To succeed in any challenge, the game begins and ends in your mind. To succeed in the CAT what matters is how you think about the challenge of cracking CAT. So believe that you will succeed and keep working towards your goal. The CAT is an affair of a couple of hours where what a lot depends on how focused you are in those two hours.

Let us try to understand the basic structure of CAT. CAT is a multiple-choice paper. The main motive of CAT is to test your speed and accuracy in math's and English. The CAT may have 150-190 questions spread over three areas.

This is essentially a test of your decision-making ability. A person who can take proper decisions and pick the right questions to solve with speed and accuracy is proportionately rewarded. Now as can be easily judged the decision making capacity is developed through an understanding of the subject. CAT checks your ability to take fast and correct decisions. So it is essential that you cultivate an interest in the subject. Only through interest will one develop understanding.

If you believe that there is a particular area where you are weak go back to the basics and develop your fundamental concepts. The basics will give you a sound foundation to develop higher speed and accuracy. At this stage it is not advisable to have doubts with your competence instead focus on practice. Attempt all sections with complete earnestness and no self-doubts. Even a few minutes spent doubting yourself will be time wasted. A large number of practice tests are advisable to prepare for the D-Day. Now let us look at the individual sections.

The first section is composed of Verbal based questions and Reading Comprehension. In this section knowledge of English Usage and a high, consistent reading speed is important. While reading you should always keep in mind your reading speed and remember that your goal is to touch a speed of about 300 words/min. Since there is very little time to be spent per passage the idea is to read a passage once and while answering the questions refer to the passage only if absolutely necessary. This is possible only if you manage to grasp all of what is written in the passage.

The next section to prepare for is Quantitative Ability. A sure-shot way to succeed in this section is to clearly understand each and every basic rule and law of each and every chapter in Arithmetic, Algebra or Geometry. Additionally, constantly improving on your ability to solve problems mentally is a bonus.

The Third Section is the Reasoning Ability Section. It is here that a high and accurate calculation speed can make a difference between cracking the CAT and reappearing the following year. In the Data Interpretation case-lets, the alacrity with which you perform calculations can help you maximize your score. The remaining Reasoning based questions can be mastered by attempting mathematical and analytical reasoning questions from various books.

Beyond theoretical familiarity and preparation ensure that you are aware of what your weaknesses are and that you have a suitable strategy to counter every one of these weaknesses. Most importantly stay calm, if you are not able to find answers to a few questions in a row, don’t panic! Panicking will just make it harder to solve. Instead move to another type of question and return to this one later. Good – luck to all you CAT aspirants out there.

Warm Regards,

SAKSHI

Dear Sakshi,

Thanks for sharing this educative information with this community and am sure that this shall be of valuable resource to all the students aspiring for management degrees in the near future.

Considering the fact that several students keep asking about the succes preparation to clear the CAT with good marks, this write-up surely will raise their spirits to perform to their best potential.

Alternatively, I also saw the other articles you've posted majorly for the management students and I am glad that you've shown efforts of contributing to the MBA students area.

That was a wonderful job..

Regards,

CHRM

"To win...you must stay in the game" - Claude Bristol