CAT 2014 – How I Attempted New Pattern Mock CAT 7

Since I had been on the move, all the Mock CATs that I had attempted so far were in the pen and paper mode and after taking the paper I would write down (based on memory) of how I attempted the paper. This I felt was insufficient because:

  1. I relied on my memory to reproduce my feelings which may not be accurate.
  2. It is difficult to convert all though processes in words.
  3. The fatigue of taking a Computer Based Tests is higher than that of a Paper Based Test.
  4. In a paper based test you can write down the calculation and do the rough work on the paper itself but in a computer based test you have to transfer almost all data (especially in DI and LR) on to the rough sheet which is a time consuming process.
  5. Reading speed is usually lower on a computer as compared to that on a paper.
  6. The overall attempts in a computer based test would typically be lower by 10 – 15% as compared to that in a paper based test.

With the above in mind I decided to attempt the Mock CAT 7 online and record the process. To ensure that the students would be able to understand my though process I decided to:

  1. Speak through the 2 hours 50 minutes and vocalize my thought process
  2. Use the tablet and write down all the calculations and the working on the computer itself as is done by me during the webinars.

However while testing we realized that the platform did not fully support the pen tablet and we would need to find an alternate process. Hence the paper was converted to a power point presentation with extra slides inserted for DI & LR and a timer was embedded in the presentation to ensure that I could keep track of the time. Since in the TCS platform the candidates can open a separate window and this is not possible in a power point presentation hence I kept a printout of the question paper with me.

The biggest challenge that I faced while taking the paper was speaking continuously for 170 minutes this was not only tiring but also slowed me down because reading speed falls when you speak while reading. Also speaking continuously hinders the thinking process.

However despite all the problems that I faced I think that this is a better process than taking the paper and writing down my experience. You can access the video in SIS along with the analysis of Mock CAT 2014 – 7 or by clicking here. It will be useful to go through the video only after you have taken this Mock CAT.

For those of you who do not have the time to go through the 170 minute video, I will summarize my attempt in the paper and also do an analysis of the performance in this write up. Let us now move to How I Attempted Mock CAT 2014 – 7.

Overview:

Scan the paper: Approximately 2 minutes

I went through the paper (the printout) to understand the structure of the paper and found that the paper had:

  1. 4 DS question
  2. Approximately 15 questions of DI in 4 data sets
  3. Approximately 30 questions of QA
  4. Approximately 15 questions of LR in 4 data sets
  5. Approximately 15 questions of RC in 4 passages
  6. Approximately 20 questions of verbal logic and English usage.

Thus this paper has a standard format and my standard time allocation of 80 minutes to VALR and 90 minutes to QADI should be fine. In terms of sequence of attempts also I did not see any reason to change and decide to attempt the paper in my standard sequence:

  1. Verbal Logic and English usage
  2. Reading Comprehension
  3. Logical Reasoning
  4. QA Round 1 Questions
  5. DI, DS
  6. QA Round 2 Question
  7. QA Round 3 Questions

 

VALR Round 1:

Verbal Logic and English Usage questions,15 attempts out of 19 questions and also identification of the RC passages and LR sets to be attempted.

31 minutes for this round and total time elapsed 33 minutes.

Attempted: Q 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 62, 63, 67, 68, 79, 80, 93. 95
Answer not marks as I was not sure: Q 54, 78, 94, 96.

Noted the following on my rough sheet for RC passages and LR sets:

RC Passages:

Q64-66, 3 questions, multitasking, 2.5 slides
Q73-77, 5 questions, contestedness, lengthy – 4 slides, difficult to read
Q81-85, 5 questions, Business/marketing, 3 slides
Q90-92, 3 questions, neuro science.

LR Sets:

Q59-61, 3 questions on selection/arrangement 8 people
Q69-72, 4 questions, mathematical set, buying and selling of books, possible
Q86-89, 4 questions on a tournament, 8 players
Q97-100, 4 questions, mathematical set, 4 friends

VALR Round 2:

RC passages, 7 attempts from 2 passages with 8 questions
15 minutes for this round and total time elapsed 48 minutes.

I have a preference for business and general passages and hence attempted the passages on multitasking and business. The passage on neuroscience was never in contention as I am not comfortable with the topic and the passage on contestedness appeared not only difficult to read but also was lengthy.

Q64-66, attempted all three questions. Initially was not sure of Q64 but was able to answer this question by combining it with Q65. This passage took me 6 minutes.

Q81-85, attempted 4 out of 5 questions of this passage. I left Q82 unmarked as I was not sure of the answer. This passage took me 9 minutes.

VALR Round 3:

LR sets passages, 8 attempts from 3 sets with 11 questions and 1 RC question (Q92)

30 minutes for this round and total time elapsed 78 minutes.

I decided to start with the mathematical set (Q97-100) since I am comfortable with this kind of data set. Was able to solve all four questions of this data set in 12 minutes

Next I moved to the set on tournament (Q86-89) because usually tournament data sets have 1- 2 questions that can be solved without too much of a problem. In 5 minutes I was able to solve the first two questions (Q 86 and 87) but could not make any headway for the remaining two questions and hence left them unmarked.

With 6 questions attempted I decided to go for the selection/arrangement set (Q59-61) since I felt that the set has individual questions and hence I will be able to solve them faster. Unfortunately this did not happen and I got stuck in Q61 and wasted time before leaving it uattttempted. The other 2 questions (Q59 & 60) were not a problem. This set took me 11 minutes and in hindsight I should have gone for the set on “Harry Potter books” since it was mathematical in nature and I would have been able to solve all four questions in the same amount of time.

With 76 minutes gone and just 4 minutes left before my scheduled time for QADI it was not possible to attempt the remaining DI set or the RC passages. Hence I decided to run through the questions of the remaining two RC passages to see if there was any direct or factual question that I could consider attempt I found that Q 92 belonged to this category and attempted it.

