This That and All About Cracking The CAT

After my CAT results I was getting requests from people asking for some CAT tips. I promised all of them that I will write one post which will comprise my experiences with CAT and some tips based on that.

Some of the requests I received was how I improved from mere 77 percentile to 99.7. I will try to cover this part also but before that let me tell you something. CAT is exam for which you can’t generalize something based on others performances and many things changes as per individual and his capabilities. So before giving gyan on the CAT, I would like you to walk through my journey.

My Journey

THE FOUNDATION

I came across CAT in year 2002 while studying in 3rd year of my engineering. Initially I was very much worried about the English section as my English was beyond improvable (as I studied in Marathi medium up to my HSC). So I gave up my preparation and concentrated on my engineering studies.

After my campus placements I was exploring the higher studies option and that time I thought I should give CAT a chance. I found myself more suitable for career in management and for that I was ready to prepare at any level. That time last date of application for CAT already passed so I had only option left and that was to apply for other B-Schools. Hence I decided to write NITIE exam (that time NITIE used to conduct separate exam which looked less frightening than CAT). With 1 month of study I wrote NITIE and unfortunately messed up in one section badly. It was not a shock for me when NITIE decided not to give me a final call.

The kick I got from NITIE done some good things to me. First it created confidence in me that I can crack any B school test and to take revenge of my defeat, I decided not to settle anywhere apart from IIMs. I attended (note the word here I didn’t join official CF course as the 12k amount was beyond payable for me those days so I used to attain the classes without enrolling for the course) Career Forum for 3 months which further boosted my confidence in QA and DI area. Unfortunately my first employer Bajaj gave me joining in Aurangabad instead of Pune and I didn’t have any other option other than joining it. My decision to continue with Bajaj was based on calculated risk to gain some valuable time to prepare for CAT. In Aurangabad there were no coaching available so I decided to prepare for CAT on my own. That year I wrote CAT, JMET, XAT, IIFT and FMS but not able to crack any of them. Every time I had some excuse for not able to crack the exam. These excuses kept my confidence going.

After spending (I can say wasting also) my very important 09 months in Bajaj Auto I was getting a feeling that I am loosing a lot for the CAT. If it is not the CAT then I should have a good career to bank on. I realized that Bajaj no where fit in my career path. I decided to switch into IT industry. I had only one name in front of me those days that was TCS but somehow I was not getting a chance to give their test. 14 Feb in 2004 proved lucky day for me. I was there in Pune for ReCAT and found myself standing in queue for TCS test. My preparation for ReCAT paid off. I missed the bull’s eye by huge margin of 23 percentile but my preparation helped me to sail through TCS walk-in.

One more try

With my MBA dreams shattered I join TCS in April 2004. Initial 2 months I was in great dilemma to give the CAT or not. I found TCS Mumbai and my project good to settle down and even I decided to forget my MBA dream. But after 3 months of thinking on this line I decided to give one more try to CAT. It was too late again so I was in no position to join full length class hence decided to join TIME Test series. My test scores never crossed 92 percentile. I thought I can do it in the final test but my declining health in those days created some more problems for me. I wrote CAT, XAT, IIFT, JMET, FMS again but no good news from any of these. I also applied for IRMA with the view of doing career in NGO consulting. I got short listed by IRMA but failed to prove them that I am joining it by choice rather than by chance so kicked away in interview.

