Decoding CAT 2015

 

 

 

Mock:

1. Make a replica or imitation of something

2. Make (something) seem laughably real or impossible

(Source: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/mock)

If we go by that definition – a Mock CAT may be of two categories:

1. An imitation of the skill-set tested in the CAT

2. A test that is nowhere close to the CAT

For a CAT prep institute, their Mock should be the former and not the latter. The CAT Mocks are the most important prep tool for your CAT. It can help you understand quite a lot of things: where do you stand, which areas you are good at, how to handle a particular section etc. Unless the institute makes a reasonable prediction based on logical assumptions, it cannot create a Mock CAT which imitates the skill-set tested in the CAT – both in terms of the difficulty level of the test and the composition of questions.

However, there are some easy escape routes:

1. Create a Mock that is consistently difficult & claim that we are preparing for the worst-case scenario

2. Randomly create Mock Tests of different difficulty level and hope that one of it hits the CAT difficulty level.

CL avoids both!

Our objective is to create Mocks that are as close to the CAT as possible. We, at CL, decided to be transparent and let our students know how we create a Proc Mock. Here’s a video wherein I explain the thought process behind CL Proc Mocks 2015.

If you want to know how we achieve it, watch this video:

http://www.careerlauncher.com/cat-mba/cat-2015-decoded/index.jsp?ws=GP

Good luck!

Gejo Sreenivasan

34 Comments

  1. Hello sir,
    I’ve been doing well in QA and cleared up my 90% of basics an will complete the remaining soon
    however my real problem lies in va where the inference questions and sentence corrections are causing me an issue

    Will you please suggest me a plan to tackle my problem and an overall plan for my preparations with around 45 days to go?

    • Vishal for Verbal it’s all about practice. There are 2 schools of thought:

      1) Attempt only those questions which you are very confident of. Aim for high accuracy in this scenario.

      2) Attempt as many questions as possible. That ways you can aim for 60-65% accuracy and still score 50+ (net score) which will more often than not fetch you 90%ile+ in VRC section.

      For a 45 day strategy http://www.careerlauncher.com/cat2015/

  2. Hello sir,
    can u please put some light on how the CAT2015 PAPER is expected to be in comparison to2014
    also ideal number of attempts and approach for getting a99%ile 🙂
    Thankyou

    • Vivek, assuming the same level of difficulty as CAT 2014, the estimate for the score required for a 99%ile in CAT 2015 is:

      QA – net score of 70-75
      DILR – net score of 65-70
      VRC – net score of 55-60
      Overall – net score of around 175

  3. hi sir
    what should be minimum attempt to clear QA sectional percentile for iims and new patter of fms with what % of accuracy

    • Pulsarmaniac, assuming the same level of difficulty as CAT 2014, the estimate for the score required for a 99%ile in CAT 2015 is:

      QA – net score of 70-75
      DILR – net score of 65-70
      VRC – net score of 55-60
      Overall – net score of around 175

  4. Hello sir,
    I have been hovering over 150 marks in the previous mocks. I want to take it to 180. Could you please suggest me ways to do it!

    • Roopteja, the only way to go about this is by practicing, every week, all the questions that you’ve not been able to solve in the mocks. Apart from this, if needed brush up the topic that you aren’t comfortable in.

  5. Sir
    mocks 1 to 8 have been converted to the sectional tests and posted on our site. When will the videos analyses of these sectional tests be posted? i am sure videos were posted when these were present in mock form. But I had enrolled for the test series late and so dont have access to them.
    Thank You
    Rohan

  6. As it is clear that there are 3 sections Quants, reasoning and DI-RC. The main doubt i have is , is there a sectional cutoff in all the 3 sections or if someone like myself performs well in quants and reasonin but not so well in DI-RC section still holds a chance to make it to a good percentile and college…? some how this sectional cutoff matter is not at all clear to me, kindly help.

    • Swarup, the three sections are QA, DILR and VRC. There are sectional cutoffs for some colleges. Some of the other colleges do not have any sectional cutoff. Please visit the following link to read more about the B-schools. Click Here.

  7. Sir,
    I had enrolled for SCC for CAT 2015. I have been able to complete only around 20% of the video lectures, and nothing from the study sets. However, now I have taken leave from office till CAT and will be able to devote more time to my preparation.
    I just gave my first proc mock. I scored 125 marks which came to 93.4 percentile. However, my name didn’t appear in the toppers list. My sectional scores and percentiles are:
    QA: 35 marks : 79.5 %ile
    DILR: 33 marks: 74.53%ile
    VRC: 57 marks: 99.34%ile.

    Is this because of some issue of sectional cut offs?

    Also, I wanted to know how I should proceed with the preparation. Would it be sufficient to watch the lectures and attempt the quizzes, and then concentrating on test gym and mocks? Or would I have to go through the study sets as well?

    • Abhinav, you need to clear the sectional cutoffs in order to feature in the topper’s list. Taking a good number of mocks, at least two per week and analyzing them within the same week is the key. Around this, you should practice questions from Test Gym and the fundabooks.

  8. Hi sir,
    My Mocks percentile are very poor. I am practicing through Test Gym. I don’t understand as why I am not improving. I really need your guidance to improve myself. I am very weak in quant and verbal, no matter how much I practice my performance goes steeply down. I feel very dejected, please guide me.

    • Neha, don’t worry, persistence is the key. Analysis of the mocks is the most important thing. Analyse your mocks in great detail. Find the topics your not good at and revise them again. Also spot the difficult questions and revise these questions once a week.
      Taking some sectional tests is also a good idea. Please let me know how did this help you.

    • Abhishek, the only way to deal with this problem is to analyze your mocks well. Probably you are not playing to your strengths in each of the mocks and therefore there is this fluctuation. Identify your strengths and sharpen them. Revise the topics from the areas of weakness.

  9. Hello Sir,

    I am stuck at an accuracy of around 65% in RC since the past 4-5 months. Need help. I have gone through this blog as well as the Smart Cat Cracker videos.

    • Hitesh, please analyze the RC questions again as to why you are getting them wrong. Start from the Beginner level in the Test Gym and escalate the level gradually. Also, make sure that your verbal part is strong so that it can cover up for the mistakes you make in the RCs.

    • Dheram, it is highly unlikely that there will be a gap. In CAT 2013, which also had sectional time limits, there was no gap. Though, we must wait for the demo video that CAT is supposed to release in October.

  10. Nice Article as usual.Thanks Gejo Sir.

    Small Query- CAT-2006 had 5 FIJ questions out of 25 VRC questions (which was designed by IIMA). So can we expect FIJ questions in CAT 2015 as well…??

    Thanks,
    Dhanraj

  11. SIR,
    i have just watched the video of cat decoding, had a query that what is the difficulty level of master series mocks of cl?
    also do you think giving all india ranks for cl mocks helps us anyway?

    • Jenish, the All India ranks give a good picture of where do you stand vis-a-vis the other CAT takers. Master Series mocks have been designed as per the expected CAT 2015 level.

  12. Sir,
    i am facing problem with the rc, my accuracy is not going beyond 50%, though it has improved yet not crossing that average 50%marks. please tell what and how should i do?

    • Anurag, this is a common problem among almost all the aspirant. The key is to spot the questions which can be answered directly by scanning the passage. Just spot those questions, scan the paragraph and mark the answer. This way you’ll avoid many negative marks.

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