Thus in 76 minutes of VALR I had attempted 31 questions and since the initial 2 minutes had been used for scanning the paper I had 92 minutes for QADI.

QADI Round 1

QA questions that can be solved in less than 2 minutes and identification of DI sets to be  attempted in Round 2. I attempted a total of 14 questions in this Round.

Time taken for this Round 35 minutes, time left after this Round 57 minutes
Attempted: Q 2, 4, 5, 6, 12, 14, 16, 21, 31, 40, 42, 48, 49, 50.
Applied SQC techniques:  Q 4, 5, 12, 16, 21, 48 & 49.

Q 49 did not read the question carefully and should have got it wrong but got the right answer by mistake.

Noted the following on my rough sheet for DI sets and DS:

Q7-10, 4 questions, percentages with easy numbers, criminals
Q17-20, 4 DS questions
Q27-30, 4 questions, Cricket
Q35-38, 4 questions, ratios, large data
Q44-46, 3 questions, 2 Pie charts of revenue

QADI Round 2A:

2 out of 4 DS questions and two sets of DI for 8 attempts. Total attempts – 10 out of 14
Time taken for this Round 27 minutes, time left after this Round 30 minutes

I started this Round with the 4 DS questions but did not attempt first two questions (Q17 & 18) since I felt that these two would be time consuming. Attempted the remaining 2 DS questions and spent a total of 7 minutes in DS.

After DS I moved to first DI in which my preference was not to attempt the set on ratios (Q35-38) because it had a huge amount of data. I started DI with the set on percentages (Q7-10) which had easy numbers and hence calculations would not be an issue. I attempted all 4 questions in about 9 minutes.

Then spent a minute in deciding whether to attempt the set on pie charts or the one on cricket? I decided to go for the one on cricket since it had 4 questions. It took me 10 minutes to solve the 4 questions of this set.

With two DI sets attempted I shifted my focus to the remaining QA questions with an understanding that I would come back to the DI set on pie charts if I had time. This was to ensure that I do not miss out on any easy QA questions.

QADI Round 2B:

In this Round I attempted 5 QA and 2 DI questions.
Time taken for this Round 30 minutes

Started this Round by attempting Q3 (TSD and then tried Q15 but was not sure of how to solve and the choices too were close hence left it quickly. After this I went to Q22 which was a wrong choice, given the complexity of language I should not have attempted the question.

Attempted: Q 3, 15, 22, 23, 24, 32, & 33
Did not mark the answer to Q 15 & 22 (time wastage)
Attempted by SQC: Q 23, 32, 33

Time taken for these 7 questions (5 marked and 2 time wastage) – 19 minutes

With 11 minutes left I searched for questions to attempt and came to Q 43 tried solving it but was unsuccessful and left it after 2 minutes.

With 9 minutes remaining I moved to the DI set on pie charts (Q44-46) and in 6 minutes attempted Q 44 and 46, did not attempt Q45 since I felt that it would be time consuming.

The last 3 minutes of the paper were wasted trying to search for a question to attempt and in trying to solve Q34 which should not have been tried at the fag end of the paper since it too had a complicated language and was lengthy.

In hind sight I should have tried Q1, 11, 18 & 47, these 4 questions were solvable. Attempting Q 43 and 34 led to wastage of around 5 minutes and I could have comfortably solved at least one out of these four questions.

Overall performance in QADI is 31 attempts in 92 minutes and a total of 62 attempts in the paper.

All the Best!
GP

154 Comments

  1. sir, i don’t have an experience of attempting previous cat exam and i am trying hard for cat-2014. i attempted few mocks (10 mocks) and my scores are low nd i am not consistent in my scores(60, 79, 55, 83, 95, 74) in last exams…i am really worried that i am not able to score 98% in cat 2014. sir please kindly help me to solve my problem.

  2. Hi Sir,

    Thank you for your enlightening posts.

    I have been talking CL mock exams and my score has increased progressively from 60 to 124 in the last one, but Its very difficult for me to attempt beyond 52 questions. In 80 mins for second section, i manage around 33-35 questions with 80-85% accuracy. But anything more than 17-18 attempts in first section is not working out.

    It will be great if you could give some insight as to what I could do in these 30 days to improve my score.

    • Shruti, your VALR is on track and if you can increase your QADI to around 25 questions then a call from IIMs is on. Please call me at 9811155160 in the evening to discuss.

  3. sir,your way of attempting mock is very useful comapred to any other video…..please its a humble request if you can provide videos for all upcoming mocks…it helps to get a proper insight and is able to influence my thinking process…thnx a lot sir.

  4. “Thanks a lot of sir g”…….i want to know what is good attempt of no. of question to get 100 percentile in cat2014.

  5. sir,
    i am cl student. i am putting a lots of effort. Tried everything. gone through all your articles.Still i am not able to score well in mocks. what should i do? my VALR score is 45-50 but in QADI only able to get 20-25 and that too only because of DI and some arthmetic. i totally rely on DI in section 1. with the number of days left what should i do now. should i focus on DI and VALR or try to improve quant. please do suggest mu mock scores are as:-
    mck 01:- 37
    mck 02- 25
    mck 03- 37
    mck 05- 50
    mck07- 54
    mck 10- 75
    mck 12- 60
    please help me sir as it is a horrible score.

