HOW TO START PREPARATION ?

Planning is a very important part of any job/ task or for any goal that you want to achieve. Without a proper plan you will not be able to clear any goal, be it a small goal like reaching your office/college on time. Half the battle is won by proper planning and the remaining half by proper implementation of the plan.

You need to have the following before you start preparing for the MBA entrance test, and the earlier you have all this the better it is:

1. A clear cut idea about what you want to do , how you want to do and why you want to do.
2. Timetable for your preparation. It is not possible to win the CAT race in a short span of time. 250 hours of preparation in 100 days is more helpful than 250 hours of preparation in 30 days. You gain confidence over a period of time, putting too many hours a day for a short span of time won't help much. There is a limit to the number of hours in a day you can really study effectively. Try to identify your weak points and try to improve on the same.
3. Information about the pattern of the previous test that you want to take and the syllabus of the test.
4. List of the books/ magazines / study material that you are going to refer and TV shows to watch.
5. Number of Mock test that you are going to take..
6. Back –up plan just in case you are not able to make it to the institute of your choice.
7. Need to discuss with at least 2 seniors to get proper guidance. Learn from the mistakes of others, discuss with other who had taken the exam that you want to take and discuss with them about the exam.
8. Identify your weakness and strength at the initial stages and monitor the same during the course of your preparation. You may need to take MOCK test to do so. The margin between success and failure ( Getting admission in one of the top 30 institute) is very thin. Just a question or two may make the difference, so try to identify those few questions that will make the difference
9. Whether you want to take coaching for the entrance test or not.
10. Keep your moral high and have confidence in yourself. Start reading more on diverse topics for your interview as you are not confident in this area. Interact with people in the industry, send your resume to different companies around you, you may get chance to appear for some real interviews. This will boost your confidence level.

BOOKS TO BE READ ANY TIME BEFORE 1 YEAR OF THE EXAMS

30 days to more powerful vocabulary by NORMAN LEWIS. Good book to have sound vocabulary in 30 days. Cost Rs. 100 approx.

Word Power Made Easy by Goyal saab. Introduces the roots and origins of English words. Very helpful to improving the vocabulary. Cost Around Rs 100.

Deception Point by Dan Brown. A Thiller, good to improve vocabulary.

Five Point Someone, One Night At Call-Center, Three Mistakes Of My Life, by Chetan Bhagat.

Freedom is not free. A great book on India of the 21st century by SHIV KHERA.

THE MONK WHO SOLD HIS FERRARI by ROBIN S.SHARMA. A captivating story that teaches as it delights.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

The Great Indian Dream by McMillan. Motivation with perview of slums in Indian economy, planning and management.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. A very good and insightful read about where mankind is heading.

What They Dont Teach You at The Harward Business School by Bantam Books. A great book for self development.

You Can Win by Shiv Khera Excellent book

Business@Speed of Thought by Bill Gates

The Road Ahead by Bill Gates

Angles and demons by DAN BROWN an excellent fiction.

Insider by P.V Narsimha Rao

Think Without Ink by K Venkataraman for Maths .

Vedic Mathematics by Motilal Banarasi Das.

Puzzles to Puzzle you by Shakuntala Devi. The book has some really good logical Reasoning Questions. Just makes your brain move.

TO BE READ CONTINUOUSLY FOR 18 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE EXAMS

Select any four, including 1 newspaper. :-

Business & Management Chronicle by Chronicle Publications. Very good magazine for MBA aspirants to keep themselves abreast of current affairs from market perspective along with preparatory exams and solved papers . MRP .60/= but subscription costs 30/=

Business Line by The Hindu Group. A very in depth and analytical business daily.

Competition Success Review. A very good magazine for all who desire to excel in competitive exams, and a great help for the GD/PI stage of MBA. Also read G.K Today a magazine pertaining to current affairs only.

Business Today by India Today Group. To know latest happenings in Industry. Useful for Vocabulary and RC.

BusinessWorld . The weekly comes with the current events in the industry and a very good case study - helpful for RC

FRONTLINE THE HINDU. Magazine published twice a month

GK Manual - By Thorpe & Thorpe Pearson. Excellent Manual for GK Preparation for XAT, IIFT, FMS....Contains substantial information in concise form .

MANORAMA Yearbook. Good for general awareness.

The Economist. A Business magazine with great content.

Readers Digest RD. Monthly Magazine cost around Rs 45

India Today. A magazine. Will be helpful for English section, specially RC.

Business and Management chronicle by S.Chand

Times of India, Newspaper. Newspaper.

Economic Times by ET group. Newspaper

Indian Express Newspaper

Hindustan Times Newspaper.

STUDY MATERIAL TO BE READ DURING THE LAST 12 MONTHS PRIOR TO EXAMS

Select maximum up to 3 on different topics from the following :

Career Forum Study Material. Exhaustive Material + Tests -Correspondence .

Career Launcher Study Material. Contains right from foundations, fundamentals, sprints and Take offs

IMS STUDY MATERIAL by IMS. Contains Basic reference material, sectional tests and Mock test

Study material from PT India.

Time Course Material by Time Coaching Inst. Covers extensive range of questions.

Quantative aptitude by Arun Sharma. A very good book for Math section .

Quantitative Aptitude by Edgar Thorpe, a pretty nice book to follow.

Quantitative Methods A really great book to start for quantitative aptitude.

Quantitative ability by Trishna's Having easy, moderate & difficult sections.

Quantitative aptitude by RS Aggarwal. Contains a lot of questions for practicing from beginner to hard level and some shortcuts.

Quantitative aptitude for MBA entrance exam by Tatamcgrawhill (author: Abhijit Guha)

MBA Entrance Made Easy by Murtuza Gadiwala. A good book for maths and DI.

Quantitative Apptitude for MBA by Tata Mcgraw Hill.

How to prepare for the data interpretation for cat by TMH good for practice.

Verbal and Non Verbal Reasoning by R.S.Agarwal. Very nice book to follow. You are also provided with cd. This book is specially for CAT exam.

How to prepare for CAT by Tata Mcgraw Hill . It has mock tests and chapters for taking cat.

SET OF STUDY MATERIAL USED BY MBA ASPIRANTS

Jitentdra : I m doing coaching at T.I.M.E and they have provided me with the material and I also read times of India , Indian express and economic times and Hindustan times of Saturday and Sunday. In case of magazines, I think business world and outlook money are the best. To make ur vocab strong read word power made easy by Norman Lewis

Sapna : Newspapers like The Economic Times, The Times of India keeps you updated for the GD and PI which need to be done regularly and not just after the written tests, practice exercises on maths and verbal again to be done regularly, full length tests once the concepts are clear, etc.

Vivek : Study material of IMS, Times of India and 3-4 monthly magazines on various issues.

Manish : Study material of Career Launcher + Hindustan Times and frontline.

Prashant : I am preparing R.S agarwal,12th standard maths along with the sakuntala devi puzzles for quant section. I am planning to follow any good coaching institute's material for verbal, analytical reasoning ,data interpretation and other sections. I read HINDU news paper daily. I also refer to magazines like OUTLOOK and FRONTLINE for exposure to current events.

Ashish : Well I have done Arun Sharma book in quant, I have also done CF and IMS materials. Infact I have done all the material of CF and IMS in quant ,DI and verbal. Right now I am doing GMAT English so as to get the feel of critical reasoning and RC which is mostly Inference based.

Parag : I am using the TIME coaching material for my preps, besides reading dailies.

Maalwika : I have taken study material of IMS. Also using Barons for vocab.

Sourav : I’m preparing from erudite, kolkata. Apart from erudite material. I’m also reading magazines like chronicle, business today, business standard, India today etc.

Vinoth : I am referring Kaplan/Princeton Review and other online materials published in ur yahoo group.

