiously. My percentiles in mocks usually hover between 92-98 range nd i m finding very difficult to get past 98 mark. Also there are certain areas in which i have tried a lot to improve but wen i face similar problems in mocks i usually tend to skip that questions e.g.-venn diagram,clocks,circular motion problems and counting based questions(how many values/solutions type questions) . Also i struggle very much in DI especially logical one (involving mostly maxima minima type questions) . In english, i m observing a downward trend in RCs.I dont know why is it so. Talking of the latest proc mock 9 that i took on 20th sep i scored badly in VA section in terms of accuracy even though i attempted only those question the answers of which i knew .Also in QA again i attempted very less questions nd in that too accuracy took a dip.
Sir plz help me out what can be done now so as to improve my scores nd also my accuracy improves..
Waiting for your suggestions….
Devesh, hope you have not overdone the test taking or CAT preparation. Many times scores fall because of fatigue and the best way to overcome this is to reduce the intensity of preparation for a couple of days. Mock CAT 9 was a difficult paper due to difficult DI and RC also some QA questions were time consuming.
To improve your accuracy and speed I would suggest revision of the important questions from Mocks and past CAT papers.
I was attempting mocks from CL sis, getting around 85-95 percentile in the proctored mocks section. How much can i expect in CAT 2013?
Neha, please check the CL Percentile Predictor to get an estimate of your CAT percentile.
sir my question is..i am through wid all my quants topic except geometry..have practised from the CL material n took section test from the sis account…i hav my exam on 1st november…sir should i start off with my geometry chapter…? how many days should i devote in it now?
Richa, since you have covered all the topics in QA and Geometry contributes around 6 questions in CAT, you should cover this topic as well. Go through the basics in a couple of days and then attempt all the geometry questions in the past CAT papers and Mock CATs.
Thanks. This is really helpful. I am good at VA/LR section. But the thing is now I am getting my VA questions wrong. I am not even able to find the problem areas. I am done with all my fundabooks of verbal section. After analyzing all the mistake patterns, I even changed my test taking approach. But still the problem of incorrect questions persist. What to do?
Sakshi, just take a break from tests for 3-4 days and revise the questions attempted so far.
Thank you sir for the article. Quite helpful. However I do have one doubt, When you “Revision of all important questions taken in all the mocks so far”, how do we know which are really the important questions from CAT point of view? Or are you referring to all the questions we get incorrect in all mocks? Please could you clarify
Sam, All questions in Mocks and Past CAT papers are important, identify the important questions for yourself as suggested in my blogpost Things you must-do after every mock you take
Sir,
I regularly read your blogs and i find them really helpful…and also the answers to the comments and questions asked other students…thank you
Sir, I am encountering this problem….i am not able to increase my attempts in QA/DI beyond 11-12 questions…i get around 10-11 of them correct but i am taking far too much time..and the times i push my attempts to 15 my accuracy suffers and still i get only around 11 correct…. on good days i get around 90%ile with that kind of attempt but on bad ones i fall to around 60-65%ile…..and by the time i complete my R1…there is less than 10 mins left and i end up not attempting the DI part.
although i am able to solve around 20-22 of the problems when i revise…but not in the test.
please help.
also ..i am taking CAT on 30th
Deepankar, if R1 is taking you 60 minutes then you are not quick in leaving questions. Hope you have read the blogposts – Are you choosing the right questions in your Mock CATs? and The single-most unpardonable, gravest sin you can commit in CAT. It is essential for you to identify the time consuming questions and ensure that you do not waste you time on them. Secondly speed is a function of revision and you need to identify and revise the important questions as suggested in the blogpost Things you must-do after every mock you take. You have sufficient time and can improve your speed and score comfortably.
Sir
Is procmoc and old cat papers are enough to secure 98+ percentile, or we have to practices others exams like aimcat, simcat etc. Currently I am getting 90+ percentile in proc moc how should I plan these 40 days ?
Saurabh, Mocks (Proc + Unproc) and past CAT papers would be enough to get a call from the IIMs.
