7 Mistakes that CAT Aspirants make
The Common Admission Test is one of the most challenging entrance exam conducted for Management programs in India. CAT serves as the portal to some of the prestigious business schools across the nation. More than 3 lac aspirants are to attend the CAT 2024, and many of them are fighting to acquire a seat at IIM. In order to crack this crucial challenging exam, you require a combination of diligence and motivation.
Often candidates lose their chance at CAT due to few evadable mistakes committed. If you are seeking guidance through your CAT journey then, here, we have covered 7 common, avertable mistakes to increase your success ratio at CAT Exam.
Lack of proper study schedule
Not being able to manage time and not starting early enough is one of the mistakes committed by CAT aspirants. One needs to be fully motivated to “Start now” with the preparation when sure about the management career. Although, you can cover the basic syllabus of CAT within 3-4 months. But for well-structured preparation and to be CAT -ready one must regulate dedication at least 7 months for their CAT preparation.
Inability to understand the requirement of exam
The lack of understanding of the exam is one of the major drawback in CAT preparation. In order to crack CAT exam with a high percentile, one must have enough understanding of the CAT exam. The candidates should be well aware of the syllabus and pattern and also be familiar to the questions asked in the exam. This knowledge about the exam syllabus and pattern gives the aspiring candidates an upper hand to the exam in comparison to the other competing candidates. Here are a few basic requirements of the CAT exam:
Developing a varied reading habit:
Reading is the best solution for the major issue of understanding that follows in the VARC section. Whether it is the reading span, enhancing vocabulary, or developing a comprehension ability; reading pushes your abilities in every aspects above the bar of basic. And to crack CAT exam general reading won’t do that much difference as the diverse genres will. Each genre read, displays you the unique plot structures, narrative style and theme of the plot. By acquiring a habit of of reading varied genres, you learn to analyze the style and evaluate different storytelling perspectives, which enhances the critical thinking, interpretation and comprehensive ability of complex passages.
Go through the basics of Quants before starting practice:
Candidates often commit mistake of not learning about the basic of basics of Quants and skip directly to practicing at an early stage, and this results in lack of confidence when unable to solve the set theories. As Quants is a very tricky and complex section of CAT, it requires the step-wise learning and practicing, skipping any step in between will result in self-doubt. To avoid the self- doubt situation it is advisable to focus on understanding the basics of Quants and clear all of the doubts occurring before getting into the thorough practice and learning. Once you are clear of doubts, you will be able to learn efficiently, and increase the level of questions gradually.
Equal distribution of focus on each section:
Basically, aspirants tend to focus on the challenging subjects more and often neglect practicing other topics that they find easier to learn. Due to this negligence of the certain topics for preparation the candidates suffer at the last stage of learning and it creates a lot of confusion which can’t be ward off at the last moment. This creates an environment of panic and brings the student’s confidence down before the exam. Hence, it is very essential to divide your time nd focus equally to each and every topic of the exam.
Consistent Practice:
As one starts practicing for CAT, in the initial days one is highly motivated and driven by inspiration to crack the exam. But as the days pass, it gets faded away and gradually the preparation becomes more difficult to maintain as the motivation is lost with inconsistent practice. As CAT exam is a test of Aptitude, it not only demands syllabus completion but also consistent practice schedule.
Lack of proper strategy for preparation
Aspiration to crack exams like CAT, the candidates require a well structured plan for preparation. Candidates might suffer from lack of proper study routine but one should avoid making the mistake of not having a proper strategy for the preparation. A proper study plan should contain the time allotted to each section according to the learner’s priority and the topic’s difficulty. Here are a few factors to keep in mind while preparing for CAT:
Familiarity with exam pattern
Completing syllabus on time
Having a consistent practice routine
Taking and analyzing mock tests
Making cheat sheets for quick revision.
Staying healthy throughout the CAT exam preparation
Not doing frequent revisions
There’s another major factor affecting the CAT preparation which is not having a proper revision schedule. Revision is one of the major key factor in helping you score high in the exam. Therefore, it is important to understand the concepts thoroughly, and to transform those concepts from our weaknesses to our superpower. Constant well versed revision makes your studies complete and effective. Sometimes, revision is not seen as an important factor, but it helps you in keeping your concepts clear and collected.
Skipping mock tests
Mock tests help students assess their progress in preparation for the CAT exam. But often students skip this evaluation and assessment of their progress. This is a very common mistake committed by the CAT aspirants affecting their result in the exam. This lack of assessment and awareness is a drawback in the success ratio of the management career. Through mock tests one gains experience, which makes one familiar to exam pattern. Mocks are designed to to help candidates build concepts, prepare strategies, identify weaknesses, and take steps to eliminate them. It is believed that mock testis the vital aspect that enables the aspirants to perform well in the CAT exam.
Skipping topics from the Syllabus
Often, candidates skip some topics for preparation because they find those topics difficult to understand. They tend to forget in this that every topic holds certain importance and shouldn’t be skipped. Instead if the candidate is facing difficulty in some particular topics, then they should focus on that particular topic even more.
Neglecting Mock test Analysis
Mock tests analysis is a major key point in preparation for CAT. Often candidates skip the analysis after taking the mock tests. This is a common mistake committed by most of the candidates who are preparing for CAT for the first time and lacks awareness. Analyzing mocks are as important as taking the mock tests. By analyzing mocks, one can understand their level of preparation, and can also reflect on their weak areas. After analyzing mocks, it is also important to strategizing further preparation accordingly.
Conclusion
These here, were a few common mistakes committed in CAT exam by the aspirants. There is much advice on CAT preparation, for Do’s for CAT preparation as well. But is also important for the candidates to know what not to do in CAT. This way, the aspirants can prepare well by steering clear of the common mistakes many other candidates commit and end up scoring much less than their potential.