Pradeep : I have joined the coaching classes at CL (Career Launcher) for CAT 2007. The study material is provide my them.

Aditya : Reading stuff from IMS & Career Forum. Have also enrolled for SIMCAT+ in ims. Books :- Vedic Maths, R.S. Aggarwal for Apti, Outlook, India Today, Business World, etc

Niti : Hey guys, I am using arun sharma for quant and CL material for rest of the two sections..I do read HINDU and BUSINESS LINE regularly along with tit bits of novel reading...As of now am not using any other material to prepare specifiacaly for GK.

Asad : In fact for preparation of test one has to put knowledge of his entire education. but as for as books are concerned GMAT helping books , books on mathematics and English language are required.

Avadhoot : For English I am relying on my school preparation. Not much into words and all. I have got both IMS and TIME study material. I am good at quants and di/ds as I had appeared for scholarship exams during school days even had cleared two NTSE written exams. Pretty much confident about logical ability quant di/ds.

Mahesh : Generally editorials in various news papers give a good insight into the vocabulary. For a person like me who has been out of school for long now some books or even training material from various institutes for brushing up basics is also of great help.

Robin : Test preparation for quantitative, data interpretation and verbal from ARUN SHARMA. Barrons GRE, GMAT. TIME mock tests and i am still looking for materials from IMS, TIME etc.

HOW MUCH PERCENTILE SCORE IS REQUIRED TO GET GD / PI CALL

There are about 1.7 Lakh students writing the MBA entrance exams. You have to be among the top 4000 to be sure to be called for interview by a good institute. The competition is really tough. Based on the feedback we have from our previous year subscribers you need to solve approximately between 90 to 100 questions of CAT with around 75 to 80 correct attempts to be in the comfortable zone for calls from good institute. This may change depending upon the difficulty level of the test.

Each and every institute has its own criteria of short-listing the candidates and many of the institute are secretive about it. So, it is very difficult to say with assurance that by scoring certain percentile score you will get call from a particular institute. Besides the score at written exam , there are other factors like work experience, government rules on reservation, education qualification, the details provided in the application form etc that are taken into consideration before calling a student for interview or GD. Some institutes also require the candidates to score above a certain score in each section. The institutes makes sure that they have the right student mix at their campus with required number of Engineers, Accountants, experienced, non-experienced, Master degree holders, PHDs to name a few. These criteria changes each year for most of the institute depending upon the market requirement. To give you a very rough idea, following was the cut off of the last year of some institutes :

IIM A,B,C,L : 98.6

IIM I,K : 98.1

MDI: 96.6

SP Jain: 96.2 ( May shortlist the candidates for GD/PI before theCAT is declared on the basis of the details provided in application form)

NITIE : 95.5 with 90 in Quant.

TAPMI: 91.0

IMT: 86.0

MICA: 78

Nirma (NIIM) : 72.0

Somaiya: 72.0

Fore : 72.0

Here are score cards of a few students who got calls from different institute, but this does not mean that another student scoring more than that or may be the same percentile score also got call from the same institute. It is very difficult to make out how the institute decides to call candidates for interview as sometime a person scoring lower total percentile score may get call from a institute and the one who scored higher total score may not get call from the same institute. The criteria changes every year and so will not be same this year, the information provided below is for reference only and not for any decision making purpose.

DI/DS, QUANT, VERBAL,TOTAL, CALLS FROM

75.45, 96.88, 93.31, 95.62, No IIM Call

89.04, 92.72, 86.51, 94.64, No-IIM Call

91.53, 68.29, 97.64, 95.63, NMIMS and MICA

89.93, 89.38, 86.55, 93.94, TAPMI

92.21, 97.27, 94.32, 98.19, IIM-KI

94.43, 90.37, 85.46, 95.48, TAPMI

97.53, 88.43, 85.49, 96.49, MDI,TAPMI,MICA

97.79, 95.14, 93.82, 98.74, IIMK and MDI

98.25, 99.72, 88.29, 99.51, IIM-A,B,L,I

98.61, 99.02, 94.88, 99.59, IIM-A,B,CI,K,L

98.72, 79.42, 98.75 99.03, IIM- A,C.

WHEN TO START PREPARATION

We recommend that you start preparation for the exam around 1 year before the exam, and before that you must work hard to improve your fundamentals and personality and other soft skills. Keep yourself updated to what is happening around the world.


According to a conducted poll on MBA aspirants to get their view on this topic and here are the result of the poll

Question : When should one start the preparation for the entrance tests ?

Number of MBA Aspirants participated in this poll : 350

POLL RESULT :

From the first year of the Engineering/Graduation. 3 %

2 years before the exam. 6 %

1 year before the exam. 27 %

10 months before the exam. 12 %

8 months before the exam 14 %

6 months before the exam 27 %

4 months before the exam. 9 %

2 months before the exam. 2 %

STARTING PREPARATION ONE YEAR BEFORE THE EXAMS

(Also Refer: STARTING PREPARATION 10 MONTHS BEFORE EXAMS)

How to prepare a Timetable for preparation and how to follow it?

Admission into one of the IIMs is every MBA aspirant's dream.

The Common Admission Test (CAT), which is the qualifying examination for admission to the IIMs and other top management institutions across the country, is one of the most challenging entrance examinations. There are numerous coaching centres and classes to train graduates to clear it. Every year, CAT is conducted during the month of November or December. This year CAT is to be held on November 21 in several centres in the country.
Over one lakh applicants will take the examination, hoping for a successful career in management. The entrance examination isn’t, however, their final hurdle.
Every IIM has its own set of independent rules and regulations to judge a candidate.
CAT is just the begining, it is followed by group discussions and a personal interview too...
Here is a way, you can manage time and give your best for the upcoming CAT!
Though It may be thought important to make a TIME TABLE for the preparation of CAT, I believe giving quality time is more important than quantity time.

Start now!
*It is never too early when it comes to preparing for CAT. The earlier, the better! Starting early would give you that much more time to learn, understand, apply and remember.
*There are several institutions like TIME, IMS, Career Forum etc that have a complete module for CAT. Taking up coaching classes in one of these centres will help you systematise the process.
*Apart from regular classes, these centres give model question papers and also conduct several mock CAT examinations to help identify your strengths, weaknesses and thereby enable focused learning.
It is vital to brush up your basic Math and Language skills.

Part of your daily routine:
Make preparation for CAT a part of your daily schedule. Continuous practice is vital. Practice makes perfect. So perfect the art of practice.
First, take up topic you are most interested in, and give some time to it, about 2-3hrs...
one should study during the time, we feel MOST refreshed, as we can focus most at that time.
If you have joined a coaching institute for CAT's preperation, then never schedule your study time directly before or after the class.
Give yourself a break long enough to refresh yourself!

Focus:
Set yourself deadlines in simple things like completion of a section. This will not only help you judge your speed, but also help you improve it.
Remember that it's you who wants to see yourself sitting in one of the IIMS this time next year. So give your best. Don't ever let over confidence or laziness ruin your chances.
Giving about 2-3 hrs minimum everyday, would help a lot...but if you feel that you can manage more...then do try to keep yourself motivated by rewarding yourself after completion of a section or a difficult problem!
some people tend to study early morning, as hey feel the energy within them the highest at that time, while others prefer night time to be the best!
Do not go on what others say, take a few days to know, which tme suits you best...and choose a time when no one can disturb you for a few hours.
Constant focus is important, and so is everyday practise to keep your mind exercised.
so choose one comman time, and stick to it!

