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One of the mistakes that students do is that they feel the moment they get their mock score/percentile, that's the end of story. What they instead need to do is identify what went wrong during the exam and what worked for them, says rediffGURU Aashish Sood.
One of the country's most competitive entrance examinations, the Common Admission Test, is scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 24.
The CAT 2024 exam will be conducted by the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta and the admit card for CAT 2024 will be available on November 5, 2024.
With just a little over a month left, everyone must be busy telling you what you can do to crack the CAT this year and get into a top business school.
You have probably subscribed to influencers and career coaches who are belting out daily advice on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.
How to prepare for CAT 2024?
What resources to prepare from?
Infact, some of the coaching institutes are collaborating with former toppers (who may not necessarily have taken coaching from them) to tell you how to get into your dream business school.
But no one tells you how to avoid going wrong in your preparations.
If you're preparing for CAT 2024 -- whether you're enrolled in a coaching class or preparing by yourself -- I am here to tell you what you must avoid doing.
1. Ignoring mock tests
Do you think mocks are over-rated?
I mean, why simulate exam pressure when you can just wing it on the day? Right?
WRONG!
Just because you have prepared each topic thoroughly, it doesn't mean that you are ready for the exam.
Preparing each topic in the comfort of your home is drastically different from attempting all topics at one go, in a timed test, under exam conditions, especially when you have the residual stress from all the other sections of the exam.
Mocks are a crucial stepping stone in the journey towards your dream B-school.
Carefully examine each mock test, question by question, and understand the concepts and topics tested. Identify the areas where you performed well and those where you struggled.
2. Never analysing your mistakes
Do you take a mock test every day but don't have the time to analyse it?
Well, why bother reviewing the wrong answers, right? After all, mistakes teach you nothing. Right?
WRONG!
There is no point in taking a mock test if you are not going to analyse it.
One of the mistakes students make is that they feel the moment they get the score/percentile for their mock test, that's the end of the story.
What they need to understand is that mocks are kind of a guide map for them to be able to improve their performance. They still need to identify what went wrong during the exam and what worked for them.
Follow these steps after your mock analysis:
3. Not prioritising
If you focus on one section, the rest will automatically fall in place.
Do you believe in the power of last-minute cramming because who needs months of preparation when you can try and learn everything in one week, right?
WRONG!
You cannot take any section for granted which means you cannot ignore any section.
Just because you don't like solving Quantitative Aptitude (QA)/Data Interpretation (DI)/Logical Reasoning (LR)/Verbal Ability (VA) and Reading Comprehension (RC) doesn’t mean you give up on it.
Yes, there are sectional cut-offs.
However, other than a few, no B-school is going to send you a Group Discussion (GD)/Personal Interview (PI) call unless you clear the bare minimum sectional and the overall criteria.
While the exam may not be particularly difficult and the majority of questions can be answered by students of classes 9 and 10, it is tricky for sure.
Just like every muscle needs training, you too need regular practice to be able to comprehend questions within limited time.
This regular practice, however easy it may seem, will help you build up flexibility when it comes to attempting the question.
4. Time management
Do you attempt one question at a time?
Have you been told to attempt questions at your own pace in the exam?
Well, CAT surely must be forgiving when it comes to deadlines.
WRONG!
The biggest mistake that students make is that they don't really focus on time management when they are preparing on a topic-wise level.
Always review how you managed your time during mocks/sectional tests.
Assessing your time management skills will enable you to determine if you need to practise pacing yourself better during the actual exam.
5. Follow every study resource available and take advice from everyone
Exam anxiety is real so you follow every random suggestion you hear, whether it is from relatives, neighbours or people who've never even appeared for the exam. Right?
WRONG!
With less than a month for the CAT, 'mentors' and 'influencers' will crawl out from every nook and cranny to take advantage of unsuspecting students.
Most of these so-called influencers may have never even written the CAT themselves.
Some of them barely got into a tier two b-school but may be asking aspirants to shell out money for a '30 minutes discussion'.
Not to mention, several of these influencers have never really gone to a regular B-school, forget the IIMs.
A lot of influencers you and I know have not even cleared up their second year of MBA education.
I also know of someone who got a 90 something percentile in QA and claims to guide students to 99.99 percentile in QA. Make no mistake here -- you are just another view on their YouTube channel.
Please don't do this.
If you have enrolled in any leading coaching institute for regular preparation, talk to your mentors there. They are trained professionals who have been doing this for years.
Please listen to a trained professional, ideally someone who has an idea about the examination and has worked or trained in the corporate world.
Your mentor should be someone with a solid background, someone who can guide you well, not some random Instagram influencer.
The key to cracking CAT is consistent preparation, smart time management and regular practice with mocks.
Anyone peddling a 15-day crash course to the 99th percentile is selling you a dream; one that is likely to remain a dream for you but will definitely fill their coffers.
rediffGURU Aashish Sood, an alumnus of IIM-Lucknow and the Delhi Technological University, has been teaching Quantitative Aptitude to MBA aspirants for over a decade.
He also mentors management aspirants for the group discussion and personal interview rounds that follow competitive examinations.
He has appeared for CAT seven times since 2016 and scored in the 99.9 percentile.
Aashish has 16 years of work experience as a management and strategy consultant, guiding and mentoring students.
