CAT (Common Admission Test) the most popular national-level management entrance exam will be conducted by the Indian Institute of Management for admission to 20 IIMs and in more than 1000 B-schools across India.
One of the most important aspects of CAT preparation is practicing the CAT question papers. Solving the previous years' CAT question papers and sample papers will help you get familiar with the types of questions, the pattern and marking scheme of the exam. Since CAT is an online exam, actual CAT question papers are not released by the exam authorities, however, a few CAT previous years' question papers from 2018,2017,2016 are available to students in the form of answer key, from which you can practice questions. One can also practice from CAT sample papers and mock test series created by various MBA coaching institutes.
There are likely to be three sections, namely Quantitative Ability (QA), Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) and Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR).
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CAT Preparation techniques:
Knowledge of Exam pattern :
Solving previous year questions helps the students in getting a brief idea about the pattern of the examination. The student can have an idea about the total number of questions asked from each section of Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability, and Logical Reasoning. This kind of practising also helps the student to know about the marking scheme involved in this type of tough competitive exams.
Understanding the level of questions:
Different competitive exams have a different level of difficulty. Exams like CAT have a difficulty level ranging from moderate to difficult. Revising the old questions enables a student to understand the question’s difficulty level of each section. This helps the students in experiencing the real-time questions of the examination with ease, thereby increasing the moral boost of the students during the preparation time.
Time management:
With regular practice of old questions and sample questions helps the student to realize the time taken by him/her to complete each section in total. This also helps the student to know his strong and weak areas.
Speed and accuracy:
More and more practice of the old questions will help the student to get acquainted with the questions which can improve the speed of solving the problems. Accuracy i.e. avoiding wild guesses, the student should be very accurate in these types of exams and should be very confident with the answers.
Increases the motivation level:
Repetitive solving of old questions for the CAT exam removes the anxiety in the exams. Continuous practice of old questions inside a comfortable environment can help the student to be mentally prepared for the upcoming exam. This also helps them get more comfortable with the question pattern.
Better chance to score:
The students who keep on practicing the old questions can score better than the students who do not practice the old questions. This is because the student who has not practiced the old questions does not know about the skills required to succeed in the exam.
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