Read up:
Your regular course material aside, you also need to update yourself with what's happening in the world. Read newspapers, magazines, editorials, simply anything you can lay your hands on.
Apart from equipping yourself with general knowledge, you are also improving your reading speed, which is very important in the entrance examination.
Also, you could get a passage on anything from 'Possibility of life on Mars' to 'Water scarcity in Chennai'. So reading a wide-range of articles would help you be prepared for any topic.This also helps in relieving the regular boredom and time table. You would feel focused about your goal as well..
But do not do this in between you study time, else you will loose track.

Believe in yourself:
Have the right amount of confidence in yourself. In times of fear or doubt, tell yourself "Of course I can, I should , I will!" After all, hard work will never let you down.
Treat this as a genuine learning process that's going to help you crack several tests, interviews in future with great ease. Many students opt to take coaching and help from people, to progress and learn to manage time in the test.
And there are many who, work harder to achieve there goals.
Do not start thinking about how the paper would be, tough or easy, what matters most is your hard work!
Every section is equally important, but when you are good at a particular section do not avoid it during your preparations...it could mark a BIG difference in your exam and even help you get through this tough exam!

STARTING PREPARATION 10 MONTHS BEFORE EXAMS

Starting in Jan:

Following is a rough time table we have prepared for those taking CAT next year. You may change it according to your strengths and weaknesses. If you are not sure of your strengths and weaknesses, write two mock tests and spend 2 hours on analysis of each.

1) 1st Jan to 15th March :

Start working on your vocabulary and for RC section now as this cannot be done in a short time and needs a continuous efforts over a period of time. You may devote 1 hour a day for this section by reading newspapers and magazines. Read from various sources on different subjects. Keep a dictionary handy and consult it whenever required, keep a diary of new words you come across. Start working on fundamentals for mathematics and on topics where you consider yourself as weak.

Multiplication of numbers till 25*25 should be remembered.

Squares and cubes of numbers till 25 should be remembered.

Pythogoras triplets with any all the arms less than 200 should be remembered. Start working on mental calculations with percentages, fractions etc.

After 15th March continue to spend 30 minutes on reading newspapers, magazines etc everyday till the end.

2) From 16th March to 11th April : Devote 1 hour and 30 minutes everyday for Data Interpretation and Data sufficiency.

3) From 12th April to 10th May : Devote 1 hour and 30 minutes everyday for Logical Reasoning and Verbal reasoning.

4) 11th May to 7th June , Take section tests on Data Interpretation , data sufficiency etc.

5) 7th June till end of June for Arithmetic and Algebra.

6) 1st July till 24th July for Geometry, Set theory, Probability and remaining part of QA.

7) 25th July to 7th Aug for Section tests on QA.

8) 8th Aug to 21st Aug for section tests on English. By now you should score well as you have devoted 1 hour a day on reading newspaper and on improving your vocabulary.

9) 21st Aug to 10th Sept for the section you think you did not perform well in your section test.

10) From 10th Sept to Oct end : Take Full time Mock test twice a week. In Nov till CAT is held take 3 test a week. You should be comfortably able to take 25 full time test.

STARTING PREPARATION 8 MONTHS BEFORE EXAMS

Following is a rough time table we have prepared for those taking CAT next year. You may change it according to your strengths and weaknesses. If you are not sure of your strengths and weaknesses, write two mock tests and spend 2 hours on analysis of each.

1) April : Start working on your vocabulary and RC section now as this cannot be done in a short time and needs a continuos efforts over a period of time. You may devote 30 to 45 minutes a day for this section by reading newspapers and magazines till your exams are held. Keep a dictionary handy and consult it whenever required.

2) From 1st May to 17th May apart from the time spent on English section devote 1 hour and 30 minutes everyday for Data Interpretation and Data sufficiency.

3) From 18th May till 3rd June, devote 1 hour and 30 minutes everyday for Logical Reasoning and Verbal reasoning.

4) 4th June to 19th June , Take section tests on Data Interpretation, data sufficiency etc.

5) 20th June till end of 8th July for Arithmetic and Algebra.

6) 9th July till 26th July for Geometry, Set theory, Probability and remaining part of QA.

7) 27th July to 10th Aug for Section tests on QA.

8) 11th Aug to 21st Aug for section tests on English. By now you should score well as you have devoted 45 minute a day on reading newspaper and on improving your vocabulary.

9) 22nd Aug to 10th Sept for the section you think you did not perform well in your section test.

10) From 10th Sept, take Full time Mock test twice a week, till CAT is held. You should be comfortably able to take 20 full time test.

STARTING PREPARATION 6 MONTHS BEFORE EXAMS

Following is a rough time table we have prepared for those taking CAT next year. You may change it according to your strengths and weaknesses. If you are not sure of your strengths and weaknesses, write two mock tests and spend 2 hours on analysis of each.

1) Start working on your vocabulary and RC section now as this cannot be done in a short time and needs a continuous efforts over a period of time. You may devote 30 to 45 minutes a day for this section by reading newspapers and magazines till your exams are held. Keep a dictionary handy and consult it whenever required.

2) From 1st June to 14th June apart from the time spent on English section devote 1 hour and 30 minutes everyday for Data Interpretation and Data sufficiency.

3) From 15th June till 28th June, devote 1 hour and 30 minutes everyday for Logical Reasoning and Verbal reasoning.

4) 29th June to 8th July , Take section tests on Data Interpretation, data sufficiency etc.

5) 9th July till 27th July for Arithmetic and Algebra.

6) 28th July to 11th Aug for Geometry, Set theory, Probability and remaining part of QA.

7) 12th Aug to 20th Aug for Section tests on QA.

8) 21st Aug till end of August for section tests on English. By now you should score well as you have devoted 45 minute a day on reading newspaper and on improving your vocabulary.

9) 1st Sept to 10th Sept for the section you think you did not perform well in your section test.

10) From 11th Sept, take Full time Mock test twice a week, till CAT is held. You should be comfortably able to take 20 full time test.

STARTING PREPARATION ***4 MONTHS*** BEFORE EXAMS

If you just have 4 months for preparation then it will not be an easy game. People have been preparing for a year and many of them who will be attempting for the second time have been doing it for 2 years, and you will be competing with them. Hope that you have a strong base of fundamentals . The best way to utilise the limited time you have is to attempt the past CAT papers and some mock tests. You should be taking at least 10 such test in next 18 weeks or so and will need to spend at least 1 hour on analysis of your answers after each test.

It depends on your background, if you are comfortable with solving mathematical problems and have a good command over English you can still make it. If you are average in mathematics or don't have a good command over English language you may find it difficult to get through, this year. We would suggest that you devote your full efforts for the coming CAT. If you are not able to clear this year, the preparation you do now will certainly help for CAT next year. If you have a job, even if you are not able to clear this year, you will not be wasting a year, as you will be gaining more work experience.

It is not possible to win the CAT race in a short span of time. 250 hours of preparation in 100 days is more helpful than 250 hours of preparation in 30 days. You gain confidence over a period of time, putting too many hours a day for a short span of time won't help much. There is a limit to the number of hours in a day you can really study effectively.

You may have a good performance in other competitive exams, but CAT requires a different set of skills, you need to devote time for your CAT preparation

Comments By Some Aspirants :

Salar Mohd Bijili : Preparation before 4 months of CAT requires more of mental endurance as we may not get much time to brush up our basics. The best way is to maximize our strengths and try to build confidence in the weak sections. Also repeated practice of section tests / mocks with adequate breaks for analyzing and identifying our strengths and weaknesses could do wonders to our preparation.
Have a clear strategy for the paper and a specific tactic to tackle each question. Strategy can be fixed but tactics are dynamic and purely depends on the paper.
Once we have mastered the art of being dynamic, CAT can be belled

Santhosh Kumar : I feel that preparing smart enough in these forthcoming four months will suffice. Ofcourse, dedicated effort for each of the three sections in the first 3 months & the last month for taking Mocks will definitely make you through the Hurdles of CAT.

