Free CAT Resources on YouTube: 3 Reasons to learn from the best

Free CAT resources – there are gazillions of questions and doubts around this topic. In the wake of COVID-19, the purchasing power and the level of spending people can afford have come down. And MBA, being a non-mandatory, discretionary degree – yet another option for “higher education“, is being pushed to the back-burner, unless there is an option to give a shot using free resources.

Contrast this with the level of aspirations people had about education. The aspirations and dreams do not pay heed to lack of financial resources. We have had many many people lamenting about the fact that they cannot afford to pay for a course and prepare for CAT 2020. There is a genuine dearth of free CAT resources available for universal access in an open forum. The ones that are available as ‘free CAT resources’ are of an undesirable content quality.

We at 2IIM have three important visions that guide our growth – quality, originality and ease of use. And, 2IIM’s YouTube channel is the best resource out there that speaks volumes about our values (apart from our question bank and the other last mile resources for CAT 2020, that is).

1) Free CAT resources and quality of content – the myth vs reality

Oftentimes, the words, “cheap” and “free” are taken to mean, “of an inferior quality”. This is not true, and it need not be at any point. And we are unimaginably particular about driving this fact home.

What is 2IIM’s reality? How do we do that?

Let me give an example – the RC Decoder.

The RC passages that are given in CAT focus on certain important aspects:

1. Arguments and counter-arguments
2. Agreements and disagreements
3. Facts and inferences
4. Contrasts and ironies

The list is non-exhaustive, of course. And, each and every CAT aspirant (should) know that simply memorizing words and passages would not do the trick.

However, oftentimes, the CAT prep industry forces the aspirants to resort to techniques that would not work. For Reading Comprehension, there are ridiculously diverse methods adopted to crack the passages.

1. Read the questions before you read the passages – DOES NOT WORK.
2. Know a lot of synonyms and antonyms – NOT HOW RC WORKS.
3. Read at a rapid pace – COMPLETELY LAUGHABLE.

An RC passage is meant to be just that – it should be “read” and “comprehended”. It comes with two types of practice – reading a lot, and knowing how and why the passages are structured in a particular way. For the former, we have our signature Bharath’s Curated Reading List. For the latter, well, scroll up and watch that playlist, OR move on to the CAT 2019 VARC solutions.

So, it is all about RC?

Of course, not. Which is what brings us to the next aspect.

2) Free CAT resources and originality of content

Free CAT resources in the online horizon means that the resources are out for open access. As with anything good, notorious things start happening. Content gets plagiarized, ‘intelligent’ people flip content with no due discretion. It is a huge battleground, but we stand firm.

It is easier to take the path of least resistance and bask in the glory of it but that is easy. Life, and CAT – and by extension, CAT resources – should be prepared meticulously, with due diligence to the level of difficulty. Most importantly, originality of content is our game.

When you watch a video, you should know why certain things work, AND ALSO why other aspects do not work. Why am I explaining all this, when a cursory glance at a couple of DILR sets will give you a better idea?

So have a look!

Motivation and pragmatism

CAT is an intensely tough exam. The name, ‘competitive examination’ would not hold water after all if it weren’t intense, would it? Given this reality, we often face questions on, “Why do your videos not focus much on motivation?” This is a question that is worth answering.

As Rajesh explains, we do not decry the necessity for motivational videos. It is essential to an extent, but the mere necessity should not make it our top priority. Quite often, when someone feels gloomy about not having done enough CAT preparation, working out 5 DILR puzzles, 50 Quant sums and 5 RC passages at a stretch creates a magical motivation that no other outlet can provide.

This is one of the prime reasons why we dedicate some blog articles – when blogs are essentially filled with tips and strategies ONLY – purely to LR puzzles, like this, this and this.

3) Free CAT resources and ease of use

This is another great barrier that prevents people from seeking genuinely qualitative free resources for CAT preparation. Particularly, aspirants who are new to the arena get baffled by the sheer volume of materials available in front of them. This often results in getting lost in an unending abyss, and the preparation goes nowhere, so to speak.

Enter 2IIM’s YouTube Playlists!

Learning should feel easy and burden-free. In order to achieve this, the content should be broken down into smaller chunks so that an aspirant will have a tangible goal to complete in a short period of time. Be it our past CAT papers playlist or the one that deals with Geometry, the objective of keeping it easy to access with zero bewilderment for the user is intact.

Aren’t you a for-profit business?

I would be lying if I said we aren’t but a product or service should speak for itself. If you access our YouTube channel, get an idea of the work we do to create content that is being put on an open platform, you will get a clear picture of the amount of effort that goes into curating our courses.

There is always a degree of goodwill that is associated with our business. 🙂

Education is, after all, universal.

Stay safe, register for CAT if you have not, and best wishes for CAT 2020 (and other examinations as well!)

Written by Giridharan Raghuraman