Hi Sir, This is a question from the test gym adaptive which I am not able to understand from the given solution. Kindly explain . The question is given below :
6 people took a Skill Test which judged each of them on three different skills viz. Flexible, Organizational and Team. On the basis of the scores obtained by the people in each of these skills, a final average score called the ‘Skill Score’ is calculated for each of the six people by assigning certain weightage (which can be zero also) to the scores obtained in each of these three skills. The relative contribution of the scores obtained in each of the three given skills to the ‘Skill Score’ is the same for each of the six people. The following table provides information about the scores obtained by the six people in each of the three skills. It is also known that the ‘Skill Score’ of Ram is not less than that of Jesse.
ARJ JES CHRS MARTY PET RAM
FLEXIBLE 4 8 5 2 4 6
ORGANIZATIONAL 6 2 3 4 4 5
TEAM 2 4 3 7 4 2
When the score obtained by Arjun in ‘Team’ skill was increased by 4, the ‘Skill Score’ of Arjun became one and a half times the ‘Skill Score’ of Chris. The relative contribution of the score obtained in ‘Flexible’ skill to the ‘Skill Score’ is
a. 20%
b. 25%
c. 18%
d. 30%
Rahul, assume the weight for Flex = x, Org = y and Team = (100 – x – y). So the Skill Score of Chris = 5x+3y+3(100-x-y), similarly the skill score of Arjun after increasing his team score by 4 = 4x+6y+6(100-x-y)
Arjun’s score is 1.5 times the skill score of Chris, hence compare the equations to get the answer.
Rahul,
The Solution of the query is given below:
Let us assume the weightage for Flexible, Organizational and Team as x, y and z respectively.
Since Arjun’s Skill score became 1.5 times that of Chris,
→ (4x+6y+6z)/(x+y+z) = 1.5(5x+3y+/(x+y+z)
→ 7x = 3y+3z
Also, Ram’s Skill score is not less than that of Jesse,
→ (6x+5y+2z)/(x+y+z) >= (8x+2y+4z)/(x+y+z)
→ 2x <= 3y-2z We can get multiple values of "x" for the given equations. Hence, the value of x is not fixed, and the correct answer is "cannot be determined".
Hello Sir,
Thanks for such a great article.
I am very much tensed due to my poor performance in English Section , As advised by you to focus on parajumbles & paracompletion , I have been working on it but still cannot see any improvement in it , it is almost at the same stage from where I started.
With just 40 days left to CAT , I have made a strategy of attempting of around 23 questions in Sec – 1 ( qa + di is my strong point ) so as to make it atleast a score of 55-60 in Sec 1 and attempting only 9 questions in LR which makes a total score of 27 and doing 2-3 verbal questions only if I am very sure of it otherwise attempting only LR. Does it sounds to be a logical strategy ? And , what %ile I can expect using this strategy ( I know %ile depends on the level of difficulty of paper but just want to know the approx %ile )?
Please reply at the earliest.
Gaurav, there is sufficient time to improve in Para Completion and Parajumbles. Suggest you spend some time with a faculty to sort out the issue. You could also consider practicing critical reasoning questions as they can also help in para completion and RC. In case nothing works then you do not have an option but to go head with your plan of 9 LR questions and a couple of verbal questions. This will however give you a score of only around 70%ile & 85%ile (based on CAT 12 & 11 respectively) and will not be sufficient to clear the sectional cutoff. Since you will have time, suggest that you consider attempting 2 RC passages also to have some chance of clearing the cutoffs.
Respected Sir,
In a CAT medium slot how is the score of around 100 ?
QA/DI : 55 + VA/LR : 45 = 100 score ?
To approximately what percentile would that translate into..
Because in mocks barely 300 people score above 100 marks (im talking about the easiest mocks..said to be easier than CAT itself)
So in CAT is it safe to assume that 100+ in medium slot or tough slot will fetch 99+ percentile ?
Please do reply soon.
Saurabh, based on CAT’12 a score of 100 would be around 99%ile. Please check the CL Percentile Predictor for your estimated cat percentile based on your Mock CAT performance.
Hello Sir,
Great article and really helpful. Will try to follow this to the T However there are a few questions in Test Gym Adaptive where Im in complete disagreement of the given explanation , especially in RCs.
And in Quant Test Gym , sometimes the explanation given is very minimal .
