Right time to start taking CAT Mock tests

Writing CAT mock tests is one of the most important steps of any aspirants’ CAT preparation plan. CAT mock test is the final stage of your preparation, a stage that tests whether you are ready and prepared for the exam or not.

With regards to CAT mock tests, it is very important that the aspirant doesn’t start too early or is not too late. If he starts too early he runs the risk of losing momentum or burning himself out well before the actual exam, whereas being too late might result in not having enough time to work on the pain areas.

CAT Online Comprehensive Course

We will discuss the question ‘What is the right time to start writing the CAT mocks”, but before that we will discuss what things you must do before you start writing your CAT mock tests online.

Before you start writing the mocks, you must ensure that:

1. You have completed 80 percent of the CAT syllabus, with a good command on all the basic concepts
2. You have taken a good no of topic tests to understand your strengths and weaknesses
3. You have solved a good no of high difficulty level CAT sectional tests.

It is very important that the CAT aspirant is well prepared to make the most of the CAT mock tests that he writes.

Writing CAT mocks alone is not enough to guarantee success in the CAT exam. Writing the tests when you are not totally prepared might result in demotivation and break your confidence.

Thus it is very important that you write the CAT mocks when you have gone through a good number of topic tests and sectional tests.

What is the right time to start writing CAT mocks?

There is no such thing as the right time. Keeping in mind the CAT exam date, and the ups and downs that you are likely to face during your CAT mock journey, you need at least two to three months to adapt your aptitude and your temperament to the test taking environment.

Please remember that it is one thing to be good in aptitude, and quite another to be able to sit for three hours at a stretch and be able to perform well under strict time constraints.

Therefore, a CAT aspirant needs at least three months to adapt his temperament, stamina and concentration to the test taking environment.

So, if the exam is in the last week of November, then you need to work on mocks latest by the first week of September.

That doesn’t mean that it is not advisable for someone to write mocks before September. You can start as early as June/July, but not later than September.

Many students start writing mocks right from the first week of May. We believe that this a little too early.

While for many it might be a good idea to start as early as possible, there are many who might burn themselves out by August, and, as a result, lose all interest and enthusiasm to write mocks at the most critical time.

You must remember that peaking at the right time is very important.

Having said that, it is not uncommon to come across students who started writing mocks just one month before the exam and ended up scoring 99 plus percentile in the exam.

Such students have the ability to quickly adapt to the test taking environment, and have already had the experience of preparing for other competitive exams under strict time constraints.

In short, the right time to start writing mocks depends on the depth of your prep before the mock phase, your prior experience in appearing for competitive exams, and your natural ability to adapt to the constraints and challenges of CAT like exams.