4 Commandments of CAT Prep from August | The last ship to board – It’s now or never

4 Commandments of CAT Prep from August | The last ship to board – It’s now or never

Can I crack CAT 2021, if I start preparing (seriously) from today? Well, this is the million-dollar question,isn’t it? The honest answer is yes, it is still possible – the ship hasn’t sailed yet. But the way forward is not so easy. So, what you should do in these 4 months to get a good result? In this article, we will look at 4 commandments of CAT prep from August. If you follow them religiously, you can still get a wonderful score in CAT.

But before we go there, I want to let you know that we’re giving a wonderful discount on each of our courses at 2IIM. Till August 2^nd, you can buy the 2IIM Online Course at a discount of Rs 4,000. So hurry up! Pick up a course of your choice today, and kick-start your preparation NOW. This is the last ship to board – it’s now or never.

1. Cross the Rubicon

Circa 50 BC, when Julius Caesar was explicitly asked by the then Roman empire to not cross the river Rubicon, and that doing so would be considered an act of war. Caesar is said to have uttered alea iacta est—the die is cast— and proceeded to cross the river. Since then, the phrase ‘cross the rubicon’ is taken to connote irrevocably committing to a course of action.

With barely 4 months to go for the exam, the time for idly sitting on the fence, crafting sensational preparation plans and waiting for divine intervention is long gone. Now is the time to cross your own Rubicon, commit to a steady preparation plan and give this exam a shot. Caesar had tons to lose – the best case scenario was death for treason. In sweet contrast, you have little to lose.

2. Vantha malai, pona ____ thaane

There is this famous street saying in Tamizh that translates thus. Grab a strand of hair and try to snare the mountain. If you succeed, the mountain is yours, but if you don’t, you lose only a strand of hair. 

Often –  too freaking often – we big up the risks of a venture. CAT is indeed an exam with uncertain outcomes and it is definitely competitive and then the MBA itself is not fool-proof or recession-proof. All of this is true about CAT and MBA, very little is relevant for CAT preparation. If you have a good attitude and prepare well for 4 months, the worst-case is scenario is you will be 15% smarter without an MBA admit in hand. What’s not to like, huh?

3. Hang in there, do not expect immediate results

The single-most reliable fact about mock scores is the idea that they will fluctuate; the best payoffs from a good reading habit take months. So, carry the belief that you are doing the right thing, fret not about every variable and carry on.

Often, I find students disheartened with percentiles and then not having the energy to prepare well. Or, putting together a strategy and expecting the results 2 days later. Anchor your targets around the effort you can put in, the link between effort and outcome is ridiculously strong – the result will show on its own.

4. What can you NOT DO if you sign up for CAT prep?

You cannot spend that 45 minutes each day on Quora/Facebook. You cannot participate in the 4 interesting conversations in your WhatsApp groups. You simply cannot afford to be outraged by yet another thing that you saw on the internet today and draft detailed replies on forums. WhatsApp hyper-participant, keyboard warrior, binge-watch specialist, covid expert, Bhakt-baiter, sickular-targeter – these are some of the many things that you cannot be over the next 4 months. (Watching football is still ok mind you, especially since we might have at max 2 more years of the man)

I have struggled with quite a few of these. I am going to try to go clean over the next few months as well. I should at least try to practice what I preach. 😀

Cheers and best wishes for CAT 2021!

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.