Anupam jain : NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE..!! FOCUS IS THE KEY WORD..! 4 MONTHS OF DEDICATION CAN GET ANYONE THROUGH..!

HOW MUCH MONEY IS TO BE SPENT ON PREPARATION

POLL QUESTION : How much total money will I be spending on preparation, that is on study material, books, coaching, application forms ,prospectuses, GD/PI etc, by the time the admission process is over ?

Responses : 80 subscribers.

Choices Reply %

Less than Rs.9000 : 20 %
Rs. 9001 to Rs. 12000: 12%
Rs. 12,001 to Rs. 15,000: 13%
Rs. 15,001 to Rs. 18,000: 10%
Rs 18,001 to Rs. 21,000 : 7 %
Rs. 21,001 to Rs. 24,000: 10 %
Rs. 24,001 to Rs. 30,000 : 7 %
Rs. 30,001 to Rs. 40,000: 7 %
Rs. 40,001 to Rs 50,000: 10 %
Rs 50,001 to Rs 60,000: 0 %
More than Rs. 60,001: 1 %

COMMENT BY MEMBERS

Salar : I had spent 15000 for coaching and wish to spend 7000 for forms and 10000 for GD/PI expenses. This can be reduced if towards august or September we get a clear picture of where we stand in the CAT race.

Kumar Rahul :
Coaching classes full time – Rs 16000 /-
Filling up all the forms - Rs 15000 /-
Expenses for attending 4 GD/PIs - Rs 5000 /-
Miscellaneous expenses – Not taken into account
Total approximate expenses – Rs 36000 /-

Shipra : I spend 25000 for CL regular classes and around 10,000 for forma and aroound 15000 for giving interviews, in total around 50,000.

Prabhat : Actually spending money on preparation depends on various aspects.
Firstly, its your mindset as how much you are well prepared prior to the preparation. Are you in regular practice of reading News Papers, magazines, novels? Do you like churning your mind with those mind flinching quizes and puzzles? Do you like number games? All these things will definitely put you at ease to leave the coaching and therefore save your around 15-20k. Therefore, alongwith all your these regular practices, you can have a good test series costing only around 4-6k as well as a good study material costing around 2-3k and thereby analyse your level of preparation much prior to the D-day. You can also photo copied all those material (save half of the actual price) or take it from anyone who has cleared the exam (only when you have better links).
Secondly, if you have been an average student, then you will have to be in practice of all the aforesaid things so as to prepare your frame of mind and that can only be done by any good coaching. So in this case you will have to expend around 15-20k. There you need not expend on the test series and study materials.
Thirdly it is your limit up to which you can expend on your education. Well everybody has its own limitaions and bindings. Nobody can cross their limits and thereby copy others. So, applying the colleges is totally depends upon your limitaions regarding finance (for average students: - in this case you can expend around 4-6k on filling the application forms of different colleges as per your score) and your capabilities as well as your score which you get in the examination (for the students above average: - in this case you can go for filling the application forms of all the creamy layer of management, i.e. can expend around 10-20k)

Sucheta : preparation requires joining a good coaching institute which costs between Rs.16000-20000, depending on the institute. also buying the various forms also increses the cost by about Rs. 4000-5000. so in total one has to spend maximum of Rs. 25000 for preparation. but most important of all is being focussed and giving your best.

Ashish : I feel this depends on which coaching you are going to join and which colleges you want to apply. for me I have decided that I will divide the colleges in three different tiers . i will select 2 colleges from each tier and then apply to those colleges. as far as study material is concerned they are avilable at cheaper rates ,though second hand. I feel overall you need to invest at least around 20-25k.

Parag : I spent 6000 on coaching+1100 on the form. Thats it mostly. Doesnt seem much compared to what others spend on mba education but i feel one shouldnt use too many books. Stick to a good coaching study material. It generally suffices.

Maalwika : Including everything my expenses comes around 20,000/- I have joined mock cat series of PT. Bought study material of IMS. Money spent can be optimised if we our preparation is goal oriented. We should know be aware of our potential which will help us in filling those college forms from where we expect to get the calls.
Jitentdra : Personally speaking I have spent almost 20000 and i think u can optimise this money by cracking CAT with at least 95 percentile and getting admission in a good college.

Sourav : I think coaching, application, application to institute all require in around 30 thousand. I think I can only optimise these money by hard work.

Avadhoot : Atleast one test series for 3000/5000 depending upon simcat/aimcat.. Study material books will be enough at about max 2000/. Correspondance course would cost about 5000. A crash classroom course is about 12000. Long term full course is about 20000. So one planning for classroom coaching would be done within 22000, Other may need from 5000 to 8000 Rs.

Saurabh : Roughly Rs.25,000/- including the applications to various institutes. The money spent in preparations and on classes depends on person to person and one’s capabilities. The money spent in applications can be optimized by properly and practically selecting the institutes by first analyzing your performance in mock tests.

Vinoth : I would think close to Rs.25,000 would be spent on coaching classes, application fees etc. To optimise the money, one should carefully select the colleges to be applied after matching with the research interests and availability of the required field of specialization.

Jyot : Much money should not be invested as it need to get returned soon.

Aditya : At least 200 Rs/- for books. 1200/- Rs for Cat Application form. 3500/- Rs for Simcat +. Utilization of money can be optimized by clearing the CAT in one go.

Vinoth : I have already spent nearly 15000 in coaching classes. But merely coaching classes are not going to help. There should be a very great attempt from the student side.

Pradeep : I have paid Rs 19,500 for the coaching classes. I expect to spend another 10,000 - 15,000 on books and Personality development and Communication Skill programs. The applications would be around Rs1500 for IIM.

Mahesh : This is completely subjective (except for the fees part of it) but as far as I am concerned I would like to be prudent on spending on various coaching classes. I am looking forward to get into PGSEM course so I would like to persuade my employer to be the sponsor fort he program.

Ritesh: Do not go for anything & everything. Make targets & focus

TO PREPARE IN A GROUP OR NOT

Hafeez: According to me, at the intial stages of preparation self study is important because you will come to learn all basics, techniques etc. Once the person is strong in their basics, techniques etc, he can study in a group where he can contribute to the group and apply various approaches.

Venus : I believe studying in a group is much more effective than studying alone.Yes,self study is also required but some time should be given to study in group. As it will help understand the topics in better way.New techniques and vocabs will stay longer in memory only when it is discussed, rather than just mugging it up. Apart from this, studying in group will develop the competence and competitiveness.

Santosh : I will suggest not to study in a group, as tasks in the group are done much easier as more than one bodies. In CAt or in other exam we are all alone to solve a test, so why should'nt we prepare all alone to face the CAT.

Ambreesh : We should prepare in a group if possible or at least should be in contact with other serious aspirants, that way we can exchange useful information.

Santosh : Studies should be in groups and I feel combined efforts have harvested more crop in past and in many areas than a single handed fight.

Saumya : Studying alone or in a group is mainly based on an individual's comfort level. I personally prefer to study alone. However time and again, it is good to compare test scores with that of others so that the competition will drive one to perform better.

Sunny : One must study in a group as that enhances the knowledge of an individual via doubts clearance and helps to develop new strategies on certain topics.

Subhash : One should not study individually while preparing for any competitive exam including CAT. Individual preparation may be sufficient for written exam but GD and interview requires productive discussion with other CAT aspirants.

Yogesh : Study in groups is better because in groups u can share ur problems with other and also help them to solve their problems, u interact with peoples of different skills and share ur views towards.

Piyush : I am of the view that self study & group study in combination both are important.

