The Common Admission Test, or CAT, is required to gain admission to the top management schools in India. Among the most well-liked universities are the esteemed Indian Institutes of Management, or IIMs for short. It is anticipated that over 2.5 lac individuals would pass the CAT 2020, and many of them are vying for spots in IIMs. However, the majority of them make at least one of these typical CAT preparation errors. This blog tells us the common mistakes to avoid while preparing for CAT.
The CAT is a significant test. It’s among the world’s most competitive tests. This is due to the fact that admission to several of the top management institutions is contingent upon having a strong CAT percentile.
Getting admitted to the best business school virtually ensures that a management career will get off to a fantastic start. However, this will only occur if you avoid making any of these typical CAT errors.
However, CAT preparation is not simple. It requires time, the appropriate preparation materials, the proper mindset, and the right supervision. It requires months of commitment and careful execution of numerous steps.
And that too just in time. Furthermore, a lot of students make errors—knowingly or unknowingly. These errors can occasionally cost them everything from a few percentile points to a spot at the top university.
What errors are they, then? Here, we’ll examine some of the typical errors that applicants make when preparing for the CAT exam. They may lose a seat as a result, or perhaps an entire year.
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Ignoring the syllabus for the CAT
This is among the most frequent errors that candidates make on the CAT. Much later in their CAT exam preparation, they glance at the syllabus.
This is a negligent attitude because you cannot be so complacent as to not even glance at the curriculum when you are delivering an exam that demands months of concentrated study and where the competition is so fierce.
Prior to beginning your study, make sure you have read the entire CAT exam curriculum. It is insufficient to be general. Examine it carefully.
You’ll learn a lot of things you were unaware of. You will discover, for instance, how crucial reading comprehension is to the VARC part of the CAT. In order to determine what to study and what not to study when studying a topic, it is best to create a list of subtopics inside each topic.
Recognize every subtopic in the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Aptitude CAT sections.
Examine the CAT pattern while reading the syllabus by looking over some example questions or CAT exams from prior years. This is crucial since it will help you understand the types of questions that are asked by looking at the papers from prior years.
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No study plan
“If I have 6 hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend 4 hours sharpening the axe.”
– Abraham Lincoln
We have observed a lot of students who begin their CAT preparation by just purchasing any of the top CAT books and beginning with chapter 1. These are a few of the typical errors that result from carrying out tasks in this manner:
- Without a method or plan, they continue to study and work through the questions.
- When they feel like it, they study.
- They study at random times and for unusual lengths of time.
- They are unaware of their advantages and disadvantages. The SWOT analysis was omitted.
- They are unaware of the relative importance of each CAT issue.
- They are completely directionless.
Such preparation will not get them there. It is not appropriate to study for one to two hours every day and want to get into the IIM. Without a plan, CAT study is like shooting arrows in the dark. You need a structured study plan for the CAT if you are serious about passing the exam and being admitted to one of the top management schools.
It’s important to consider more than simply the CAT exam in the long run. Your CAT percentile is useless if you score poorly on the GD, PI, and WAT.
You should cover the following topics in your CAT study plan:
- How many hours a day should I study for the CAT?
- Evaluating the strong and weak points. then giving them the time that they need.
- Considering each topic’s weight in the CAT, how many days should I devote to it?
- When should CAT mock papers be solved?
- How should I edit?
- How much do you read periodicals and newspapers?
- How much do you read novels?
- How much time should be spent on current events?
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Skipping topics
This is another typical error that students make when getting ready for the management entrance exam. Ideally, the amount of time you dedicate studying each topic should be determined by your SWOT analysis—that is, by evaluating your strengths and weaknesses in relation to the CAT curriculum.
Your goal should be to strengthen your areas of weakness to CAT level. You don’t have to miss a topic or subject just because you don’t like it. CAT doesn’t give a damn about your tastes.
Besides, it will be really bad if CAT poses a very simple question on a subject you didn’t cover. Previous CAT applicants would attest to the importance of each mark.
This will necessitate allocating enough time for reading theory, answering numerous simple problems, and developing concepts. While easy questions increase speed, answering difficult questions will help you develop your skills.
Every component of a subject is essential, thus you shouldn’t go on to the following chapter before finishing them.
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Not attempting mocks
Mock tests are the ultimate gauge of your readiness for the CAT, which is why instructors and CAT coaching centers place so much emphasis on them. And the reason this is a typical CAT error is that pupils are unaware of how frequently to do practice exams.
Many applicants believe that they may get into the college of their dreams and achieve a high percentile on the CAT by simply mastering a chapter. Regretfully, that is untrue. The second phase of CAT preparation is mock tests.
What makes mock exams crucial? This is why it’s crucial to have practice exams:
- They inform you of your advantages and disadvantages.
- They enable you to monitor your development.
- Additionally, mock exams reveal your competitive position.