Final CAT of my Life

I was loosing greatly due to my CATaholic habits. I was loosing not only on in professional front but also in personal life a lot of things. I thought enough is enough now. I decided not to write CAT henceforth as it is too much demanding exam. People convinced me that GMAT and global MBA is good deal for person like me. But the big worry here was how to finance my education expenses. I thought I would gain some valuable international experience in TCS and earn in dollars and then think about my MBA abroad. In those days TCS also lured me with onsite assignment in US for 11 months and I thought I am going in right direction. Even I took my diagnostic GMAT but thanks to software error I didn’t able to view my score and that prolonged my decision to choose between CAT and GMAT. I had no energy left to give again the diagnostic GMAT. Meanwhile my TCS onsite dreams got shattered due to VISA problems and I came to know next that 1 year I will not able to go to onsite.
Next few days were really bad for me. I feel somehow things are not working well for me. One by one my friends were going to US and I was going to say them good bye on airport. The idea of my GMAT dream getting shattered in front of my eyes was sinking me badly. In those days someone suggested me to prepare for GMAT get the score and side by side give my CAT as last try and then decide one of these options. I liked this option because and started working on it also. But thanks to Simba’s article on PG I decided to concentrate only one of these exams. I thought which to choose between these two and finally decided if I forget the CAT all my preparation till date get wasted so I should give one sincere try to CAT. I realized though I had given it last 2 times those were not full fledged attempts. I decided to fully concentrate and focus on my CAT preparation. I joined IMS for intensive CAT course and started preparing for the last CAT of my life.
My initial rigor depleted as days passed. It was August and still I had not finished the basic part of course. The IMS SimCAT test series was around the corner and I yet not finished with my basic part of course. The first SimCAT result was positive for me and I scored 94 percentile. Though it was not that great I thought after preparation it will surely go in upwards direction. I started preparing but in next few months my score decreases instead of increasing. It varied in range of 88-95 which was not a good sign. Every time while going for SimCAT I used to decide this time I will touch magic figures of 99 but always found myself below 95. My IIM dream was becoming hazy day by day. But I never lost my confidence in those days. I used optimization approach. Every time when I was performing well I used to appreciate myself and when my performance declined instead of blaming I used to learn from my mistakes. I told me 100 times that this is last CAT of my life and anyhow I have to crack it. I thought last 3 years I had done all possible mistakes so if I learn from all of them there will be no other mistake left that I can commit on D-Day.

The D-Day


The day before D day was not good for me. My health was not that good and I am bit worried that the situation should not become worse on D-Day. I prayed god for that and same time prepare me mentally so that even I will get 105 degree temperature I will have to crack the CAT. I spend the day watching movie and then had dinner with my friend.
On the D-Day I didn’t found any negative signs about my health to worry about. With full of confidence, blessings from my family members and wishes by friends I entered the exam hall and decided to rock the CAT.

When I came out of the exam hall my first reaction was the show was not that great for me. I know my attempts were not good enough to get secure percentile. I called at home and told there were no hopes this year also. With dejected mood I spend my next 3-4 hours waiting for any answer keys to get out. The first one came on rediff at 5.00 PM and when I checked my answers I was getting poor 28 marks. I became very upset with my bad performance but after some time made my mind to accept it. Next 2-3 hours I spent time calling some people and telling them that it all ended for me. But meanwhile I thought the test was not good for me but was that not that bad to score only 28? I suspect the correctness of keys and decided to crosscheck with other keys. I again hooked at net and found the CL guys ready with their answers. When I checked my answers with CL keys I was getting 50 marks with decent break up in each section. As per their prediction this score will fetch me at least 4 IIMs calls. I couldn’t believe this. I crosschecked again and realized it was the fact. Though my attempts were less my accuracy that day was awesome. I made one round of calls again and told my near and dear that I almost cracked the CAT.


Next 1 Month 12 days

After checking my answers with the all keys available somewhat hazy picture of my IIM future was in front of my eyes. Some keys were telling me that I will end up with 6 calls and some told me I will be lucky if even I can get bottom two. These days were quite difficult for me to handle. I was no mood to study for the other exams of the season like XAT, FMS. Every day I found myself on PG forums discussing which answer keys were correct and which were wrong. Again at the end of day I used to count my score and slept with some more anxiety. Even sometimes I found myself waking at night and checking my score again and doing the predictions of calls. Now you might feel this is too much but for someone whose 3 years of hard work on stake it was unavoidable. Finally I dumped my CAT paper and decided to get rid of all worries. The results were not coming as expected 1 month after the exam. It added some more worries and anxiousness. The last week of DEC I forget I appeared for CAT and enjoyed all New Year dance parties with friends, Then it was announced that results will be come out on 2nd Jan midnight and the final countdown began. The rest of the story you can find HERE and about the FINAL VICTORY here.