Rohit : Every individual will have his own requirements to focus his concentration. Few people might require pin-drop silence for studying while a handful might be able to do it even in a rock concert. However, preparing for entrance exams in a group does help a lot. This has been my personal experience too. One of the very obvious advantage is that studying in a group will help in exchanging different approaches in attempting the questions. In this case, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

Narayana : My vote is in favour of group study. If we study in group there is possibility of exchange of knowledge and things that are discussed are remembered for long time.

Satish : According to me ,its better one should prepare in group since we will get to know other perspective, new methods, techiniques, approach and enthusiasm.

Sunil : One should study in a group when preparing for entrance exams. This is because this is will help foster much needed group interactions among aspirants which would help in GD. This will also help in knowledge sharing and makes the preparation more fun.

Suraj : This depends on situation whether person is working or not. If a person is working and finds less time for self study, then he should concentrate on self study. If a person is not working then one can dedicate 2 to 3 hours for group study.

Akshay : I would say, it totally depends on individual whether he/she wants to study alone or in a group. Well, keeping in mind complexity of the problems, it might be better to study in a group as group members can discuss the different ways of solving the problem. But finally, one has to draw a line, when it comes to group studies.

Uma : it's better to study in a group b'coz it's easy to get some new methods for solving problems.

Santosh: Studying alone may not be preferable, when you prepare. Along with the group that really adds a lot to ur existing knowledge.

Swapnil : Group work or team efforts is always more productive than individual efforts. For a entrance exam it is better to study in a group so that we r updated with new topics.but it also depends on selection of group.

Ria : I believe one should study in group since CAT is competitive exam u have to solve the question in shortest possible time by studying in group u might come across some good method or solving a problem.

Mokshi : Neither! Though it depends on the individual and the preparation style he/she is comfortable with, I believe you require a bit of both to do well. I can concentrate better when I study alone. So, while preparing/learning topics, I would rather do it alone. However, you need to touch base with other people preparing for CAT. This can come handy in learning new tips and assessing your speed/priorities, etc.

Shyam : Yes one should prepare in groups because you will get used different mindset when solving problems and more than one solution will come for a give problem.

Vidya : Its always advisable to be part of a group while preparing and share lot of info..this way everyone gets benefited

DO I NEED COACHING CLASSES TO CLEAR ENTRANCE TESTS ?

If you have the will power to follow a tight study schedule by yourself without the help of classroom coaching then Correspondence course + Mock Tests + GOOD BOOKS are enough, coupled with magazines, newspapers, etc.

If you want to join a coaching institute we would recommend you to join around 5 months prior to the test. Before that you should concentrate on basics and clear all your fundamentals of all the sections. Start reading 2-3 good magazines and a daily newspaper regularly. Go through the study material you have and identify your weak areas and start working on these. Prepare a time table and try to follow it. Before you join the coaching institute all your fundamentals should be clear and you should have all your doubts ready for the coaching institute to clarify. This will make you stand out of the rest of the class, which will be a great morale booster.

Reasons why one should join a coaching institute for preparation.

Helps you to follow a schedule.

Helps you in keeping the momentum on.

You can compare yourself with others.

Can be in touch of what is going around .

Reasons why one should NOT join a coaching institute for preparation.

1.Time is wasted on commuting to classes.

2.Other students in your batch may not be of same level competence as you. Some of your batch mates may require more attention of the teachers and thus may slow down the process.

3.You have to follow the schedule of the coaching classes.

4.You have to spend time equally on all topics and cannot prepare depending upon you strengths and weaknesses.

Things to remember before joining a coaching institute:

1.Check past records of the coaching center.

2.Check the facilities they have.

3.Check the number of teachers they have.

4.Talk to a few candidates who have taken coaching from that center before spending you time and money.

5.Make sure that the coaching center is easy to commute to. No point is spending 2 hours of traveling for a two hours lecture.

6.Go through the coaching material they use.

7.Know your batch size.

8.If possible check the batch profile.

a poll on MBA aspirants on this topic . Here are the results :

QUESTION : Is joining a Coaching institute necessary to clear CAT ?

Number of MBA aspirant participated in this Poll : 535
POLL RESULT :
Yes : 37 %
No : 37 %
No, but I will still join one. 26 %

COMMENTS OF MBA ASPIRANTS ON COACHING

By Kumar Rahul :

1. Reasons why one should join a coaching institute for preparation.
- Coaching institutes provide systematic study. As we go with the flow of classes in the coaching, we get to cover most of the preparation. Also, we get the most up to date information and coaching.

2. Reasons why one should NOT join a coaching institute for preparation.
- It is a wastage of time for those who are somewhat confident in their preparation. Most of the coaching institutes teach very very basics in the class rooms and expect the students to build up at their homes. E.g. engineers find maths classes very basic and time wastage.

3. Things to remember before joining a coaching institute :
- That you have to do home work also. Studies in coaching alone is not going to get you anywhere.

4. How to select coaching institute for preparation :
- All mojor institutes are same, they have a level of quality education and with some pros and cons, all are equal. Think about oterh factors like logistics and peerage as they will help you in attending the coaching on continuous basis.

In my case, I did bad in CAT just because of one coaching institute. Through out the year, in all the sym-cats, they took tests where quant was toughest and verbal the easiest. While they preached that we should not go to the exam hall with a mindset, the papers made us do so. They say that the test series are varied and cover all that could appear in actual cat. But you can never beat CAT in throwing surprises. I missed cat only because of my mindset, which was shaped by the so called expert guidance of the coaching institutes.

By Saji karuthethil :

Reasons why one should join a coaching institute for preparation.
It all depends on the attitude of the candidate. Joining a institution will help you getting tips from experienced proffesionals about how to prepare,how to approach thinks more in a logical way and so on.surely study materials available from the institutions will give u atleast an about the core part of the exams and of course the methadolagies and terminologies that has has to be familiar for a student preparing for these sort of exams.mainly it provides a time table for your preparation for those who are not able to focus their time for the preparation .

By : Amit Garg

1. Reasons why one should join a coaching institute for preparation.
• If you don’t know much about the test you wish to take
• If you are not in touch with the concepts
• If you need some schedule to be enforced on you
• If you need regular external feedback about your prep level, mistakes you make,etc.
• If ou don’t have much time and resources to follow up and keep track of changing test pattern and syllabus.

2. Reasons why one should NOT join a coaching institute for preparation.
• You can better study yourself as there is no limitation of resources these days, thanks to internet.
• You don’t have much time to take additional coaching. And the time available can be better utilised in doing self study and analysis as it is more important and mandatory in either case.
• Too much spoon feeding as in coaching institutes can hamper your creativity and thinking capacity.
Regards,
Amit

By : Biswajit Sharma

1. Reasons why one should join a coaching institute for preparation :
A- A disciplined Preparation procedure
Competitive attitude among Students

2. Reasons why one should NOT join a coaching institute for preparation :
A- Spoon Feeding

3. Things to remember before joining a coaching institute :
A- I would call it Things to ponder. Question you need to ask is ... Do you really need it?

4. How to select coaching institute for preparation :
A- Talk to previous students of those institutes
Have a look at the Materials first

By : Ashishnath singh

Reasons why one should join a coaching institute for preparation :
One should join a coaching institute for directions.. just the efforts are not enough. moreover u get to meet a lot of people and learn hw to mingle with ppl.. u can get to know different views on a single topic.. u have teachers to guide & motivate u all along.. ppl not in a coaching institute lacks motivation..

Reasons why one should NOT join a coaching institute for preparation :
Ashishnath singh : People working find difficult to get adjusted with institutes times.. moreover ppl like me in direct marketing with lots of touring to do nott get time to join a institute.. i think ppl who can join insti, shld go for it.. not only coz of studies but because there other intangible benefits too..

Things to remember before joining a coaching institute:
Go for its past reputation & the amount of exposure it has to offer.

