How average guys can crack CAT?
Are you an average guy? Do you dream of cracking CAT and zoom on the highway to success? Do you think you can do it? Well, let me show you how you can do it. CAT is after all an exam that turns all the tigers into pussycats!!
The biggest fear about taking CAT is just that …. A fear of the unknown! If you can tackle this fear half your battle is won. What are you so fearful about? It is just another exam? Or is it? It has been over-hyped just because a whole lot of people seem to be out there competing with you for those paltry seats. If you remove this fear of competing against the very best, and concentrate on bringing out the very best in you, you are almost there. Yes, almost but not quite.
To really get there you need to do an honest check of your strengths and your weaknesses. I am not speaking of your physical strength here. I am more concerned about your strengths in verbal and quantitative skills, and if you are serious about cracking CAT, you should pay serious attention to them.
There are no set formulas for cracking CAT. You speak to fifty successful candidates and each one will tell you a different story. What does this mean to you? It means that you should follow your own path to success. Listen to everyone. Learn from all, but make your own strategies and follow them to a T.
Students often ask me when is the right time to start preparing for CAT. My answer invariably is: the right time is right now. If you have decided to take CAT, what stops you from preparing for it? There is no right time like the present time. The verbal ability section demands a good grasp of grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension. The Quant section wants you to understand numbers, their play and its application. The GD looks for your interpersonal, communication, and team skills. The PI is concerned about your knowledge of your self. It is as simple as that. Put in this manner it does not seem like the Herculean task it is made out to be. It actually isn’t.
So, if you have been diligent about your grammar exercises, have been reading books, understanding the basic math formulae, discussing your point of view with your friends and family, taking interest in the national and international affairs, and knowing exactly what you want from life….. Nothing can stop you from cracking the CAT.
The problem is that you have not been doing these things. Perhaps you have not been doing most of these things or all of these things. In that case, you need to start right now. There is not a moment to lose. You can not put your dreams on hold, just because you did not wake up in time. Now is as good a time as ever.
First of all start reading. You may ask, ‘reading what?’ My answer is, reading anything that interests you. When we are interested in something, we do it to the best of our capability, and that is always a good point to start from. Later as you become comfortable with the idea of reading, you should start reading newspapers (The Hindu is the best paper in India today. No other paper can match the quality of its language. Even their news perspective is very unbiased.), magazines (The Economist is the best magazine to read. You can read most of its articles online as well.), and books (by Richard Bach, Ayn Rand, Paulo Coelho, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Emile Zola, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Orwell Hermann Hesse, Salman Rushdie, Daphne Du Maurier, Nietzsche, J. Krishnamurthy etc). Taking a membership of a library really helps. E- Version of many books can be downloaded from the internet as well. I am told that many such books are exchanged on the Orkut communities.
All this reading will help you in improving your vocabulary, and comprehending implied meanings. For grammar, there is no book that can beat good old Wren and Martin. If you go through this book a couple of times, the grammar section of CAT will not haunt you anymore.
Start re-visiting your school math books. NCERT books for class VIII, IX, and X are invaluable in understanding Geometry. It is a fact that the CAT questions in Geometry are at NCERT level. IMS quant material is very good for the number system. A wonderful book for Algebra is Hall and Knight Higher Algebra. Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Pradeep Pandey is also a very good book for quant preparation. Once you are comfortable with the basics, start practicing CAT questions. Take help of Vedic Math. It may seem daunting at first but it is a fun way of learning math. Give it a try. Many successful people swear by its efficacy.
If you are still a student, start improving your academic performance. It is becoming increasingly important to be able to boast of a consistent performance. As you know every bit eventually counts on the D-day. Remember, it is never too late to start performing well.
The other question that is invariably asked is how much time to devote for preparation of each section. Again there is no one answer to this question because a lot depends upon your comfort level with each section. Generally, if you study for four hours everyday, devote two hours to quant, one hour to verbal, and one hour to DI. Your general reading and discussion time is not included in these four hours. It is best to study all three sections everyday so that your preparation is more balanced. In any case your real study time is only till August. After that SIMCATS would start and your preparation planning would change as per your performance analysis.
And finally, have confidence in your dreams. If you are given these dreams, you are also given the where withal to achieve them. So carry on……….Expect SUCCESS.
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