When we talk about CAT (Common Admission Test) or similar management exams, one thing is definite, that the best approach to crack CAT is taking as many online mocks as possible and going through the detailed analysis of each and every mock you have taken.
Over the years, I have seen many students who start preparing for CAT but are not really clear as to what the CAT exam is all about. It’s really strange to not know the exam you are preparing for, isn’t it?
While you might think that having a look at the previous year CAT paper will give you an idea of what kind of an exam CAT is, I can tell you with surety that the real experience comes when you actually solve a paper.
And that’s where people search for free online CAT mocks. Just so that they can sample what CAT is all about.
Therefore, not only do I share with you some free online CAT mocks on the Freezone, I also share with you the importance of mock taking and analyzing those mocks.
This process won’t only help you to identify your strengths and weaknesses but will also help you in improving your speed and accuracy.
So when should I start writing mocks for CAT 2020?
Answer: should have started writing CAT 2020 online mocks from 30th March 2020. But no need to worry as, you still have time to make the best of the next 8 months. Here’s a plan for:
Online CAT 2020 Mocks
Starting April till August it is recommended that you:
- take at least 1 mock every fortnight, that’s about 10-12 Mocks till August end, leaving you with another 18-20 for the next 2.5-3 months
- For classroom students, it is important to practice daily with class-sheets and examples in the books
- Take a topic test on the ongoing topic in class/session. Practice the questions level wise and rise to level 3 ensuring a strong hold on the topic
From September till November it is recommended that you:
- Take about 1 mock every 4-5 days
- Do not take up new topics as you will not be able to acquire an in-depth knowledge on these new topics. Instead focus on more on your strengths
- Take sectional tests
- Complete all the worksheets and examples in the study material with you
Now that the mock plan is in place, the next question is how to attempt each online CAT 2020 mock?
It should be noted here that the main reason for poor performance in CAT is not lack of knowledge but poor question selection! You don’t have to attempt all questions. Just some smartly picked questions are sufficient to get you a desired 99+ percentile.
Focus only on questions that you are comfortable with. Do not attempt topics/questions that you are not sure of to avoid negative marking and wastage of time.
While taking the first mock, you may not be able to attempt questions from topics that you have not covered yet.
And that should not be a deterrent to writing mocks because the idea is to get you warmed up to the difficulty level of CAT and see how well you fare with each mock CAT you take.
It will be a slow process, full of challenges such as low performance, wavering scores, confusion etc. etc. but do remember “slow and STEADY wins the race!”
After each online CAT 2020 mock that you write, follow the given plan of action:
After you have taken the paper and checked your score, the real work starts. You need to go through all the questions and solve them again. To make it simple, we have given section-wise post Mock activities. Have a look…
QA Questions:
- Solve the question again and compare your solution with the one given in the solution booklet or the video analysis.
- If you were unable to solve a question, go through the solution and ask yourself if you would like to attempt this type of question in future. If the answer is no, forget this question.
- Check if there are any other shorter or faster methods to solve the question. With a one hour time restriction coming into picture, using the faster methods would pay rich dividends.
- Check if the incorrect choices can be eliminated on the basis of logic.
- Check if approximation or calculation short cuts get you to the answer faster.
- Any question in which you have been able to identify an alternate method or a calculation short cut or a question has helped you understand a concept is an IMPORTANT question and needs to be REVISED every week.
DI & LR Question sets:
- Attempt all data sets that you did not or could not attempt in the stipulated time.
- Identify the questions that could have been solved with the help of choices and revise them every week.
- Identify the questions in which calculation short cuts can be applied and revise them every week.
- Identify the type of data sets that you should definitely attempt or not attempt in future.
- Identify the data sets (or the individual questions) that you should revise every week.
RC Passages:
- Attempt the RC passages that you did not attempt in the stipulated time and then decide if the decision of not attempting these passages was correct or was it a miss.
- Find the meaning of the words that you have come across for the first time.
- The questions for which you marked incorrect answers, find out the reasons.
- Identify the RC questions (e.g. Tone type) that you should revise every week.
Verbal Ability Questions:
- In vocabulary & sentence completion question find out the meaning of all the words in the choices and revise the difficult ones every week.
- Go through all the grammar questions again and mark for weekly revision the ones you got wrong.
- Go through all the para-jumble, para-completion and critical-reasoning questions to understand why each choice is correct or incorrect. Revise the difficult questions every week.
Now that you have analyzed the paper we need to get to the next step:
Revision. This aspect of preparation is ignored by a large number of students. Most students practice a lot, they take a Mock CAT or a section test every day but do not revise the important questions from these papers and hence not only do they commit unforced errors but also are unable to work fast in the paper. Revision is the key to higher speed and accuracy and hence should be done at least once a week for all the important MCQs that you have identified in Mock CATs, in Fundabooks, in Test Gym, in Sectional Tests and in past CAT papers. It is okay to cut down on Mock CATs but not revising is unacceptable.
Head to CL’s Free Online CAT 2019 Mocks’ Hub or CL’s Student Online portal for some free Online CAT 2020 mocks.
All the Best
GB