  6. hello sir.. 🙂
    I have done the entire funda books, Arun Sharma(only some block tests left) and apprx 7 tests per topic on an avg.in test gym….for QA
    but I still find many unseen and alien questions of QA in mocks which i have never seen before…as a result I am able to attempt 20-22 questions in sec 1 (DI- 1 set..due to lack of time) with 80% accuracy
    I follow your R1 R2 strategy and SQC technique as well…
    I have been giving and analysing Proc n some unproc Mocks without any fail…
    but still I am not able to maximize my attempt…please suggest me what to do..
    Secondly…I have decided to give 2 mocks per week this month and sectional tests as well as a result I spend much time in analysing.. is it right thing to do?? to know those unseen questions ?? what more should I do.. to increase my attempts in 85 mins???
    thanks in advance sir 🙂 🙂

    • Shubham, please go through your last four Mocks and try to answer the following:
      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. how do I improve my 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. what is my marks per minute score? 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.
      For the schedule to be followed for the next 4 weeks, please follow the post 4 Weeks to CAT’14 – Ab billi door nahin

  7. sir I have been struggling to get past 50-52 attempts.
    Also once I finish my VA-LR section I get little bit lethargic and my accuracy falls in QA-DI section…. any suggestions to overcome this.

    • Nikunj, you will have to build your stamina by taking 3 sectional tests back to back. Alternately it could be an unproc Mock followed by a sectional test. you can also consider taking a break of 2-3 minutes between the two sections.

  8. Hello Sir

    I am a CL student sir.

    I have given 5 mocks according to new pattern and done a strict analysis on them. I am not able to score properly as i used to in earlier mocks in previous patterns. I wanted to attach my excel analysis but no space over here. Last year i have scored 89% and earlier this year in mocks in between 90-95 percentile, this new pattern has gone into me and i am struggling .
    PLease suggest a way out…

    If possible can i call you so that i can discuss the matter with you. also can you please give your email id sir so that i can share my performance which is now ranging from 60-80%ile only.

    Thanks
    Rohit

    • Avi, there is no difference between the new and the old pattern except that the old one was two sections of 70 minutes while the new one is 2 sections of 85 minutes.
      If you go by this logic you may be able to handle the paper better and also attempt the way you attempted the old pattern paper, thus section 1 in the first 85 minutes and sections 2 in the next 85 minutes.

  9. Gp SIR,

    A close friend (also a v serious CAT aspirant ) gave the NAMT today…
    he says the LR section was just as CL LR Mocks.

    However…he says Language Skills were a tad higher in level of difficulty…

    and Quant he says was a very high level compared to the mocks (with regards to the twists in the quant and especially the DI he says were very hard)

    Will any tough NMAT mocks b uploaded …or how shud i proceed with the preparation for my attempt (which is in 2 days now)
    but atleast the next attempt ill give can b a better one.

    In the CL Mocks Im scoring around 110 in Quant 69 in LR and 57 in Verbal

    Looking forward for your advice

    • Correction needed in that sir

      i meant the NMAT sectionals are simpler than the mocks

      is there any particular reason for that

      the CL NMAT Mocks are great!!

      The scetionals in the TGA Classic are of v different difficulty level as compare to the NMAT FLTs
      why so??

      • Rushil, NMAT is an easier paper as compared to CAT hence the sectional tests of Test Gym (which are CAT level) will be found to to be more difficult. Most of hte time we make the mocks to be slightly more difficult than the relevant exam so that you are well prepared.

  11. Hi GP sir,

    i’m trying to improve, but i don’t see any improvement in the last few mocks. Kindly guide me on to score well, as i’m 2 years + experienced, and this would be my last attempt for CAT. I’m unable to figure out what to do ?
    Below are the total raw marks of mocks:
    Mock cat 1 – 16 marks
    MC3-69 marks
    MC4-20 marks
    MC5-71marks
    MC7-53 marks
    MC10-43 marks
    MC12-34 marks.

    Seeing others students scoring minimum 130+, i’m getting tensed and frustrated. Please help me

  12. Hello sir,
    I have given CAT last year and scored 63.xx %. I ruined my last year CAT in order to score more percentile than i needed(I belong to SC category). This year i haven’t given much time to preparation so i would like to know in the new format of CAT,what raw score and no. of attempts should i look for in CL mocks so that i can clear the cut off on the D-day as i don’t want to ruin this year CAT too.

    • Himanshu, as a SC candidate a score of 85%ile is sufficient but suggest that you target a sectional score of 85%il (raw score of around 50) or a total score of 100-105 (90%ile)

  13. hello sir,
    my mock scores refuse to go above 90 ….the scores have been hovering around the 80 mark(83,84,87,again 83) .sir i have taken quite many tests from test gym and have attempted all the mocks as well…analysed and revised(though not every week)..although i am able to score a little above 50 in the VA section my quant scores havent gone up..they have remained stagnant at around 30…with about a month left for CAT what stratergy should i take up to improve my scores so as to get a 90%ile in the exam?

  14. Sir, I missed to register myself for the e-sqc session scheduled to be held on 16th Oct.I couldn’t even attend the one held in Delhi in August and have been been eagerly looking forward to attend this one.I checked at the Centre,but they don’t seem to have any information on the possibility of re-registrations or any other way to get an access to it. Would request you to plz help and advise a way to avail it,really don’t want to miss out on this.
    Thanks!

  15. Hello GP Sir,

    Would really appreciate your valuable insights as I am in dire need of some.I have been scoring around 90-95 in mocks with around 40-45 attempts.I am unable to cross 60 in any of the section.In QA-DI what happens is that I am able to solve the questions immediately after the mock is over but not while taking it.This is happening to me in every mock.Also could you give me some revision tips and a daily routine for the remaining days.Also,I have heard people saying Arithmetic is the easiest topic but for me it’s the toughest.Could you suggest few sources to practice arithmetic from.
    Thank you

    • Shipra, with 40-45 attempts a score of 90-95 is not bad but you do need to increase your attempts to about 55 questions. How many questions did you try solving in the paper but could not and hence did not mark an answer after spending a couple of minutes? These are also your attempts and 5 such questions will typically lead to a wastage of 15 minutes, if this is true then you need to work on your question selection.
      Your being able to solve the questions after but not during the Mock indicates lack of revision. Suggest that you take a break of 5 days from Mock CATs and go through the last 5 Mocks that you have taken to identify the questions that you “should have” and “should not have” attempted. Solve the “should have attempted” questions at least twice, highlight or bookmark the important questions from these and revise them at least once a week. Do this for other Mocks also. Please refer to the following blogposts for more on this:
      1. Are you choosing the right questions in your Mock CATs?
      2. Things you must-do after every mock you take
      Each one of us has his/her strong/weak area and if Arithmetic is difficult for you then focus on other areas. In the limited time available you should focus on improving your strong areas and not worrying too much about your weak areas.
      Call me at 9811155160 in case you want to discuss the issues.

