I am sure even my best supporters would never have thought that I would be able to do well in CAT this year, but things have changed since then. I guess it was a combination of some luck and easier paper. The reason I am writing this blog is not because i want to praise myself but because I am really sick of saying that i did nothing for CAT this year. So here is what I think should be done in preparation for CAT (suited for engineers in my view). I will take this section by section:
English:
• Create your own flashcards, mostly from newspapers to get yourself conversant with as many English words, used in day- to-day life, as possible.
• Reading more, especially books on on the topic which you think are the hardest nut to crack in a RC passages. For me it was philosophy. I later developed a taste for such books and now ‘Zen & Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ is among my favorites
• Pay attention to critical reasoning techniques in spite of it not being a part of previous CAT, since it gives you a good perspective regarding how to attack reading and comprehension. I developed a habit of not assuming anything which has not been stated in the passage
Quant and DI: We all know that engineers are good at Quant, still I think everyone needs a brushing up here & there from time to time. Here are my suggestions for it:
• Learn a few techniques of Vedic mathematics for multiplication & division
• Brush up the basics of mathematics:
• Multiplication tables, 30 X 30
• Squares (till 30) & cubes (till 12) etc
• Make a list of all formulae / techniques and paste them on the study room walls
• Learn the conversion of fractions to percentage and vice versa etc.
Test Papers: One of the most effective ways of preparing for CAT is to have as many practice tests as possible. Although appearing in a test and checking result is not the end of it, that’s only a start. This is how I approached practice tests:
• Always analyzed the test, this means went through each and every question after coming back home
• In case there would be any specific techniques used to solve a question I would note down the technique on a piece of paper and stick it to the wall
• In case of a question which I couldn’t solve because of lack of fundamental knowledge, I would put a star next to the question for future reference
• I would make a note of all wrong attempts and try to analyze:
• If I am committing mistakes on a specific topic. If that is the case I need to work on its fundamentals and need to do some practice on it
• I would also look for what is the pattern of mistakes i.e. if most of the wrong questions were cluttered together or scattered. I found that mostly they would be cluttered, which clearly suggests loss of concentration at that time in paper. I didn’t take any specific steps to counter the problem but the awareness of my weakness made me concentrate harder while appearing in test
• From time to time I will go through all starred question from previous tests
I think this is a comprehensive view of all did in preparation for CAT'06. Hope this helps few people in their preparation for CAT.
1 comment:
Siddharth, this is teh first time that I am reading somebody's blog. in fact, at IIML only I came to know what is blog, much to the laughter of my friend who explianed me. In any case, you forgot to mention one crucial aspect in your CAT preparation. That CAT aspirants should maintain their calm and cool and if possible, borrow your head for a day. For a person with no finance background, explaining with 100% success difficult finance and accounting concepts in an average time of 5 minutes per concept, and then seeing the level of understanding simply made me feel as if I am talking to an Einstein. All these preparations do matter a lot, but the most important things are aptitude and attitude, loads of which you have in yourself.
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