CAT 2021 - How to make the best use of next 100 days for CAT Preparation?
The notification for the CAT 2021 exam is about to be announced soon. As a general trend, the CAT exam is conducted in the month of November. With around 100 days in hand for serious and dedicated preparation, here are a few suggestions that candidates can adopt to excel in the exam on the D-day:-
Start Giving Mock Tests
Aspirants are recommended to start writing CAT mocks once they are confident of at least 50% of the syllabus. If you have reached that stage, probably it is time you wrote the first mock. Do not be worried about the percentile that you score at this stage of your prep. Do not be worried about the number of questions you attempt at this stage. Do not be worried about clearing the cutoff in all three sections at this stage. The only thing that you should be worried about for CAT at this stage is the accuracy. As far as the number of mocks is concerned, it completely depends on your level of preparation. If you got more than 95 %ile in your previous CAT attempt, probably you should write 25+ mocks. On the other hand, if this is your first attempt and you have just started preparing – you should write 1 mock test by September, and once a week after that. As far as the mock test series is concerned, you can join an online CAT course.
Focus on Accuracy
Irrespective of your level of preparation, till November end, one should purely focus on accuracy. As a matter of fact, even till the D-day, aspirants should focus on accuracy but that might lead to a situation where you neglect some other easy areas for improvement. Your accuracy should be close to 100% in Quantitative Aptitude section, Logical Reasoning questions, and Data Interpretation questions. It should be in the 80-90% in Reading Comprehension and around closer to 90 in Verbal. While these are ideal figures, you should be really worried if your overall accuracy is less than 75%. That is the first thing you should be trying to fix. To fix that a very simple idea is that you implement the focus on accuracy in your daily preparation. If you are solving questions from a book, always mark the answers and measure your accuracy. Every time you have marked a question incorrectly – make a note of it. For example, at the end of the day – you can make a note that I marked 10 questions wrong today. This small little manipulation will help you keep a tight check on your mistakes.
Do not neglect LR / DI / RC
One of the most common mistakes during CAT preparation, that I have seen students make over and over again, is that they neglect LR / DI / RC. You can avoid doing that. While there are approximately 100 days left for the CAT exam, it is recommended that mark 30 days on it – 10 days dedicated to LR, 10 days dedicated to DI, and 10 days dedicated to RC. If you try dedicating 10 days purely to each LR, DI, QA, and VR section, it will no longer be neglected. It has been observed by the experts that CAT aspirants spend days, sometimes even weeks, trying to finish concepts from a Quant book to finish the syllabus. In the process, they end up neglecting other important areas. The 10-10-10 rule of time allocation will help you excel in CAT 2021 as it will mean that you are adequately prepared for the often neglected areas.
This tentative plan might help you form a plan for the last 100 days. Candidates can provide their feedback about the same via the comment section. If you liked it, do not forget to share it on Facebook / Twitter.
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