How to select coaching institute for preparation :
Go for its past reputation & the amount of exposure it has to offer.
. remember institute alone cant do anything they just contribute 5% of ur success.. rest is up to u..


By : Urban Legend
Reasons why one should join a coaching institute for preparation ---------CAT is the most competitive examination in the world. so one needs to know all the tricks of the trade to crack it. this time the competition had gone even higher.2 lakh people are writing it. and also the time has been extended to two and a half hours. So we need to maximise our scores in this short span of time. also these coaching institutes teach us a lot of shortcuts especially in areas of quant which is of gr8 value. these shortcuts would save a lot of time.1 mark here and there will make a world of differnce. also the professors also prepare us mentally for the D-DAY.ALTHOUGH I DO AGREE THAT FINALLY WHAT WE LEARN AND HOW WE APPLY WHAT IS LEARNT IN THE RITE WAY IS THE BOTTOMM LINE, yet coachin institutes shape our knowledge in the right way.

Reasons why one should NOT join a coaching institute for preparation : ------just bcoz your friendz join,and just bcoz most of people who prepare 4 CAT join a coaching institute one should not jump into a conclusion THAT A COACHIN INSTITUTE IS A MUST. Lots a resources are available online. also if one does have the self belief that he or she can crack the CAT then ther is nothin better.

Things to remember before joining a coaching institute : ------------Quality of faculty, material, performance of the institute in churning out

How to select coaching institute for preparation?
Quality of faculty, material, performance of the institute in churning out CATALYSTS, and last but not the least the mock CATS.

FLASH CARDS

Flash cards may be used for memorising new words , formulas etc.

Take a thick paper and make around 100 cards out of it of approximately 2.5inch*4 inch. Note down new words you come across on one side of a card and the meaning of that word on its other side. You may write more than one word on a card. It will be more helpful if you write similar words on a card. Now create such card whenever you come across a new word. Soon you will have a stack of cards which you can call, stack 1 . During your free time take out a card from stack 1 and see if you remember the meaning of the word written on the other side of the card and vice versa. If you don't remember the meaning of the word on the card put it back to the stack. If you remembered the meaning of word on a card by heart, you may remove the card from the stack 1 and put it on another stack of cards which you can call stack 2. You need to refer to stack 1 more often. Once in a while you need to check stack 2 also. If you take a card from stack 2 and find that you don't remember the meaning of the word on it , you need to put it back to stack 1. You may also try to find ready mage flash card in the market , but is is suggested to create your own flash card according to your requirements.

DO I NEED VEDIC MATHS TO CLEAR THE EXAMS ?

If you are going to attempt the entrance exam in less than 10 months from now, this is not the right time to start anything new like Vedic maths. If you have more than a year for preparation, yes you can afford to go for Vedic Maths.

If you are appearing for CAT this year and you start Vedic maths now, it may confuse you and you will end up doing calculations twice in the exams to reconfirm if you got it right. It is not necessary to have knowledge of Vedic Maths to clear the CAT. It may help to score a bit more but only when you are master in it. This is our suggestion based on personal opinion and other people may have different opinion. Vedic Maths as a subject in itself is great but its knowledge is not necessary to clear CAT.

Comments by some selected students.. :

Hardik Doshi: I dont think you need Vedic Maths for CAT and XAT. These 2 tests are no longer calculation-intensive. They more or less test your strength in Numbers, Geometry using concepts and reasoning, rather than calculations. Efforts should be very much focused on fundas right now. Same for DI, no questions require heavy calculations.
And yes, pls DO NOT start learning Vedic Math techniques now, if you wish to appear for CAT/XAT in the forthcoming year. Vedic Maths is a brilliant concept to learn, but nows too late for it.
At best, you can just learn a few VM tricks to find a square or square-roots of numbers. They may help little in NMAT / SNAP etc where a few DI and quant questions require fast calculation and speed is a criteria to clear cut-offs.

Shipra Chaudhary : No doubt Vedic Maths is one of the quickest possible way to solve calculation but most of the times we forget to apply Vedic mats to solve calculation and start using our normal method of solving as we have practiced our simple method so many times that they come effortless to us. Vedic Maths is of use only when you are master of it. One don't needs to practise a lot of Vedic maths by taking question of addition and multiplications to be solved by Vedic Maths but bring it into habit of solving all calculations which comes in other question using Vedic Maths.Since CAT is 10 months away one can start bringing in into practice and make habit to solve all calculations using Vedic Methods.

Anurodh Sharma : No, u dont need it because vedic maths needs a lot of practise like any other (normal)maths method, so stick to one method if u plan to take up vedic maths ... pratice it a lot and master the art.

TIPS FOR ENGLISH

The only way you can improve English language skill is by reading more and by practising more. This skill can only improve only over a period of time and there is no short term strategy for it. Read on as many subjects as you can. Try to write down the summary after you have read a topic. Keep a dictionary handy, consult it whenever required. Try to put more stress on comprehension instead of speed at initial stages. To improve comprehension you will need to keep a diary of new words and refer to it as many times as possible. Use flash card for new words. Note down different usage of the words. Read the dairy everyday for 15 minutes. Try to use these new words in your day to day work. Check different usage of the new words. To improve speed, minimise the number of eye fixation while reading , that is your eyes should be moving continuously along the text you are reading. Don't speak out as you read, most of the people speak the text out when they read, this reduces the speed. Speed of some of people increases when they move their finger along the text they are reading, but for some it may have negative impact. Check it out yourself which one is more helpful to you. You may experiment by reading two different pages of a same book in the two different ways and by keeping track of the time.

When attempting the RC section, have a quick look at the questions that you have to answer before you start reading the passage. This will help you in knowing about the passage and what you are suppose to look for in it. You may even decide, if you want to attempt the passage or want go to the next one just by reading the questions and the given choices. Though it will take some time to master this, but it will really help. Selection of passage is very important. It is usually not possible to solve all the passages, of RC section during the exams. You can easily skip one and sometimes even two passages and still clear the exam. Underline/highlight the important points in the passage as you read, this will later help you in answering the questions. You will notice that usually the first line of the paragraph gives you enough hint of about what is inside the paragraph. You should have a knowledge on wide range of subject and good vocabulary to manage to fare well in this section, and this will come through practise over a period of time. Stay calm don't loose heart just because you could not solve a few RC's. CAT is all about relativity, may be the RC was really tough and abstract for most of the candidates to solve. You need to find, how did others fare in that test.

You should select the paragraph on which you have some prior knowledge. Like if you are a doctor, any passage on medical would be easy to solve you, or if you have interest in automobiles any passage about cars would be easy for you to solve. Spend a few minutes to decide if you want to solve the passage or not. This can be done by going through the questions and the first line of each paragraph in the passage.

ARRANGING SENTENCES INTO LOGICAL PARAGRAPH:

The best way to solve these questions is by method of elimination of choices. Read all the sentences first, you will surely find a definite link between any two or more sentences and then eliminate the choices which do not fit the sequences and reduce the number of choices.

TIPS FOR ESSAY WRITING :

- Think for few minutes before you start writing and jot down the main points you want to cover in a rough page.

-Give a brief introduction to the topic in the beginning and conclusion at the end.

- Arrange your sentences to present clarity of thoughts.

- Stick to the topic, don't deviate too much or get bogged down on one aspect of the topic only.

- Use appropriate, meaningful and correct words. Don't try to use fancy words which don't fit in the sentences , just for the sake of using these words. Stick to the word limit

- Make sure spellings are correct and sentences are grammatically acceptable.

- Manage your time.

