All of us have our own peculiar way of approaching a problem and going about solving it. In the same way, the way we look at our preparation is very personal and need not necessarily align with the preparation strategies followed by anybody else. Then is it important to have a peer group with whom you can sit and study and take your preparation forward ? Is it absolutely necessary to interact with others and adjust your preparation strategy in accordance to what others are doing ? Will a peer group work for you ? Or are you better off preparing on your isolated island ?
This article will take you through the nuances of preparing with a peer group and help you choose whether or not you should prepare with one. Further, we’ll try answering all the above question and help you make a decision in regard to the same!
First things first
Like everything else, preparing with a peer group has its own pros and cons. It is finally on you to decide what works for you. Do not fall into the trap of “Peer Pressure” and do something just because an X, Y, or Z said so or your friends are following it. Reflect on what betters you and choose that for your CAT preparation.
Physical vs Virtual World
Another thing that should be an extremely crucial deciding factor of whether or not you should prepare for CAT 2021 with your peers is whether your peers are in the physical or virtual world. A lot of things go on in the virtual world and a virtual anonymous group is one thing that you will want to avoid at all costs. Preparing and hustling alone is way better than being a part of a anonymous virtual group and then ending up bashing yourself every now and then. You never know who is there at the other end of the group and generally these groups end up demotivating you in your CAT preparation journey.
These anonymous preparation peer groups will make you feel like your wings have been clipped when you have the opportunity of spawning the entire sky and soaring high.
So when is it okay for you to prepare with Peer Groups ?
If preparing with a peer group makes you feel motivated and challenges you to expand your horizon in terms of the topics you cover and the questions that you try, then you should definitely go for it. Remember, this process should not be taxing for you and should encourage you to stretch your limits. If you feel that a peer group is doing just the opposite, i.e. draining your energy, you should leave! A little competition and stress is okay, but if it exhausts you, then it is better to prepare alone.
Having said all of this about preparing alone vs preparing with a peer group, the latter has a few advantages over the former that cannot be ignored and thus, tips the balance in preparing with a peer groups’ favour. Read on and see if these advantages align with your CAT preparation goal and ultimately whether preparing with a peer group works for you or not.
1. Discipline in Preparation
In a peer group you have people motivating you all through. Even on days when you feel like taking a break and resting, the others in the group will motivate you to keep pushing and going on with your preparation. This will instil a sense of discipline within you for your preparation. Another flipside of the coin can be that you fear that you’ll miss out and lag behind your peers in your preparation and may never be able to cover this lag.
Thus, preparing in peer groups will discipline you in terms of finishing and practicing topics.
2. Automatic Benchmarks
When preparing with a peer group, you constantly get a boost to prepare better when you see that your peers are putting in more effort and getting more things done as compared to you. This automatically gets the benchmark set for you because you do not want to lag behind from your peer group in terms of preparation. You push yourself more and get more things done in an attempt to cross that benchmark that your mind automatically sets for you.
3. Healthy Competition
Preparing with a peer group brings with it a sense of healthy competition among the peers. Each member tries to maximize their preparing potential and motivates the rest to do the same in this process. With a slight fear of lagging behind in preparation and never being able to cope up with this lag, the rest also put in as much effort and the competition goes on! This competition helps you push your limits and achieve much more than you usually could have in isolated preparation.
4. Kinship
Just like life, there are ups and downs, in CAT Preparation. Some days you’ll excel in your preparation and some days you might fall back either in concepts, questions or mocks. At this time, your peers are there to motivate you and bring you back to speed with your preparation. You do not feel lost and unable to recoup from a bad day/week of CAT Preparation. This is the magic of sharing the CAT preparation journey with a peer group. They help you hang in there, when you feel liking giving up!
Before you step into the shared journey of preparing with a peer group there are a few things that you should always keep in mind to avoid unnecessarily bashing yourself and thinking that CAT is not meant for you.
1. There are outliers.
If you can solve a question from a topic that you think is your strong suit in 2 minutes, you will surely find a student who can solve the same question in around 45 seconds to 1 minute. Do not get intimidated. Do not let it shake your confidence. There are outliers everywhere, who can solve every question in less than a minute, much before you or me! Focus on your preparation and work towards making yourself better, instead of comparing yourself and losing out on precious time while fretting.
2. There will be temperamental challenges.
Your CAT Preparation journey will be full of highs and lows irrespective of whether you are preparing with a peer group or not. So get comfortable with the fact that there will be days where you will feel that time is running out of your hands and you are unable to prepare anything. There will be days when you’ll tank the mock you take. Do not fret. Be ready to take on the journey for another day, and another, and another, till it all falls back into place.
Also, it is extremely crucial that you know what you are preparing for is relevant for the CAT Exam. Do not get trapped in extremely difficult questions and lose confidence. Very likely, these questions won’t even be a part of the CAT Exam.
To know how to leverage a Bad Day of CAT prep, click here.
3. No peer group is better than a taxing peer group.
Preparing with a peer group that drains your energy and makes you feel exhausted and stressed about your preparation is not healthy for you. It is way better to prepare alone than to be in an environment that is constantly taxing instead of challenging and motivating. Do not blindly become a part of a study group, make sure that it works for you and makes you better. If all it does is strain you, the best thing to do is to prepare on your own. Do not let a peer group sap your confidence. Remember, if you do not have a sweet peer group, stay away from it.
Preparing Alone
In case you feel preparing alone is a better option for you, you can still take some value from the peer groups, leveraging it to excel in your CAT Preparation and ace the final exam.
1. Benchmark yourself
Once in a while, it is good to see what is happening in the world and where is everybody headed. See what the other students are doing, interact with them, and then get back to your preparation. Try and set benchmarks for yourself based on your interactions. Do not let this waver your focus, instead it should help you level up your preparation game. Find out the gaps in your preparation and practice tons of questions to fill that gap. You can find questions to practice in 2IIM’s Question Bank.
2. Take Mocks
The importance of taking mocks and analysing them has been conveyed to you time and again. So whether you are preparing with a peer group or alone, mocks remain the most important part of your preparation. Make sure you give plenty of mocks, try different strategies and get comfortable with the idea of taking the exam. This will ensure that atleast one of the issues of sitting and focussing for 2 hours straight on the D-Day does not trouble you.
To know all about mocks, click here.
The foremost thing to understand while taking up a decision of going in to prepare with a peer group is that not everybody prepares the same way. Different people might have different ways of reaching their goal of acing CAT Prep. Make sure you weigh the pros and cons and choose what works for you best!
Cheers and Best Wishes!
Vibhuti Sharma works with 2IIM as a Product head.
Leave a Reply