I wish to know which email can I use to raise genuine doubts about the explanation given. Please note that Im not seeking answer explanation , but want to contest the explanation provided.
Hi Akash,
You may email all your queries to helpme@careerlauncher.com. We would be more than glad to assist you in everyway possible.
Regards,
Team CL
Sir,please give me solutions for the foll:
1. For the past CAT papers,is there any link where we can access sectional and overall cutoffs for the papers?
2. For someone who has his CAT towards the end of the window, when should this plan start?
2. Although I am good at VA/LR (98+),I am pretty bad at QA/DI (70-80).Although decent at Arithmetic,I am not good at even the basics of Geometry and to a lesser extent at Algebra and Number Systems. What should be my approach to tackle Sec-1 given the time left?
Bharat, my responses are given below:
1. Exact sectional and overall cut offs for the past CAT papers are not available. We have our estimates and will have them released on the SIS.
2. This plan can start upto 6 weeks before your CAT date.
3. Focus on Algebra and No System questions in past CAT papers and Mock CATs.
Thank you so much sir.
Please do release the CAT paper cut offs as soon as you can.
Also sir, between mock paper analysis and strengthening QA basics, which is the better option leaading upto CAT?
Bharat, Mock CATs and Past CAT papers are more important than anything else at this point of time for CAT’13
Hi GP sir , kindly answer the below given 6 queries for me :
Q1) What is the reason to do test gym adaptive on each day when in one of your earlier comments , you told someone to do away with topioc tests in the classical test gym and focus mainly on the mocks, past papers and the section tests. Your reason will help me understand the perspective of your suggestion & hence aid its implementation in my daily schedule.
Q2) Please help me prioritize the following : Unproctored mocks, Proctored mocks , past cat papers , Cat based papers ( from test gym ) , section tests from test gym. As the Cat based papers contain LRDI section test, QA section test , English section test , QADI test & VALR test , please include all these also in the priority list.
Q3) Please tell the Minimum marks ( cutoff ) one should get in the past cat sectional tests attempted as per your advice, with the time limit of 2min per question for the entire section.
Q4) When you suggest to practise mocks, past cat papers , section tests of QADI or VALR – what is your meaning by section tests . Do you mean the section tests from the test gym under the Section Tests tab (which have Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation, Verbal Ability as the sub tabs), or the Cat based tests from the test gym.
Q5) If I take some section tests from the test gym ( not cat based tests) , should I do the detailed analysis of them also ( I mean question selection matrix along with the complete performance summary ) .
Q6) You have advised to attempt DI from 1990-1999 & LR from 1999-2008. But in the past cat papers , there is a single section paper for the entire LRDI. So should I leave the LR questions from LRDI 1990 – 1999 & the DI questions from LRDI 1999-2008 while attempting these sections or attempt the entire LRDI section from 1990-2008.
Please answer asap sir, as the days remaining are very less and I have to religiously follow everything told by you in all your posts.
Thanks & regards,
Rahul
Rahul, my response to your queries is given below:
1. I do not remember the context in which I had asked not to do Test Gym Classic so I will not be able to comment. However, you do not have to do Test Gym Adaptive every day but keep in touch with it to ensure that the adaptive engine is continuously pushing you beyond your current comfort level. You have to ensure adequate focus on Mocks, Past CAT papers, Section tests and Test Gym Adaptive.
2. Attempt – Proc + Unproc Mocks and Section Tests (30 Q in 70 minutes). CAT based papers are sections of past CAT papers and should be attempted only if you have not attempted the past CAT papers.
3. The estimated sectional and overall cutoffs of the past CAT papers will be available in SIS shortly.
4. It means all of these – section tests from the test gym under the Section Tests tab (QA or DI or VA or RC), CAT based tests from the test gym, QADI or VALR section tests as a part of your study material and a section from any past CAT paper.
5. Ideally a detailed analysis of each section test should be done along with performance analysis. The minimum required is which questions should/should not be attempted in future, unforced errors and identification of questions for revision.