My IIM dream came true after 3 years of dedication, hard work and commitment. I am sharing this all here so that people will not loose their faith and learn from my example that CAT is hard but not unbeatable.

As I promised, I will surely write about HOW TO CRACK THE CAT here. But before going to it always remember CAT is not the end of life. I feel the luck factor was my side that helped me to emerge victorious if it was not there I might have found myself on the other side. So always remember my quote for CAT preparation GIVE YOUR BEST AND FORGET THE REST.


When to start?

I told is always better to start when you are in graduation. The initial preparation should start from 18 Months to 2 years before the date of the test.

The Prerequisite

You should be good in calculations, logic and average English reading speed is must. You should take a diagnostic test which tells you which are the areas you are good in and which are the area of concerns for you.

You need to have a strong driving force that always keep you fighting against all odd to reach your destination. This driving force can be anything like money, good spouse, impressing your girl friend or high flying career ambitions but make sure you have your own reason. Also one needs to have some inclination towards the business and related happenings. This will not help you to crack the test but surely add value when you will be there in second step that is GD/PI.

Classes How Much You Need Them?

I strongly recommend the classes for the first timers because it will help to structure your preparation and also provide you with the environment to maintain your tempo.
For someone like me they can also prove as inspiration by impressing the fellow classmates in your batch with your scores and speedy class responses. For the second timers or third timers I will strongly advice not to waste time in classes if they already done it once. They should utilize their time for identifying the holes remained and work on to remove them.

Action Plan

After taking a diagnostic and analyzing the scores one get fair idea of where one stand and how much improvement one requires to hit the bull’s eye.
Don’t rely on the coaching institute to make an Action Plan for you. Made it of your own and try to follow it. Tracking the progress in the area wise always helps.

Test Series

This is a very crucial part of your CAT preparation. I still remember the famous quote about the test series
“Practice tests are like mirror to tell you how beautiful you looks but definitely its one you to decide how much makeup you need to put on!! “
A good test series helps in identifying the areas you need to improve in and also tells you where you are standing comparing with the others in race. Take the feedbacks positively and use them to build your preparation.

Take every test as a new challenge and always try to beat the test rather than allowing it to beat you. This way it become fun to give n number of tests and you will find the final encounter nothing other than one of it only.


Some Sectional Tips

VA

Build your vocabulary. Baron’s wordlist is sufficient for the CAT aspirant but make sure you just don’t mug the words but get used to their meaning by doing some daily reading.

For grammar part you need basic knowledge of English grammar and you can improve your expertise by doing intensive practice.

Priority of, which questions to solve and which to leave is very important for this area. You can learn it by extensive practice of sectional papers on VA.
Book: Objective English by R.S.Awarwal (S Chand Publication)

RC

I rate this as the most critical section of all the CAT paper as it make or break your CAT dream.
Most of the non convent background students found this section tough due to lack of practice. I assure you how much bad reading speed you have you can surely improve it and only one thing you need is some patient and lot of sincerity. You should made reading as part of your life.
Make reading your daily habit like you take your lunch and dinner. I recommend Hindu and Business Standard newspapers and Business World magazine for daily read. About the other books don’t pick the any book just because you want to improve your reading. Pick the book of your taste that helps you to fall in love with reading

Book: How to Read better and faster…..Norman Lewis


DI + Logic

This is the section where you don’t need much effort to master. Selection of question is very critical in this section.
About the calculation part try the habit of not using your pencil much and try some approximation methods to choose best fit answer.

About logic I say a basic logical bend of mind plus some practice is sufficient.


QA

This is the scariest section for almost all the CAT aspirants. I will suggest you to be familiar with some basic formulae and don’t just mug the short cuts because it is difficult to remember n number of short cuts taught to you and use it. Make a habit of answering by SMARTNESS rather than by CALCULATION.

When 4 options are given to you it is not always expected to solve every problem. You just need to cull out the unnecessary options and select the right one out the rest. You will learn this art after practicing lot for this section.


This is what I can share with you after spending my last three years with CAT. Feel free to get back to me if you have any queries and I will try my best to resolve that. I wish a very best luck to all of you!!!