  16. Hello Sir,
    Thanks for the detailed analysis of mock test.
    For all the proctored/unproctored mocks i have attempted, marks i score are sometimes 140+ and sometimes in the range of 90-110.
    Could you please suggest me what to do in next 30days to stabilize my marks and be sure of getting good percentile in cat’14?
    Could you also please suggest me how to increase my VA score, as i am scoring terribly low in that?
    And is it possible to improve in these 30days to get 99+%lie in cat’14?
    And how much do i have to score to get 99+%ile in cat’14?
    10th-93%
    12th-91%
    graduation(b.tech)-8.95
    work ex-4months

    • Shivi93, 100-140 is a big range and you will need to identify the reason for this fluctuation, please call me at 9811155160 to discuss the issue.
      A score of 140+ should get you a 99%ile in CAT’14.

  17. Sir,
    First of all, I thank you sir, with all the efforts you are putting for us students to analyse and see our mistakes and improve them with regard to every mock. It is an extra ordinary effort by you to vocalize all your thoughts and record it for the students. That did really help a lot. In fact this particular analysis helps a lot to get an overview of how we, the students performed and plus it is always a better option for anyone to listen to a solution rather than to read it.
    Sir, just one request, if possible please do so for the upcoming remaining mocks as well as it gives a reasonable as well as a valuable insight for all of us.
    In this particular mock I scored 76, predicting my CAT percentile as 89.
    Any insights on this, sir? And since this was a marginally tougher mock compared to the previous ones, if such a question paper comes on The Day, what should be an ideal score to secure around the 90 %ile mark?

    Thanking you
    Hriday Bajaj

    • Hriday, hae done this for Mock CAT 10 also and will try and do it for a couple of more Mock CATs.
      Mock CAT 7 was tougher than the earlier Mocks and what you should be tracking is your percentile score. My estimate is that a score of around 110 should convert to a 90%ile in CAT.

  18. Respected Sir,
    Thank you for your advices. Is it require to memorize the values of sin, cos & tan of angels, along with standard angles like 0, 30, 45, 60 & 90 for CAT as well as other MBA entrance exam? I will be obliged if you give your details analysis and strategy for attempting other upcoming exams like IIFT, SNAP, NMAT, CMAT 2nd, XAT, MAT as you have decoded New CAT. Also please clear the differences (not only pattern or duration) between CAT and these above mentioned exam because I am basically preparing for CAT.
    Regards,
    Sib Sankar Saha
    CL ID – 594965

    • Sib Sankar, you need to remember the values of trignomentric identities for standard angles only i.e. 0, 30. 45, 60 and 90. However yo should be able to derive the values for (90 + these angles, 180 + or – these angles) etc also.
      All these exams are 80% similar and usually the difference is in terms of degree of difficulty. Also apart from CAT and NMAT all other papers have a GK section as well. Will be writing separtely on these papers shortly.

  19. Hi Sir,

    Thanks a lot for the post. Could you please let me know what scores would get me past the 99%ile mark, in both the sections? I am scoring in the range of 100 – 130 in CL mocks. But it is fluctuating. I have been able to increase my attempts in the last few mocks (of CL and BullsEye) but my accuracy is taking a beating. I am in desperate need of some mentoring but I don’t know who to call or talk to, as I am not taking classroom coaching. Will you be able to take out some time from your schedule and answer my questions? I have a hell lot of them!

    Regards,
    Arnab Dutta

  20. Hello Sir.
    I am trying to apply your strategy but i am fail. My score is in between 80-90. I give 90min to QADI section and attempt only 20 questions with 85% accuracy. but at home i am able to do 35 questions and get more than 120 marks. what should i do to increase my score to 120 – 150. I don’t know what to do. most of my questions are in missed opportunity. Can I improve my score when only one month left. Please suggest me.

  21. Hi Sir,

    I had enrolled for the online series and i have also been giving mocks weekly. My score in the VALR section has been varying between 55-65 but I am just not being able to score more than 30 in QADI, where I have got a single digit at times. Sir, I have resigned from my job due to lack of time to prepare and I want to dedicate my next year to CAT 2015 prep, since I think I’ve no hope this year. Is there any way I can strengthen my Section 1 with just over a month remaining? I really wish to get into an IIM this year itself if possible.

    • Nikita, with about 50 days to CAT’14 you can still improve and get into a good B school, suggest that you stay focussed on CAT’14 and worry about CAT’15 only after you have taken both CAT and XAT. At present your QADI scores are impacting VALR negatively and a small improvement in QADI will help increase your score in VALR also.
      A score of less than 30 in QADI indicates that either you are lacking in fundamentals or you need to improve your question selection and also your speed. Assuming that your fundamentals are by and large in place (or after the Mock you can identify about 25-30 attemptable QADI questions without time constraints), please refer to the post Are you choosing the right questions in your Mock CATs? and check if your question selection is okay in the last 3 Mocks that you have taken, if not then this is the area you need to work on.
      If the questions selection is fine then possibly you need to practice and revise a little more to ensure higher speed and accuracy. What to revise is given in the post Things you must-do after every mock you take. A new post will be published in a couple of hours that will suggest how to apply the 3 Round method and hence improve your score in QADI. Call me at 9811155160 (after the above analysis) if you need to discuss this further.

