CAT previous year question marathon / CAT 2025 Preparation

CAT DILR started becoming markedly tougher from CAT 2017 onwards. For many aspirants DILR becomes the make or break section as it is very unpredicatable. We saw a pattern change from CAT 2020 due to the pandemic. 10-11 questions correct will fetch you 99+ percentile.

Check out this page - 2IIM Philosophy

We strongly believe on the Quote by Abraham Lincoln “If I had nine hours to chop a tree, I’d spend the first six sharpening the axe.” We start from scratch giving a stubborn focus on fundamentals so that the student gets the opportunity to learn by discovering ideas. The plan is to provide a framework for students to handle tougher questions.
We demystify this exam and break every idea into small digestible chunks which is categorised as theory, exercise and CAT-level questions. The basic idea is to provide a structure with simple questions and 'push' students to discover some thought processes while handling CAT-level questions. We would always love to ensure that the students have enough fun and enjoyment, preparing for CAT Exam.

What are the best blogs or websites to prepare for the Common Admission Test (CAT) - 2IIM's CAT Blog

We at 2IIM CAT Preparation have 164k+ subscribers, 500+ live sessions, 2500+ videos, 100 playlists and a vibrant community. There are quite a few Channels that provide free content for CAT Preparation on Youtube. Apart from 2IIM CAT Preparation , Rodha, Cracku, Elites Grid, Khan Academy(For basics) are some of the channels that are doing a decent job. Check out this Quora link for more details: Quora Answer

i. Consistency is a vital plus where all the teaching is done by a narrow set of teachers in an online course. The teacher and the pedagogy matters the most.
ii. The Teaching in a classroom course could vary from City to City and week to week whereas it isn’t in the case of Online.
iii. In Classroom, Travel and specific timings won’t be suitable for all but in an online course you have an option to learn anywhere, at any time, at your own pace and in order that you would like to learn.
iv. There are three components for actual teaching part - the material, the pedagogy and the teacher. In a good online course, the designing and teaching are done by the same person or group. In a classroom course, the question is created, the idea transmitted are by different groups and then the teacher usually delivers to this script.

P.S: This does not necessarily mean that all online courses are good. You must do a thorough research on the following to find a good Online Course:

1) It has to be modularized so that you can learn at your pace.
2) It has to be on a very good LMS (Learning Management System) that will give you sound analytics and helps you both to learn and to assess where you are.
3) A chance to check out large sections of the course that is available in the course UI, not merely on Youtube channel.

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One more Quora Answer: Quora Answer
Youtube Link - Watch Video
Youtube Link - Watch Video

Of course, the answer is YES and you can crack CAT by preparing from August onwards. And it’s even possible when you begin from September 15ᵗʰ too. Always remember that the Quality matters more than Quantity. Finding 400 hours from somewhere and prepare feverishly in those 400 with good quality will suffice which will end up getting a decent percentile.
P.S: Get out of Quora, Facebook etc. for 4 months and most of them can find their 400 hours. Cheers!
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This Question can be answered in 2 parts:

Making CAT Preparation Enjoyable:

• First of all remember that CAT exam tests basic intelligence of class VIII, IX and X level in a standardized format.
• There is Myth that says “Engineers have an advantage in CAT exam” but the actual scenario is that this exam gives Engineers absolutely no advantage and moreover the discrimination is against Engineers at every stage. The Idea that non-Engineers (or girls, or students from commerce background) have a disadvantage going into CAT Exam is Pish Posh.
• Learn math with a sense of joy. Learn from the basics and retain a sense of wonder about math as the way Archimedes did and who proved, “If learnt well, math is endlessly fascinating”. [P.S: Learn about how Archimedes ended his life in the link below and that story is perhaps apocryphal.
• Mathematics is considered to be the queen of the Sciences since it is a fabulous brain-exercise tool kit and is endlessly fascinating.
• Reading is one of the most joyful activities one can always find. If you can find the right set of books, you can lose yourself for days. It will make you realize that reading can get you out of a funk, prevent you from going into a funk, recharge you, inspire you and do many more wonderful things to the way you think. For a glorious reading list, click here - Reading List for CAT

Relevance of Entrance with Management: A Simple correlation concept will make you understand. There are students who are very smart but have not cracked CAT. And so we can say with reasonable certainty that someone who scores 99th percentile will be reasonably intelligent. The second 0ne is more relevant as far as the IIMs are concerned. CAT scores and general intelligence in most cases carry a high correlation. Check out this Quora link for more details: Quora Answer

There is famous saying, “There are no shortcuts to Success”. Shortcuts give an illusion of preparation more often and so Run from shortcuts with all your might.

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• Math is most definitely not this thing that you need to have a phobia about. Anyone afraid of math is someone who has not been taught math well.
• Learn math with a sense of joy. Learn from the basics and retain a sense of wonder about math as the way Archimedes did and who proved, “If learnt well, math is endlessly fascinating”.
• Mathematics is considered to be the queen of the Sciences since it is a fabulous brain-exercise tool kit and is endlessly fascinating. Learn from basics, learn with joy - the fear will go away.

