Most of you must be wondering that with just 30 days to go, what must be your study plan such that it ensures a balanced preparation in all the three areas of CAT.
In the coming four weeks, it is very important for you to not only brush up the basics but also write a good number of sectional tests and mock tests. We have observed that many students refrain from writing mocks and sectionals for fear of bad performance, which they think might be a source of discouragement.
But, such students must not forget that CAT is a time bound test, and no matter how good they are in solving questions, it is the time-bound performance that really matters. So the first thing is that in the coming four weeks, 50% of your effort must be directed at writing sectionals/mocks and the rest 50% must be dedicated to practicing questions from diverse areas, so that you don’t miss on the basic concepts from any area.
Here are a few things that you must do in the coming four weeks:
1Study for at least 8 hours a day
23 hours must be dedicated to writing a mock or three sectional tests, one each from LR, DI and Quant.
3You must analyse the mocks/sectional tests on the very day you write them. This will ensure that you learn more from your mistakes, as the memories of the test would be freshest on that day.
4You should write at least two mocks a week, though this number can be on the higher side depending on how keen the student is to write the tests. Ideally, I would write a mock every alternate day.
5On the days on which I am not writing the mocks, I would be writing at least two sectional tests. In effect, I would be writing a mock or one or two sectionals every day.
6For students who think that they are not yet ready for writing so many mocks, it is advisable that they write at least one sectional every alternate day.
7You should devote the other 50% of your effort in practicing questions from past year CAT papers (CAT 1990 to CAT 2008 and CAT 2017) and past year mocks or from other study material that you have collected. Only the above mentioned CAT papers were released officially. The rest were not, so please don’t believe in those sources that claim that they have the questions papers from 2009 to 2016.
8You should maintain a notebook in which you note down the important formulae, tricks, words that you come across while solving the practice material. This exercise will ensure that you don’t easily forget your mistakes.
9The amount of time you dedicate to every section may vary depending on which section is your weak section. Don’t make the mistake of devoting a disproportionate amount of time to your strong sections.
10If you are weak in a particular section, you must dedicate 50% of your effort to that section. Apart from this you must analyse every question that you solve, ensuring that you don’t make silly mistakes and that you develop the knack of picking an easy question from a set of difficult ones.