      • Thanks for the prompt reply sir. I’ve been through both the posts of yours and statergized my next mock according to it. My scores weren’t impressive again. Sir, my basics are clear especially for those chapters which are my strengths. But during mocks, I think, I tend to select wrong questions and end up wasting a lot of time and sometimes get them wrong as well. I’m fond of geometry and can solve them while I’m practising at home but in mocks I leave them since I find them time consuming. Sir, is there any flaw in the way I am preparing? Since this is my first attempt to CAT, I’m really apprehensive. I can score a fair 70+ in VALR if I try but the QA section goes for a toss. Please suggest how should I study with just a month remaining .

  22. Sir I’ve been consistently scoring 85-105 in previous mocks with around 45 attempts. I was determined to attempt more than 50 in next mock to increase the Overall Score. In MOCK CAT 10 I scored 130 (QADI 49+VALR 81) (analysis is due tomorrow).
    Sir any tips on how can I consistently score around 130-140s in mock which will translate to 150-160 in CAT (hopefully) and possibly an IIM call.

    • Shashank, what you are doing is working for you hence do not look at changing your strategy at this time. Just focus on practice (test gym, old CAT papers), testing (Mock CATs) and analysis + revision.

  23. Dear GP Sir
    Regarding my score in CL Mock Test. In my last 5 CL percentile(overall) ranges usually from 85 ~ 93 percentile with score in range 90~123 (QA : 60 ~75 VA : 35~60).
    Teh main matter of concern for me is my VA score , which fluctuates at lot . Some times it’s crosses 60 and sometimes fell below 35 .
    My CL enrollment id is : 10087236.

    Please suggest some strategy to improve (more important bring consistency) my VA score.

    P.S : I will be writing CAT 2nd time , this year.

    • Piyush, considering the 6 sub-sections of the paper (QA, DI, LR, Verbal Logic, Usage and RC) please let me know:
      1. in what sequence do you attempt the paper?
      2. how much time do you give to each sub-section?
      3. what are your attempts and correct answers in each sub-section?

  24. Dear Sir,

    The video session you provided was of great help. It would be more helpful of you if you can provide video sessions atleast for English VA Question of past or forthcoming Mocks. Your techniques change the way I approach the questions and more of them will enhance my preparations. Thank you.

    Regards,

      • hello sir,
        the video of how you attempted mock cat is a greaat greaaat help for me… it made me realise that you are no different..you also at times commit mistake, get stuck up, make silly mistakes, choose a wrong question and so… it gave me a lot of confidence and has helped me to score more in mocks… as only 4-5 proc mocks are left..
        I urge you to please provide video analysis for them too…I know it quite tiresome for you because of your schedule….
        but it would b a Greaattt help sir..
        Thankyou sir 🙂

  25. Dear Sir,

    While taking a mock CAT, I begin with the VALR section. I spend about 85 mins in that section, and manage to score 64-72 marks with 28-31 attempts. I spend the remaining 85 mins on QADI, but I manage to attempt only 14-17 ques, with a score always ranging in the 30s. I also miss out on most of the DI sets as the time gets over solving the quant ques itself.

    My performance in QADI has been very poor. I never get a sectional percentile more than 60%. However, my percentile in VALR section is around 94-99%ile always.

    Please advise as to how I can improve in QADI as only 1 month is left for CAT.

    Thanks .

    • Deepika, 14-17 attempts in QADI in 85 minutes indicates that either you are lacking in fundamentals or you need to improve your question selection and also your speed. Please refer to the post Are you choosing the right questions in your Mock CATs? and check if your question selection is okay, if not then this is the area you need to work on.
      If the questions selection is fine then possibly you need to practice and revise a little more to ensure higher speed and accuracy. What to revise is given in the post Things you must-do after every mock you take. A new post will be published in a couple of hours that will suggest how to apply the 3 Round method and hence improve your score in QADI. Call me at 9811155160 (after the above analysis) if you need to discuss this further.

      • Thank you so much Sir…
        How many ques do I need to get right in QADI to clear the sectional cutoff?
        What should be the attempt to correct ratio I should be looking at?

        • Deepika, my estimate is that the sectional cut off for QADI is likely to be over 50 marks which translates to 17+ net correct attempts.

  26. HELLO SIR, i am a classroom student of cl gzb.With just 40 days left for cat , i wanted to know how to best utilize these days so as to get a 95%ile. and my weak sections are algebra and geometry. how do i command over them and what should be my strategy in the exam.i am not getting a good score in my mocks.and what are the sectional cutoffs for the exam.
    i am properly practicing the test gym and analysis of the mocks.
    i have completed my graduation this year and hence it is a drop of one year and it is very important for me to get into a top b-school.
    please suggest. i would be very thankful.

    • Ayushi, my estimate is that the sectional cutoff is likely to be around 50-55 or you will need about 17-18 net correct answers. A new post will be published in a couple of hours that will suggest how to apply the 3 Round method and hence improve your score. In these 50 days to CAT you should focus primarily on Practice (Test Gym, Sectional Tests, old CAT papers), Testing (2 mock CATs per week), Analysis (of all tests – Mocks and Sections) and Revision. Will be writing an article on this shortly.

  27. Thankyou sir. this has been of great help.

    anxiously waiting for the E-SQC session.

    i hope the online test series students will be informed about it.

  28. Sir,

    What are Additional Mocks in our SIS? Are they any different from our regular proc & unproc mocks? Will their difficulty level vary from that of the usual ones? Pls enlighten.