6. You do not have to leave the LR questions from CAT 1990-99 or DI from CAT 1999-2008 but do not have to attempt all of them also. For example in the CAT papers of 1999-2008 some of the DI sets were counting based or very easy and they can be ignored. The DI sets that have come in CAT 2010-12 are calculation oriented as was the case in CAT of early 90s.
sir, m very comfortable with L1 and L2 questions of test gym but m not able to solve L3 questions equally good… plzz tell me what do i do… i feel scared at such point of time that m unable to solve questions….. inspite of completing my funda books twice 🙁
Ankita, do not worry about the L3 questions, if after an honest effort also you are unable to solve these questions then these are your Column III or not to be attempted questions.
thanks alot sir …
m hovering around 80percentile in mocks .. how much time should i devote to cat revision every day…. I have my exam on 30th october…??
I am an engg student, should I apply to NITIE . Mumbai ….. I am mainly concerned with the placement of college…..
Ankita, NITIE is a very good institutes and should be considered but an average of 80%ile in Mocks is insufficient for a call from the main program of NITIE for which the cutoff is around 97%ile. Please check CL Percentile Predictor for an estimate of your CAT percentile based on performance in Mocks.
thanks sir 🙂
great article sir..
thanku 🙂
Sir, right now i am able to attempt 15 questions in section 1 and 22 questions in section 2, with 13 questions (on an average) correct in section 1 and 16 correct in section 2. Mainly losing in RC’s (50% accuracy in RC’s). Suggest a few ways to improve accuracy in the two sections and also to improve speed. Moreover, every question from Numbers/Series and Geometry is appearing as a new question. How to get acquainted with those problems ?
Kaushik, speed and accuracy are a function of revision. So please revise the important questions (MCQs only) from Mock CATs and past CAT papers.
While the questions from Numbers/Series and Geometry look different you will be able to identify a pattern in most of them and hence doing them a couple of times and revising will help you do well in the paper.
Precious advice 🙂
sir, i hv already appeared for cat on 26th october. mine cat was not as good ..because i didnt attempt sec-1 in a proper manner, but done up with almost 37 questions. i dont know abt accuracy in sec. 2.
i want to stand for another exam , what should be my preparation strategy in order to clear iift , snap,xat , ibsat and cmat..
sir , please do help me……….
i am feeling disheartened.
Mohit, CAT is done and over, take a fresh gaurd and start preparing for the other papers. A good starting point is the past papers. Also in all these papers GK plays an important role hence start woring on all these immediately. Please download the the GK compendium for IRMA, IIFT & Symbiosis from elib in SIS.
Sir,
I am getting good scores in both English and QA, But, I take too long to solve LR ques and hence most of the time I leave them. Except for standing in line ques and circular arrangement ques ( in which I directly put them in a circle or a line), I solve all other ques by making table and using tick n cross method in the table, With 3-4 variables given, I waste a lot of time in solving these ques. With 25 days still left for my CAT, I want to use any better approach. But, even after searching whole google and youtube, I was not able to find the approach to solve LR ques.
I request you earnestly to help me solve my problem.
Mayank, I am not sure if you should look at changing your approach so close to the actual paper, howeverr if you are convinced about the need for a change, please sit down with a faculty with a couple of problem sets to understand the alternate approach of solving them. Alternately please email the problem sets and though it difficult in this medium, let me see if I can give you a step by step approach.
Hi sir,
i have given all proctored mocks and got average marks and percentile(<=70 %ile) consistently, i didn't analyse mock papers, but i really want to join in some good college (ranking<30) this time,so planning to put my best efforts from now,my exam is on 25th oct, so please give me some suggestions to improve my percentile in this span . i still have 18 unproctored mocks left and started doing previous years papers(started with 2008). sir please suggest me…!!!!
Kumar, with just about 20 days to CAT you will really have to slog to have a reasonable chance of getting a good percentile in CAT. In these 20 days complete all the past CAT papers for QA, DI, EU and Reasoning and analyse all the Mock CATs that you have already taken. You have to simultaneously keep revising all the important questions that you have identified in the paper. If you can do all of these, you have a chance of getting into a decent B school.
thank u sir…..!!!
Dear Sir,
Will our accuracy determine our percentiles in CAT ??
For example, will a person scoring relatively less marks than me but with higher accuracy get a better a percentile or it all depends on the type of questions that we attempted.