- Your biological clock will be adjusted to the exam if you complete practice exams during the same period as your CAT slot. This is particularly crucial if the session is in the afternoon.
- You stay on the correct track to the CAT with mock exams.
- You’ll comprehend the kind of queries that arise from every subject.
- You’ll dispel a lot of myths about the test.
- Your pace will quicken.
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Failing to evaluate mock test results
You are squandering the majority of your effort if you are taking CAT practice exams without reviewing your results. This is yet another typical error that many students make when preparing for the CAT.
The advantages of administering mock exams were already covered in the preceding section. But you won’t get the most of the advantages until you evaluate how well you performed on the mock test. Benefits of analyzing your simulated performance include:
- Your strong and weak points are visible.
- You could do better on the subsequent practice exam.
- You can identify weaknesses in your planning.
- You can discover that during the preparation process, you overlooked some crucial details.
- There are explanations for your low score. These include things like speed, negative marking, choosing the incorrect questions, focusing too much on one topic, and so forth.
- Any chapter you approach could have been approached incorrectly.
- You can improve your CAT exam strategy.
Mock test analysis reveals numerous areas that need to be improved:
- What number of questions are you trying?
- What is the number of questions or percentage of correctly answered questions?
- To what extent is negative marking?
- Expected score vs computed score speed
- Choosing the appropriate query
- An improved approach to taking the test subjects you are steering clear of
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No revision
It takes months to prepare for the CAT. It’s likely that the information you read months prior won’t stick in your mind long enough for the CAT exam. One of the most frequent errors made by students preparing for the CAT is finishing one chapter and going straight to the next without ever going back and editing the earlier chapters.
The majority of pupils lack the super memory needed to recall material that was covered in class a very long time ago. A few weeks prior to the CAT, they begin administering mock exams and discover they have forgotten everything.
They can’t recall concepts or solving methods, nor can they recall formulas. If they begin the practice exams only a few days prior to the exam, this could get even worse.
Their laborious efforts are in vain. They become irritated and demotivated by this. Despite putting in a lot of effort, the outcome is an even lower exam performance.
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Not keeping accurate notes
It’s critical to keep up quality notes. You need to make sure that even your rough work allows you to go back and edit the questions. Keeping your notebook orderly allows you to refer back to any point during your preparation and recall the methods or solutions you employed. Throughout your preparation, you should come back to this journal from time to time.
By doing this, you can avoid making the typical error of being unable to revise through notes.
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There is no CAT exam strategy.
As previously said, learning the material is just one part of the CAT preparation process; students frequently overlook the other, which is creating a scoring plan.
The rules for a T-20, one-day, and test match in cricket are largely the same. But winning a T-20 would require a completely different tactic than winning a test match. In both kinds of games, the batters will approach the ball with a distinct mindset. despite the fact that his hitting abilities remain unchanged.
An effective CAT technique would look something like this:
- For the 3 – 4 minutes, scan the entire document.
- Make a note of the questions that are simple to answer in 20 to 25 seconds as you skim through them.
- Mark the questions that can be completed in two to three minutes as well.
- Don’t mark the questions you believe are overly hard or lengthy.
- Beginning with the first category of marked questions, begin working through the paper.
- After completing the simple questions, move on to the following set of marked questions.
- It is preferable to review the answers rather than moving on to new questions once you have finished both types of questions and have some time remaining.
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Not starting early
Once more, a very prevalent error made by many candidates in the CAT is to repeatedly put off beginning their preparation. It is cautioned against taking the CAT exam casually.
This exam is among the world’s most competitive. A certain amount of seriousness and professionalism is required by CAT. As soon as you decide to pursue an MBA, you should begin your preparations.
If you are a working professional or a college student in your final year, attend the best coaching for CAT PlanetE if you find yourself putting things off.
You will be more responsible and serious in this way. Coaching offers benefits beyond conceptual clarification. Numerous other aspects of exam preparation, such as discipline, keeping a consistent pace, appropriate assistance, and peer rivalry, are enhanced by coaching.
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Inability to control emotions
Ignoring feelings of stress, demotivation, neglect, and annoyance can be detrimental to your mental health as well as your CAT preparation. It’s imperative that you exercise extreme caution to avoid cultivating harmful tendencies that candidates occasionally exhibit.
CAT exam requires you to be good at dealing with your emotions.
The CAT preparation process is lengthy—usually taking months or, for some, even a year or two. Numerous things are happening in both your personal and professional lives right now. Your preparedness is impacted by these changes. It is imperative to minimize the impact.
These were a few of the most typical errors made by candidates in the CAT. There is a lot of information available on how to be ready for the CAT and what should be done in order to prepare for it, but it’s also critical to know what not to do. By doing this, students can avoid making the typical errors that a lot of other applicants do, which can cause them to receive far lower scores than they could.
Make sure you avoid making these typical CAT errors.
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