    • Gopal, these additional mocks have been created using the questions of the Mock CATs of the old CAT pattern tests and are will be helpful for those of you who did not attempt the 20 Mocks of the old pattern test series. All features associated with the test series will be available for these Mocks also except the video analysis. These would be classified as difficult papers.

  29. Hello Sir,
    I have been following all your posts and try to apply most of the things that u suggest in your post.
    My Scores in recent Mock are:
    MOCK CAT new pattern (Trail)- 101
    Mock 1,3 – 57 & 65 r’tly.
    (was formulating diff strategies regarding new patterned CAT).
    Mock 5- 88
    Mock 7- 92
    Mock 10- 96.

    In last mock (Mock 10) I decided to for 100% accuracy in quant. Attempted only 15 ques in QADI and got 13 correct. While my accuracy in LR is 95% in VA its 70-80%.

    Could you please suggest me where am I getting wrong and how+ what should I do in coming days to move to 120+.

    Regards
    Gaurav.

    • Shagun, please go through the CAT 1990-1999 papers and practice DI sets from them. Do 5 DI sets every days, identify the sets that you would & would not like to attempt in future and revise the ones that you want to attempt. After you have done this for a week, start the process for DI sets of Mock CATs also.

  31. Dear Sir,

    I have been regularly practising on all my concepts. I have revised most of my fundamentals twice and currently I give two mock tests in a week with a through revision afterwards. Yet, i seem to be stuck. My scores vary a lot, especially in QADI. Right now i am able to attempt 20-25 questions in sec 1 with around 19-22 right, but the same takes up most of my time(around 110 mins). However, that also varies with different exams. I am fairly confident in VALR as i can solve it fast enough. Even in 60 mins at times i attempt 30 – 33 questions with an average score of 55; though i am sure i can improve my accuracy if i can allocate more time to it.

    I really need help with QADI, and how to maximize score in that with my current time remaining.

    My overall score average with the new pattern is 95-100. Please advise me how to strengthen my skills in the same.

    • Akash, since VALR is you area of strength you have to maximise your score in this section hence start giving more time to this section. 60 minutes for 30-33 attempts resulting in a score of 50-55 is not acceptable, if by giving 15 minutes extra you can get another 5 questions correct then you will have a high total score which will be able to support a low QADI score also. Your target score for VALR should be around 75.
      Coming to QADI, are you able to solve the questions after the paper? If yes then it is an issue of poor selection of questions, please refer to the post Are you choosing the right questions in your Mock CATs? and The single-most unpardonable, gravest sin you can commit in CAT to understand this better.
      If however you are unable to solve the QADI questions after the paper also then the issue is lack of knowledge and you will need to brush up your concepts in a few areas so that you can attempt a few more questions.
      Pleasse go through the above posts and call me at 9811155160 to discuss.

  32. Greetings GP Sir,

    As per your advice I have started attempting less but with higher accuracy. As a result, my percentile is in the range of 98-99.5. Sir with around 40 days left I have decided to take a break from my job for a month and prepare for CAT full time. Sir I am lagging behind a bit in PC and PJ in the last few mocks despite being good at them.. Could you suggest some means to improve them or some website or some source for good quality PC,PJ questions? Also, for section 2 what is the importance of Critical Reasoning questions like Conclusion, Assumptions, Inference, Argument strengthen/weaken, FIJ’s? They haven’t been asked in CAT for a long time.. So are they important and should one focus on them?

    – Rohan.

    • Dear Rohan,

      Test Gym Adaptive and Sectional Tests will be good sources for practising questions on PJ/PC. Critical Reasoning questions have not appeared in CAT in recent years. However, with the increase in the number of questions in CAT this year, you may get 3 to 5 questions from this topic as well. Hence, ideally, you be should be well-prepared to handle questions from his topic as well. Further, other exams often throw up a few questions from this topic. Your preparation for Critical Reasoning will help you in those exams as well.

  33. GP Sir,

    I want to know what percentile is required for getting into an IIM other than A/B/C for the below profile:
    10th :82.5 %
    12th : 78.8%
    Grad: 60.30%
    Work -Ex: 26 months
    Current Score in CL Mocks: Avg :70-80 Percentile
    Please advice, thanks in advance.
    Regards,
    Rakesh Kaushik

    • Rakesh, you can get a call from all IIMs based on your acads and work experience but your scores in mocks is significantly below the required score. A general category candidate needs at least 99.5%ile for a call from A,B & C, over 99%ile for other old IIMs and over 97%ile for the new IIMs

      • Thank you sir,

        I am really trying hard to improve my scores and hopefullly i will do the same in the upcoming mocks.

  34. sir i am student of CL. now a days may be due to load on server SIS account is working too slow. all the students are facing problem.we are not able too practice due to this problem.

  35. Sir
    I have been able to attempt around 50 questions per mock ending Aug. 2014. with the number of incorrect attempts around 9-12 per mock.

    However these statistics remained stagnant throughout Sept. 2014.
    My net scores have been hovering around 102,105.

    After taking hints from the video for Mock-7 and attempting mock-10 accordingly, I could increase my number of attempts to 57. However, the number of incorrect attempts also increased to 19.

    Sir, Can you please help out on how to increase the accuracy %-age ?

  36. Sir

    I face lot of problem in VA section. In QA I can figure out which ques to attempt & which to leave,however this isn’t case in VA. I often get stuck up in that section & later realize that I actually did not attempt the easier 1’s… Also my scores are varying to great deal (91,89,122,87,100) with %ile ranging from 80-95…Also I haven’t been able to attempt more than 50 ques in any of proctored mocks. Accuracy has been high so far (close to 85)…I am unable to figure out where to improve to raise attempts & score…please guide me for same.