Pavan, higher the score higher is the percentile.
Sir, please suggest me , which book i refer for previous year CAT papers???
1@ Face to Face(Arihant publication)
or
2@ Previous year CAT papers solved ::”GK Publications”?
Obviously the one by GK Publications – the content is from CL 😉
Sir I have a query.
First I would like to give a quick background of myself.My performance in Mockcats so far has varied from 80% to 95 %(same trend is there in individual sections as well).My problem is low attempts.In QA/DI my attempts so far have been in the range of 12-18 whereas in VA/LR, they have been around 21- 24.Your tips have really helped me so far(my % in quant has improved from around 80% to 96% in previous mock).I will be taking my CAT in november.
I have made my revision plan as mentioned by you with a few changes.The plan that I have made is:
Day 1: Mock test followed by analysis, then one section of a previous year CAT paper as sectional test and then its analysis.
Day 2: Previous year CAT paper’s sections as sectional tests , followed by their analysis.
Day 3: Revision of all important questions(as mentioned by you in earlier posts).
Then repeat this 3-Day cycle.
Sir my question is: Is my plan sufficient for revision or should I include doing sectional tests from CL test-gym as well. As advised by you, I am doing CAT papers from 1990 onward, so there are 38 sectional tests already(if I take these CAT papers all as sectional tests). Is my plan sufficient for revision or should I include doing sectional tests from CL test-gym as well?
Puneet, The plan appears to be okay. In the CAT papers do not worry about RC because unlike the past papers which have passages of length varying from 800 to 1500 words, the passage length now is around 500 words. these passages will however be useful for IIFT. Once you complete the CAT papers then you can go on to the Sectional Tests in Test Gym.
sir if i score 45 with all corrct n my friend scores 45 with 17 correct n 6 wrong who will have a better %ile or will it be equal ??? same slot same day
Sir,
I need your advice for my strategy of attempting questions in VA/LR . Till now , by analysis from the CL mocks , I have found out that
I am able to solve all 10 questions of LR with 90-100% accuracy in around 25-30 minutes, 10 questions of RC in about 30 minutes with around 65% accuracy and the for the rest usage part , I attempt 10 questions in about 20 minutes with 50 % accuracy(As my vocabulary is not very good) . So, I need your suggestion to optimise my attempts for scoring maximum .
Also , I am rarely 100% sure of the RC answers , so I can’t leave any question for RC .
Thank a lot Sir , your blog is really very helpful and it has made my preparation very systematic now …..
Mridul, please continue with the way you are attempting this section – AR followed by RC and finally EU.
In RC, 6 – 7 right out of 10 is is pulling down your performance. Is there something common wrt the questions theat you get wrong, if yes you need to either stop attempting them or work out a way of improving. Would attempting only 2 passages (6-7 questions) ensure a better performance?
In EU focus on Para Jumbles and Para Completion because these are reasoning based and you should be able to handle these. For Vocab and Grammar please follow what I have suggested in my blog “Crack Vocab & Grammar in 60 days”. Please leave questions of EU that you are not sure of, you are only increasing your negatives.
Thanks a lot Sir !!
For RC , I don’t think that doing lesser number of questions would improve my performance because for most of RC questions , I am normally not able to easily choose answer from the remaining two options (after eliminating two options) and that’s why if I get 50% accuracy in these , I should attempt them as it would give me atleast some marks (as the time is already lost in reading the passage and its options) .
Mridul, 50% accuracy means that attempting 10 questions totalling 30 marks will lead to 10 marks or your efficiency is only 33%. Please have a look at this again, maybe choosing the RC passage or reading it more carefully could be of help. Please go thru Gejo’s article on RC.
i dont think so.
sir,
i need your advice in the context of practicing questions from test gym.In the cat based section we have QA&DI and VA&LR test ,while i was practising those i felt the level was so difficlut that i couldnt attempt more than 10 questions in quant section as compared to 21-23 questions in proc mocks and unproctered.So at this point of time should we practise questions of this difficulty level
hoping for your reply sir.
Hi Mohit,
Are these questions from the previous year papers ??
Mohit, these questions are not from CAT.
