5 pointers on cracking CAT in 90 days

Any reasonable aspirant requires about 400 hours of preparation in total to nail this exam. Considering the fact that there are 12 weeks to go, one needs about 33 hours a week, or on an average, 3-4 hours a day during weekdays and about 15+ hours during weekends put together. This involves learning, practising and mocks + mock test analysis. The initial phases emphasise on learning, with small amounts of practice and little on mocks. A month down the line, you are learning rigorously, while practising a gazillion questions simultaneously. Here are 5 pointers on cracking CAT in 90 days.

CAT is a certified non-genius exam

I studied with circa 180 classmates in IIM Bangalore. All of us barely ever agreed on anything – one thing  all of us would have nodded to is the idea that about 170 out of this 180 were at best mildly-above-average IQ-wise. CAT tests your ability to grasp basic ideas, your decision-making regarding which questions to skip/select and most importantly your temperament when things do not go all your way in the preparation journey. The grit to power through preparation is more crucial than any intellectual flair one has. 

Do not die wondering

It breaks my heart to see so many students either intimidated or disillusioned by CAT. A 3-month sprint where you learn lots of new ideas, read tonnes of high-quality content and practice intensely – this is a fun mental fitness exercise, not some arduous journey. Do not big up the preparation – it is freaking 90 days. I can bet my bottom-dollar that if CAT preparation were not there, most students would have filled that 400 hours with suitable junk.  

You can only know where you stand in the battles that you sign up for. You can be a naysayer/non-committal spectator or sign up for a rigorous 90 days and see where it takes you. There is practically no downside to this grind. Demand more out of yourself, sacrifice extra nap time, that binge-watch, the IPL, WhatsApp/Facebook and I am sure you can find all the time in the world for CAT prep. 

We are here to help throughout

I cannot promise you that you will get into a top 5 or top 10 college. But I can confidently say that the online course is frightfully comprehensive and is a fabulous tool to prepare and to revise, especially in the last few weeks. I can also say that we from 2IIM will be there to help you and guide you every step of the way in this preparation process. In any way you might want assistance over the preparation process, we will be there to chip in. 

How many hours is required to crack CAT?

You need to put ~400 hours into prep. It is still very much possible to learn from basics, not take chances, squeeze 400 hours out of the remaining 13 weeks and crack this exam. If you want to prepare early in the morning or late in the night, the online product sits with you 24 * 7. Our students who tried the course last year practically had the course open 16-18 hours a day over the last few weeks.

Is it possible to crack CAT in 90 days?

Most definitely, yes. 3 months are enough for CAT 2020. You guys might not know this, but not too long ago students used to think three months was just about the right amount of time to prepare for this exam. Before CAT preparation became an industry, (in the early 2000s) almost all of us used to think about CAT sometime in mid-August and only then grudgingly begin to prepare. However, thanks to the surfeit of 12-month, 18-month and 24-month courses (I have often wondered what my brethren from the coaching industry taught over 24 months, but that is a discussion for another time) for CAT, students have come to believe that this is a phenomenally tough exam. 90% of the students who do well in this exam and score 99th percentile or more are smart kids who have no pretensions about being geniuses. They plan well, do the grind unflinchingly, take gazillion mocks but are otherwise of just guys with mildly above average IQ.

Cut that extra half hour of sitcom, sleep for 1 hour less, solve questions during the lunch hour. If you can do nothing else, read articles from The Economist or Guardian. But from now on till D-day, cut all corners and create extra time from somewhere for preparation. I have heard from reliable sources that the 2IIM question bank is not blocked by most office servers. Use this. With 90 days to go, time is of the essence. Do not waste time on unproductive activities that include social media, vocab building, speed reading, speed math, Vedic math etc. Now is the apt time to catch your second wind in CAT Preparation.

Rajesh Balasubramanian takes the CAT every year and is a 4-time CAT 100 percentiler. He likes few things more than teaching Math and insists to this day that he is a better teacher than exam-taker.