The Six month CAT Preparation Plan
When written down as 180 days, it sounds like very little time, compared to six months. I want you to remember one thing very clearly. The ship has not sailed yet, and Six months is ample time to prepare well for CAT exam, if utilized well.
How does the overall preparation plan look like for the next six months?
Disclaimers ahead: if you are looking to find anything very different from How to prepare from May, there is very little except the juggling of the plan to fit in 6 months instead of 7. The basics are going to stay the same, and we are not in a hurry to change this anytime soon. We still have embedded this blog post with a range of nuggets that might come in quite handy for your CAT Preparation.
Six month CAT Preparation Plan for Quantitative Aptitude
First 3 Months:
Utilise the month of June to master Arithmetic. Watch this video to understand how to prepare for Arithmetic section of CAT Quant:
Once you are done with Arithmetic, please head on to Geometry. Geometry is the next big thing. For detailed information on CAT Geometry, watch this video:
Algebra is the next big chunk. Spend another month mastering Algebra. By this time, you are somewhere between August and September.
Next 3 months:
You still have 3 months to learn Permutation Combination and Number theory in addition to taking loads of practice questions, mocks and revising.
Do not Over Agonize
If someone says Number theory is super important in CAT, kindly note that it is time for you to get as far away as you can from that person. Is number theory interesting? Yes, tough? Yes, challenging? Yes yes. But is it really super important? Not really. Does not mean you got to skip number theory, just that in the order of priority of learning, number theory features very low.
Six month CAT Preparation Plan for VARC
Throughout the next 6 months:
At the cost of repeating myself “read a lot”. Read with loads of variety. It really helps to read and make more sense of what is being thrown at you than waste time improving your vocabulary (in the context of CAT). Slowly venture into solving reading comprehension passages, paragraph jumbles and other types of questions
I receive emails once in a while and recently I got a very specific question where the student had mentioned that she has been reading a lot. However, yet to see any kind of improvement in their Reading comprehension scores. I was reminded of a gif, which I am sharing herewith.
Look at it, see what you think when it starts, before it picks up speed? And wait for it to complete. See how sometimes, it feels like nothing is falling in place when you are beginning, but in reality foundations are being laid, without you noticing. The stronger the foundation, taller the building can go.
Key idea to Improve Accuracy in VARC Section
Learn a lot from your mocks. Analyze every single answer (irrespective of it being right or wrong). Compare and contrast and confirm if your thought process is the same as the author’s? Or was it fluke? Many times people struggle with accuracy because they do not examine the right answers from their previous mocks, assuming that they were absolutely right in why they ended with that particular answer. Do not fall into this trap, and make sure you learn better from every mock that you take. More high quality questions you practice and analyze, better your accuracy becomes in VARC Section.
Six month CAT Preparation Plan for DILR
Common Pitfalls in DILR Preparation:
In this section we will address two important things that an aspirant must do to get better at DILR, especially if he/she is unable to score well in DILR Section of CAT. If you think your DILR prep is not going well, you must read the following.
1. Why you need basics?
Starting from basics always helps one immensely in preparing for DI and LR section of the CAT.
Basics of Games and tournaments, Family Tree, Blood relations, Grid puzzles, sequencing and arrangement puzzles etc help in setting a strong understanding of the language used in Puzzles. Sometimes the same words used in colloquial english could be very different in meaning when compared to the same used in a logical reasoning puzzle. So getting comfortable with the language will give you a huge head-start over others in terms of understanding what is expected out of a puzzle, and thereby help you choose/eliminate that puzzle in a jiffy.
2. Why Games help?
Another neat trick that can help you recognize patterns is solving any type of puzzles with patters, the easiest starting place being sudoku and 2048.
What Next in DILR?
Once basics are out of your way, start with actual CAT Level puzzles. What better than actual CAT Puzzles to depict the level of difficulty of puzzles in CAT? Head out here to solve 70+ puzzles with detailed video solutions: https://online.2iim.com/CAT-question-paper/
Six month CAT Preparation Plan for Mocks
Start off your mocks today. There is no better time than today. Take at least 2-3 mocks in the Months of June and July. 6 in the months of August and September each. About 8 in October. And few in November.
If your total mock tally is about 30-45, that is a fantastic place to be. If you are someone who is staring at the first mock in the month of October, there is no cure to that.
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