BEST Backup Exams after CAT Exam

The Common Admission Test (CAT) preparation process must be going very well among the aspirants. And along with that you must be thinking about some backup exams as well. Some questions like which exams should you take, when & how should you prepare for them must be coming to your mind. Therefore, in this article we will discuss about the Best Backup Exams after CAT Exam that you can choose to appear.

Aspirants can choose a backup exam for many reasons. First of all, someone who doesn’t want to reattempt CAT next year for any xyz reason. There are aspirants who have already given multiple attempts or have already become exhausted in the first attempt itself and they don’t want another attempt next year. And then comes the second category of students, who are aiming for other top B schools, e.g. XLRI, SIBM, NMIMS. So people who are specifically targeting these B schools, they should definitely go for these backup exams.

Let’s start with the backup exams now.

1. XAT exam

The first back up exam for every MBA aspirant is the XAT exam. With XAT exam score, you can get admission into almost 160+ colleges. And most importantly there is no academic cutoff for this exam. Even if you score less than 50% marks in your graduation you can still appear for this exam. The XAT exam will be conducted on the 7th of January, 2024 and its deadline for registration is the 30th of November. That means, you will have time for registration of XAT as the CAT exam is scheduled for November 26. So even after taking the CAT exam, you get time to decide whether you want to take this exam or not.

So, in order to appear for the XAT exam you need to start preparing for the additional topics that is included in XAT syllabus. The first is the decision-making section, then G.K. and then Analytical Essay Writing. There is no weightage of G.K and Analytical Essay Writing in getting a shortlist from the top B schools. You only need it at the time of the interview .That’s why your major concern should be tackling decision-making section really well. After the CAT exam and before the XAT exam, you will have one month of time that is enough to prepare well for decision-making or G.K. For this, you can either refer to some crash course or if you don’t want to buy one, you can prepare using YT videos and mock tests. So our first back up exam for CAT would be XAT.

2. SNAP

The registration for SNAP exam starts from the 24th of November and sometiomes extended till the 30th of November. But there is no guarantee of that, so you can assume, that its registration will be closed before the CAT exam. Secondly, apart from the CAT exam, what extra do you have to cover for this exam?

Those students for whom all the  three sections of CAT are their strengths can definitely benefit from the SNAP exam. It is comparatively  easy for them to clear the SNAP exam as there is no sectional cut-off in the SNAP exam. In the SNAP exam, all three sections requires speed, accuracy, and the skill to select the right questions. So, if you are performing well in just one section, then you don’t have any extra advantage in the SNAP exam. Thus, making it mandatory to perform well in all the three sections.

3. NMAT exam.

The NMAT exam is conducted between 10th of October and runs till 19th of December. In this, you have to book the slot by choosing a date. You can take two retakes, for which fees will have to be paid again. Registration for the NMAT exam closes very soon so you have to take this decision by 10th October whether you will take the NMAT exam or not.

What else do you have to study in NMAT other than CAT?

You don’t have to do any preparation in Quant and there are only a few topics in the rest of the sections .If the basics of the CAT exam are clear to you that is more than enough. Generally, NMAT aspirants say that that their official mocks are sufficient for the preparation or also can refer to past year’s papers.

I truly hope that it helps you.

Also Read: What is a good CAT percentile score?