Mohit, You are right! The level of difficulty of some of the QA&DI and VA&LR section tests given in Test Gym is higher than what you get to see in the proctored and unproctored mock tests. Even the pattern of the questions has been kept quite different at some places. This has been done deliberately to prepare the students for all the possible kinds of question papers. I would advise doing these 22 sectional tests as well to prepare yourself for any eventuality on the exam day.
Please remember that the 30 full-length mock tests (proctored + unproctored) are the closest that you can get to the actual CAT. But then we believe that this number is good enough to give you a feel of the expected difficulty level/format of the actual CAT 2012. If you are keen on doing some extra practice, go for these 22 sectional tests as well that are more challenging than the proc/unproc mocks.
Sir, i had one query..
CAT Based Tests section ( i.e. the 3rd part after TOPIC tests and Section Tests in the TEST GYM section of CL has all previous CAT QUESTIONS in an OL format or they are different questions altogether.. ???
Neeraj, apologise for the late reply. CAT Based Tests section contains previous CAT questions only in an online format. You are advised to practise these questions before appearing for CAT 2012.
Thank you so much Sir… your blog is really helpful
Thanks a lot saar for this article……Please keep on posting similar articles till cat….i am following each and every word said by you…(except i dint realized to fill my strong and weak areas yet..)
Thank you
Sir, when u say revision… could u please let us know the best way to revise… i mean, should we simply note the questions nos from the mocks & past papers and revise those… or should we maintain a book where we have the solutions to the revision questions…
Deepak, Bookmark or highlight those questions in the paper and solve them again.
sir,again an excellent article.the only problem is that its very difficult to find can papers from 1990-1998 online.can u help us in this regard?waiting for your reply
Hi Prateek,
u can easily find those papers in ur elib section of ur SIS account……
Njoy:)
An exhaustive collection of these papers is available with GK Publications. You can get them here:
http://www.gkpublications.com/index.php?route=product/product&keyword=solved%20papers&category_id=50&product_id=197
sir m not able to speed up during mock tests……. nd also can u plz help me out in deciding the must do qstions in second section
Rahul, for section 2, please refer to the article at http://careerlauncher.com/gpspeaks/?p=292
Speed and accuracy both are a function of revision, please do get in the habit of at least one revision per week of all important questions
Dear Sir,
Once again Thanks for one more gem of articles in the series,
Could u plz clarify my one doubt…
Seeing the pattern of previous CAT papers b4 2008..I find that the level of questions are different from those which are asked in the recent CATs….Do u think that practising more MOCK CATs would be more beneficial rather than previous CAT papers ……..I have enuf of Mocks left…even now..How shud I proceed ..PLZ suggest..
Awaiting ur response…
Ashutosh,
CAT 1990 to CAT 1998 are the most important papers for both sections, you an however ignore the RC since the passages then were from 800 – 2000 words while now you get passages that arre 300 -600 words. Once you have finshed these go for CAT 1999 – 2008
excellent sir really it helps us a lot in this situation
excellent sir really it helps us alot in this suituation
thanks a lot sir
ans sir may u pls tell me where i can get the previous year cat questions topic wise ………
Amar,
You can get this book for previous years’ CAT papers
http://www.gkpublications.com/index.php?route=product/product&keyword=solved%20papers&category_id=50&product_id=197
Sir,
the mentioned link is not working.
Also, I don’t find past CAT papers in
SIS.
Harish, which link is not working?
thanks a tonn sir..!
Till which year are the previous CAT papers relevant?
CAT 1990 to CAT 1998 are the most important papers for both sections, you should however ignore the RC since the passages then were from 800 – 2000 words while now you get passages that arre 300 -600 words. Once you have finshed these go for CAT 1999 – 2008
Sir
Thankyou for the article 🙂
for english, shall we study only from 2004 onwards CAT papers?
and for qa-di, from 1990 onwards??
CAT 1990 to CAT 1998 are the most important papers for both sections, you should however ignore the RC since the passages then were from 800 – 2000 words while now you get passages that arre 300 -600 words. Once you have finshed these go for CAT 1999 – 2008
your blog is helping a lot……
Excellent article …thank you sir