HOW TO IMPROVE FLUENCY IN ENGLISH :

Fluency in English can be improved only by speaking more in the language. If you are good in writing and speaking is the only problem , you can do it within a year. You need to put yourself in an environment where English is used more often than your mother tongue. The problem why you are not able to frame words properly is that you are thinking in your mother tongue and then translating it to English language while speaking. Other reason could be low vocabulary level. 10 to 12 months of presence in an English environment will be enough to make you start thinking in English language rather than in your mother tongue.

HOW MUCH VOCABULARY DO I NEED ?

Well you need to know almost the whole dictionary. Though this may be not possible but the more you know the better your chances are. Usually the words used in recent magazines, newspapers and recently published books are more likely to be examined..

TIPS FOR ENGLISH SECTION BY Students Who Cleared CAT

TIPS FOR RC : BY Purushothaman.R

Here is a way to improve our Verbal Ability as well as English Usage, which are very much essential for the forthcoming CAT. Do read the "Know Your English" section every Tuesday in the leading Newspaper, The Hindu . This section comes under "Book Review " which talks about various newly published books & related stuff.
This section covers the following :
1. Meaning of some of the critical words,
2. Correct usage of Idiomatic Phrases,
3. Correct pronounciation of difficult words etc..
I hope this will help us gain good amount of knowledge in English Language.

TIPS FOR RC : BY Prabhat Pandey
Do you know that most of us have mobiles with the calander and the planners. So, start making mini GK Encyclopedia within it making all the short entries in it which you think better to be recorded elsewhere.And most importantly those who have date of data phobias can easily help themselves with their gaudy gadgets. So what are you waiting for, Start packing up your bag and baggage for an exciting journey. Do multitasking also as make these entries only either in public or among friends and show your handy and costly mobiles to others as well.

TIPS FOR RC : BY Varma Ami, MBA Aspirant, Future Manager, Vijay Rawat,
The best way we can answer it is to read and comprehend every sentence carefully. That does not mean we try to learn the passages by heart, but understand the main idea of the passage. Most of the times the passages are very lengthy and also the topics are very uninteresting. The best way to solve long passages is to read the first and the last para of the passage carefully and just read the first line and the last line of the rest of the paras. This would help us get the gist of the passage. However, there are some factual questions which can not be answered without reading the passage entirely, so bottom line is that we need to increase the speed of reading so that we could save on time.

Underline / highlight or use rough paper to note important facts given in the passage. Do not underline or highlight too much.

Read the questions first, it will give you an idea about what to look for in the passage.

Read the choices properly. For example if the choices given for a certain question are
A) More than Two
B) More than Three
C) More than Four
D) All of above
and the correct answer to the question is Seven, you will have to select option D as correct answer.

Some reasons of slow reading are Individual capability and familiarity with the subject topic, poor vocabulary leading to poor comprehension, lack of concentration and reading the lines more than once as a habit.

Try to anticipate what author is going to write next and try to predict future ideas in the passage and questions that can be asked as you read.

Eye motion speed should be maintained and going back to read the same line more than once should be avoided. Don't vocalise.

Use your left hand finger ( If you are right handed) to run along the text you are reading ,use right hand to write notes. Slowly you can start running your finger faster to improve speed.

Don't select the answer till you have read the whole passage. Relevant information may be anywhere in the passage and can be at more than one passage.

Don't waste time remembering details.

TIPS FOR VOCABULARY : BY : Shrikant Vishwanathan, rememberme820, Manish Gupta.
Read as much as possible from whatever source you can lay hands on. Its not just important to read, but also understand the content. This helps two ways, first, assimilation of information required for the GD/PI rounds and second, improvisation of vocabulary

List down and remember synonymous in group to improve vocabulary at faster rate.

Learn the usage of the same word from different sources.
Read, Read, Read- Repeat, Repeat, Repeat - Practice, Practice, Practice. Read more, repeat the new words in your writing and daily work and practice.daily work and practice.

Refer to dictionary at least 2 times a day.

To remember a new vocabulary word you can link it to some other event, person, place etc to remember it or can break the word into small fragments

Improve vocabulary is through Mnemonics, i.e, linking a word to something, say some sort of story. for example, meritricious, can be remembered as meri trishna in hindi. Now as we all know, most of our desires are only attractive in the beginning, but when they are fulfilled, they are hardly as good. so this way, we can remember relatively higher no. of words

Use flash cards. Keep in mind that many words have more than one meaning

For forming paragraph or arranging sentences in sequence , try to guess the answer before reading the options. Eliminate the wrong choices and then go ahead.

GENERAL TIPS BY : Abhishek Garg
Focus on your strong areas, e.g. for me RC is pretty insteresting.... grammar i am mostly wrong. And, fill in the blanks like complete sentence, complete para... are also lucrative for me.
For improving grammar, i attempt those questions nevertheless being wrong,.. and correct myself after seeing the answer key.

TIPS FOR SCORING BETTER IN MATHS

The important thing you have to do is give up the fear of Mathematics. Start playing with numbers mentally. You can do mental calculation while watching TV, traveling, eating at restaurants, etc with the numbers being provided to you. Formulas should be on your finger tips which will not only save time but will also reduce chances of error. Try to solve as many questions as possible during preparation and solve them with paper and pen. Just reading through the solved questions WILL NOT HELP. This gives a false impression to self that one has the ability to solve the question , but when he/she sits down to solve the problem , the problem cannot be solved. You have to solve the questions on paper to gain confidence. Expose yourself to questions from different sources. If you are not able to solve a question in first attempt, record down the question number, page number and the book name in a dairy.

Check the dairy once a week and solve again all those question that you could not solve at the first attempt. If you are not able to grasp a method of a particular book, look for similar questions solved elsewhere to check different method to solve the same questions. Try to find out different ways to solve a question and select the best method out.

Multiplication of numbers till 25*25 should be remembered. Squares, cubes and multiplication of any 2 numbers below 25 should be on finger tips. Pythogoras triplets with any all the arms less than 200 should be remembered. Start working on mental calculations with percentages, fractions etc. Corresponding % value of digits till 25 should be in memory, for example corresponding % value of 3 is 33.33%, of 4 is 25 %, of 5 is 20 % and so on. 5. Fraction value of some of the important % and vice versa should be remembered. Like 45% = 9/20 , 60% = 3/5, 33.33% = 1/3. Remembering all the above mentioned points will not only save time but will also reduce chances of error.

Identify the types of questions that are scoring for you. There may be a few topics which you can leave but make sure you have enough practise to attempt any easy question that may come from these areas.

After you attempt questions , be it right or wrong check the method used to solve the question by the writer of the book/ reference material. Keep a record of all the questions you are not able to attempt correctly in the first go (Just write down Q.No. Page No. and Book Name) and attempt these questions again after a few days.

Some people think that remembering the formulas will be enough . There is no harm in keeping a list of formulas, but remember that just learning the formulas by heart won't help much. One must also know the different types of question where a particular formula can be used and this will come by solving more and more questions on paper. When the questions comes in the test they are not able to solve the same due to lack of practice and confidence. It is very important that you know how and when to implement the formulas, just remembering the formulas won't help.
If you want to start from basics on any certain topic, you may refer the NCERT books of Maths for Class 9th, 10th, 11th, & 12th. Note not all topics of these books are required for CAT. There should be at least 10 months in hand if you want to start from basics.

TIP: Improve speed and accuracy in Quantitative aptitude :
This can improved by first of all making the basics of mathematics very clear and then having practice for Quantitative problems, solving as many as possible but with the check on time & try to reduce time. One should start playing with the numbers & also he/she can do mental calculations during the course of time eg. While traveling, going to restaurants, watching television etc. with the numbers provided.
But just reducing the time will not help if the answers are not right and so accuracy in solving the questions is very necessary. Solving problems from different sources is the most important as just reading the problems & their solutions cannot improve speed & accuracy needed for Quantitative aptitude.