[P.S: Learn about how Archimedes ended his life in the link below and that story is perhaps apocryphal.]
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Checkout Bharath's Reading list for CAT to get a curated reading list. This CAT Reading list is created by Bharathwaj, PGDM from IIT-Madras and 99.21 %ile in VARC CAT 2019, as a result of spending several thousand hours in reading thousands of articles and picking articles that can help a CAT Aspirant in VARC Preparation for CAT, and has about 800+ articles in this collection Reading is the elephant in the room. If you are really looking for a curated list with a nice article reviewed and sent to you gift-wrapped every day, you should join our Facebook Group – CAT Prep online - 2IIM.. We post one article everyday on all our social media platforms. If you want to seperately read articles from different sources then articles from Economist, pre-video era Cricinfo, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Aeon, Quanta magazine are all excellent.

As for novels, find a list of up to 50 fabulous books in this wonderful reading list for CAT. Remember that anything written by PG Wodehouse is golden. Check out this link - CAT Verbal Reading List. Check out the below videos for book recommendations.
2IIM's Book Recommendations Part 1 - Watch here
2IIM's Book Recommendations Part 2 - Watch here

There are plenty of books available for CAT preparation at very low cost. The best basic books for Quant are the NCERT books for classes VI to X and RD Sharma/RS Agarwal. If you want tougher, more relevant questions to practice from, you should visit the best CAT Question bank in the world - 2IIM CAT Questions. It has great questions, even better solutions and some wonderful video explanations. And also follow our Youtube Channel – 2IIM CAT Preparation for a plenty of free preparatory videos.
But if you are really looking for a curated list with a nice article reviewed and sent to you gift-wrapped every day, you should join our Facebook Group – CAT Prep online - 2IIM.
Check out this link - CAT Verbal Reading List.

There are plenty of websites that will give you this, but be very wary of these. CAT did not release the actual paper from the years 2009 to 2016, so any website giving these is creating these paper without a credible source. The CAT papers from the years 2000 to 2008 are available for free (with solutions) inside the 2IIM Online Course.
There were two sessions each in CAT 2017 and CAT 2018 – these 4 papers are likely to be the best samples for CAT. These can be found here 2IIM's CAT Question Bank.
The PDF gives the questions with embedded links to video solutions for all of these.

One should start your CAT preparation by starting to understand that CAT tests at max high school math, common sense and reading habit. • Prepare from first principles so that your basics become automated.
• Don’t just Wander around, don’t learn in a straitjacket.
• Be relentless - this is a marathon testing your temperament and not a sprint.
• Dont merely plan which is the easiest part, execute the damn thing.
• Read a lot with variety and read it all the time.

How to prepare for CAT 2024 - Youtube Video

There are students who attempted 29 questions out of 34 in Verbal Section and ended with 77ᵗʰ percentile, while there have been also been students with just 28 attempts ending upwards of 99.xxᵗʰ percentile. And the reason behind this is accuracy, which matters a lot.

Speaking about accuracy and students often end up with the “The last two choices problem”. That is students narrow it down to two choices in the VARC section and then end up choosing the one which they think is the right one. In the similar way they take chances in these questions but do not take sufficient effort to resolve this. The common mindset we often see is “It will be either of the two. If I attempt 10 questions like this, I will get 5 right. Let me not waste any more time and mark the one you think it’s right.” This line of thought in most of the cases is incorrect. The guys setting the exam paper have planted something in either choice B or choice D that will make it easy to eliminate that and locating that thing will be the key. This is an objective paper with one correct answer per question. When you practice mocks, fight against that last step resistance and work aggressively on improving accuracy will help you master this section. It is a common myth that reading speed and vocabulary are important for VARC while they both count for nothing.

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YouTube Link - Watch Video
YouTube Link - Watch Video.
YouTube Link - Watch Video.
YouTube Link - Watch Video

We all know that the DILR Section of CAT is becoming increasingly difficult with each passing year. It gets to a point where it’s hard to distinguish between DI and LR that appears in actual CAT, so we noticed that and chose to address this. All of us at 2IIM takes the CAT exam every single year to keep us updated and also to know where we stand. Every single year, we ensure that the interface is user friendly allowing students to make navigate easily. We also take one section and revamp that section by improving the Content, Video/Audio quality, etc.

Last year, we are have doubled the content available under the DILR section of our online course. Apart from that, we have also added a testing engine that will allow you to just come and solve a ton of questions (5000+) for practice in the form of tests. You will also have detailed solutions so that you can go back and fix your mistakes.

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2IIM has an Android App for CAT preparation. The app contains lessons, videos, slides and tests put together by a team of faculties who take up the exam year after year.

Read More about the App on Quora: Quora Answer.

We have an elaborative list of books for improving your reading habit. Check the links below. For a glorious reading list, Check out this link - CAT Verbal Reading List
YouTube Link - Watch Video YouTube Link - Watch Video

Find a list of up to 50 fabulous books in this wonderful reading list for CAT. Remember that anything written by PG Wodehouse is golden. Find a list of well-written blogs and websites here. Economist, pre-video era Cricinfo, the Atlantic are all excellent. But if you are really looking for a curated list with a nice article reviewed and sent to you gift-wrapped every day, you should join our Facebook Group – CAT Prep online - 2IIM. For Websites, check this link - CAT Verbal Reading List