    Regards.
    Shivi

    • Shivi, unlike QADI in VALR it is usually difficult to figure out which questions are attemptable and hence you have to go through the question and then decide if it should be attempted or not, the trick is to leave it early and not after spending 2-3 minutes. That you are attempting the “not to be attempted” questions is the reason why your attempts are not increasing. The paper has 6 sub sections – QA, DI, Verbal Logic (Para jumbles, Para Completion, Critical Reasoning etc), English Usage (Sentence Correction, Fill in blanks, Vocabulary etc) LR and RC. Please let me know your attempts, correct answers and the amount of time you spend on each of these sections to suggest the approach for improving your score.

  37. sir plzz suggest me any G.k book other thn newsppr that cn b vry much usefull in getting a gud score in SNAP G.k section…sir i m vry much confuse after giving my CMAT exam, that hw to get well preprd for G.k….Snap matters a lot for me sir n i cnt let it go bcz of G.k section…i will b waiting for ur rply…
    (n sir u r simply awsum ur blogs r amazing)

  38. Sir, thakyou for ur detailed explanation.
    I am through with my course, and i seem unable to score beyond 110-115.
    i attempt around 55-58 questions. I aim for not less than 98% in CAT. How should I proceed?

    • Medhavi, this is good performance and with over a month to CAT you can improve your score. The paper has 6 sub sections – Verabl Logic, Usage (Sentence Correction, Vocabulary), RC, LR, QA and DI, pleae let me know how much time do you spend on each of these, how many do you attempt and in what sequence do you attempt the paper?

      • Sir, i spend around 100-110 mins in QADI. I attempt 22-25 questions here. I earlier used to score really bad in this section, but have recently improved my scored to 50+, through better selections of questions. But my VA score keeps varying from 55 to 67, and hence the overall score keeps hovering near 100-110, with a net attempt of around 55-60 question. And with a month to go, a I really need to score 98%ile+.

        • Medhavi, 100-110 is not bad at this stage but with around 60 attempts you have around 17-18 errors which is high and to improve your score you will need to look at improving your accuracy. Another 4-5 correct answers would increase you score by over 15 marks and increase your percentile significantly.
          To my mind 60-70 minutes for VALR is insufficient and an extra 15 minutes could really improve your VALR and overall scores. To my mind one should give at least 70 minutes to a VALR and since this is your stronger section then you have to maximise in this section and hence 75 minutes is my recommendation.
          In QADI, with a reduced time suggested by me you will need to improve your speed and also your question selection beacuse 4-5 wrong answers out of 23-24 QADI attempts is high. Please refer to the post Are you choosing the right questions in your Mock CATs? and check if your question selection is okay, if not then this is the area you need to work on. If the questions selection is fine then possibly you need to practice and revise a little more to ensure higher speed and accuracy. What to revise is given in the post Things you must-do after every mock you take.
          Call me at 9811155160 (after the above analysis) if you need to discuss this further.

  39. Hello sir,
    I want to know how many ques. should I attempt with what % of accuracy to get around 95%tile in CAT ?
    Thank you

  40. sir i am not able to score well in the mock . the score is very poor . i am trying my best . but score is the same . while trying the questions during analysis i am able to do better but not during the mock. initially i use to score 89%ile in VA/LR but now its below average .

  41. I am ex CL Candidate….n m getting overall 140 to 150 marks with 95 % accuracy in mocks…..how much should i expect in cat xam?????

    • Faiyaz, you should expect a score in excess or 99%ile, with over a month to CAT you can possibly increase your score to 99.9%ile also,

  42. Gautam Sir..

    I’m filling the SNAP form and there are tons of colleges to apply too.
    Can you please brief me regarding the best ones to apply in
    Now i know SIBM and SCMHRD are the best ones.
    But eve they have soo many variants
    SIBM(Pune)-MBA,MBA in Innovation and Intraprenaurship
    SIBM(Bengaluru) – MBA
    SCMHRD-MBA,IM

    I hardly have any idea what to do sir

    • Rushil, SIBM Pune and SCMHRD are the two best SNAP colleges for MBA. Go for the regular MBA programs the other programs have not really picked up. The next level consists of SIIB Pune (MBA IM) and SIBM Bangalore. SIOM Nasik is a good institute but offers specialisation only in operations. For wards of defence personnel SIMS is a good back up option. Please refer to the post Jayein toh jayein kahaan 2014: Which Institute? to understand which are the of the comparable MBA institutes.

  43. Sir,
    If a student studied his fundabook, Test gym adaptive, mod, classroom exercises at an average but thoroughly revised and analysed proc mocks, unproc mocks and sectional tests.Where is his cat percentile ranging between ?

  44. Hllo sir, how many marks would be sufficient to get a percentile of around 99 in CAT’14. I also want to ask you sir how can I increase my number of attempts in mock cat’s. I am able to attempt around 30-35 questions in mocks.

  45. Hi Sir ,

    It seems proctured mocks have disappeared from the sis . As i was mulling over taking a retake from home ,i am not able to c any of the previously taken proctured mocks .Please take an action over this.
    Thanks

  46. Hello GP Sir,

    Sir I have got 73.43 in Xth, 82.86 in XIIth and 55 in my graduation (B.Com), Work Ex – 17 months. I am doing fine in my mocks and scoring in the range of 85 to 95 %ile. I would like to apply for MDI IB course but am not sure if I will pass their selection criteria with my academics. Sir can you also let me know which colleges should I apply to with my acads??

    • Khurshid, while your graduation marks are low but it will not be an issue because MDI does not consider past academic performance for interview short listing. In the second stage also it is your performance in the interview and the group discussion that will determine success/failure. Academics does not play a very important role in this stage also and hence you can apply for the MDI IB program.