TIPS FOR IMPROVEMENT IN DI / DS SECTION

A) Spend about a minute to read the graph and the data properly.

B) Check the range of the options given. You may round off the data for calculations depending upon how far the choices are from each other.

C) Read the footnotes or the legends of the graphs and tables properly. Some people assume that the graphs and figures in the question paper are drawn to scale but this may not be the case.

D) Select the sets which are easy to comprehend and are easy to solve when taking Mocks or the real exam. The only way you will be able to identify easy question is by more practice. Expose yourself to as many questions on DI as possible.

E) Improve your calculation speed specially for calculation of averages and percentages.

F) Needless to say, more practise means more confidence and better result. So practise as much as possible from as many sources as possible.

H) Spend some time on analysis on what kind of mistakes you usually make and try to improve on these areas.

During your preparation, after you attempt questions on DI, be it right or wrong check the method used to solve the question by the writer of the book/reference material. Keep a record of all the questions you are not able to attempt correctly in the first go (Just write down Q No. Page No. and Book Name) and attempt these questions again after a few days. Regarding the cut off, it is very difficult to predict as it all depends on the difficulty level of the questions and how other candidates perform. To give you an rough idea, you must spend 40 minutes on DI/DS section attempting 30-35 questions with around 24 questions correct to get call from IIMs.

DI is all about how fast you can comprehend the given data and how fast and accurately you are able to add, multiply subtract, divide and calculate ratios & percentages.

For Data sufficiency questions you don’t have to actually solve the answers, you just need to find if the data given is enough to solve the questions.

TIP: Improve speed and accuracy in Data interpretation/ Data Sufficiency :
As there is no substitute for hard work, its obovious that its ur hard work that canonly improve your speed and skills.Practising more questions with setting your time period for exams will surely help u in developing speed.The more u practise the more quick u will be…No doubt that you are the only person who can mould your character and life.

NUMBER OF MOCKS TO TAKE

Its recommended that you take at least 25 Mocks (including the past CAT papers, take home tests, test conducted by various institute etc) before appearing for the actual CAT. The 25 Mock should be spread over a period of time and not to be taken in a short span of say last 25 days.

We conducted a poll on this issue , here are the results:

QUESTION : How many full time Mock tests will I take before the actual test ? (Include Tests held by various institutes, previous CAT papers, Sample tests and take home tests that you plan to take)

Number of MBA Aspirant participated in this Poll :118

POLL RESULT :

Choices Votes %

Less than 6 : 0 %

7 to 9 : 3 %

10 to 12 : 9 %

13 to 15 : 5 %

16 to 18 : 9 %

19 to 21 : 9 %

22 to 24 : 6 %

25 to 30 : 25 %

31 to 40 : 11 %

More than 40 : 17 %

After a mock, you must spend some time on analysis of your result and check the questions that you have done wrong. Study the trend on the types of questions you do wrong. You will find certain type of questions that you attempt wrongly, almost every time. These are the one you should avoid doing during the exams. You will be able to identify the sitters after you have taken a few mocks. These are not same for everyone. There was one of our member who thought he was very strong in problem solving , after we recommended him to study the questions and list down the questions he was doing wrong , he found out that most of the questions on mensuration and geometry were wrong and all the way he thought it was he was doing a great job at it. This was his weak point and he identified it which helped him a lot. Time allocation varies on your preparation level and the paper. Try to attempt 12 or 13 questions every 15 minutes with 80 % accuracy. It really helps to know your week point and strong points. Sometime you think you are very strong or weak in a particular section , but on analysing you may find entirely opposite. On the basis of the analysis you can allocate your time for preparation on various topics.

Main purpose of taking Mock should be :

1) To identify the strong and weak areas and concentrate on improving accordingly.

2) To develop skill to search the easy questions in the test paper and not to spend too much time on a question which appears to be complicated.

TIPS FOR MOCKS

1. Don't get bogged down on few questions, and

2. Don't get demoralised if you are not able to solve a few question. Take it as a learning process. Continue with your hard work.

3. Try to read the full question paper

4. Plan it well and follow the plan, success will soon be there.

5. Sometimes it is less time consuming when one solves the question backward with the options available. Unless one is taking Mock papers or the real exam, one should concentrate in solving the questions for better understanding. It will help in clearing fundas.

Don't get bogged down on any particular question. If you are not able to solve any particular question within a minute just leave it and move to the next question. Don't let your ego force you to stay on that particular question that you are not able to solve quickly. Read the questions properly, if you feel that you can solve it, then go ahead and solve it , otherwise just leave it and move to the next one. The ability to judge, if a question is to be solved or to be left will come with more practice. Practice more, try to solve as many questions as possible from diverse sources.

Try to read the full question paper and improve in your ability to select the proper questions. While preparing you need to cover all the topics. Usually people don't prepare question on Clocks, Calendars, Trigonometry, Logarithm, functions and leave the questions on these topics without reading. Some of the questions on these topics may be really easy and could be solved in less than a minute. So try to cover all the topics, you may leave the difficult and time consuming questions of these topics. Don't be so selective that you have to leave a very simple question on certain topic , just because you have not prepared it. You need to have a mix of selective and intensive preparation.

You can learn from the mistakes of others and don't necessarily have to commit the same mistakes to learn how to tackle them. Try to discuss with other CAT aspirants at urpercentile.com about their performance in mock test and where they went wrong. By doing this, you come to know about the various approaches others are adopting, how they are preparing, what they are doing to improve, how many mocks they are taking and the list continues.

We have noticed a few cases where people do solve correctly but by mistake mark the wrong option. Make sure you don’t make that mistake.

ANALYSIS OF MOCKS

Apart from analysing the overall result you should spend time analysing each question and check the answers.
This will help you in

1) Identifying the type of questions which could have been solved but were not attempted.

2) Identifying the type of question which should have been left but were attempted.

3) Identifying questions which could have been solved in much less time than you actually consumed.

Keep a record of the kind of problem you always get wrong. Try to solve more questions of that particular kind of problem and try to master the rules required to solve those problems. You still got time to improve on your weak areas. If in month of Oct and Nov you still find a particular kind of problem always being solved wrongly by you, the best way would be to skip that question in the Mock test and the real CAT. Selection of question is a very important skill required to clear the CAT, and for this you must be able to identify the question as soon as you have glance at it. Needless to say, this will by practise only.

There are 3 kind of analysis that you have to do.

1) Compare your score with others who took the same test. Find out in which section you performed better than others and in which section were you lagging behind. Get hold of a result of the person who was ranked in top 1 percentile. Compare your score with his for each section. Calculate how many questions more you had to attempt to reach to that level. This will fix your target for each section. Compare the accuracy rate and speed . This will help you in knowing exactly where you need to improve and by how much.

2) The second analysis is listing down your mistakes that you made in the current Mock. Check for the mistakes that you could have avoided. Check for the questions that were easy to attempt but you did not. Check if you used the shortest method to solve the questions that you attempted correctly. Compare your performance of each section and identify the section in which you scored the lowest and the section you scored the highest. Check and identify for your strong and weak areas.

3) Third kind of analysis involves comparison of your score in the current mock with your previous Mocks. Check if there is any improvement in the different sections and in total. You may prepare an Excel file to feed in your score and for calculation. Check the rate of improvement in accuracy and speed. You must use a running average method of say last 4 tests to check if there is improvement in score, speed and accuracy. By using Running average method you will get a better idea if there is improvement or if the performance is staying stable. Check if the same mistakes are being repeated over and again in different test. Try to improve in these areas, and if you fail to improve in any particular area ( Lets say in Arranging the sequence of sentence to form a paragraph) after a lot of effort, it would be better that you skip the area completely.