Since CAT 2020 exam is on 24th November, so only less than 1 months are left for the great preparation. And it is the crucial time period for a CAT aspirants who dream of pursue MBA from one of the top IIMs. To crack the CAT exam with high score the students have to go through some important aspects such as"
1. Understanding the CAT 2020 Exam pattern & syllabus.
2. Taking mock test to check the students’ current preparation level.
3. Making choice of preparation, whether you want to go for a CAT coaching or prepare for it on your own.
4. Collecting tips from the previous CAT toppers, learn from CAT 100 percentilers.
5. Then preparing the final time table for CAT preparation 2020.
6.And finally start your CAT preparation for each section.
1. Understanding the CAT 2020 Exam pattern & syllabus-
| Section name | Total questions | Total MCQs (with negative marking) | Total non-MCQs(without negative marking) | Total full mark |
| Verbal ability & reading comprehension | 34 | 24-25 | 9-10 | 102 |
| Data interpretation & logical reasoning | 32 | 24 | 8 | 96 |
| Quantitative ability | 34 | 25-26 | 8-9 | 102 |
| Total | 100 | 73-75 | 25-27 | 300 |
CAT syllabus:
2. Taking mock test to check the students’ current preparation level-
3. Making choice of preparation, whether you want to go for a CAT coaching or prepare for it on your own-
1. First visit the revised CAT exam pattern and read the syllabus for 2020 mindfully.
2. Collect the best book recommended by the experts and the toppers and study material for CAT exam 2020.
3. Decide your strong and weak area from the question pattern and work on it. Mark the progress regularly.
4. Take mock tests daily during the time of preparation and don’t forget to analyze it. Knowing about every wrong and right move of yours is necessary.
5. Read 5-6 newspaper every day and note down the new words you learn from it. Read Novel, talk to friends in English, it will strengthen your VARC
6. Focus on Data Interpretation as it is time consuming. Try to solve it using techniques for quick calculations.
Here are the suggestion of some books for CAT self-preparation by the experts:
For VARC section-
1. How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT’- by Arun Sharma & Meenakshi Upadhyay
2. Editorial and short articles published in English news papers
3. Word Power Made Easy’ – by Norman Lewis
4. High School English Grammar & Composition’ – by Wren & Martin
5. Regularly solve the Verbal Ability questions from your study material especially on Para summary, Jumbled Paragraphs
For DILR selection-
1. How to Prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT’ - by Arun Sharma (Published by McGraw Hill)
2. How to Prepare for Logical Reasoning for the CAT’ - by Arun Sharma (Published by McGraw Hill)
3. ‘Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for the CAT’ - by Nishit K Sinha (Published by Pearson)
4. ‘Logical Reasoning and data Interpretation for the CAT’ - by Nishit K Sinha (Published by Pearson)
1. Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT’ – by Nishit K.Sinha, Published by Pearson
2. ‘How to prepare for Quantitative for the CAT’ - by Arun Sharma, published by MGH Education
CAT preparation with coaching-
4. Collecting tips from the previous CAT toppers, learn from CAT 100 percentilers.
1. Get the best CAT preparation material with best books for CAT preparation. Beginning your CAT preparation early will give you time to periodically assess yourself and overcome your weaknesses.
2. Remain confident right from the day one during your CAT preparation journey. Self-Preparation is the best preparation strategy for CAT 2020 however time is also an important factor.
3. Don’t waste too much time on theory. If you have understood the basics, attempt CAT sectional quiz. Practice after theory is a must. Accordingly take periodical CAT 2020 Quiz, attempt CAT previous years Mock test, CAT previous years question papers.
5. Then preparing the final time table for CAT preparation 2020.
CAT preparation step by step-
1. Attempt a few CAT Mock tests/previous test papers to figure out your strong and weak topics.
2. To begin with make sure to devote a minimum of 2-3 hours a day for CAT preparation.
3. Divide your time as per your skill set and requirement to build your basics and bring conceptual clarity through books, study material as per CAT Exam pattern & Syllabus.
4. Consistently work to improve upon your weak areas by allotting more preparation time.
5. Be ready for the CAT exam day, treat actual CAT exam like another Mock Test.
6. And finally start your CAT preparation for each section.
Preparation tips for VARC:
1. Reading newspaper, article. Making summary after reading a passage and it should be one-third of the passage size. Cover all the key points in that summary.
2. Make questions and try to answer it and enhance your reading speed.
3. Monitor your time to attempt the CAT RC passages.
4. Preparation tips for Verbal ability.
5. Making a summary of small para of 50-60 words in a single sentence.
6. Putting the sentences in Jumbled paragraphs in coherent order.
7. Picking out odd sentences from a jumbled paragraph and know about it’s structure.
Preparation tips for DILR-
1. DI questions are formed to test how candidates can interpret the given data and answer questions based on it.
2. Preparation tips for Logical Reasoning-
3. Logical Reasoning questions in CAT can be your score booster upto 48 core marks leading to an improvement of overall percentile by 20-25 in CAT 2020.
1. Read CAT toppers’ Logical Reasoning Preparation Strategy.
2. Go for CAT Logical reasoning mock test and analyze your mistakes after completing.
Preparation tips for Quantitative Aptitude-
1. As after spending 120 minutes on the other two sections, this section need more attention from the candidate as it is more calculation based. Candidate must have prepare themselves to keep their cool till the end.
2. Your own devised shortcuts to quickly solve the questions with accuracy will help more. It has become more crucial for aspirants to score high in Quantitative Aptitude section in CAT 2020 without any support of questions from DI part which could be attempted by not so proficient candidates in mathematics.
3. Candidates should keep trying variety of Quantitative Aptitude to crack this section.
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Read here, How to score 100 Percentiles in CAT Exam?
Read also : How to Prepare for CAT without coaching
