Review Your Strategy at Every Stage to Crack CAT 2014

With just a few strides away, from the god of all management entrances in the country, the Common Admission Test, you need to review your performance and plan your moves strategically.

There is a practice model, recommended to all you CAT aspirants, which can help you track your strategy as well as keep a check on the level of your performance right before the exam.

The Model comprises of learning, practising, analysing, strategising and revision.

Learning: By this stage of preparation, you should be sure of all the concepts of the CAT course line. If not, make sure that you clear all your fundamental concepts in the coming two weeks. Some things that you should have already done by now or should target in the next few days inc lude going through the syllabus, checking your strengths in the areas tested, not experimenting too much with the strategy and the type of questions and working on speed of calculation which could critically impact your scores.

Practising: Once you are thorough with the concepts, you must steer to practising the problems. Make and maintain all the errors that you make while practising as it would come in very handy in the last couple of weeks. Set goals of what needs to be done on a daily basis. Take stock of what you have been doing after two weeks.

Analysing: You should carefully analyse your performance and scores in the tests and try to assess the areas in which you score well. No test is complete without the requisite analysis. Besides the mock tests, ensure that there are sufficient number of sectional tests that are attempted to keep the momentum on. 

At the same time, too many could mean a burnout. Solving excessively tough problems is not advisable. And most importantly, it could set you off in the wrong direction and demotivate you.

Strategising: Nothing beats the real thing. In the actual test, you need to maximise your score vis-a-vis your potential. This requires a good strategy. It means your ability to leave the tougher and more time-taking questions.
It takes a good eye to identify them in the first place. Keep testing your strategy and keep altering the way you approach the paper – the question type you attempt first, the target number of questions you want to attempt, the time you spend on each section etc.
It is only then that you would be able to master the best possible strategy for CAT 2014, which ensures that you clear the first level of making it to your dream B-school.

Revision: The last round of summing up your preparation must be revision. As you practise questions topic-wise and full length CAT mock tests, you will discover many areas where you have substantial scope for improvement. The key is to identify all the weak areas and strategize a way to tackle them on the D-day.

All the Best! Get Cracking.

Source: from the article compiled by HT Education and Career Launcher