How To Prepare For CAT 2021 Ft. SPJIMR Mumbai Students Co'23

I used to give 2-3 hours on weekdays and 6-7 hrs on weekends since I was preparing for CAT while working full time. I appeared in around 25 full-length mocks and generally used on focus on the part I got wrong. I got Covid 19 positive in the last weeks of preparation. But my goal was to fight through it and get into one of the top B-schools in our country. I would study the part I got wrong and try to figure out different approaches that would help me get the right answer in less amount of time.

My advice would be to stay calm and positive. There are a lot of distractions right now around us but your goal should be to focus on the bigger picture.
Considering the time left, I would suggest CAT takers start focusing on the weaknesses rather than going for full-on coaching. Also, my advice would be to learn from mistakes and start trying to sit through 3 hrs of the test duration to assimilate themselves of test conditions.
Don't compare your scores with others and just make sure that you cover all types of questions through lots of full and sectional mock tests.

Check Out → 40+ Free CAT Sectional Mock Tests To Help You Ace CAT Exam

Shreyas Giridharan Acharya

CAT 20 99.22 percentile, B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from DTU. Worked for Siemens Ltd Gurugram for 23 months as a mechanical developer in their R&D center.

The first thing I realized and suggest everyone must do is to identify their strengths. For me, it was VARC, while I needed to work on DI/LR and Quant. I started around July by practicing topic-wise questions with the aim of building speed. Keeping a time limit (usually an hour) and then attempting as many questions as I could in that hour, gradually increasing the number of attempts, is what worked for me. Initially, I would attempt one take-home mock every two weeks along with practicing topic-wise questions. I started giving proctored/ranked mocks every week starting with September.

First, build your speed of attempting questions before diving into mocks. Any CAT question given enough time CAN be solved. The idea is to solve most questions within a time frame. Speed and accuracy are what matter.
Analyzing mocks is extremely cliché advice but it must be done. Blindly giving mocks does not work. Don't dwell on the score but rather on your attempts and mistakes and classify the mistakes into "Silly/Avoidable" and "Didn't know the concept". Not reading the question correctly also falls under the "Avoidable" category.
Keep plugging away at mocks, keep your chin up and analyze your mistakes. All the best!

Take A Look At → CAT 2021 Personalized Study Planner

***

Also Recommended For You:

1. Five Winning Strategies That Can Help You Crack CAT 2021 In Six Months
2. Is An Year Drop Advisable For CAT Preparation? - Advice From An IIM Calcutta Student
3. "Your Target Should Be To Do Really Well On The D-day Rather Than Being A Mock Mauler" - Sagar Tandon On Making It To IIM A In His Fourth CAT Attempt
4. "Don't Try To Follow All Available Materials And Books" - Swaha Swayamsiddha, CAT 99.92%iler, IIM A'23