Plan for CAT Prep from June

CAT Prep from June

For the record, if you were to start CAT Prep from June, there would still be plenty of time to prepare for CAT at a leisurely pace. I am going to outline a plan for a beginner who has not taken/prepared for CAT previously.

Just a side note, we conducted a Live session on YouTube with the same topic. You can watch the ~90 minute session here:

Start with the Quant section

Quantitative Aptitude is not the most important or the most difficult, but it is the section where there is more to be covered, so start off from here.

Start from Fundamentals

Learn fundamentals well, chuck speed: Learn percentages to become comfortable with that topic, don’t learn it to do CAT questions quickly. Speed-building happens incidentally – with lots of practice. If you have an insane focus on speed, that increases stress.

Topic order

Within Quants, some topics are crucial and set the tone for subsequent topics. So, these need to be done early in order to avoid bottlenecks. These are

1. Arithmetic – Percentages, Averages, Ratio Proportion, Mixtures, etc.
2. Geometry
3. Basic Algebra – Linear and Quadratic Equations, Inequalities
4. Number Systems – HCF, LCM, Factors, Remainders, Factorials

Over-prepare for these topics

Get these done early. Over-prepare for these, be conceptually sound and get extensive practice. Basic algebra sets the base for cubic equations, functions, polynomials etc, Geometry simplifies Coordinate Geometry, Trigonometry and Mensuration, Percentages forms the bedrock for cracking DI. So, it definitely helps to over-prepare for these.

Post this, knock of a few simple topics. It is important to get some topics under the belt, so roll over Simple Interest Compound Interest, Speed Time Races, Pipes Cisterns, Progressions, Functions, Mensuration and co.

Topics you can afford to skip

On the off chance that you want to skip a topic, forget Permutation Combination. For how little it gets tested, it is vast! It occupies too much space in the mind. So, ignore it for a while. Give less importance to clocks, calendars, Binomial Theorem, Partial Fractions. These are stand-alone simple topics that can be booted in easily, and are not tested frequently.

Lean into DI-LR after 2-3 weeks

Practice, practice, practice. In the last 4 years, questions from DI LR are ‘different’, ‘atypical’, and ‘challenging’. So it helps to solve questions that are off-beat, and have a mix of both DI & LR in them.

A typical preparation plan for the DILR section involves starting off with getting comfortable with all the standard question templates in both DI & LR, and then doing more off-beat, different, atypical, or challenging puzzles.

We at 2IIM have a perfect course for nailing the DILR section, that initially has a little over 50 puzzles to set the ground and get comfortable with the section, and another set of 100+ puzzles including ones that have appeared in the actual CAT. The idea is to understand the thought process of someone who scores in the 99th and the 100th percentile to get there yourself.

You can check out the course at this url: https://learn.2iim.com/learn/Data-Interpretation-and-Logical-reasoning–DI-LR–CAT-2020

VARC – The theme is to read

If you follow us on our Blogs, YouTube, or FaceBook, you know that we post articles to read on a daily basis and have been doing so for the last two years. The reason is that we encourage the entire CAT exam taking community to pick up the habit of reading on a daily basis since as it is something that will constitute ~75% of your VARC Prep.

Couple of things to bear in mind when you read

1. Read to understand, not to memorize
2. Speed reading is the bane of building a good reading habit
3. Read long articles, as much as possible
4. Get comfortable with all kinds of articles (Greek mythology should not bore you, since a passage from CAT might be from Green mythology)

Mock taking

This is one of the most important parts of CAT Preparation. Have a clear plan for Mocks and stick to it! Take one mock at least in June, at least 2 in July, 3+ in August, 5+ in September, 6+ in October and 10+ in November. There you go, a mock CAT plan in a sentence. Of course the execution part is tougher, which is why I am leaving that to you guys.

If you want to read more about CAT Mock taking, here’s an article for you – Click here.

Everyday habits to build

If you ask me, just to keep yourself smart and intelligent, these are habits worthwhile building even outside the context of the CAT exam. But if you’re preparing for CAT, these are must-dos.

Daily Practice

Make it a habit to solve at least 30 questions from some topic in Quant, no matter what. Just sheer practice improves speed, builds intuition in question solving and helps you get better like nothing else does.

Puzzle solving

Use mobile applications that involve puzzle solving, for example – Sudoku, Rikudo, 2048, etc. These will help you think outside the box and pick that one part of a puzzle that will allow you to finish off a big chunk. This skill will come in very handy during the exam.

Read – A lot!

We have said this too many times and in too many forums. So I’m going to keep this short. Reading is particularly helpful and will constitute ~75% of your VARC Prep. Take that as a fact and starting today, make it a point to read something or the other everyday.

As mentioned earlier in the article, we post articles on a daily basis. Follow us on YouTube to get daily article updates.

Sometimes diving in is the best plan

There you go, this is a good plan for anything starting CAT Prep from June. The desire to carve out a beautiful plan and spending hours doing the research to arrive at it sometimes amazes me. The preparation plan is not a magic bullet. There is no such thing as a perfect preparation plan. After hours of planning, usually the first hour of actual execution gives you some n new inputs.

Mike Tyson said “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” meaning reality has a way of laying waste to the best-laid plans.

Dive in, get your hands dirty, from that first 50 hours shall emerge a plan with clarity, which you can then fine-tune after the next 100 hours.

Cheers & Best wishes for 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.