CAT 2021 On November 28: Important Sections To Prepare, Last Minute Tips & Tricks

The Common Admission Test (CAT 2021) will be held on Sunday, November 28. Just a week left for the management entrance, revision is the keyword now. The candidates who are at their last leg of preparation should focus on important chapters/ sections and attempt mock test to get familiarise with the paper pattern.

IIM Sambalpur Chairperson (Admissions) Poonam Kumar advised candidates to prepare DILR sections well and focus on their revision. "For the DILR section, I would suggest the aspirants to recognize their strengths but don't be over reliant on them and budget your time effectively, along with the sets and sub questions. Never assume when it comes to pattern-based questions. It might be appealing but the questions are sometimes set trickily to encourage that. In these last days, do not try to do any new topic, rather practice more and more the topics which you feel you are good at. Try and make impact in a composed manner with the imbibed knowledge you have gained," the chairperson said.

Prof. Prakash Satyavageeswaran from IIM Udaipur recommended management aspirants to prepare strategically for each section of the exam. "The last-minute preparations should focus on notes on important formulae, concepts, and every bit of information that seems important. Make sure during the last days you are taking a balanced diet and sleeping well. It is advisable to have a daily/weekly timetable. Appear for as many mock tests as you can. Finally, CAT is a different exam; not necessarily a difficult exam," the professor said.

Abhishek Patil, CEO and Co-founder of Oliveboard suggested candidates to to focus on intelligent practice rather than trying to cram in too much. "While it can be stressful to prepare for and think about an exam where so much is at stake, it is important to approach this systematically and in a fashion that plays to your strengths. If you're looking for ways to plan out your last-minute CAT study strategy, here are our best tips for you," the CEO said.

CAT 2021: Top 10 preparation hacks to crack management entrance

• Revise all the basics, including quantitative formulas and rules of grammar. Go through the notes of formulas and rules that you have been maintaining during preparation. All the three sections have roughly equal weightage in terms of scores, so be well-versed in all of them
• Collect a reliable set of study material for your last-minute prep. Your coaching centre will likely provide you with material of its own. In addition, there are plenty of cheat sheets, question banks and practice tests available online. Do your research on the best options and who the authors are - remember that when it comes to study material, quality matters much more than quantity
• If you have signed up for coaching, consult your teachers on any specific problem areas you would like to address. You can also study with your peer group and help each other with tough questions
• Have a personal exam-day strategy in place. Decide which topics you will attempt first, which parts to budget extra time for and so on. Plus, ensure that your strategy is flexible enough to go through some changes if needed during the exam day
• Dedicate the last few days to revision and improvement of speed and accuracy. Take time-bound mock tests to get a feel of the exam and attempt as many questions as possible. Try to improve your overall time as well as the amount of time you take to attempt each of the three sections. Also, try to maximise the number of questions you attempt correctly in each section
• Try to learn as many quick formulas as possible so that you do not spend too much time working things out on paper. This is especially important for the QA section, as many sums can be solved mentally
• Remember to not spend too much time on one question. Attempt the easy ones first and then move on to the rest. Comprehension passages or data interpretation questions, for instance, should be kept for later as they require closer reading and more time. On the other hand, spelling and grammar questions tend to be easier to complete
• Get accustomed to the format of the test and familiarise yourself with how to move back and forth, how to mark answers, how to flag questions for later and so on. Mock tests that replicate the format of CAT are essential for this
• Remember that wrong answers carry negative marks, so if you are not confident of the answer to a question, it is better to leave it blank and score a zero so as to improve your overall percentile
• When doing mock tests, analyse the areas where you are making mistakes and do extra practice tests for those if necessary. The goal should be to improve your accuracy as much as possible
• Avoid trying to learn brand-new concepts too close to the exam. This is an information overload and may end up causing extra stress, especially if you are unable to grasp them quickly enough. Instead, do extra practice for the concepts that you know already
• Ensure that you get adequate rest and nutrition so that you are in good shape for the exam. Eat proper meals, get enough sleep and take extra care to not fall ill. You should also take breaks whenever you need them and engage in soothing activities like reading a book or talking to your family and friends
• Stay calm throughout the exam and work systematically through each section. If you encounter a difficult question or cannot remember a certain formula, do not panic. Move to the next question and come back to this one later if you have time. Remember that you have worked hard and can do your best.

Ruchir Arora, Founder & CEO, CollegeDekho said that to get to the 99+ percentile mark, an aspirant has to solve around 60-70 per cent of the questions. According to the CEO, "getting stuck on a question and wasting

time is one of the worst mistakes that a student can make. If you feel like a question is too difficult or confusing, it is better to just mark it in the question paper and move on. Each question carries equal weightage, no matter what its difficulty is."

For details on Common Admission Test (CAT 2021), please visit the website- iimcat.ac.in.