  47. Sir, I wanted to know how I should go about in the last 45 days before CAT. In the first four mocks, my score was stuck between 140-150. After some changes in the strategy, i managed to score 168 in the last mock (Mock 10). My attempts were 27 with 26 correct in QA/DI in around 90 minutes and 37 with 32 correct in VA/LR in around 80 minutes. I am looking to increase the score progressively to 200. Now i have to balance between –
    1. Taking more mocks
    2. Covering left out QA portions (Perm-Com and little bit of Geometry)
    3. Practising QA to clear my concepts
    4. Learning to apply SQC wherever possible
    5. Practise VA (and that’s a lot of question types)
    6. Practise RC (as now i am able to attempt only 2 RC sets)
    7. Practise LR and DI to know more question types, explore shortcuts and increase speed.
    How much should i do of each and in what chronology, in these 45 days?

      • One last question, sir! 😛
        I reject Murphy’s Law and always attempt a question if i am stuck between two options. Till now, i have applied this only in English and it has worked fairly for me. Should i apply it in QA also?

    • Saurav, You should do all that you have mentioned with an extra focus on the questions types where you can increase your scores. In VALR with 35+ attempts you may not be able to increase your attempts significantly but you could increase your attempts in QADI where you are attempting 27-28 questions. This would mean working on your speed and hence SQC techniques, practice and revision of QADI should be your focus area.
      Your primary preparation strategy for the remaining 40 days should be to take 2 mocks a week, analyse them in detail, identify important questions and revise regularly. You can consider following the schedule given below:
      For your daily practice you can consider the following weekly schedule:
      Day 1: Topic wise tests from the Test Gym eg, 2 tests each of RC, DI, LR and VL (14 questions each), 1 test of Usage (Sentence Correction and Vocabulary) and 3-4 of QADI
      Day 2: Repeat Day 1 schedule
      Day 3: Take a section test of QADI and VALR, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
      Day 4: Repeat Day 1 schedule
      Day 5: Repeat Day 1 schedule
      Day 6: Revise all important questions from all the test that you have taken so far.
      Day 7: Take a Mock CAT

  48. GP sir,
    Please conduct a webinar on sqc.After seeing this mock 7 taken by you make me understand how important sqc is.But unfortunately all the upcoming sqc are far away from my place.

  49. Sir,

    Very Informative sir. I just wanted to ask one thing. I have been scoring an average of 60 percentile in the CL mocks and want to increase that to atleast 90+. Can you help me out. I am failing to understand how to break this barrier and can I do so in a month

    • Sriki, the paper has 6 sub sections – Verabl Logic, Usage (Sentence Correction, Vocabulary), RC, LR, QA and DI. How much time do you spend on each of these, how many do you attempt and in what sequence do you attempt the paper?

  50. GP sir,

    what should be the score to get sectional and overall score to get an overall percentile of 96%ile in cat.
    my in scores in mocks are in the range of 80-105 WITH 40-45 ATTEMPTS .please guide sir what should i do to improve my attempts and accuracy.
    my problem is that in eu-vr i generally eleminate the two wrong options and then i select the wrong option between the two left in half of the cases.
    in qa i am not able to do DI,
    please guide sir what should i do in these 30 days left for cat to improve my score.

  51. Hi GP Sir,

    I wanted to bring an issue to your notice.

    I am a classroom student of CL and a CAT 2014 aspirant. My enrollment ID is 10917108. I have purchased the Smart CAT Cracker online series, but have been facing many technical issues on order initiation on the CL website. I have called the CL customer support 5 times since yesterday, mailed the sales team several times, but I have still not received my login credentials till now.
    My experience of buying a CL online product and dealing with the customer support has been very bad so far.
    Thanks

  53. Sir, very helpful.
    I have a query. Whenever i attempt questions in mock, due to speed, my accuracy decreases, but when i attempt the same questions at home while analyzing , i get them right. Please suggest what to do.

  54. Hi Sir,
    Your Mock Cat Analysis are always very helpful.
    However, Sir I need your advise.
    My current Mock Cat scores are ranging between 100-110 with roughly 44-45 attempts. I would like to break into the 120’s and 130’s before the actual cat exam.Presently my sectional scores are roughly balanced with Va being slightly stronger.
    My questions:
    1.What do I need to do to break into the 125’s in the mocks? I feel that I haven’t maximized yet.Will fine tuning my test taking strategy help me to get those extra 20 marks or is it just knowledge that I am lacking?
    2.Also to get 98% and above, what should be my overall raw score in cat?
    3.And Finally, will a raw score of 60 in each section be enough to clear the sectional cutoffs of the top 15 B schools?

    • Priyam,
      1. reworking of strategy will need more information so please call me at 9811155160 to discuss.
      2. A score of around 135 should be more than 98%iile in CAT
      3. 60 in each section is likely to be over 90%ile and hence will be above the sectional cut off of all institutes.

  55. hi sir,
    i wanted to knw the number of questions to be attempted to get atleast 90 or more.(my target is fore school and lbsim)

  56. Hi Sir,
    I have been giving CL mocks and my scores have stagnated in the range of 110-120 (119,115,114,123 to name some).I am also unable to attempt beyond 50 questions.Attempts have been in the range of 45-50.Sir any tips to break this 120 mark? I know it is a silly question but any insight from you will be valuable 🙂 Thanks.

    • Naksrocks, With 45-50 attempts these are very good scores and to break the 120 mark barrier you will need to look at increasing your attempts. Will need to understand your paper taking style better to give any specific suggestions, please call me at 9811155160 in the evening to discuss.

  59. This has been amazingly helpful SIr.
    I had some doubts regarding how to go about attempting/rejecting questions even after i had read ur previous mock attempt articles.
    But this video of u takin the entire test live has really shown me how i shud be taking it.
    This is bound to help me boost my attempts by 6-7 questions in the next Mock i take.
    Also it gives me confidence in knowing i have only a few tweaks to make (my way of attempting mocks is very similar…but i used to make a few crtical blunders) to be able to take future mocks like a pro!!
    Thanks SIr!!

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